Plain fare to fusion: ethnic impacts on the process of maturity in Brisbane's restaurant sector.

This article continues the advocacy themes of recent hospitality research, which promote an interdisciplinary approach. This embraces the culinary arts, broader humanities disciplines and media studies, among others, and might complement the dominant technical and business discourse apparent in

hospitality management and food and beverage operations education and practice. Drawing on some of these alternative approaches, this article explores the historical development of an ethnically diverse contemporary restaurant scene in Queensland's capital city, Brisbane, Australia. It is argued that consumer demand has been the primary driver of this apparent culinary diversity. On the other hand, the proposition that this phenomenon of culinary diversity in Brisbane restaurants is attributable to colonial ethnic enclaves and the postwar immigration boom is critically appraised. This article's contribution is that it recognises, within this Queensland perspective, that market forces can be identified by, and the hospitality sector might benefit from, fields of endeavour beyond a business management framework.

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Hospitality researchers acknowledge the contribution to credibility and accessibility of an interdisciplinary approach to its study (Brookes, Hampton & Roper, 1999). It has also been suggested that embracing gastronomic studies (Santich, 2004), 'history, culture, sociology, anthropology, philosophy' (O'Mahony, 2003, p. 37) and scrutinising the influence of the media (Bannerman, 1998) might complement the dominant paradigm of technical and business management foci currently in vogue with hospitality and food and beverage operations education and practice (Lynch, 2005). This article adopts a number of research methods from these social sciences, and develops a critical narrative. It argues that the ethnically diverse restaurant scene in Brisbane is a result of a plethora of social, political, cultural and economic factors, while concurrently it challenges the notion that earlier ethnic migrations into Queensland--at the turn of the 20th century and during the postwar (World War II) boom--contributed to this diversity. It is the objective of this article to demonstrate the potential value of critical scholarship, particularly in understanding dimensions of consumer demand, to the field of hospitality and tourism research.

Research Setting

Brisbane's contemporary restaurant scene is ethnically diverse. There is a high proportion of ethnic theme restaurants, ranging from Belgian to the ubiquitous Thai, and representations from traditional European styles like Swiss, speciality Asian cuisines including Sri Lankan, and an assortment of styles from the Americas. Ethnic influences are also visible in a great number of other establishments labelling themselves as 'moderne', modern Australian, a la carte, seafood, contemporary or fusion. In the 1950s, however, there were fewer restaurants and an even smaller proportion that were in any way affected by ethnic influences. At first glance, it seems plausible to attribute the development of ethnic diversity manifest in Brisbane's restaurants to long-time resident ethnic populations in Queensland--for example, the Chinese, or to the influx of migrants into Brisbane after World War II. Indeed, Symons (1982) notes that similar claims were made about the influence of postwar migration on restaurant food styles in the southern states.

It is argued that this proposition is insufficient to explain the diversity of cuisines evident in Brisbane today. Rather, a multifaceted explanation is offered. The postwar immigration boom is acknowledged inasmuch as it contributed to next generational ethnic communities who sought culinary experiences reflecting their heritage. However, emphasis is placed on the impact of a plethora of social, economic, cultural and political determinants, including tourism, class constructions, changing gender roles, Labor's official endorsement of multiculturalism in the early 1970s, media campaigning and the preeminence of Brisbane as a host for world events. Ultimately, it is argued, market responses to the growth of restaurants in Brisbane facilitated diversity, manifesting in a range of restaurant genres dominated by those offering ethnic, ethnic-styled or ethnic-influenced food.

Methodology

Responding to previous critical appraisal of the historiographical integrity of hospitality research sources (Woods, 1991), several research methods are embraced. Secondary Australian history texts provided the platform for this conceptual article, although it is acknowledged that the literature specific to domestic hospitality and tourism history has not been prolific recently (Clark, 2006; Dewar, 2001). A selection of local historical publications is also sourced. The textual analysis of a number of primary and secondary documents from the turn of the 20th century, from the 1950s through to the 1990s, and from the new millennium is critically appraised. These documents include sample menus (Ephemera Menu Collection, ND), Queensland newspapers and directories, and trade or government publications, and are consistent with recently adopted hospitality research practice (O'Mahony, 2006). This documentary evidence is supported by interviews with several stakeholders in the developmental stage of Brisbane restaurants--including restaurateurs/hospitality professionals and the consuming public. Table 1 provides details on the profiles of the informants and allocates each a code for further reference.

The role of these informants was to supplement and contextualise findings, rather than directly inform researcher interpretation and opinion. As such, the significant criticisms of the accurate historical recall of 'facts' is averted (Ladkin, 1999). Here, too, the value of non-scholars verifying or questioning the 'authority of the text' can be valuable.

