3rd Feb 2009 - 00:00
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The chief executive of supermarket giant Asda has launched an attack on celebrity chefs labelling them patronising and incapable of serving up affordable meals.
Andy Bond said chefs taking part in Channel 4's 'Great British Food Fight' season were doing nothing to help cash-strapped Britons facing a credit crunch.
Bond told trade magazine The Grocer: "Hugh wants you to pay more for your chicken. After all, who can't afford an extra pound or so? Jamie wants to save our bacon. And Heston wants Little Chef customers to swap egg and chips for Earl Grey foam on a bed of quail egg couscous." The CEO said that the average family is struggling to cope with weekly food bills and that despite consumers wanting to be more ethical when choosing products, the issue of cost made things harder for them. Bond also said: "Our customers dictate what we sell and how we sell it. We didn't tell them frozen food was a good idea at the start of the credit crunch, they told us and we all played catch up. Similarly over recent years as food provenance and welfare issues have gained in importance, we've had to source products that meet our customers' needs." "When I'm in stores talking to customers each week they tell me their priorities have changed. They still want healthy, safe and nutritious food, sourced in an ethical and fair way, and if possible from UK producers, but they don't want to, and can't afford to pay more for it." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall came in for some strong criticism from the Asda boss after he made an example of a single mother saying she should pay more for chicken. "Without a dose of reality the celebrity chefs many hold so dear risk losing touch, and disappearing into obscurity, which will no doubt hurt them even more than the thought of too many chickens being crammed into a shed," concluded Bond.