LIVE from Caterer's Chefs & Ingredients Forum 2013
Today (October 8, 2013) food and beverage professionals from across the Middle East’s respected restaurants are gathering in Dubai to attend the second annual Caterer Middle East’s Chefs & Ingredients Forum.
Hosted at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City, head chefs and food and beverage managers from across the region have come together to discuss the opportunities for growth and debate key challenges facing the food and beverage industry.
For anyone who isn't able to make today's event, the Caterer Middle East and Hotelier Middle East teams will be keeping you updated on all the interesting news and views as they surface throughout the day in our LIVE blog below, so make sure to stay logged on.
To find out more about the Caterer Middle East’s Chefs & Ingredients Forum make sure to check out our event preview detailing exactly what you can expect to see and hear about today.
To keep in touch during the event you can message us on twitter at @CatererME and use the hashtag #CMEChefs13 to join the conversation.
09.00: Our day kicks off with our first panel session entitled 'A Taste for Quality' that is moderated by Naim Maddad, chief executive officer of Gates Hospitality.
Naim is joined on stage by Christian Gradnitzer, group culinary director, Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts; Michel Jost, executive chef, Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi; Cladys Magagna, executive chef, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr; Tomas Reger, chef for hire; and Amrish Sood, speciality chef, Rang Mahal.
Topics being tackled on stage include how to plate up consistently good food, sourcing the best of the best, and do diners even care?
Christian from Jumeirah gets the discussion started by reminding the panel that 'the magic of every restaurant is the atmosphere it creates - food is not always the first priority'.
There is a lot of love from the panel for international casual brands, with many admitting that they frequent them regularly, with the panel holding up the success of the Cheesecake Factory as an example for the market.
9.40: The next panel is titled 'Food Wars' and is moderated by Emily Herbert, executive chef at Ultra Brasserie. Joining her is Hugh Sato, executive chef at Okku; Cyrille Troesch, executive chef of the Capital Club; Paul Frangie and Roberto Segura Gonzales, head chef of The Act in the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai.
In this panel or team of experts are debating the value of certain food types, classifications and origins – and how much they actually add value to your business?
Cyril from Capital Club admits that there is a lot of confusion on the market with organic food, and it is chefs responsibility to educate. However, organic food won't be able to drive the market because it is not yet daily available and too expensive with organic at around 65% cost.
The most important thing for chefs continues Cyril is to 'be aware when things are in season and build our menus around that.'
However he goes on to describe Dubai's fish market in Deira as a 'massacre' with no inspectors on site telling buyers that Hammour is in danger or protected.
The consensus of the panel seems to be that the market is don't yet ready for organic food, and should instead be concentrating on local and sustainable produce. With most declaring that if you have to fly food from outside the GCC then it loses it benefit.
Roberto from The Act Dubai admits that the mango from Peru on his menu is only in season for six months, so 'I remove it from the dish the rest of the year', with the rest of the panel asking him to try Pakistani or Sri Lankan mangos instead.
Talking about expirimental food, Hugh from Okku declares that this will always be there 'but it will never be more important than taste. Customers want it to taste good. If the chef forces their taste on the customer there will be problems, what they want you have to give them'.
10.00: Our third panel session for the day is called 'Large Scale Catering' and is going to cover... large scale catering.
Moderated by our very own Caterer Middle East editor Devina Divecha, who is joined on stage by Uwe Michel, director of kitchens at the Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek, as well as Colin Campbell, corporate Chef, Abela & Co.
Large scale catering presents a series of challenges not faced by your typical Chef, our panel discuss how supply chain issues and having to set up remote kitchens, creating flavour with reheated food, and health and safety regulations, affects what the hotel sector can learn from mass-catering, and vice versa.
At the end of this panel, it's time for our delegates to move to the foyer for our morning break, and take the opportunity to network with their fellow professionals, sharing pastry recipes and other industry tidbits.
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11.15: As the morning break comes to an end it must mean its time for the next panel session.
Entitled 'The Staff Catch 22', the panel is moderated by Naim Maddad, CEO of Gates Hospitality who is joined by:
Sascha Triemer, Vice President Culinary, Atlantis The Palm
Patrice Gouty, Area Operations Manager, The Crystal Group
Francisco Araya, Programme Director, SCAFA
Tackling the tough topics of empowerment, engagement and retention, the panel will investigate whether there is a silver bullet for ensuring your staff are at the top of their game?
