Gourmet Food Tariffs Hit Chefs In The Kitchen

An irate Jean-Luc Salles called the other afternoon to let me know he'd be faxing me a product advisory he had just received from his specialty produce and gourmet food products supplier, Heart of Texas Produce. The advisory referred Heart of Texas customers to a July 20 story in the Wall Street Journal about the 100% trade tariff to be levied against a list of European gourmet food products as of July 29. The tariffs will effectively double prices of gourmet imports such as French mustard, Roquefort cheese, fois gras, truffles, and selected fresh produce. "I look at this list and then look at my menu and it doesn't look good," said the chef/restaurateur. "These tariffs could really hurt my business."

A Frenchman by birth, chef Salles grew up shopping daily for the freshest possible produce and meats, as many of his former countrymen still do. As chef-owner of Jean Luc's French Bistro, Salles buys as much locally grown organic produce as he can find and purchases hormone-free and antibiotic-free beef when he can get it. "I wish American genetically engineered products were labeled so I could avoid them, but right now people like me who would like to make that kind of choice don't get the chance," he complained. Salles supports the members of the European Union in their boycott of U.S. hormone beef and resents the retaliatory trade tariffs.

Heart of Texas Produce buyer David Riddle explained that it may be a few weeks before chefs like Salles begin to feel the serious bite of the stiff tariffs. "Many of our suppliers have good stocks of things like French mustard or Roquefort cheeses, so we should be okay for now. We may see some increase in prices on those items soon, though, just because they'll be able to get more for them. Where we're most likely to see prices go up drastically is on fresh produce items such as truffles that have a very short shelf life to begin with." Riddle went on to describe how one of his regular brokers called the morning before the tariffs were to go into practice, offering him a deal on French shallots. "It'll be a while before the American crop comes in, so I bought 50 cases just to be safe."

Where the gourmet trade war is concerned, it should be very interesting to see who blinks first, American beef producers or the French and their truffle-hunting pigs. --V.W.