Restaurants, bread and Port Douglas
“A customer sits down for lunch and the first thing that greets them is something homemade, thoughtful. That’s a good thing.”
Jo Barrett - Oakridge Restaurant, Yarra Valley
We've just come back from Port Douglas - well we've been back quite a few days now, and I was thinking about something both of us realised as we were returning, and discussing our various meals out. I don't think that at a single one were we served 'free' bread before the meal. Not even in our posh hotel. I don't think we particularly noticed it at the time, but when you think about it in retrospect it's curious. I tried to find out whether this is a Queensland, or even a specifically Port Douglas thing, but didn't find anything, so I have no idea.
Mind you, as an aside, this made me reflect that maybe Australia is more regionally different than I thought. Yes I know the vegetation and the scenery is different, and the climate too but you would think would you not that the people and their customs were basically the same? However, at least superficially they are not. It would be tempting to say that in Queensland they do not serve 'free' bread before meals in restaurants, but it's hardly a scientific study is it? Two people dining in six restaurants in the space of the week and not being served bread is hardly a scientific study. One of those meals was a buffet too and there was bread, or bread rolls anyway, available. Not that they were that wonderful - in fact they were very ordinary really - and that was in the Mirage.
But here in Melbourne I think the restaurants not serving bread before the meal are few and far between. Maybe not in the cheap end - the La Porchettas and Pizza Huts - although, at the cheap end, depending on the type of restaurant, you can usually order some garlic bread, or bread and dips, or chips and nachos for a small price. Everywhere else though you get bread, that is usually 'free'. Sometimes it's pretty ordinary bread, but sometimes not - after all even your local Coles can provide very decent bread, and I imagine that Laurent who provides that bread probably supplies a lot of the restaurants too. And there are lots of companies like Phillipa's and Irrawarra making gourmet bread, that they also sell to restaurants. The posher restaurants seem to be almost competing for who can make the best bread. And I gather it's the same in America with Bloomberg's claiming that "bread is the dish of the year." And here are some of the poshest offerings.
The simplest looking one there (middle bottom row) is from Brae - the Victorian country restaurant that is in the top - 50 restaurants in the world. I wonder if they charge for it? For apparently along with the increasing competition to provide stunning bread and butter, served beautifully, is the tendency for restaurants to charge for it.
"At Clare Valley restaurant Seed, the house baked ciabatta arrives with smoked ricotta from local Jersey cows and ashed olive (olives that have been dehydrated then powdered). It will cost you $2.50. Go the set menu, however, and it’s factored into the cost" Larissa Dubecki - SBS
None of the bread you get in restaurants is 'free' of course. It would be completely uneconomical to do that. I saw one restaurateur quoting a figure of $75,000 per year being spent on bread, and I think that was US dollars. I would have to do the sums, and I'm not very good at maths, to see how much you would have to add to the price of a steak, say, to cover the cost. The restaurateurs that justify charging say that it means that they can keep the price of the menu items down.
It must be a dilemma for them, for a precedent - 'free' bread - has been established. So do you offer it but charge for it? Do you just not have any? Or do you make it a chargeable menu item, like the garlic bread in the cheapies or that rather elaborate bread from the Clare Valley restaurant Seed. Personally I think if you were in a posh restaurant and they were going to charge you, you would have to dress it up with other things. The Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurants have the edge here of course, because they can offer pitta and dips as a quite reasonable dish on the menu. I must say I'm with the horrified journalist who described a special degustation meal from Noma - that world beating restaurant in Copenhagen, that cost US$485 and did not include bread! What a nerve. No doubt it was justified as not fitting with the food.
The accompaniments to the bread cost them as well, whether it be one of those little foil packed blobs of standard butter you get on aeroplanes, hand-made butter flavoured with something exotic, accompanied by salt flakes, or whether it be olive oil, with or without balsamic vinegar as the Italian restaurants do. The picture is from Jamie's Italian - which I think has now gone bankrupt. Maybe he was too generous with the bread. Or maybe his maths wasn't up to it.
Sometimes the bread comes as soon as you sit down, sometimes they wait until after you have ordered. And this is apparently all to do with the idea that the bread fills you up, so that you won't order so much. You might forgo the entrée. However, the science disagrees.
"bread actually makes you hungrier. Simple carbohydrates trigger insulin production, which makes you hungrier than you were before, and you most likely won’t feel any fullness from the bread until after you’re done ordering." Quora
This particular quote is not from a scientific source, but it is an argument that I saw posited in lots of articles, so presumably does have some scientific basis.
So why do we get served bread before the meal? The welcoming idea is traditional, and expressed in my opening quote. Whether the restaurants really think that through or not, I'm still sure that this is part of it. If you get served some nice bread - with or without any butter or oil (you wouldn't get any in France) - it makes you feel good. You settle in for a pleasant evening. The associated reason is that it keeps you happy whilst you wait for your meal. Which would be yet another reason for waiting until after your order has been taken before serving the bread, After all you are busy perusing the menu before you order, so don't really need the bread to divert you. A drink is good at that point though and we all know that alcohol is where they really make their money.
As for the quality of the bread. I do think it's important for all mid range to posh restaurants. I've even heard people recommend restaurants on the basis of their bread.
I can't say that David and I really noticed the lack of bread in the restaurants we visited in Port Douglas. No - in one we did. The poshest restaurant we went to was Watergate, which had a really nice ambience, and whose food was pretty good, though not mind-blowing. But there was no bread, and David did fancy some. So he asked for some. And here's the thing. They didn't really understand what he was asking for. Or maybe it was the waitress, who was Israeli. Anyway he explained he wanted some bread, and we waited and waited, until eventually somebody brought us a platter of some elaborately toasted and herb sprinkled slices of probably sourdough. It took them ages, and was not at all what we wanted, so I'm afraid David rejected it. I have to say they took it on the chin, but still they really didn't seem to understand what we wanted. They looked puzzled. I suppose it was this incident that made us wonder whether they do things differently in Queensland.
So would you pay for bread? I don't think I would. If it's costing them I think I would prefer to just not be served it. I think people would be more antagonised at having to pay for it, unless it was presented as an entrée they could choose, than not having it at all.
And incidentally dipping bread into olive oil, with or without balsamic vinegar is not an Italian thing. Like spaghetti and meatballs it's American. If you find it in Italy it's because the Italians have succumbed to the demands of the tourists.
And you won't be offered bread in Chinese and other Asian restaurants, and the amazing Indian breads are part of the meal, though you will be offered poppadoms.
