Expensive dining unavoidable: top chefs

People should stop expecting food prices to go down when the price of everything else is going up, celebrity chefs Heston Blumenthal and Peter Gilmore say.

Speaking at the launch of the Margaret River Gourmet Escape in Perth, Gilmore said penalty rates were pushing up the price of dining in Australian restaurants.

He hoped the government would reconsider labour laws because the days of working nine to five, Monday to Friday had passed.

Dining was "not cheap", Gilmore said, "but I do say in the same sentence the quality you get is exceptional and you should be prepared to pay for quality".

Blumenthal said people had to have access to affordable food but expecting prices to come down while the cost of everything else was going up would only damage the food and farming industries.

"You rear a chicken, house it, feed it, then kill it, then package it, then transport it and sell it and I'll give you two pounds fifty - you'd go `forget it'," Blumenthal said.

"These guys need supporting. It's got to come from somewhere."