Balancing act

A select group of chefs took time out from their busy schedules last month to join Caterer Middle East and roundtable sponsor Nestlé Professional at the newly-opened Bonnington Jumeirah Lakes Towers, for a friendly mystery basket cook-off and a candid discussion on the trials and tribulations of menu development

Taking part

• Thomas Gagliardi, executive chef, Bonnington Jumeirah Lakes Towers
• Eicke Christian, head chef, Terra Firma, Al Badia Golf Club
• Paul Lupton, head chef, Rhodes Mezzanine, Grosvenor House Dubai
• Franck Detrait, chef de cuisine, Traiteurs, Park Hyatt Dubai
• Thushan Don, executive chef, Dubai Marina Yacht Club
• Kevin Pohl, head chef, The Observatory, Marriott Harbour Hotel
• Christophe Prud’homme, executive chef, Al Bustan Rotana Dubai
• Antonio Dominicis, chef de cuisine, La Moda, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek
• Zain Sidhu, advisory chef, Nestlé Professional

What are the key factors to remember when developing a new menu?

Christophe Prud’homme: First and foremost, you have to look at the concept of the restaurant; then you consider the season, what products you can actually access in the relevant country, and of course the final main factor is whether your staff can cook these dishes. Because you can put together the best-sounding menu in the world, but if you don’t have staff who can make it correctly, it’s not worth spending money on the items.

Paul Lupton: In an outlet that may not have a single concept, you must keep the offering changing all the time. It’s not so much about sticking to one set menu, but rather using the best of what you’ve got.

When developing a menu, do you have much creative freedom or is it all about the budget nowadays?

Thomas Gagliardi: For most chefs that is the reality, but the end goal has to be what makes it onto the plate and what the guest wants.

But it very much depends on the proposition; there are some restaurants that operate at a loss and that’s expected. They know you’re going to have higher costs because your job is to wow guests — it’s about bragging rights. Whereas if you’re more business-oriented, part of a major international hotel chain, they’re going to be looking carefully at the figures, definitely.

But any chef has to just work their way through that and look at the end result.

Prud’homme: You can be in either a positive or a negative spiral, it totally depends on which way you want to be and the volume of your operation. But certainly having a large events and banqueting department allows you to give more money to restaurants.

If you have 1000 covers at a banquet downstairs, you can run lobster upstairs and you’re laughing.

It’s about striking a balance between your business sense and your business needs.

Nowadays you have hotels where you can eat and drink all you want for AED 99, so to remain competitive you have to know your position: whether you want to battle for price, volume or profit.

You can cut costs somewhere, but you’re always going to have to balance that out somewhere else; that is our job nowadays.

Food activity has become a financial activity, because the bottom line is that you have to give your results to your financial director at the end of the month.

For what reasons might you bring in a new menu?

Eicke Christian: Of course there are seasonal patterns, and perhaps if you have non-performing elements a change is advisable, but there’s also the fact that you need to retain an element of surprise; you need to keep bringing in new items, otherwise your guests get bored. You need to keep the menu fresh, especially if you’re looking to build a strong repeat clientele.

It’s all very well to continue doing something you’re good at, but if it continues along exactly the same path, one day someone will copy you and do it better, and then you’re out.

Antonio Dominicis: But it can be difficult to make a change, because guests will come in and ask ‘where has this gone?’ So when I change things, I make sure I keep a few of the favourite items.
Changing the menu does depend on your guests; are they ready and willing to make this change? Will your new offering suit their needs? It’s not just about what you want.

Prud’homme: The food must also tie in with other factors. It may not even be the most important draw in certain restaurants.

What are the key challenges you face when it comes to developing a new menu?

Gagliardi: Vendor consistency — what you can get regularly. I can’t put something on the menu if they can’t guarantee delivery.

I’ve already got rid of three vendors at this point, good ones too, but if they can’t get me that same product I’ll have to change the menu, because I can’t use a supplier who promises me something that doesn’t turn up until two weeks later. Unfortunately that scenario is constant in this market.

Lupton: A main part of my day is making sure I have the produce for that night’s service — and I do sometimes end up running down to the shops at the last minute to buy extra items because they haven’t arrived, just to make sure the menu’s on.

Gagliardi: In other parts of the world suppliers are hungry for business, but the way the mentality has been here, suppliers are very laid back. Even now, in this climate, you can place an order for various products and they won’t tell you if they haven’t got something; you’ll just find out it’s not there when the order turns up.

Dominicis: In other regions, you have suppliers knocking at your door all day long pitching their wares. Here, if you don’t call, they don’t come.

Gagliardi: You’d think it would have become a buyer’s market in the current economic state, but that’s simply not the case.

Zain Sidhu: I agree that building up a solid relationship with a supplier can be tough; and it’s tricky because both parties need each other. The chefs need consistency on a daily basis, and if your supplier can’t deliver that on a daily basis you’re in a tricky position.

