Ian Moir wants to teach Australia how to eat. The Woolworths boss recently outlined plans to introduce an upmarket food offering – no doubt
of the sort that sustains time-poor white-collar workers across SA – as part of its continued
investment in the David Jones department store chain he took control of last year.
We should be grateful. The Woolworths (and Marks & Spencer before it) style of half-decent fresh food available at your convenience (just add heat and the risk of overcooking) is one feature noticeably lacking along the shopping aisles of urban, middle-class Australia. This may even be a faster form of food here than Moir envisages – after all, an inevitable addition to the time equation is the length of wait at the till, not to mention exit from the car park.
But will it work? Moir, to his credit, has already tried to teach Australians how to dress and the results are, at best, mixed. Yes, Country Road and Trenery are available (Moir is largely responsible, from his Melbourne days, for ensuring that Australians wear them to the degree that they do) but sales at Woolies’ newer efforts with casual label Studio W, denim line RE: and lingerie label JT One have started slowerthan expected. It’s an uphill march.
I’m no beacon offashion, but it’s clear that Australians areworse dressers than South Africans. Flipflops (called thongs over here) remain the footwear of choice. I don’t know if this country invented the business-suit-without-tie-for-formal-meetings look, but it’s embraced with a passion. A Melbourne colleague, himself a rare example of sartorial elegance, has written column after column decrying the legions of “office turtles” making their commute through the Melbourne CBD, in suit and sneakers and toting a backpack.
If proof were needed, a recent Business Insider guide on “How to dress like a local in 25 cities around the world” points out that in Sydney, “thanks to sunny days almost year-round, you can wear swimwear with a cover-up and shorts during the day. Strap on a pair of sandals before hitting the beach to complete the outfit. Men often wear shorts, graphic tees, and flip-flops or sneakers.” But food is another thing, and on this score, Moir – and any other entrants to the market – can make inroads.
March 2016
Woolworths boss wants to teach Australia how to eat
Michael Bleby, senior reporter at the Australian Financial Review, wonders if Ian Moir will be successful in his venture
Ian Moir wants to teach Australia how to eat. The Woolworths boss recently outlined plans to introduce an upmarket food offering – no doubt
of the sort that sustains time-poor white-collar workers across SA – as part of its continued
investment in the David Jones department store chain he took control of last year.
We should be grateful. The Woolworths (and Marks & Spencer before it) style of half-decent fresh food available at your convenience (just add heat and the risk of overcooking) is one feature noticeably lacking along the shopping aisles of urban, middle-class Australia. This may even be a faster form of food here than Moir envisages – after all, an inevitable addition to the time equation is the length of wait at the till, not to mention exit from the car park.
But will it work? Moir, to his credit, has already tried to teach Australians how to dress and the results are, at best, mixed. Yes, Country Road and Trenery are available (Moir is largely responsible, from his Melbourne days, for ensuring that Australians wear them to the degree that they do) but sales at Woolies’ newer efforts with casual label Studio W, denim line RE: and lingerie label JT One have started slowerthan expected. It’s an uphill march.
I’m no beacon offashion, but it’s clear that Australians areworse dressers than South Africans. Flipflops (called thongs over here) remain the footwear of choice. I don’t know if this country invented the business-suit-without-tie-for-formal-meetings look, but it’s embraced with a passion. A Melbourne colleague, himself a rare example of sartorial elegance, has written column after column decrying the legions of “office turtles” making their commute through the Melbourne CBD, in suit and sneakers and toting a backpack.
If proof were needed, a recent Business Insider guide on “How to dress like a local in 25 cities around the world” points out that in Sydney, “thanks to sunny days almost year-round, you can wear swimwear with a cover-up and shorts during the day. Strap on a pair of sandals before hitting the beach to complete the outfit. Men often wear shorts, graphic tees, and flip-flops or sneakers.” But food is another thing, and on this score, Moir – and any other entrants to the market – can make inroads.
Australia may be called the Wide Brown Land, but with about 90% of its 24-million
people crowding into urban areas and with real estate prices soaring, apartment living is growing at a rate never yet seen in this country. Kitchens are getting smaller, but they also need to be better than they once were. We may eat out more, but when we cook, we want to cook like a master chef. It’s a point MasterChef judge Shannon Bennett made during a press appearance – between filming sessions for Season 8 of MasterChef Australia – while promoting kitchens in an upmarket residential development in Melbourne. Kitchen equipment is changing. A combined fridge/oven will be reality in the next decade. Pressure/cooker steamers will become common, as will ovens that double as steamers.
Steaming is the way to cook things in the future, particularly for people living by themselves, says Bennett, best known for being owner of the Vue de Monde
restaurant in Melbourne. “Steam a piece of fish, add a warm vinaigrette and top it with a beautiful salad and you’ve cooked a delicious, nutritious meal you feel good about in 15-20 minutes.” Hear that, Ian? Shannon reckons there’s a quick meal to be had from steamed fish.
As apartments focus more on saving power, induction stoves will replace gas. “It’s pretty hard to convince people of that, that induction’s the way to go,” Bennet says. “Gas is very inefficient, it has a 65% heat wastage.” But what about Thermomixes? Is that something Moir’s David Jones should cater for? Well, Bennett’s changing kitchen of the future won’t include one. “Thermomix is just an overpriced food processor,” he says.
“Thermomix is trying to convince us that you can cook things out of it and what have you, but basically, it’s just a very well-built food processor and you can do some pretty amazing things in there. You think you will, but you never will.” Of course, it has to be said that Bennett is a consultant to appliance maker Miele, a rival to Thermomix, and he has put Miele devices in the kitchens he designed. Moir might just want to do his own research.
But if we put the warring utensils down for a moment, it’s a brave new world of food that Woolworths is stepping into in Australia and fertile ground for sowing the fennel seeds of new ideas. Moir may just have more luck with it than with fashion.