Historical Overview of Dining Out in Brisbane

Brisbane City Council registers around 5000 permanent food premises with permits (S. Wong, personal communication, October 24, 2006). Of these Brisbane businesses, 1538 are listed as restaurants and cafes in YellowPages. com.au (2006). The Yellow Pages hardcopy directory, Brisbane Yellow Pages (2007), listed 1044 restaurants and cafes, of which just over 600 were identifiable as ethnic restaurants simply by name (2007, p. 2271-2278). The vast majority of the other restaurants and cafes, again discernible by nomenclature, are serving either east-meets-west fusion cuisine, modern Australian, or are in some way influenced by ethnic techniques, foodstuffs or attitudes towards eating. Brisbane restaurants and cafes contribute to a combined Queensland hospitality services monthly turnover of around $600 million and, together with the accommodation sector, generate employment for about 95,000 Queenslanders (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2006a).

By contrast, in the late 1930s Brisbane had about 40 cafes (Courier-Mail, December 20, 1994). By the 1950s, Brisbane's restaurants perhaps totalled several dozen (RBS). Of those operating in the 1950s only a handful--located either in Fortitude Valley or West End--were ethnic and most of these were Chinese. The remaining restaurants fell into two broad categories: hotel dining rooms and the street level cafes and restaurants. Only the former were permitted to sell alcohol, suggesting a more formal dining experience. The majority of establishments serviced Brisbane's business and shopping activities. Many cafes, like Penneys in Edward Street and Finneys in Queen Street, were incorporated into the stores themselves. Others, like the Shingle Inn in Edward Street (which opened in 1934), Websters in Queen Street and Rowes Cafe in Edward Street, offered respite to weary shoppers (Longhurst, 1995). Those few that opened their doors in the evening did so for the young movie-going crowd (RB6). Although the decor was often sophisticated, rivalling that in a contemporary banquet room, the fare was basic (Ephemera Menu Collection, ND). In fact, little had changed since the turn of the century, and it will become apparent that little was going to change for another 25 years.

Colonial and Postwar Brisbane

So as not to sever the 1950s too completely from the more distant past, an overview of prevailing attitudes to food around the turn of the century is necessary, as well as a review of Brisbane restaurants of the same era. Whether the menus were written in English or French, for the latter is still the unofficial culinary language in the west, the content and structure changed little from Brisbane's colonial days through to the 1970s.

The food was 'all good plain fare ... with loads of conventional veg and gravy. Beer reigned' (Longhurst, 1995, p. 5). Entree was a soup or the indefatigable oyster, the middle courses comprised meat or fish, roasted or prepared in some French style, and dessert was a pudding or again a French sweet (see Figure 1). This passage from the 1905 almanac, Queensland at Home, could as easily have been written 5 or 6 decades later: '... all meals in Queensland are English meals, and are eaten in that sober, comfortable manner which characterises the feeding Briton all over the globe' (cited in Addison & McKay, 1985, p. 1). Australia's status as a primary producer reinforced these patterns. The sheep, dairy, cattle and wheat industries established by the British in colonial days continued to stock the nation's pantries.

Despite the dominant Anglophile culture, three ethnic influences, in particular, Greek, Chinese and French, were evident in Brisbane prior to the 1950s. A highly visible Greek cafe culture existed from around the turn of the century. These cafes were established by Greek immigrants who, as O'Mahony (2006) observes is symptomatic of migrants to Australia, found self-employment in commercial hospitality among their few job options. The Greek restaurants conglomerated around Brisbane's inner city streets and were patronised by itinerant workers, travellers and businessmen. Significantly, though, the proprietors made no attempt to promote their national cuisines (Comonos, 1993). Like their postwar counterparts, these migrants were businessmen first and foremost and it appears that there was only demand for British food, albeit mostly 'Frenchified', in Brisbane. Although the Greek cafes remained an important feature of Brisbane's city centre for over 50 years, no enduring legacy is evident. Apart from spasmodic interest in Greek culture affecting the mainstream--for example, the Academy Award winning movie Zorba the Greek of 1965, and limited numbers of Anglo-Celtic Australians attending the annual Greek picnics (RB6)--the Greek community remained insular. Even the Paniyiri Festival, which attracted an estimated 50,000 people in 2006 (ABC Queensland, 2006), was not inaugurated until 1979. Ironically, the height of the postwar immigration boom coincided with the demise of the Greek cafe in Brisbane, displaced by high rental and labour costs, and replaced by 'takeaways' and in-store 'cafeterias'.

Even more conspicuous in Brisbane than the Greeks were the Chinese, present in small numbers since the 1840s (Hogan, 1982). Since the gold rushes the Chinese were often victims of systematic persecution. Consequently, Chinese cuisine was slow to infiltrate the Australian mainstream (Bosworth, 1988). Beckett (1984) finds this culinary xenophobia enigmatic as Australia's climate suited the adoption of South-East Asian cuisines. From the 1960s, Australian housewives yearned to cook Chinese food, as evidenced by recipes published in the popular press (Sheridan, 2000). This Beckett (1984) labels the second bastardisation of Chinese food. The first, he claims, was in the late 1800s, when the absence of authentic oriental ingredients and the Anglo-Celtic propensity for red meats forced the then Chinese cooks to westernise their style. The 1960s trend, however, had little to do with a renaissance of interest in Chinese culture, or indeed a response to the postwar immigration boom, for the Chinese were not a significant component of the intake. (1) Furthermore, the education of Australian women in Chinese cookery, or for that matter any style of cookery, was an intrinsic part of a larger agenda in postwar Australia to re-interest women in domesticity (Watts, 1988).