Unfortunately, if items are coming in from abroad — as is often the case in this part of the world — sometimes there is a situation with transport or the weather and a shipment simply does not arrive on time.

Gagliardi: I think frustrations have got the better of most of us after about six months. You don’t want to fight, you just want to focus on getting the products that you need for the menu, getting it done right and done well. You have to adapt; it’s not worth the aggravation not to. That does perhaps mean you have to compromise on what you put on your menu, but it does not mean you compromise in any way regarding quality. I won’t serve it at all if I can’t do it right.

Lupton: I’m quite lucky because I’ve just got dinner at an à la carte restaurant to look after, and that’s my only concern: that the menu’s full and the restaurant’s got everything it needs. But even then it’s not easy and you do have to fight with suppliers quite a lot. When I arrived here it took me six months to get used to how things worked, six months’ fighting to improve it, and now slowly we are seeing things get better. But it’s still way behind other places.

Prud’homme: But there are good and bad things about everywhere you work in the world; if it wasn’t this challenge, it’d be something else.

Wherever you work, you have to establish good relations with your supplier for your menu to work, and there has to be give and take on both sides.

Sidhu: I think you have to give suppliers certain targets to achieve, and then take care of them in return. I’m not talking financially, but rather by letting them know they’re your preferred supplier.

Of course, you’re going to have number two and number three as back-up, but if a supplier knows he is your number one choice as long as he gets everything to you on time, that’s a good incentive. It’s about building up a strong relationship and one that is based on trust.

Lupton: What I find quite difficult though is the variety of ingredients available here. I can tell you about 100 different suppliers who can get you Wagyu beef, but if I ask for some curly kale or fresh forced rhubarab, they don’t know what you’re talking about.

I’d love to be able to make my menu more diverse by putting some of these really interesting items on, but even if you could get it it wouldn’t be consistent. Everyone just focuses on those main items that they can make money on.

Kevin Pohl: Another issue is of course that often nowadays, chefs do not conduct their own negotiations with suppliers — instead it’s the purchasing department. They won’t push for something if they are told straight off that it’s not available here, but if they don’t have the drive to push for products to be made available, how is the ingredient pool here ever going to widen?

Prud’homme: I think a lot of suppliers here are working around the 50 biggest-selling items, which is where they can make their profit. They cannot bring in rhubarb every week if only one hotel is going to buy it, because they will end up with a load left over going off in the garbage.

Are there any items that you would rather not put on the menu, but customers demand them?

Gagliardi: That depends on the concept in the restaraunt, but for international restaurants and room service menus here you have to have a mezze plate of some sort and you have to have a mixed grill, or you will get complaints.

Sidhu: There are certain things for all hotels that you just have to offer, like a club sandwich. Even if you don’t put that on a room service menu, you have to be prepared to serve it, because it will inevitably be ordered.

Prud’homme: It’s the same with having strawberries on the breakfast buffet — you simply have to have them. If there is a shipment delay and they are not there, you get questions.

Since the economic downturn, ‘value’ has become a consumer buzzword; how has this impacted your menus?

Gagliardi: I think it comes down to compromising on the products we’re using. And of course that does not mean compromising on quality of the dishes, but rather accepting that some products are not an option. For example, not having Wagyu on your menu, but having a different cut.

Christian: I think it’s also about living up to the concept of your restaurant, as well as acting within your means. We are a top-quality steak restaurant, so we have to deliver on that.

Franck Detrait: When we developed the new menu for Traiteur, I did have to play around with the balance of dishes. It wasn’t a problem for me to have a high cost for scallops, because I sell a lot of onion soup and that’s not expensive to make. But you have to continuously play with this set-up to make sure you have the right balance.

Thushan Don: You have to monitor the success through sales software which charts exactly how popular each dish is. Then that is something that you must take into account when redeveloping the menu. So not only can you see the success of a new menu, you can see how the business is going overall. So if people suddenly change from ordering three courses to just having a main, you know you have to restructure things. It also helps by indicating the areas where service staff need to focus on upselling. Of course, if you have a new menu, it takes a little bit of time for people to get used to it.

Gagliardi: I think within a quarter you’re going to have a fair idea of how the menu is working.

Christian: I would say a quarter is already a bit too long, if something’s not quite working; within the first month you can probably tell if something is working or not, and if it’s not you can change it right away.

Dominicis: But then it’s hard to tell nowadays. Before the downturn, all outlets were busy, but there just isn’t the same number of people eating out now and certainly not the same spend. So covers have decreased — which means its been difficult to tell whether it’s your menu having a negative impact or just the slowdown.

Gagliardi: It’s basically about the investors at that point; we might like to be artists, but the bottom line is that we want to take home our pay cheque, so we have to fill up the restaurant.

For chefs today it’s a lot about the business and admin side. We only spend about 20% of our time in the kitchen, if we’re lucky — which is a shame, because you can lose touch.