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.

Legislation
Laws of the land are obviously an important consideration when setting up in the F&B industry. However, our experts pointed out they need more support to ensure they are following all the rules set in place. They suggested setting up a hotline for clarification of guidelines, with a need for streamlining of information about opening restaurants, and the rules and regulations.

“It would be good if DTCM or DM put together a proper online system with maybe a hotline to get things clarified. Because what I find is I get conflicting feedback,” said Thesleff.

Everyone called for transparency in the setting up process and were keen to talk to the authorities about how to make it easier for restaurateurs and owners to open.

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New trends
One of the latest moves to hit the block is the practice of promoting executive chefs to F&B director positions — some said this was inefficient because of differences in those fields. Chefs are classically trained to cook, not deal with administrative issues, and there needs to be a push for more traditional separation of roles.

“There are more and more chefs in F&B director positions, which is new here compared last year,” said Thesleff. Fraser-Smith said they need to understand the business model as a restaurateur over anything else. “The way they are being trained is to perform in a kitchen environment,” said Maadad.

Impiazzi, however, said he thought it was important to get involved in all aspects of the business. “The guy in the back needs to know more about the front; times have changed,” explained Impiazzi.

Maadad and Thesleff both said the move is reflective of a cost-cutting exercise — but all agreed that chefs are now wielding more power than F&B directors in decision-making.

Either way, Impiazzi concluded by saying it’s important to encourage people to join the industry and be open-minded. “New ideas are considered a threat, and they are not,” he said.