Paradoxically, the third ethnic influence on Australian cooking, the French, was conspicuous by its antipodean absence. French had long been the largest single influence on British cooking, as epitomised by the efforts of Auguste Escoffier, celebrated chef of London's Savoy Hotel in the late 1800s. French attitudes prevailed in all facets of gastronomy. Food was prepared, presented and described in a French style (see Figures 1 & 2). Bosworth (1988) argues that Elizabeth David, who is synonymous with French cookery, popularised haute cuisine in her 1950s publications. Women's periodicals, such as Family Circle and Womens Day, became Australian forums for David's books, and local writers such as Margaret Fulton quickly established themselves. Not surprisingly then, French restaurants like Little Paris in Herschel Street, and Chez Tessa and Cordon Bleu, both in Spring Hill, featured prominently in Brisbane in the 1960s (PC). French cuisine also dominated the so-called Continental cuisine of the era, popularised by such establishments as Milano in Queen Street (founded in 1960), hotel dining rooms and even function centres (see Figure 2).

Even as late as 1978, Brisbane food writer Charles Stokes stated that 'the French know more about cuisine than anyone else' (1978, p. 3). The paradox apparent in Symon's remark (1982, p. 223)--'why we went crazy about French food, when relatively few French arrived?'--is clear.

By contrasting these three ethnic influences on Brisbane it is evident that despite the visible presence of both the Greek and Chinese populations, neither culture had as much impact on local cuisine as did the absent French. It could be suggested that during the developmental stage of Brisbane's restaurant and cafe sector, resident alien populations had a limited impact on the ethnic diversity of restaurant offerings. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that various social factors between the turn of the century and the 1950s undermined the efforts of migrants to significantly influence the cuisine of mainstream restaurants.

At the mm of the 20th century in Brisbane, restaurants and cafes per capita were more numerous than in the postwar period. As Bosworth (1988, p. 105) notes, the plethora of restaurants at the turn of the century 'was a reflection of the sexual imbalance in the colonies'. In Queensland in 1900 there were approximately 55,000 more males than females (ABS, 1993)--a gap that remained relatively constant until the outbreak of World War II (WWII). It follows that the restaurants and cafes in Brisbane were functional as opposed to recreational. Moreover, the conditions in domestic kitchens were primitive and unsanitary; in short, no great inducement to the colonial cooks (Bosworth, 1988). As Comonos (1993) explains, the cheap, often migrant, labour ensured that Brisbane's eating houses could remain competitive. Yet, as has been observed, these predominantly migrant-operated cafes and restaurants served the fare to which the British heritage majority were accustomed, despite the obvious strong restaurant demand.

By contrast, at the end of WWII the difference between the male and female populations in Queensland had shrunk to less than 30,000 (ABS, 1993). However, technological improvements were radically transforming the domestic kitchen. By 1955, some 73% of Australian homes had refrigerators (Riddell, 1994). The government drove agendas to integrate returned servicemen into the workforce, at the expense of the women who had filled these positions during the war. These strategies to encourage women to provide comfortable, homely environments for their menfolk were hardly conducive to a budding restaurant scene, be it ethnic or otherwise. The introduction of television into Brisbane in 1959 (Brisbane 100 Stories, 1997), completed the picture of the 1950s sub urban home as a self-contained living and entertainment space. Apparently, then, it was a lack of demand that restricted the growth of the restaurant sector, further restricting the ability of migrants to influence their offerings.

The status of the 1950s restaurant can be gauged by the lack of space it attracted in the print media. Only one restaurant, Palms in Queen Street, was listed in the 1950 Pink Pages, a supplement to the Brisbane Telephone Directory (1950, p. 57). Five years later none was listed, and in 1960 only two restaurants appeared. Random scanning of the Courier-Mail from 1950 to 1970 reveals scant references to Brisbane's restaurants or cafes. Only landmark occasions were deemed newsworthy, such as the temporary closure of Rowes for renovations (Courier-Mail, September 14, 1960, p. 17). The evidence indicates that the restaurant industry in Brisbane in the 1950s was either marginalised by social forces, or simply not patronised; so that ethnic diversification, though possible, did not occur. Nevertheless, there were some signs in postwar Brisbane that the dominant Anglo-French food tradition was being eroded.

