Salad bars for corporate health

Hotels and restaurants across the board are cashing in on the salad bar - the most sought-after counter for the health-conscious corporate diner these days. By Beryl Menezes

Salad bar at Nirula’s Potpurri, New Delhi

While the concept of salads is not new per se, salad bars are making their presence felt with increasing frequency and are sprouting up at every second restaurant and hotel, sometimes even as standalones. The reason: most working people today would rather settle for a quick, ready-to-eat and light lunch, with the health factor being an added bonus.

Says Carl D'Costa, assistant F&B manager at Geoffrey's, Mumbai, "About nine years ago, we introduced the corporate lunch which comprised a variety of salads with assorted breads. Today we have pastas, sandwiches and a complimentary drink to provide a more filling and value-for-money option. Health is becoming a priority and sedentary lifestyles are rousing corporate workers to eat healthy."

Quick and cost-effective or just plain trendy?

Salad bar at Yummy Tummy, Pune

Exclusive salad buffets or light lunches comprising only soups, salads and sandwiches are increasingly gaining popularity. Not Just Jazz By the Bay was one of the first few restaurants in Mumbai to popularise this concept with its 'soups-salads-sandwiches-desserts' buffet, almost 11 years ago, and according to restaurant manager Joe Sequiera, it has only gained popularity.

This is not restricted to Mumbai alone. Potpurri by Nirula's in New Delhi opened the first-ever salad bar in India way back in 1979. Today it has been re-launched in a new avatar, with 13 vegetarian and five non-vegetarian salads, served along with a variety of soups and pastas. Their clientele includes customers of all ages, but mainly corporate executives and tourists who frequent the salad bar. The salad bar at Croissants is refilled thrice a day and sold out just as quickly. Needless to say, the Subway tagline of Eat Fresh' couldn't be more apt.

Salad bars today promote the 'balanced meal' concept, with accompaniments to salads ranging from a variety of dressings and assorted breadsticks to exotic pastas, and sandwiches with innovative fillings. This is probably why international eatery Subway is making waves all over the country. Says Musarat Gazyani, restaurant manager of its Bandra outlet, "While we also offer salads, our subs are still more popular that have tasty fillings in a variety of freshly baked health breads. It makes the consumers feel they are eating more than just salad."

Even nutritionists believe that salads are not a meal in themselves but are good when combined with the main meal. Says dietician Anjali Mukherjee, "For the Indian consumer, for whom the concept of salads has still not evolved, attractive accompaniments do the trick. However, they should take care not to load up on the dressings, which are generally heavy and sugary."

However, pre-mixed salads are still more popular today as compared to their raw counterparts. Just Around the Corner in Mumbai and Raj Pavillion, part of ITC Windsor Sheraton & Towers in Bangalore, both have extensive salad bars with items that even include cold cuts, cheese platters, grilled meats, rice dishes and stir-fried Chinese items. According to Monish Sarin of Raj Pavillion, salads are essential to buffets as that is the first thing that people look at. The salad buffet at Raj Pavillion is also accompanied by various Indian and international wines, being increasingly demanded by customers today. Mumbai-based restaurant Monza can testify to this - the complimentary pint of beer that it offers with its soup, salad, pastas and desserts buffet has definitely attracted more customers to the buffet.

Profitable enterprise

One of the salads on offer at Just Around The Corner, Mumbai

Manager Lawrence David of a recently-opened Mumbai restaurant, Cinnamon Bar & Grill, says that the introduction of the salad bar has definitely increased profits for the restaurant, with sales of even a la carte items rising. "Plus salad bars are cost-effective for us, being ready-to-serve without requiring prior preparation," David adds. However, most restaurants offer the salad buffet exclusively for lunch as it is targeted at the corporate clientele. "Corporate and BPO executives are the main clientele for the salad bar. With their hectic lifestyles, salads provide the perfect deal of a quick, healthy and filling lunch, especially taking into account the numerous accompaniments offered by most hoteliers today," says Asish Modak of Yummy Tummy, another new eatery in Pune, whose salad bar has witnessed brisk sales since inception.

A healthy trend

Watching the growing popularity of salad bars, even fast food giants have started offering pre-mixed and raw salads. Naini Setalvad, another nutritional counsellor, says, "McDonald's has been facing a lot of flak by health practitioners and medical experts. However, eating salad before biting into that burger does not in any way justify its consumption or neutralise its effects."

After Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Hardees, Ruby Tuesday, Fuddruckers, KFC and McDonald's have all started offering variations of salads, be it the traditional form of popular Garden, Russian, Waldorf and Caesar varieties to coleslaw and low-fat dressings which make use of olive oil and hung curds instead of mayonnaise. "Our salads are almost as fast-selling as our pizzas and there is definitely a growing demand for it across all age-groups," says Diago Dias, manager of a Pizza Hut outlet in Mumbai, whose suburban salad bar formerly offered 18-22 different salad bowls which included fruits, fresh salads and pre-mixed salads, chats, varied dressings, croutons and breadsticks, peanuts and melon seeds.

While health advisors feel that merely eating salads in no way neutralises the effects of unhealthy eating, they believe this fad will help create a revolution in healthy dietary patterns. And while salad counters in restaurants are quite different from those in gyms - with taste winning over the health factor - they are still popular, offering a good variation to the health bars. "Salads therefore offer an ideal, satiating and guilt-free option for dieters as well as busy corporates who place a priority on looking good and being in top physical form at all times," says Mukherjee. Restaurateurs couldn't agree more as their cash registers haven't stopped ringing ever since the introduction of the humble salad bar.