What’s your guilty pleasure? Like most men, middle age has meant a bit of a lifestyle swerve over to the healthy. There have been times, shall we say, when personal health and vitality were not my number one priority.
I put it down to life stages and surely, if you are going to subject your entire body and being to indulgence isn’t it better to do so in your twenties or thirties?
Exactly. I have always been of the opinion that as long as the wheels have not come off completely, you can always repair and restore most damage.
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Obviously that repairing and restoring process eventually forces you to address your eating habits. What you eat, when you eat it, how much of it you eat and of course, and increasingly, where you eat it.
The recent processed meat scandal that hit the UK has had ramifications across the casual eating universe. It exposed what many outside the industry have long suspected — that when you’re selling or buying cheap food, something has to give.
Simple economics tells us that when you drive costs down, quality will also fall at a similar rate. Essentially, when you hear the phrase “it’s cheaper than eating at home”, what you are actually saying is, you probably ‘wouldn’t’ eat it at home.
Why we choose a restaurant has traditionally been down to three core determining factors — price, flavour and location. This criteria is changing fast.
Lifestyle is very important in many restaurant destination decisions. Designer restaurants, or rather the design of a restaurant space, regardless of the food it serves, is now a regular driver in any eating out decision — be it personally, amongst friends or family. We are all far more attuned to the environments we choose to invest our time in.
There is another determining factor growing at pace: health and well-being. Many people are now booking into restaurants/eating houses like they would have done a health farm 25 years ago. Almost for medicinal reasons, as a break from rich indulgence or as a guilt trip ... penance for our culinary naughtiness!
What a messed up bunch we are. Going out to eat to try and atone for last night’s eating sins. Whilst it sounds crazy it is an absolute trending fact that people are doing this. Thinking of it as a gym visit for your digestion.
So, when you are looking for that early week business builder, perhaps the driver of the future will no longer be price or special offers but a big bowl of forgiveness for last weekend’s dietary misdemeanours!
Anyone for a burger?
Aidan Keane is the larger-than-life founder and creative director of Keane Brands, one of the world’s specialist design houses based in London, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
Visit www.keane-brands.com
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