Session

New restaurant concepts

The session began by Bob Puccini, chairman and CEO, Puccini Group, voicing his belief that a restaurant is not just a space for eating but more of an experience. It is about style, which differentiates mass production from customisation. "One cannot disassociate culture from hotels and the media, travellers and feminism play an important role as far as decisions are concerned today," he says.

This is a concept that he tried to establish in Ducca, an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Bars, he believes, is an integral part of restaurants and says, "They are its engines and the most profit-making part of restaurant. Hence, it is important to keep focus. The restaurant should achieve its target by being focussed on both the local as well as the traveller creating a positive brand identity."

Branding does take priority as a restaurant becomes the nucleus of social activity and is often a piece of jewellery for the hotel it is part of. This makes it important for the restaurant to follow an intelligent operating model, which is also economically feasible. Manvinderpal Singh Puri director of Sewara Hospitality & Development, spoke about his experience in conceptualising two restaurants - 1837 and Doc Cheng.

With 1837, there was a legacy, which had to be kept in mind. The year denoted the time when Queen Victoria ascended the throne and an era where everything English was in a phase of evolution. The aim was to bring back the authenticity of the English era, with not just the ambience but also the food. Today, 1837 at Mayfair Hotel in London is one of the very few places, which serves authentic English lobster delicacies with more than 140 varieties of wine sold by the glass.

Talking about the oriental Doc Cheng at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, Puri retold the story of the oriental student who went to England to study medicine and came back to start a practice, and provide a unique blend of the Oriental world with the enigmatic West. "The key is to create a niche that appeals to the mass," said Puri.

Rajiv Sharma, VP (development), South Asia, IHG, spoke about the unique concept of Blue Frog in Mumbai, which is an amphitheatre-style restaurant which has live performances everyday making it a unique concept within the country.

Recounting his experience, Chef Atul Kochhar said he moved to London to work with Tamarind, an Indian cuisine restaurant, after working in the Indian hospitality industry. From there began his journey of creating Benares. He says the concept evolved from taking Indian food beyond takeaway. Today he is a British Indian chef and believes the evolution is due to his faith in using locally-grown produce, which makes the food more authentic. The other reason for this is to know your target audience. In Kochhar's case, it was the millions of Britons looking for authentic Indian food rather than the comparatively smaller population of Asians there.

Chef Hemant Oberoi spoke about how he has been part of creating and re-creating various eating options during his tenure at the Taj. He reiterated what Kochhar said about how the food has to adapt itself to the culture it originates from. At Wasabi, he had to tweak Japanese cuisine to serve the Indian palate. "Even while we did convert it into vegetarian, the essence of the cuisine has to remain authentic," said Oberoi. He added that food has to change ahead of time to keep up with the ever-hungry palate of the consumer and today it is the contemporary twist to the local food, which will make its mark. Other global trends that are expected to create ripples include molecular gastronomy, IndoChine cuisine and Peruvian cuisine.