An Investigation into Why Independent Restaurants in Edinburgh use Local Produce.

Abstract

The research carried out in this study investigates why independent restaurants based in Edinburgh use local produce. While there are a number of studies based around the connection between local food and hospitality businesses, there are few which refer to small scale and independent restaurants, and none which focus solely on Edinburgh, Scotland. 7 semi-structured interviews took place with individuals who were the owner and/or head chef of independent restaurants who use local produce. This method was chosen due to the nature of the research and the busy schedules of the participants. Thematic Analysis was used to identify emerging themes from the primary data gathered during the interview process. These results found that there were a number of challenges and advantages related to using local produce. The results also found that participants had mixed views on the importance of sustainability, that participants felt local produce does contribute to tourism and they had a number of methods in place to make tourists and customers aware of their usage of local produce, and lastly that The Slow Food Movement, while influential to some, was viewed as problematic to others. Recommendations for further research would be to gather data from a larger sample and to conduct research in other cities across Scotland in order to create a comparison of results based on location.