Australia's shift in foreign policy, hallmarked by Prime Minister Curtin's address of 1942, was to have profound consequences on Australian culture. As the threat of Japanese invasion became imminent, Curtin announced that 'Australia looks to America, free from any pangs as to our traditional links ... with the United Kingdom (UK)' (as cited in Cowie, 1980, p. 606). The impact of Curtin's intention to strengthen links with the United States (US) had an immediate and more pronounced affect on Brisbane than in the southern stares. General MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific Area during WWII, used Brisbane as his Pacific headquarters. Hence, large numbers of US troops were stationed in Brisbane during the latter years of WWII. Coca-Cola and 'real' hamburgers arrived with the American marines, evident in the milkbar culture of the 1950s. The US military brought with them technologists to 'renovate' the local food industries. The effect on the cafes was instantaneous, though there were also repercussions on the restaurant scene at large. As Riddell observes, 'recipe books and hotel menus introduced foods that sounded ethnic but were really American' (1994, p. 57). Thus, American melting-pot culinary derivatives such as chop suey, chilli con carne, French fries, hot dogs and Bavarian cream became absorbed into the local food culture.

The food industry also felt the more long-term effects of America's consumerist culture. Apart from technological improvements in the kirchen, food distribution patterns changed. In 1957, Chermside became Brisbane's first suburban shopping centre (Brisbane 100 Stories, 1997). By 1974, some 50% of all grocery sales in Australia were accounted for by supermarkets (Riddell, 1994). By the 1980s, Woolworths, Coles and TWG held an 85% dominance of grocery sales in Queensland (Symons, 1982). The supermarket, then, became a significant vehicle of American food culture, as did the franchise outlets Pizza Hut and McDonalds, which arrived in Australia in 1968 and 1970 respectively (Symons, 1982). Evidently, the ethnic presence in Brisbane's food culture at this time could be explained in terms of American cultural imperialism, rather than the effect of any resident minority cultures. However, the acceptance of ethnic cuisines was embedded within a broader, and more ingrained, antipodean social and cultural milieu.

The Social and Cultural Margins

Being 'Australian' has generally been couched in terms of a 'white, masculine ... person originating from the British Isles' (Castles, Kalantzis, Cope, & Morrissey, 1992, p. 131). Food is well accepted as being a cultural signifier. Indeed, Zournazi (1993) argues that food, and its production and consumption, is a conduit of social membership or exclusion. Restaurant patronage, it is argued, is constrained within this framework. Many of the restaurants of the 1960s and 1970s in Brisbane attracted an upper- and middle-class clientele. As Yeates argues, these establishments institutionalised 'ritualised forms of consumption' (1989, p. 197). These included entering a space cluttered with signifiers of opulence, and an attendant cultural understanding between host and patron that the latter at least knew how to dress, behave and respect the trappings of these surroundings, even if it was indeed an alien environment. A degree of snobbery operated in these so-called better restaurants. Stokes (1981) comments on the indifferent service that certain clients of Milano had received on account of the fact that they were not seen, at least in the judgment of the proprietor and his staff, as being important enough to fuss over. The owner, Gino Merlo, claimed, among other signifiers of status, to have the most valuable wine cellar in Australia (RRF).

Furthermore, Yeates (1989) observes that many of Brisbane's 'good' restaurants were conspicuous by their elevated positions, such as the Top of the State on the highest floor of the SGIO [Suncorp] building; Talk of the Town on the 30th floor of Lennons Hotel; the Rooftop Restaurant on top of the Ridge Hotel; and Denisons on the upper floors of the Sheraton Tower. Yeates (1989) suggests that even the label 'restaurant' was 'categorised' as a symbol laden with prestige. This phenomenon, she claims, was constructed and perpetuated by the press--specifically the Courier-Mail and its 'Dining Out' column. Yeates (1989, p. 198) maintains only a certain type of restaurant was reviewed, one 'that fitted a certain class structure'. Most significantly, however, it was the price structures of these establishments that made them exclusionary.

Gender status might also impact on restaurant patronage, as has been noted in recent research (Wood, 2000). Yeates again comments on gender's marginalising influence on Brisbane's restaurant industry. Tom Jones Tavern in Caxton Street, where 'our wenches will lay it all before you' (1989, p. 204), was perhaps an extreme example. Yet many Brisbane restaurants of the 1960s and 1970s were bastions of the urban, white, businessmen and were thus uninviting spaces for women. Moreover, the aforementioned opulent establishments, while encouraging and ultimately depending on the complicity of women in the role of both consumer and server, expected women to behave within the 'ritualised' roles prescribed for them by the space.

'Indigenous Australia', too, has found itself on the margins of the commercial food industry. Despite the efforts of several high profile chefs, including Vic Cherikoff, Mogens Bay Esbensen, and Andrew Fielke of Red Ochre Grill fame, edible Indigenous bush foods, which total some 10,000 (Cherikoff & Brand, 1988) are regarded by many within the hospitality industry as gimmicky (PC). Moreover, it has been argued that the appropriation and consumption of Aboriginal foodstuffs and cuisine (2) area subversive attempt to 'know the foreign' (Zournazi, 1993), by incorporating them into familiar Angle Celtic (meal/menu) structures.

It is evident that a range of social and cultural factors were restricting the ability of restaurants to sustain diversification. However, the media were beginning to play a powerful role in shaping social behaviour--including food habits.

