The advisory panel for Caterer's Food & Business Conference. [L-R] Markus Thesleff, Cyrille Troesch, Duncan Fraser-Smith, Russell Impiazzi, and Naim Maadad. The advisory panel for Caterer's Food & Business Conference. [L-R] Markus Thesleff, Cyrille Troesch, Duncan Fraser-Smith, Russell Impiazzi, and Naim Maadad.

The Caterer Middle East Conference: Food & Business is scheduled to be held on March 18, 2014, at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC, and its agenda, as always, is of great importance.

To decide the topics that would be of most interest to the dynamic and constantly evolving F&B sector, an advisory panel met on January 15, 2014, to debate and discuss pressing concerns that needed to be addressed.

These included: Gates Hospitality CEO Naim Maadad, Whissle Group co-founder Markus Thesleff, Capital Club Dubai executive chef Cyrille Troesch, The Cutting Edge Agency founder Duncan Fraser-Smith, and Lafayette Gourmet culinary director Russell Impiazzi.

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At the end of the discussion, a whole host of relevant issues were discussed, with a lot of input on what chefs and culinarians want to talk about at the upcoming conference. While a few new topics have been raised this year, there have been recurring concerns that only seem to have gotten worse over time.

Mid-market vs fine dining
One of the first issues to be discussed was the mid-market versus fine dining scene — Maadad and Troesch pointed out there is an issue with a stagnant audience in the high-end restaurant market, and then added that there is a need for a “mid-market revamp”.

The high-end market has become crowded and focus has been taken away from mid-range establishments. The UAE, said the experts, needs more affordable restaurants that can still deliver quality food.

Troesch said: “With most of the high end outlets, you will easily spend AED 700. Where do we go now ... at the middle level with high-end qualities but staying around the AED 300-400 mark? There’s not a big market for that yet.”

Maadad added: “We’re 10 steps faster than any other market. We have gone straight to the Hakkasans of this world rather than developing Ginger Boys and Wagamamas. We went straight from one to 10 and now we are going backwards.”

Fraser-Smith agreed and said good food needs to be the focus of the F&B industry, with a shift to ingredients rather than accompanying frills. However, he pointed out that there is a conscious shift away from chef-driven restaurants.

He said: “We are moving away from chef-branded outlets. In order for a chef to be very good at running a restaurant, they need to be a restaurateur first, and a chef second. If you don’t understand the business model you won’t succeed in the delivery.”

Brands were another contentious topic — with the constant harping on about ‘home-grown’ and ‘local’, is it even easy for original brands to survive? Maadad said not. “Everybody wants a brand, especially landlords; nobody want my business concept because they want the brand above their door rather than deliver a service.

That’s impacting our business and our dining habits,” he said. He further said that local brands are not getting a fair chance, and are often relegated to getting the second pick of great locations.

“We need to cultivate home-grown brands here. Dubai has done replication brilliantly for the last five to seven years ... let’s create now and build from scratch,” said Fraser-Smith.
Troesch agreed and added: “Dubai is ready as the place to launch home-grown brands.

We have talented F&B people who can invest in creating new concepts. But you are fighting international brands, who will give you the chance to develop something? Will hotels invest in something standalone or prefer to get an international concept?”

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