Going back to Roots: The Role of Storytelling in Positioning Traditional Dishes to Modern Diners

The pandemic has rocked the restaurant industry and showed just how agile it isn’t. Now, several months into the pandemic, we can see how the restaurant industry will be permanently changed. In many cases, the pandemic is a chance for restaurants to get inclined towards sustainability and taking their hygiene one notch up.

Diners are looking for restaurants to be transparent about their cleanliness procedures, so restaurants must use clear optics of what they are doing to keep diners safe. Customers are looking for things like single-use menus, disposable silverware, signs placed on tables that have been sanitized, hand sanitizing stations and employees wearing masks. Most importantly sustainability will take the front seat and restaurants opting for sustainable practices may gather more points in the future. 

Time to give back to nature

Nidhi Nahata, Founder, Justbe Resto Cafe feels that being sustainable is a big step in the preservation of resources. “Today, people are drifting away from glamorous and blingy things and inclining more towards sustainable eating, clothing, etc. There is increased adoption of social responsibility and awareness about the importance of living with nature rather than exploiting it,” she added. 

At Justbe, the team function in accordance with the environment by firstly serving food designed for the body by nature, using cutlery that is reusable, like steel straws (washed regularly), avoiding the use of plastic for dine-In, deliveries, and take-aways.

Nahata further informed that on the business front, consumers are displaying greater respect and loyalty towards brands/firms/organisations that are positive contributors to the environment. “They are consciously purchasing from positive contributors and are boycotting companies that have low-poor CSR. It is imperative to focus on sustainable efforts rather than just having a flashy appeal. The days of mindless consumerism are gone!” she stated.

Training and education comes first

The pandemic has again presented great importance on certain realms that we as a society might have ignored. First of which, being hygiene. The International standards are a great benchmark to abide by and produce dishes/food that matches consumer standards. 

Ron Ramirez, owner of The Finch Chandigarh feels that in order to efficiently implement upgraded kitchen hygiene to a particular establishment especially in a third world country, proper training, strict discipline with supervision must be laid down on the table to any establishment. 

“Experience people with proper training and education is crucial that practices government protocol guidelines with a regular license of food safety management system agency which is accredited by the department of health,” he said. 

Evolving sanitation demands, as well as dormant dining rooms and even dormant kitchens, have given operators more challenges than ever before. Protecting their brand’s reputation while delighting their guests and optimizing operations has never been more of a juggling act. According to Measure Protocol, 86 percent of consumers say that visible evidence of cleanliness is most important to feel safe.

Kalyani Das who runs and owns the south Indian restaurant chain Dasaprakash, believes that diners look for different experiences and therefore there are segments that cater to diners looking for a swanky or fine dining experience. 

Diners getting more inclined towards sustainability

“Given the current environment, there may be a trend that leans towards more sustainable formats as opposed to luxury or fine dining, but if we were to look at the future we need to assume that in some time, months or in a year India and the world will learn to work with and around this pandemic and patrons will look for different dining options. In the immediately foreseeable future, there would definitely be more focus on home delivery and casual dining as patrons adopt a more conservative approach to dining,” she said. 

Sustainable restaurants will continue to grow as a segment and there will be more models that may emerge given the current pandemic. There will be a focus on hygiene, brands, delivery and innovation will occur around these areas. Das also believes that newer models of revenue share and reduction of fixed costs will emerge which will drive further expansion in this segment. 

However, according to Abhayraj Kohli, Owner of restaurant brands like Tori, Grandma’s Cafe and Pritam ka Dhaba, there are trends and fads but sustainable restaurants are not one of them. “The planet needs us to respect our resources and this pandemic has taught us this. Indian being mostly a vegetarian country with more than 40 percent being vegetarians it won’t be difficult to move to mock meats etc. Hygiene standards in restaurants have been improving and especially in the organised sector restaurants can now be compared to any restaurants all over the world,” he commented. 

‘Going green’, ‘Sustainability, ‘Hygiene has been a focus for the restaurant industry for over a decade now, but in recent years, with the pandemic along with dire implications of climate change becoming more evident, the mantra has come with increased urgency. 

As George Bernard Shaw, framed in his beautiful words, "There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

People look up to the Casual dining restaurants, when it comes to love for food and for an affordable dining experience.

The Casual Dining format contributes to more than 33 percent of the total market share of the organized food industry and is further pegged to increase by 33 percent by 2021.

According to Indian Food Service Report 2016 released by National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) along with leading research firm Technopak, the size of the Casual Dine Chain Market is estimated at 6,720 crores in 2016. It is further expected that it will grow by Rs 17,245 crores at 21 percent CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) by 2021.