Media Influences

As Beckett (1984) asserts, the 1970s was the era of the restaurant guide, of reviews and television gourmets. Nationally, there was a deluge of literature published on cuisine and restaurants. 'TV cooks' like the 'Galloping Gourmet', Graham Kerr and Robert Carrier established high profiles. Indeed, as Beckett notes, the acceptance, or otherwise, of ethnic cuisine 'became a topic of hostile journalistic debate' (1984, p. 150). Bosworth (1988) suggests that the perceived status of the country of origin had much to de with the acceptance of an ethnic cuisine; nonetheless 'the meat pie, the lamington, the pavlova and ... Vegemite, plus tomato sauce, were attacked in no uncertain fashion' (Beckett, 1984, p. 200). Just as the supermarket and the franchised American takeaway were challenging the roots of Australian cookery, so was the media, with ethnic influences being a focus of interest. Again, though, the impetus was external. As Riddell notes, the journalists and TV demonstrators created an interest and demand for ethnic or gourmet foods. However, '[t]his upsurge in gourmet foods was also happening in other countries where migration was not evident' (1994, p. 59). Thus, the rise in interest in ethnic foods was not due, entirely, to local factors, but rather might be partly attributed to worldwide and national media coverage. As will be argued, this interest manifested itself in restaurants as well as in the media and in supermarkets.

Brisbane's Restaurant Boom

A collection of culinary literature in the print media suggests that this global trend, celebrating culinary diversity and changing patterns in food consumption, reached Brisbane in the years 1977 and 1978. In the January of 1977, the Sunday-Mail published an article titled 'Eating-out craze sweeps Brisbane' (January 30, 1977, p. 4), which drew comparison with Sydney restaurant boom of the early '60s (Sunday-Mail, January 30, 1977). By July, Des Partridge, the tabloid's long-time food critic, wrote 'Dining out--It's an industry' in the Courier-Mail (July 20, 1977, p. 4). The following day, he inaugurated the weekly series of the 'Dining Out' column, which persists more or less under the same format. Early the following year, Brisbane restaurants were treated to a feature in The Weekend Australian. Its title, 'A once-provincial town goes for a cosmopolitan flavour' (April 8, 1978, p. 4), embodied the themes of the majority of work published on the Brisbane restaurant scene at this time. Angus and Robertson published Eating out in Brisbane and the Gold Coast in 1978, the first in a series of annuals that lasted 5 years under the editorship of Charles Stokes. In the introduction of the original issue, Stokes doubts 'whether this book could have been usefully prepared 5, or even 3 years ago. For there has been such a mushrooming of restaurants in Brisbane ... over these past few years ...' (1978, p. 2). The flood of media coverage was matched by growing numbers of restaurants. In one 3-month period during 1976 to 1977, the Brisbane City Council gave approval for the opening of 73 new restaurants and cafes, excluding franchised takeaways (Sunday-Mail, January 30, 1977).

Concurrently, workers in the hospitality industry were being taken seriously and perceived themselves as professionals. Many migrants, often trained in their home countries, filled the ranks of Brisbane's kitchen and service staff (RRF, PWR, PW, & PC). The quality of service offered in Brisbane restaurants was hailed even in the press of the southern states (The Weekend Australian, April 8, 1978). Chefs were being identified by name in articles and reviews, and many began to build profiles. To accommodate their growing stature, the Professional Chefs and Cooks Association of Queensland formed in 1977, with a focus on raising the skill and training levels within the industry (CRA). Clearly, a burgeoning and competitive restaurant industry was emerging in Brisbane. Advertising became a serious business. As early as 1974 to 1975, 173 restaurants chose to represent themselves in the Brisbane Telephone Directory classifieds. Of these, over 50 are identifiable as ethnic. Brisbane's restaurants were responding to the increasing competition by diversifying. In so doing, Brisbane's restaurants were beginning to erode some of the social barriers--including class affiliations, gender and racial marginalisation and Anglo-centric culinary characteristics--which had defined their industry over the previous 80 years.

Newly founded cafes and restaurants chose more informal surroundings and less imposing decor, which promoted spontaneity. Labels like alfresco, bistro and brasseire gained currency--obvious reactions to the rigid connotations inherent in the term 'restaurant', and price structures became more flexible. Trading hours were expanding with many businesses opting to open on the traditionally slow Sunday and Monday nights (Sunday-Mail, 1977), and the brunch and supper came into vogue. As Stokes recognised, the 'explosions of restaurant activity are being inspired and supported by a generation of young people with money to spend ...' (1979, p. vii). Clearly, what is being expressed here is that the restaurant industry was responding to changes demanded by the market. Although many of the traditional restaurants remained by identifying a niche in the growing market, some found that the niche was shrinking. Allegro in Upper Edward Street, Harrowers in Milton, The Fountain Room in South Brisbane, Rags in Caxton Street, Ardrossan Hall in Bowen Hills, The Black Duck in Toowong, Roseville Restaurant in New Farm, Michel Bonnet in Caxton Street and The Top of the State were just a few of the restaurants that perhaps found the niche too competitive during the 1970s and 1980s and 'closed shop'.

