Leading chefs in London have highlighted the impact of the consumer slowdown and food inflation on the restaurant industry.

Pascal Aussignac, chef-proprietor of the Michelin-starred Club Gascon, said that rising inflation, housing and food prices are taking their toll on his customers’ lunchtime spending.

“People are eating more at their desk, they've cut down their budget,” he told information services provider Reuters. “Only senior people are lunching at a restaurant. We feel the credit crunch at lunchtime.”

Michel Roux Junior, chef-patron of London's two-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche, revealed that his restaurant has seen the price of a fillet of beef rise from £19 to £26 in the last six months. “I am taking a bitter pill,” he told Reuters.

Tom Aikens, who runs three restaurants in London, including the Michelin-starred Tom Aikens, predicted tough times in the near future.

“Another six months and we're going to start seeing casualties,” he said

The full Reuters report >>

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By Kerstin Kühn

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