Food for Thought

West London eatery falsely labels food organic

Naughty, naughty. Understated celeb eatery, Julie's, in Holland Park has been caught with its ethical trousers round its ankles, passing off common-or-garden sausages, chicken and lamb as organic. After a £7,500 fine (not to mention the adverse publicity) it’s unlikely they’ll be making the same mistake again. I can almost hear the outraged clucking of the west London set, indignant that they might have been fed an additive-ridden banger.

Kensington and Chelsea Council said that the incident had led to a "betrayal of lifestyle" for consumers. Frankly the tale of someone losing their Oystercard inspires more sympathy. The thought of some waif (who really ought to be on a California-beach diet) and her banker boyfriend tucking blindly into a slab of battery meat - believing it has been reared with the same care as a cute kitten - makes me crack a smile, perhaps even giggle a bit. But then again aren’t the lifestyle choices of well-heeled restaurant patrons in West London as important as anybody else’s?

Yet for the more cynically-minded amongst us, it just gets the brain ticking – where else am I getting diddled? Heard the one about the kebab shop serving up late-night meat snacks made from Trafalgar Square’s pigeons? Seen the headlines?

‘Fake designer goods seized on Bond Street’.

‘Shoreditch bar swaps Smirnoff for paint stripper’.

And what about all the halal and kosher butchers – was that lamb really slaughtered by a bona fide rabbi? Has that cow been given a proper blessing? Sorting through the plump apples outside the organic grocers I get the same feeling I do when I stumble across Page Three of the Sun - these are all supposed to be natural but they’re so damn plump and perfectly formed. Suspicious, to say the least!

So far removed are we from our food these days that we have to take people’s promises at face value. I can’t take a chemistry set down to the grocers to check for traces of pesticides, let alone examine a coffee bean for evidence of an ethical supply chain. The only way to know exactly where your food is coming from is to grow it yourself. And a small-holding off the north end of Portobello Road isn’t that practical is it? Although I hear David Cameron is thinking of installing one on his roof.

At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that Julie’s were purposefully trying to fleece customers to cut costs. Chances are the usual organic supplier was out of stock that week and they just couldn’t be bothered to reprint the menus. But examples sometimes have to be made. Restaurants across the capital will now be more careful about how they’re labelling their food in future and maybe us diners will be asking more questions.

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