Pie in the Sky or Icing on the Cake..?
Dominic Ford speaks exclusively to Whiteleys.
...Pie in the Sky or Icing on the Cake? That was the potential sniper’s headline that was aimed at Dominic Ford above a photograph of him on rooftop scaffolding just a few weeks prior to the opening of his Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Restaurant Bar Food Market concept back in the mists of 1992.
 We all know the answer proved to be Icing on the Cake for that particular project, and it must make Dominic smile to see that in his triumphantly opened Food Inc, here at Whiteleys, there is indeed both plenty of pie (27 varieties, cooked on the premises by a Michelin-starred chef) just behind the La Scala staircase and a picture-box array of cutely iced cupcakes (vanilla, chocolate, lemon, carrot, mocha and rose petal) on the baker’s stall.
If you’ve already sampled the delights of milling around Food Inc’s bright units on the ground floor of Whiteleys, you will know the point about this buzzy market-style emporium is that it puts the FUN back into food shopping. Check out the big spotted shopping bags for a start! “Obviously Harvey Nichols was a very big project stamped in my life and in my mind and I felt it was very important that we were creating something that was completely new.
This had to be a clean slate,” says Dominic. One of his many foodie hats is as a consultant, in an agency he established with Food Inc partner Patrick McDonald. The pair have ultra-sensitive antennae in the food shopping environment. “We felt a lot of food retail has become rather dull. Everything has to be natural, organic, open-toed sandals, woven baskets and beds of straw. Everything was becoming a bit same-y.
That’s not to say that issues like husbandry, packaging and electric-powered delivery - all of which we have researched and embraced here - are not important. They are, but what we have tried to do is introduce cheerfulness into food retail.” That starts with the name. Dominic and Patrick wanted an edgy, New Yorky, modern brand. They liked Food Inc but it was listed as a trading company. Not prepared to be put off, their representative called the director at home. He was not there, but his teenage daughter happily revealed her father had given up with his project under that name ‘ages ago’. The name could be acquired.
 “Once we had the name, we then had to consider the branding. What is it going to look like? Because of the fire regulations, we couldn’t have wicker and wood. Great! At one point, key elements were going to be steel and dark slate. Then we moved from slate to coriam and I saw a brilliant white on the sample board and thought, in a way, it’s cosmetic and clean like a beauty hall, but put food against that bright background and it’s stunning. “The next step was the units themselves. They had to be very strong in their own identity, but also link the brand together as the units are dotted around a public space. In a way, this is the same sort of unknown as putting a restaurant on the roof as at Harvey Nichols, because the indoor market concept hasn’t been done before.”
Dom says he will be fascinated to monitor the mentality of the Food Inc shopper. “For example, if you go to Borough Market, you basically go with some cash in your pocket, knowing you’re going to be buying around a farmers market. Go to Harvey Nichols, and you’ll go with a credit card. We really want people to shop here like they’re shopping in a proper market - that process of buying from individuals who will dispense advice and fun ideas as they sell their products.”
He emphasizes he is keen to develop a system where a shopper can pay for everything together – though in Harrods, you can’t – because he understands that convenience is important as well as the opportunity for a more indulgent wander around.
“In all likelihood, there’ll be three groups of customers. One, the casual pop-in shopper, who wants a croissant in the morning or a salami sandwich and apple, or slice of quiche for lunch - workers in the local area who will take advantage of the broadness and quality of the offer. “Two, the local residential shopper who tends to come in on their way home from work, thinking ‘What shall I have for dinner - hmm, freshly made pasta and sauce or steak and whatever goes with that?’ They will be a regular, who will use us as a resource. They may live in one of the bigger houses who will get to know the service and start phoning in orders or sending in their nannies. “And three, will be the foodie tourist, people coming from other parts of London as they would travel to Borough Market. That customer, too, fits into the overall re-positioning of Whiteleys which benefits from a car park, great public transport, cinema, good shopping and destination restaurants.”
What is the aspect of Food Inc that Dominic is most proud of? Initially he mentions “the Spice truck” – a Piaggio scooter he is having converted into a mobile store of mixed presentational boxes, perfect for purveying small attractive piles and bundles of spices and, perhaps later, sweets.
“That’s fun but the more fundamental aspect that will make a difference is our restaurant approach to selling food. We are restaurant people and chefs, and that background gives us a different mentality to retailing. Traditional retailers decant merchandise on shelves. We want to interface ingredients. For example, next to Arborio rice, we’ll have saffron, peppers, mushrooms and so on. Our traiteur dishes are not only cooked on site, in our kitchens, but they’re cooked by a Michelin-starred chef who understands that things are going to be taken away and reheated. A lot of thought process has gone into everything.”
There are plans for monthly Food Fairs, with every counter contributing ideas to the theme, tastings, recipe cards and a dinner at the end of it in the café – the former Rapallo’s which the Food Inc team have taken over and will open mid-summer.
Talking to Dominic, it is clear he is emotionally involved in this project. And no wonder. So much time, energy, imagination and commitment has been channeled into making it something special – the very heartbeat of the new Whiteleys. It is obvious, for example, that when it came to the point of handing over stalls as concessions Dominic and Patrick were reluctant to let their ‘babies’ go. “It’s true! We didn’t want to give them away. And it makes so much sense for us. For example, fish. It’s such a scary area for people. You look in your Rick Stein cookbook and it says you need a 250g fillet of turbot. You get to the fishmonger and see a huge great turbot on the ice bed, £35 per kilo, and you say, where do I start?” It fits the Food Inc fun, friendly, restaurateur brief to provide fillets with a price tag applicable to each portion.
It makes the process of shopping to cook easier. “Retail stock has to look absolutely pristine. We only want to stock the freshest of ingredients on our stalls. If a fruit has a bruise, we can use it for fruit salad. If the fish doesn’t sell on the day, it will be used overnight to make bouillabaisse for the traiteur counter. A chef is used to ‘using’ ingredients. We can take a much broader approach.”
Previous Interviews:
The run in to Food Inc's opening saw us chat with Simon Preston. Click here for the archive.
Did you catch our interview with Le Café Anglais' Rowley Leigh? If you missed it, click here.
|
