Nestle Professional shows support for chefs

 Nestlé Professional country business manager Leonid Vershchagin talks to HME.com about the brand’s support for the inaugural Caterer Middle East Head Chef Survey and its plans for the coming year

Nestlé Professional is the sponsor for the inaugural Caterer Middle East Head Chef Survey; why did you feel it was important to support the region’s chef industry in this way?

At Nestlé Professional, our vision is to be an inspiring growth partner to all food service industry professionals.

Along with delivering creative food and beverage solutions, we believe in supporting industry professionals such as chefs through great initiatives such as the Head Chef Survey.

It is important to inspire chefs and provide them with the tools to do so; through Caterer’s Head Chef Survey, we believe chefs across the Middle East will be able to use the information generated to innovate in their outlets throughout 2010.



How have you seen the Middle East F&B industry change and progress over the past year?

2009 was a tough year for all F&B outlets, as many consumers reduced spending and indulging in food service outlets and opted for more time eating and drinking at home.

This has led to a smaller share of pocket for the industry and a critical look into more value-for-money offers.

But during 2009, we have seen some of the most innovative menus being developed, as well as creative ideas on generating traffic through outlets by focusing on the total customer experience.

There has been a lot of success during this year and we are very proud of all our customers for the innovation and value they delivered during this challenging time.

During the economic downturn it is important to not only support our customers with products that provide them a creative solution, but also to continue supporting training and recognition programmes built up by the industry over the past few years.

Nestlé Professional has itself focused on providing operators a total-value solution for both food and beverage products, with trusted global brands such as Nescafé, Nestea, Maggi, Chef and Nestlé.

We have driven value for our customers through these creative solutions and continued our full support of the industry through initiatives such as Female Chef of the Year, Hotelier Awards’ Chef of the Year, Junior Chef Training and the sponsorship of Salon Culinaire for the Middle East.



You will of course play a big part in Gulfood 2010; can you tell us about what you have in store?

Nestlé Professional has been supporting the Emirates Culinary Guild for a number of years now.

As main sponsor of the Salon Culinaire at Gulfood 2010, we focus all our energy on providing the means for a magnificent competition that delivers value through recognition for competition winners and training and education for those participating for the first time.

As the largest competition in the Middle East for chefs, we believe in this partnership — not only to recognise great talent, but to inspire creativity in all of the visitors as well.

2010 is already packed full of surprises for our customers!

Nestlé Professional will continue delivering creative food and beverage solutions to customers operating across all channels in the out of home industry.

Our focus will be to continue delivering this value through tailor-made products that satisfy the needs of our customers and their consumers.

We will continue supporting various industry initiatives to show our support and gratitude to these professionals — the first of which will be the already famous Menus of the Masters 2010 (the sixth edition), a competition dedicated to chefs to inspire not only the participants but also those who read the publication.

During 2010, we will be engaging our customers and inspiring them to grow. We have a lot in store and encourage everyone to watch this space!