FEATURE 35 CATERING & HOSPITALITY ➔
For admirers of haute cuisine, less is often perceived as more. With nutritional concerns high on the agenda for government and consumers,Damon Jones anticipates whether serving small could be the next big thing
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Petite offshoots of foodie favourites are hardly novel. Branded ‘bite’, ‘party’ or ‘kids’ sizes, they’re a staple of the supermarket aisles. For calo-
rie conscious Britain however, these mini-meals allow diners to consume guilty pleasures, lean on regret. The product may not have changed, but the marketing emphasis on it certainly has. By offering tinier temptations, and highlighting energy values, caterers can both subtly impact on public health and appease diet-conscious clien- tele. Of course, this requires the customer’s tacit agreement that you really can have too much of a good thing; and a potential shift of the tiller at managerial level. Some observers speculate that such paternal- ism is ethical and necessary. Commenting on stateside trends in a recent USA Today article, Carolyn Costin, a food psychologist, reckons that, when it comes to consumption, ‘Americans don’t want to think about it.’ Faced with an apa- thetic consensus, she implies that change must be instigated at point of sale and preparation, independent of public appetites. “We’d like to be able to stop in a place and have our ➔
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