Although the majority of these restaurants were not ethnic, gourmet and ethnic foods were gaining popularity in the restaurant scene. For, as Stokes says, this young class of people possessed 'the sophistication to demand accurate reproductions of foreign cuisines ...' (1979, p. vii), sophistication they had acquired during the emerging trend to travel overseas. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) records show that in 1978, 119,831 resident Queenslanders departed overseas for short periods, either for business or leisure (1980, p. 95). In 1982, there were 1.25 million Australian residents who travelled overseas in the short-term. In 1991, this number had nearly doubled to 2.1 million persons (ABS, 1992, p. 3) and this figure spiralled to an estimated 5.5 million departures in the financial year 2005 to 2006 (ABS, 2006b). The Queenslanders who travelled overseas experienced new cuisines, lifestyles and cultures.

Brisbane's restaurants responded to the newly acquired tastes of the returned travellers by incorporating ethnic foods into their menus. More significantly, some restaurants, dedicated to a particular ethnic cuisine, opened in an obvious response to the number of travellers returning from that country. For example, the 1984 Brisbane Telephone Directory classifieds listed only 16 non-Chinese Asian restaurants, and these were dominated by Indian and Japanese establishments. Yet the 2007 Brisbane Yellow Pages alone lists at least 65 Thai restaurants. The proliferation of Thai restaurants in the last 2 decades highlights the response of the catering industry to travel destinations. Thailand closely rivals China as Australia's fourth most popular outbound national destination, behind the UK, US and New Zealand (ABS, 2006b). Consequently, Thai is undoubtedly the most copied and interpreted of Asian styles 'evident in the cuisine of many of our [Brisbane's] leading restaurants' (Bray, 1990, p. vi). Cookery bookshelves are also studded with an abundance of publications expounding the intricacies of Thai cooking, and supermarkets are stocked with the (perceived) authentic ingredients necessary to faithfully recreate those recipes. The increasing number of people travelling overseas has unquestionably triggered a proliferation of both ethnic-themed restaurants and the adaptation and interpretation of their cuisines in the mainstream. In this way, the industry has moved with the trends and also responded to increased competition.

Many employees in the industry (PWR, PW, CRA, & PC) concur that, as Harrison and Donkin put it, the 'watershed in Brisbane dining was the Commonwealth Games, [the opening of] the Sheraton Hotel, the new Queensland Performing Arts Complex, and Expo '88' (1991, p. 1). A year before the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Garnes, the Sunday-Mail reported that Brisbane had seen the opening of 600 new restaurants in the previous 10 years (May 31, 1981, p. 34). This, though, must not be interpreted as a total net gain in Brisbane's restaurant inventory since 'small restaurants [make] up 93% of all restaurants in Australia' and these suffered the 'highest per capita failure rate of any industry' (Hughes, 1994, p. 30). Nevertheless, this was still an unprecedented boom in restaurant numbers which coincided with the prominence of Brisbane on the world stage, and the anticipated flow-on effect to the city's tourist industry. In fact, by 1987, the year preceding Expo '88, Brisbane had more restaurants per capita than any of the other Australian capitals (Golding, 1987, p. 37). As Hughes (1994) shows, and as the high failure rate of restaurants indicates, particular restaurateurs could be accused of being overly optimistic in gauging the extent of the boom. Sustainability depended on both local consumer and continued tourism demand. Apparently, the Brisbane restaurant industry grew disproportionately to the size of the market. Again, the need to diversify to remain competitive was paramount.

Migration Impacts on Brisbane Restaurants

It is recognised that migrants have had a profound influence on Australia's cultural development. This manifests in the restaurant sector in three ways. First, the manner in which they produced, cooked and imported foods; second, their attitudes to food, that is, the social as well as the culinary aspects of eating (Bosworth, 1988); and, lastly, by creating demand.

Regarding the production, cookery and importation of food, undoubtedly migrants contributed much to the range of Australia's foodstuffs. For example, the Chinese market gardener was a feature of suburban 1950s Brisbane (RB5). Richardson (1999) notes that from hostels to hotels, immigrants impressed with their technical skills, and the migrants' imported foodstuffs stocked the nation's pantries--even if 50 years ago olive oil was only obtainable at the chemist (Beckett, 1984).

Significantly though, for many migrants eating was an activity intrinsic to their daily cultural and family existence, and this partly contrasts with one of the reasons Bannerman (1998) cites as the catalyst for the evolution of Australian restaurants--the need for somewhere to celebrate, or 'experience', that special occasion (1998). Meal times could be highly social and often public events. As Beckett (1984) notes, pavement dining can be directly attributed to the entry of migrants into the food industry. Their prevailing attitudes to the consumption of alcohol also had a marked influence on the food industry. Migrants, particularly from western and southern Europe, treated liquor as an integral part of their meals, and not as the daily 'happy hour' ritual which was the Australian tradition. Beckett (1984) documents that the reversal of 6 o'clock closing time at the 'pub' was due to pressure from the migrant community for more civilised drinking laws. Both the style of drinking and the type of drink were changing. The notion that alcoholic beverages, especially wine, were the consummate companion to food was popularised. The annual per capita wine consumption of Australians increased from 8.2 litres in 1968 to 1969 to 18.2 litres in 1992 to 1993 (Prattley, 1995). Then came the realisation that Australia produced some of the finest and most consistent wines in the world, a notion that gained currency in the 1970s. Indeed, Australian trained oenologists and Australian wines have been in high demand overseas since the 1980s (MacIntyre, 2006).

