Saeu-jeot, the salted fermented shrimp paste used to make Michelle Lee’s famed kimchi, has nearly doubled in price this year.

“It used to be $75, now $145,” explains the Kimchi Korea House owner in a recent Instagram post alerting patrons to the rationale behind their recent price increase.

But it’s not just imported specialty items that cost more these days. Lee holds up a bag of peeled garlic cloves. “Twenty-five, now eighty; sometimes, if I’m lucky, seventy-eight dollars.” When the person filming asks Lee if this means she’ll be cutting back on garlic her face furrows. “No, I cannot. You have to have garlic in Korean food.”

After weathering three lockdowns, reduced capacity, and predatory delivery apps, restaurants are grappling with a new bottom line-munching foe: inflation.

Inflation reaches an all-time high

This October, Canada’s inflation rate hit an 18-year high of 4.7 per cent. Although the cost of living is rising across the board, food—particularly meat—has seen some of the sharpest price increases. Compared to last year, beef prices are up a whopping 14.4 per cent, pork 8.8 per cent, and chicken 8.3 per cent.

Fresh vegetables, meanwhile, are the only food category not increasing in price. Over the course of the last year, the cost of carrots and peas dropped by four per cent.

Food cost inflation can be attributed to a conflation of causes: pandemic-disrupted supply chains, backlogged ports, abattoir shutdowns, prairie province droughts, and rising gas costs which directly impact food transport costs. Even interventionist federal policies will have a hard time keeping prices in check over the short- to mid-term—it’s an economist’s Gordian knot.

So, it’s unlikely Ottawa will step in to tamp down grocery bills. Restaurants, meanwhile, have two main tools when it comes to battling the inflation: they can pass the price increases onto consumers, or they can rethink their menus.

Richmond Station co-owner Carl Heinrich has no interest in letting inflation dictate what’s on his menu. “If prices need to go up, then they have to go up, and frankly, they should probably go up. Not only because hospitality staff should be paid a living wage, but because a lot of the inflation we’re seeing is due to an increase in the price of oil and gas,” he says. “Milk is still more expensive than gas, though, and you don’t have to frack the ground to get milk.”

Is local produce the answer?

Heinrich’s endorsement of paying more for things that negatively impact the environment isn’t surprising. Richmond Station has always worked to keep a small carbon footprint. They source predominantly from small Ontario farms, abide by a nose-to-tail ethos, grow a number of their own crops at their regenerative garden, and limit their imports.

“Imported foods are going to be more expensive because it takes a plane, barge, and truck to get here,” says Heinrich. “Food we can pick up directly from a farm, with fewer inputs, won’t increase in price as much.”

This year, Richmond Station grew 45 different crops on a one-acre plot of land in Simcoe County. Their bounty included conical cabbages, badger flame beets, Mexican marigold, and koginut squash. All hard-to-find items that Heinrich couldn’t source elsewhere. Richmond Station has used these rare veggies in their multi-course tasting menus: a culinary delight that’s changed weekly for the past decade.

“When you’re just paying for the cost of the labour, the cost of the ingredients can be quite low,” says Heinrich. Don’t mistake frugality and farming for parsimony, though. Locally reared animals (purchased whole) and Ontario-grown produce cost a premium that Heinrich has happily paid for years.

It just so happens that buying local is currently protecting Richmond Station from some of the price spikes others are enduring.

Vegan restaurants also impacted

Although locavore destination Richmond Station might be less impacted by inflation than a restaurant that deals in imported high-end beef, everyone is feeling the squeeze, even vegan restaurants.

Roger Yang, the owner of Avelo (upscale plant-based tasting menu on St. Nicholas St.), just launched a new high-end Italian spot on Queen West, Osteria Du, and he’s seeing prices increase across the board.

“Olive oil is about twice as much as what it cost last year—even pizza boxes and flour are about 20 per cent higher,” says Yang. Supply cost increases aren’t the only thing impacting menu prices. Labour, too, has become more expensive.

“The increase in wages from every supplier inevitably affects prices. We’re always trying to increase wages for staff, too, which is the bulk of the restaurants’ expenses,” he says. “With the constant increase of cost of living in Toronto, we want to do everything we can to keep wages comfortable.”

A spike in imported products

Over at Oliver & Bonacini (O&B), District Executive Chef John Horne has seen high-end cuts and imported delicacies jump in price at a much faster rate than other food categories. “If customers want premium items like beef tenderloin, halibut, or truffles, they’re going to have to pay for them,” says Horne. “That being said, in the mid-range, there’s room for creativity.”

Horne oversees two of the city’s finest kitchens, Auberge du Pommier and Canoe, alongside some of O&B’s more casual restaurants such as Maison Selby. There, culinary creativity is keeping menu prices from climbing. Beef bourguignon has long been one of the bistro’s star mains.

Recently, Horne swapped out showy short ribs for ultra-tender beef cheeks. “Short ribs have a wow factor when they hit the table, but the cheeks are staying—even once beef prices come down. They take a lot more time to prep and braise, but the result is a better, beefier finished product.”

Over at Rabbit Hole, O&B’s new downtown British gastropub, Horne’s chefs have been revisiting retro recipes that use offal and mid-range beef cuts.

“I wouldn’t say the creativity I’m seeing is entirely driven by inflation, though. Old school techniques and dishes—pithivier, pâté en croûte, beef Wellington, and savoury pies—are coming back because kitchens want to offer people things that they can’t make for themselves at home.”

While the cooks at Rabbit Hole look back in time for inspiration, Richmond Station’s dining room feels trapped in time.

And that—after a bleak last 19 months—is a compliment. On a Tuesday, the room is buzzing with a warm energy not felt since 2020.

And, as you tuck into the artful (always excellent) tasting menu, you almost forget we’re still at the tail end of this hopefully soon-to-end nightmare.