Chefs roll with the punches as cyclones, Omicron and shipping delays kick off new year

From French fries to yellowfin tuna, restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne are seeing patchy availability of some items due to cyclones, driver shortages and COVID-affected staff.

There are the latest curveballs in an industry that has excelled at adapting over the past two years.

While fast-casual restaurants with rigid menus are left to scramble when their key suppliers go down, as happened last week with Ingham's, many hospitality venues at the higher end of dining operate with an ingredient-first philosophy and use shorter supply chains.

Tweaking menus based on the best fish or leafy greens their suppliers can bring them is standard practice.

"If you can't get tuna, you use kingfish. It's not the end of the world, you just have to be adaptable on your menu," says Elliott Pinn, head chef across Hinchcliff House's three venues in Sydney's CBD.

Recently, his seafood supplier called him from the market floor to say there was no Mooloolaba swordfish or tuna available due to a recent cyclone in Queensland. On Friday, he was offered a whole swordfish that he'd need to break down at the restaurant and then use in just two days.

Walker Seafoods, whose yellowfin tuna, swordfish and more are favoured by Sydney restaurants including Tetsuya's, Margaret and Saint Peter, had to keep most of its fleet at port in Mooloolaba due to cyclone Seth in early January. Co-owner Heidi Walker estimates this put the business about two weeks behind on its normal catch, which comes from as far as 300 kilometres offshore.

"We can't gain that back. We just lose that two or three weeks of supply. There's no way around it," she says, adding that she feels for the chefs relying on these products.

Recently Pinn had to rework a salad that normally features Western Australian marron, which he can't get due to the state's closed border. Instead he used Moreton Bay bug.

Specialty items such as witlof, sorrel leaves, kohlrabi and celeriac have been difficult to find in Melbourne in recent weeks, says Sam Pinzone, a chef who consults to an events business and several cafes. Imports of European cheese have also been delayed.

Zucchini flowers, normally a staple of summer menus in Melbourne, have been thin on the ground since December, says Kim Driver, who owns Northside Fruit and Vegetables. His business supplies about 200 top restaurants in inner Melbourne.

On a Saturday morning before Christmas, he had to call 30 customers and explain that an order of 2000 zucchini flowers hadn't arrived and they would have to rewrite their menus that day.

"Supply has been as hit and miss as I've ever seen it. The transport getting it to us has been very unreliable, but less have been planted too."

These and morello cherries, also in short supply, are among ingredients grown mainly for restaurants whose orders have been sporadic over the past two years.

"A lot of farmers haven't planted as much with the uncertainty," Driver says. "It's a lot of work for a farmer to plant and grow something just to throw it out."

Joseph Hamad of Sydney fruit wholesaler Fruitique agrees that there is less produce at wholesale markets, but says a 40 per cent decrease in demand from restaurants has alleviated some of the pressure.

Even common items such as frozen chips are becoming rare due to problems on interstate trucking routes, Simon Tarlington says. He co-owns Loosie's Diner and Wowee Zowee on the Mornington Peninsula, where fries accompany burgers and fried chicken, but he's been told that for the next few weeks he won't receive the particular style of chip he orders, just whatever is available.

"They've said it's become a bit of a mess that's going to take a few weeks to get back to normal."

Tarlington is also executive chef at luxury hotel Jackalope and had difficulty getting spirits from North America before Christmas, as well as seeing delivery times blow out for napkins, tissues and other bulk items that come from overseas.

The fresh produce Jackalope's team source from nearby farms has been fairly reliable, but Tarlington has noticed more business owners delivering other items, such as pastries or olive oil, due to a lack of delivery drivers.

Northside is paying three times its normal rate for drivers after several staff members recently contracted COVID-19 and the business was forced to use subcontractors. It's cut back its delivery service from two drop-offs to restaurants per day to one, but sometimes deliveries still arrive later than normal.

"Food distribution workers should 100 per cent be provided with RAT [rapid antigen] tests," says Driver. "If we could have access to that every morning, if someone tests positive they don't come in."

It echoes calls by farming bodies for better supply of RATs for growers and the industry around them.

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