Sascha from Atlantis starts with a warning for ambitious chefs in the ME,as 'sometimes people get put into a position too early, that doesn't help them, it destroys their careers'.
Patrice Gouty reiterates the importance of a strong culinary team, likening restaurants to a Ferrari that 'doesn't have a driver.'
12.00: Our next session is excitingly called 'Margin Call', and will investigate whether restaurant's operations and ingredients are keeping them open to maximum profit?
Our moderator will be Sanjay Murthy, managing director of Figjam, who is joined on stage by Emma Cullen, GM of the Capital Club Dubai; Ryan Waddell, head chef of the Reform Social and Grill Dubai; Ghazi Azzabi, general Manager of Fine Dining Ltd (Ruth Chris’ Steak House); Jenny Lorenzo, chef de cuisine at Marco Pierre White Grill, Conrad Dubai; and finally Ernesto Tonetto, head chef of Cavalli Club.
Ghazi at Ruth's Chris outlines his 'settled operation, that can go to 'suppliers en mass and arrange prices for our outlets for the next six months'.
'Because we have a brand people are prepared to pay for that,' says Ghazi, admitting that he has had to absorb Rising meat costs of over 30% from last year' in order to ensure there use the quality for customers.
Emma at Capital Club admits that menu prices have gone up, but they are still not as high as 2007 levels.
'That is because there are a lot more suppliers in the market than in 2007,' interjects Ghazi.
Sanjay asks the panel about the use of special offers to save costs, and the panel are adamant they would never run a special item on the menu in order to shift an oversupply of certain ingredients.
'We don't do deals, or specials' says Emma,'we upsell quality products that have a higher cost, not to lower costs.'
Ryan Waddell admits that specials can be a way to get rid of oversupply, but that they should be used to enhance the menu rather than to shift bad stock.
Ghazi uses the example of Ruth's Chris deciding to cut their own steaks, bad they now use the parts they can't use to sell as burgers at a lower price to bring in the 'business market.'
12.45: Our final session before the attending chefs pick over the lunch menu is titled 'The Art of Reinvention'
Moderated by Duncan Fraser Smith, the founder of The Cutting Agency, he is joined by Jason Myers, the GM of Jumeirah Group (Restaurants & Bars) & managing director of Jumeirah Restaurants LLC; as well as Max Grenard, culinary Director of Dubai Golf.
This esteemed panel will investigate how a restaurant knows when to reinvent its menu, venue or concept, and if there is ever a failsafe strategy?
Jason from Jumeirah comes out firing by stating that ROI is 'one of the worst things to be associated with F&B' and is an insufficient method of judging the success of a restaurant.
However, Max at Dubai Golf says that restaurants in Dubai are expected to make a ROI in three years, compared to five in Europe.
Talking about menus, Jason bemoans the venues with 100s of different items on their menus that 'confuses customers'.
Then goes on to the problem of changing a venue's names, and gives the example of a London restaurant that was making £170,000 a week, changed the name, and is now closed. 'Building a reputation and getting a customer to understand your brand, is very difficult.'
Duncan wonders whether location is still king, and whether you can drive people to obscure locations.
Max wonders why Jumeirah customers are unable to cross the Dubai Creek, and he may struggle to attract them, but that his venue is able to do well enough from the local market.
14.00: After lunch it's time for the day's master class workshops to begin.
Our first is a 'Red Meat Masterclass' by Tarek Ibrahim, executive chef for Meat & Livestock Australia.
In his class Tarek really gets hands on with his subject bringing out a impressive cut of meat and demonstrating how it can be cut, prepared and cooked to maximise a restaurant's menu.
He also tells the crowd the benefits of ageing, vacuum packing and how to tell your marbling from your connective tissue.
14.30: After Tarek it's time for the HACCP 'Hygiene and Food Care Workshop' from Dr. Rafiq Al Khatib, managing director of RMK-The Experts.
He outlines the basics of a HACCP hygiene workshop, and the real benefits of the HACCP system that range from a Hazard Analysis, Critical Control Points and managing the food safety habits of your staff.
15.00: As our final workshop draws to a close there is just time for Caterer Middle East editor Devina Divecha to say her thanks to the days panelists, delegates, sponsors and attendees and bring the event to a close.
Make sure you keep tabs on hoteliermiddleeast.com over the coming days as we investigate some of the news and developments to come out of this years show.