'Healthy value will be future focus'

Leading F&B professionals have flagged up health and value-for-money as key upcoming trends for the Middle East F&B industry.

Emaar Hospitality Group corporate director of culinary excellence Viktor Stampfer noted: “It’s all about value. People are still willing to go out and spend on their meals, but they want to be sure they’re getting their money’s worth.

“On a global scale, the focus is coming back to healthy cooking,” he continued. “This trend involves incorporating food that’s specific to your region and also ingredients that are sourced locally help to support the economy, keep import costs down and make your offerings authentic.”

Nestlé Professional advisory chef Zain Sidhu agreed nutrition, health and wellness would be buzz words for 2010. “With consumers becoming more conscious that ‘you are what you eat’, leading operators will need to change their strategies to offer tasty nutritious food at good prices,” he said.

Adil Souate, assistant director of F&B at Media Rotana Dubai, added that authenticity and traceability could play a big role.

“People want ethnic food, fresh food, environmentally-aware and nutritious food,” Souate asserted.

Emaar’s Stampfer also predicted that ‘back-to-basic’ cooking styles would feature heavily: “It’s about serving a food item as naturally as possible, to maintain its true flavour and nutrients.”