For all the foodpreneurs, who want to start and run a successful restaurant, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Location:

According to the NRAI report, the majority of casual dining restaurants are concentrated in two major metropolitan cities Delhi and Mumbai.

To find a proper location for opening a casual dining restaurant, one has to do a thorough market research to make a list of all the cuisines being served in all the suitable places, such as Malls, High Streets, Popular Markets, and Big Office complexes.

Location should have enough parking spaces, easy accessibility to raw material and other supplies. It also should be somewhere in the ground floor or first floor with proper directional boards to guide the customers, or else they will end up in dining somewhere else.

2. Set up:

While setting up the restaurant, one has to try something new or unique, to attract the customers such as the cuisines served should be different, the ambiance should be such that the customer would always feel like coming back.

Ambiance and quality of food being served go hand in hand; one cannot compromise with the quality or the uninviting ambiance.

Try to make it theme based, which will make room for serving other cuisines too such as seasonal themes and cuisines as per the seasons or themes based on festivals too can be tried out.

There are plenty of options to try out, without getting entangled in financial problems.

3. Licensing and paper work:

After the location is finalized, one has to carefully sort out all the paper works required to obtain such as FSSAI license, VAT or Service Tax Number, Police Eating House License, Local Municipal Health License and Fire License.

The FSSAI or food license and VAT license are very important, without which one cannot open a restaurant, the other ones can be obtained after a couple of months or the date to get them can be pushed to few weeks.

4. Hiring the right people:

Hiring the right people is important, as all the work or in other words, the entire restaurant is going to run by them.

The chefs, who are going to cook, should be master in their work, because even chefs function as part of making your restaurant, a brand.

The service people, waiters and waitresses should be well behaved and smart to respond actively in tough situations and in handling customer related problems.

Accountant should be such that he would be able to take care of the financial expenses and manage the billing counter.

5. Marketing:

Last but not the least once you start setting up the restaurant; make sure to run the marketing campaign simultaneously.

Distribute the pamphlets in the localities nearby or slips to be attached in the newspaper along with the announcement of the grand opening, where some famous personality is going to inaugurate your restaurant.

Marketing in different online platforms as well as offline platforms should be made before hand.

The conecpt

Generally when people go to a dining place and ask themselves why they are here? There is no answer to it. AnnaMaya as a concept has all the answers to one’s query. Designed as a European food hall which is inspired by the vibrancy and flavours of India, it is one stop for every socially active customer and foodie. We were brainstorming and found that we want to inspire the socially conscious minds to true stories, artisanal products and experiential education because our motto is eat mindful, shop artisanal and raise awareness and this is how AnnaMaya came into existence.

Bringing Europe to India

India and Europe is very diverse in their own cooking. Whether we take Indian products and do it with western combinations of sauces or the dish so that it can get the flavouring of India or take European product and cook in may be Tandoor for eg: we are cooking duck in Tandoor which is generally not cooked liked this. Now, these combinations are where we try to connect both nations.

Healthy is the new green

We are doing lots of micro green products which is already very popular in western world though it was all Indian products which people used to be conscious about. Today, these products are a big hit in Europe and we are trying to bring that thing together to people here to enjoy. India has to look back to what they were doing. When I was doing this research for six months I was surprised to know that India has so much to do. People from outside know more about our ingredients than we Indians. I never used to eat Aloevera but here we are serving aloevera sandwich with western dressing of orange and micro greens along with aloevera and that’s how we are trying to connect this.

Getting the best ingredients delivered

It was quite a bit of hard work. We are trying to maintain the consistency because we have reached those end users. We are trying to make this more streamline for us. Now that farmers, community is very close to us there is very fine balance now. The hard work is not about finding the product but the hard work is about finding the right source of the product. We found the place of its origin. We travelled to Ranikhet, went to that house where it is made, Rajasthan for that matter. So, I am not talking to an agency who is supplying it but I am reaching to the personal end user going there myself looking at it and that’s how we do. We are so much restricted in Cosmo world that we do not want to go beyond boundaries of Delhi and the problem starts.

Introducing life to design

Design is a very food hall like place. Every section has a food, retail touch. There is an art which is done by Rajiv Sethi of seven different Indian flowers that is used in eating to bring out the eating values. If you see at the tables they are clutter free table as you feel at home, the service is designed in such a way that you are welcoming a guest at home.

Keeping ‘Value for money’ in mind

Pricing is done keeping in mind social responsibility. Retail is priced at the same price we buy those products or are priced 10-20 per cent high for the logistic charge. However, the menu design is done in such a way that the food ranges from anywhere between Rs 300 to Rs 800. Pricing is kept as a Standalone thought. We are not here to huge profits but to the society back.

Target customers

We are targeting people who are socially conscious and who have moved into health.