The number of migrants arriving in Australia created a 'ready-made market' (Beckett, 1984, p. 146) for their food. The second- and third-generation migrant communities still identifying with their ethnic roots extended this demand. So while, as Bannerman observes, 'the obvious attraction of ethnic restaurants was getting food you couldn't cook at home' (1998, p. 71) clearly applied to the Anglo-Celtic majority, for migrants the motivation was culturally reflective.

However, to assume that the impact of postwar migrants on the food habits of Australians, as outlined above was also relevant to Brisbane is deceiving. The postwar immigration boom that swamped the southern states was only a trickle by the time it reached Brisbane. During the period 1941 to 1950, only 1716 migrants arrived in Queensland. In the 1950s this number increased to 8707, increasing by about 1600 the following decade. However, in the decade beginning in 1971, the number of migrants entering Queensland increased to nearly 23,000 (ABS, 1992). To present these statistics another way, between 1945 and 1971, immigration had accounted for a 30% increase in Queensland's population. Yet in the 5-year period, 1971 to 1976, immigration had accounted for a 60% increase in Queensland's population (ABS, 1980), although it is acknowledged that much of this was interstate migration. Therefore, the ramifications of the postwar boom in immigration must be treated with caution when applied to Brisbane.

A reappraisal of some of the data indicates that the impact of the postwar immigration boom was delayed in Brisbane by a couple of decades. Although Brisbane's first (non-hotel) restaurant liquor licence was issued in 1957, to Michael Karlos' Camilla restaurant in Queen Street (RRF), it was not until 1979 that significant extensions to liquor laws allowed the serving of alcohol to outside areas (Stokes, 1979, p. xiii). Furthermore, some 14 years after Stokes had complained that Brisbane 'of all the capitals [in Australia] is most suited for many months of the year to outdoor dining and drinking, is also the most conservative' (1978, p. 1), the Brisbane City Council finally permitted 'food premises to have tables and chairs on the footpaths abutting their properties' (ME-N-U, 1995, p. 4).

To totally disregard the impact of earlier migration to Brisbane on its restaurants would be unreasonable, since restaurants like Mama Luigis in Spring Hill, established in 1936, and The Vienna in Adelaide Street opened by the Wollners in 1950, had served their patrons ethnic fare for many years (Sunday Sun, June 11, 1989, p. 16). Why these restaurateurs, unlike for instance the Greek cafeteria proprietors, succeeded is unclear. Yet, the compelling evidence is that these businesses were the exception rather than the rule--Gambaros, established in the 1950s by Italian migrants (Richardson, 1999), continues to flourish today on a platform of fresh seafood and fish 'n' chips.

The effect of these early migrants was more pronounced in the following decades. Although in 1986 Queensland received 12,902 recent non-English-speaking background (NESB) arrivals, the second-generation NESB residents in the same year totalled 58,196 (ABS, 1989). Thus, as Riddell (1994) observes, many current Australians have parents and grandparents that were NESB migrants. Thus, they are no longer as isolated as the previous migrant generations and can share their culture in extended family and community situations. It appears that this social phenomenon has matured in Brisbane only over the last 20 years. So with these communities reaching out and affecting the mainstream, as evidenced by the 1997 Paniyiri Festival, ethnic communities could also, as Beckett (1984) stares, have the confidence to open restaurants for their own ethnic market. The conglomeration of Chinese emporiums in Fortitude Valley is evidence of this, as is the concentration of Vietnamese restaurants in the Darra/Wacol area (Symons, 1993).

Finally, it should be noted that the endorsement of multiculturalism as an official policy by Whitlam's federal Labor government in 1973 probably had a bigger impact on Brisbane than the southern states. It is argued by Castles et al. (1992), that the policy simply formalised an existing situation, although the general population's acceptability of multiculturalism has been questioned. Bailey (1997) argues that at least positive attitudes to ethnic foods ameliorated other negative perceptions. However, the figures on migration into Queensland and on the number of NESB second-generational residents suggest that multiculturalism was perhaps not so much the reality in Brisbane in the 1960s and early 1970s as it was in the larger Australian southern urban centres. This, together with the other evidence, suggests that Brisbane was affected by migrant communities from the mid-1970s onwards. This seems consistent with the flowering of Brisbane's restaurant industry in the mid- to late-1970s, the proliferation of ethnic restaurants in the 1980s and the recent emergence of ethnic culinary styles in mainstream food establishments.

