‘Buying local produce is overrated’, says Liverpool chef

The chef director at one of Liverpool’s top restaurants has criticised food suppliers for using the ‘locally sourced’ craze to make their food more expensive.

Chris Marshall, who heads up the kitchen at Panoramic, the highest restaurant in the UK, argues if the product isn't top class then the country's best eateries should look elsewhere.

Most of the Panoramic's vegetables are sourced locally, their sucking pig comes from a supplier in Lancashire but its chicken is sourced from the Cotswold Chicken Company in Wiltshire and another of its main suppliers is the same butcher that sells to the Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire.

"I think the we-buy-local stuff is all a little bit overrated to be honest," says Chris. "I'd challenge anyone to show me the local meat that's better than the meat I've got. Some of it's good but if you can buy better quality from somewhere else at a better price, I'm not going to pay through the nose just because it's grown 10 miles away. We're a business, not a charity".

He doesn't close the door to suppliers within a 50-mile radius of Panoramic but argues they have to meet the standard he needs to run the kitchen at one of the region's most popular restaurants, which finished 2009 with its busiest month on record in December.

"If we think we can work with them then we will but my emphasis has to be on taste and quality".

Panoramic is located on the 34th floor of Liverpool's tallest tower, Beetham West Tower.

Words: Clare Riley

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