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Innovation gives perfection
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Beautiful brilliance
Spreading the love
’Nduja is a speciality celebrated throughout Calabria. Callipo-owned estate pork (meat and fat) is minced with Calabrian chilli peppers, salt and olive oil to form this spreadable, salami-like paste. Enjoy with seafood or use to add a fiery kick to braises, vegetable and legume dishes, or on crostini, pizza or pasta. sabato.co.nz
can’t help but be impressed by the innovation shown by many of our hospo businesses over the last few months. While there is no hiding the fact that times are tough for many, Kiwi ingenuity is undoubtedly being used to the max. The question is, ‘Will it be enough?’
The long overdue soul searching prompted by COVID-19 has revealed that we have been slack in dealing with issues that were significant millstones way before the virus came along.
Talk of skilled staff shortages, the need for new operating procedures, low wages and unbearable competition have been doing the rounds for as long as I have been associated with the industry, and that’s more than 40 years.
In August 2019, well before COVID-19, David Burton wrote an excellent exposé for Stuff in which some of New Zealand’s most visible and successful restaurateurs spoke of the compliance and regulatory issues the industry is facing.
Tony Adcock, this country’s foremost restaurant business adviser, will tell you that basic errors that were being made 30 years ago continue to be made today, and it is our failure to act on what we have long known that is the reason why the issues thrown up by the COVID-19 environment are so challenging.
More recently Sophie Gilmour’s deep dive into Kiwi hospitality culture in
The Spinoff delivered pure gold. Hers was a succinct analysis of some of the most telling symptoms. Issues around pricing, service, business models, profit levels and staff wages were well-traversed by Gilmour and her solutions around pricing are sensible.
Small comfort, I know, but it seems New Zealand is not alone. In May, Callan Boys writing in Australian publication Good Food listed “increasing labour, rent and food costs, restaurant oversupply, skilled staff undersupply” as critical factors in the parlous state of the Australian restaurant industry, together with the impact of costly delivery platforms.
Gabriel Hamilton, author and owner of Prune in Manhattan’s East Village, talks at length in a New York Times Magazine op ed about her business, how it came to be and the philosophy behind how she operates. She points out that for years she has been concerned about competition, ingredient costs, insurance and rent charges as well as managing rapidly changing customer expectations. Hamilton observes, “The coronavirus did not suddenly shine light on an unknown fragility. We’ve all known, and for a rather long time.”
COVID-19 has made it starkly clear there is only one choice left: we either make significant changes to the way we do business or risk collapse.
There are plenty in Aotearoa who have clearly got the message and are innovating in ways that, up until a few short months ago, were not considered an option.
Restaurants and cafés around the country who in the wake of COVID-19 adapted their kitchens to cope with takeaway menus have enjoyed an expanded customer base and have decided to maintain the takeout option. While it hasn’t worked for everyone, the home delivery alternative has also, for many businesses, proved a life preserver.
Businesses from north to south are looking at containing fixed costs such as electricity and gas, and many are renegotiating rent agreements with landlords. The outcome will determine for some if they stay or go.
Other more entrepreneurial developments include exploring retail such as delicatessens to offer products linked directly to the food style that diners enjoy in the restaurant. Others, realising home cooking has taken on new life, are working in that space offering at-home meal prep assistance or providing all that is needed to reproduce restaurantstyle meals from your own kitchen.
And, in a back-to-the-future epiphany, restaurateurs – realising that just like the old days drink is where the money is – are rethinking how they can squeeze greater profit from the alcohol part of the dining experience.
Menu design is coming in for a rethink with a trend towards fewer regular options and the greater use of specials boards to take account of produce availability and cost. The private dining option and the use of personal chefs are generating interest.
There are many more radical options in the offing, most of which
on how to tackle the crisis in hospitality
involve the greater use of technology and will lead to a fundamental shift in dining culture. For one insight, have a look in Australia’s Good Food publication at Adam Liaw’s forecast piece on fine dining in the future.
Structural changes, however, will not on their own overcome all challenges. This requires a complete mind-set change; for example, finding staff or ways to pay them. We need to reconsider the wisdom of opening huge central city restaurants with high staff demand. We have to find ways to build staff loyalty. This will require more caring than that shown in zero-hour contracts.
Lower rents will not drive diners through the doors. That will take a reassessment of the nature of the hospitality product being provided and how information about that is accurately targeted to the right market.
Our famous number 8 wire approach will provide some remedies. But to achieve the new order we seek we must canvas and include in our deliberations the needs and expectations of the customer. Ultimately their satisfaction has always been the future and is, essentially, what good old Kiwi hospitality is all about.