Competition forces chefs to rethink F&B offerings

The increase of dining hubs in Dubai and ongoing launch of licensed standalone or internationally branded restaurants across the UAE – from Gaucho and Caffè Florian in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) to celebrity chef endorsed restaurants such as the Gary Rhodes outlets at the upcoming St. Regis Abu Dhabi Corniche – has forced hotel chefs to reassess their in-house restaurant offer.

Rather than create new concepts or hastily adopt emerging trends, the executive chefs Caterer Middle East spoke with – all in charge of wide-ranging dining options at UAE hotels renowned for their food and beverage offering – said they were investing time and money in sourcing better produce and delivering quality dishes.

The Westin and Le Meridien Mina Seyahi complex executive chef Stephane Buchholzer said the entrance of new branded restaurants had pushed hotels to improve their F&B product.
“It’s good to have competition in the market to lift up quality,” said Buchholzer.

“I think the problem with hotel restaurants is they’re driven like supermarkets, it’s a range of standard food, standard products that are sellable to the mass market.

The fact that we have standalone restaurants enter that are licensed, like in DIFC, means you raise the bar to something — they’re doing something different, they push the hotels to realise that they can do things better to compete.

“I see the difference between when I arrived in Dubai seven years ago and today. At most of the hotels in Dubai the food was below average – it’s changed a lot.

“Seven years ago everything was driven by the price and since then people are demanding quality, and hotels are spending a lot more money for quality and are trying to deliver a better product – and this is due to the fact we had a lot of standalone restaurants that came and to celebrity chefs that are raising the demand for better product,” he explained.

Challenging times
Buchholzer said that hotels had to strive to use the best quality ingredients they could afford – despite ongoing increases in the price of produce.

“Last year we experienced a big raise on fresh and dried goods, everything raised from 10-30% on average,” he reported.

But despite the added pressure on food costs, Buchholzer was adamant that this increase should not be passed on to guests.

“It’s not like you have [a supplier] raising [prices by] 30% and then you raise your menu price 30% because if you come to eat today and the cheque is AED 150 and you come to eat tomorrow and it’s AED 250 you’re not going to understand the price difference and I’m not going to come to the table and explain that our goods [have increased].

For you it doesn’t make sense that you can raise 30% overnight so this is a big management process in terms of how we have to absorb some costs and be creative to balance this with something else, so at the end of the day costs don’t go overboard,” he explained.

Pierrick Cizeron executive chef at Le Meridien Dubai, said produce had increased because of the strength of the Australian dollar and the Euro last year and that, despite drops in the Euro now, prices were still not decreasing.

Like Buchholzer, Cizeron said the guest’s restaurant experience remained of paramount importance and so he looked at solutions to rising costs that would not negatively impact upon this.

“We try to contract the maximum amount we can on a six-month to a year basis to try to avoid this fluctuation but definitely there is a lot of [increases],” said Cizeron.

“For us we are trying to cut costs as long as it doesn’t affect the customer experience. Let’s go deeply into the organisation and see how to absorb these increases of costs and definitely we are driven by the guest experience and we should not have the guest feeling it.”

Upping their game
The chefs agreed that guests are increasingly knowledgeable – meaning they understand ingredients and expect them to be treated with care.

“I think people are looking for more simplicity and quality, for example, a good roast pepper with olive oil and garlic, an extremely good quality ingredient prepared simply, a no brainer, nicely presented. It’s the creation of simplicity, it’s good, it looks nice, you don’t need to think of how to eat it,” said Buchholzer.

Executive chef Emmanuel Pauliat, at Crowne Plaza Dubai, agreed: “The trend is for authenticity and quality, it’s better to stick to a product and get it right”.

In this regard, hotels have an edge over standalone restaurants, argued David Contreras, executive chef, The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa, because of the pool of resources they can draw from.

“I think in hotels there’s a lot more opportunity to learn more things especially from the speciality chefs and this is where everything is going – before it used to be theme nights where you have your same team of chefs cooking different ethic cuisines, but this doesn’t work anymore, you need a speciality,” said Contreras.

“If you are doing Chinese food, you need to have your Chinese chef doing it or someone who will give it some authenticity. Now guests know what they are eating, they know good Chinese food, good sushi, good Indian curry, so everything now is driven by speciality and it’s very important to have those talents in the kitchen team and to be able to deliver authentic, honest food,” he asserted. This extended to buffets and banqueting, added Contreras.

2012 trends
“A trend in buffets and banquets especially is live stations and live cooking, it was not there so much before. People like to see the chef working to see how their food is being prepared, authentic true food. Guests see something done there simply but skillfully to get the best flavour out of the food,” said Contreras.

Lloyd Cremer, executive chef at JW Marriott Dubai, agreed that “more chef interaction” was important and suggested the need for hotels to provide menus with a “food to chef link”, rather than churn out corporate formulas.

“Having a soul and an identity is very important,” said Cremer.

However, achieving these standards of quality and authenticity ultimately depends on getting the basics right, reasoned Michel Jost, executive chef, The Viceroy Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

“If hotels can cover 90% of the basics right they have it worked out. Sometimes we see that people try to over-complicate and the customer is not looking for it. [We must] serve food on warm plates, make an espresso in a warm cup, but 50-60% of places don’t get it. To get the basics right is very important. Take an ice cream — when is the last time you were given a perfect scoop?” he asked.

“If we focus on the basics we can get a lot right. And I think the customer recognises this,” concluded Jost.