It would be misleading, perhaps, to suggest that the apparent acceptance of ethnicity into Brisbane's culinary styles is synonymous with assimilation, whether manifest in the community or public policy. Zournazi provocatively states: '[t]he Anglo palate is enriched through a selection of "ethnic" foods that are served up to the nation. Significantly, narratives of food in Australia embody certain consumptive processes that swallow up foreign bodies' (1993, p. 79). Implied here, of course, is the idea that consuming the new is as much about subsuming it within the old as it is in experiencing the exotic. It, too, has been argued that ethnic foods have been used as the context for tropes, which question the benefits of multiculturalism, and hence immigration policy. These metaphors, associating ethnic foods with 'contamination', 'food poisoning' and 'indigestion' (Edwards, Occhipinti & Ryan, 2000), suggest ethnic foods are negatively juxtaposed against traditional Anglo-Celtic foods to engender feelings of unease about immigration.

Conclusion

This article had two objectives. First, it is argued that offering the explanation that the diversity in Brisbane restaurants is attributable to resident colonial ethnic populations or the postwar immigration boom is unsatisfactory. Clearly, the prevalence of ethnic influences in contemporary Brisbane restaurants is a result of many factors. Furthermore, it is reasoned that Brisbane's restaurant explosion of the late 1970s and 1980s facilitated a diversification of products within a competitive food industry manifesting itself, significantly, in ethnic influences permeating the market. Underlining both these conclusions is a multitude of social, political, economic, cultural and historical determinants. Indeed, the construct of ethnicity has itself been interdependent with other socially and culturally marginalising forces. This article, while not disproving Brillat-Savarin's timeless phrase 'tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are', has certainly highlighted its inherent complexities.

Second, underpinning this sociological debate, the author's agenda is to contribute, at least modestly, to the groundswell of literature encouraging hospitality researchers to embrace social scientific perspectives to balance that of the functional management stream in hospitality and tourism research. The benefit of this approach, within the context of the restaurant phenomena of ethnic diversity apparent in contemporary Brisbane, is that understanding the various historical and social dimensions of consumer demand, combined with business paradigm managerial skills, might enrich hospitality and tourism research and educational endeavours.

Any scoping work of this nature, that aims to span more than 100 years and such a multitude of research fields, has limitations. Indeed, several ideas, ranging from cultural imperialism to Indigenous influences on hospitality, were drawn on only briefly in the interests of maintaining continuity. Further research could more fully develop these voids. Some of these directions might be to concentrate on a limited timeframe, explore the development of a single ethnic cuisine or collect histories on who cooked and served the food in Brisbane's restaurants. Otherwise, focusing on a single sociological construct, for instance the media or national policy, is suggested.

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank Pat Buckridge and Barry O'Mahony for their encouragement to persevere with earlier drafts of this article.

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Endnotes

(1) As Riddell (1994) argues, and is elaborated on further in the article, the ethnic food of the post-war period was actually influenced by America, readily accepted by an Australian public increasingly identifying themselves with the USA both politically and culturally.

(2) This applies equally to all foreign cuisine, as acknowledged later in the article.

Richard N.S. Robinson

The University of Queensland, Australia

Correspondence

Richard Robinson, School of Tourism, The University of Queensland, 11 Salisbury Rd, Ipswich QLD 4305, Australia. E-mail: richard.robinson@uq.edu.au

Table 1
Informant Profiles

                            Age/      Reference
Informant details          gender       code

Restaurateur and member
of restaurateur family
in Brisbane from
1960 to present           Mid 50s/F      RRF

Professional waiter
and restaurateur            67/M         PWR

Professional waiter         58/M         PW

Professional chef,
restaurateur and
administrator               52/M         CRA

Professional chef           53/M         PC

Resident of Brisbane
from 1950s and
restaurant patron           82/F         RB5

Resident of Brisbane
in 1960s and
restaurant patron           64/F         RB6

Figure 1

Dinner menu from Brisbane's National Hotel,
1903.

MENU
DINNER

Huitres au Naturel

Consomme Royale

Schnapper Frits, Ravigotte

Dinde Roti

Asperges au Beurre

Peches a la Melba

Cafe

Source: (Ephemera Menu Collection, ND).

Figure 2

Function menu, Brisbane City Hall, 1959.

MENU

OLIVES AND GHERKINS

PINEAPPLE JUICE
ICED TOMATO JUICE

OYSTERS AU CITRON ON SHELL

HoRS D'OEUVRES
(CRAB COCKTAIL, BARRAMUNDI MAYONNAISE,
SMOKED SALMON CANAPES)

STUFFED EGGS A LA RUSSE WITH
VEGETABLE MACEDOINE SALAD

PRAWN "CENTENARY"

SCHNAPPER "ALEXANDRA" SAUCE
HOLLANDAISE GRATIN WITH
POMMES "PRINCESS"

MELTON MOWBRAY PIE WITH
POTATO SALAD

VOL AU VENTS ARGENTEIL

QUEENSLAND FRUIT SALAD

COUPE 'KENSINGTON" AU FRAISE

CHEESE STRAWS

COFFEE

Source: (Ephemera Menu Collection, ND)