Price rise, the new spice!

Inflation has spurred chefs to be innovative and environment-friendly. In their bid to deal with rising food prices and labour costs, they are trying everything from re-engineering the menu to using smaller plates and working with local produce.

A while ago, when Chef Paul Kinny introduced the Bunny Chow Missal to his menu at St Regis, Mumbai, where he is the culinary director, it wasn’t just him giving a local dish an international spin, or towing the popular trend of being local-vocal of which he is an ardent advocate — it was also about cranking up the experience for his guest while being conscious of that pesky beast, inflation. Although inflation has been a nagging issue for the F&B space for ages, this time, it has proved to be a difficult dragon to tame thanks to rising costs and the heavy competition to present ‘good-looking’ ingredients. 

It has been a worry that has egged many chefs to rework not just their food board with fusion menus, but also peer at their backyard for inspiration and better produce to play with. As Chef Vikas Seth, Culinary Director, Embassy Leisure, says: “Not an easy play this!”

Simple tweaks work too

With a banquet of speciality restaurants including the award-winning Mexican food space called Sanchez, a bespoke club and an experiential catering unit among others, Chef Seth is a battle-hardened warrior in fighting inflation without letting it pinch the guest. “Tackling inflation ultimately boils down to how much risk the restaurant is willing to take. A tweak could be as simple as using onion skin to create a smokey effect in a dish, or procuring avocados locally,” he says. While procuring local versions of international imports does come with an added risk of wastage, says the chef, “it has helped in slashing the procurement cost while turning the on-the-table guacamole experience into a bestseller.”

Local with a vengeance

Foraging for local alternatives has proved to be a gold ace against the rising cost for many chefs including Vivek Rana, Executive Chef, JW Marriott Pune, who finds the switching to local alternatives “a worthy effort.”

“Leave aside the fact that such alternatives often prove to be an exciting challenge for the chefs, especially if it is a known classic you are playing with, going local often brings in quality produce, which itself can make a huge difference to not just the way you cook but the offering too,” says Chef Rana, who has been an avid advocate of mature cheese like Himalayan Timbur and Goat Cheese from Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Haryana and often rates them better than the Italian versions that get to our ports.

Interestingly, finding Indian alternatives has been the core philosophy of culinary anthropologist Chef Sabyasachi Gorai’s many restaurants across India. In the past decade, the slow food advocate has turned out to be a brand ambassador of hyperlocal ingredients and processed produce that range from cheese from Kalimpong to olives from Rajasthan and turmeric from Meghalaya and Odisha. The beauty, says the founder of Fabrica By Saby, “of playing local and hyperlocal is the economics: it is cheap, you get to work with the producers to ensure better quality and thus improve your final product.  Also, it adds the X factor, which ultimately matters the most.”

A fact endorsed by culinary alchemist Chef Sharad Dewan, Director, Gourmet Design Company, who finds a chef’s ability to play with local and hyperlocal ingredients a crucial factor for any establishment’s success story, even those in the business of catering like him. Says Chef Dewan, “Often it is the know-how of local and hyperlocal produce, technique and the ability to play with them that becomes an instant solution to battle the sudden spike in cost and unavailability of certain produce. It offsets the expense incurred on the essentials, especially with the recent clientele inclined towards plant-based menus.”

Delhi-based Chor Bizzare’s Head Chef Srini Vasulu, says it is as crucial to find local alternatives as it is to work closely with producers to get the right produce. At his celebrated Kashmiri restaurant, experiments range from inspired relishes using local fruits to using a blend of ingredients to match the ‘feel’ of an unavailable or expensive one. “We keep our guests informed always and we also show up samples of the greens and the meats we use.”

It is a practice that Chef Yogender Pal, Executive Chef, of Grand Hyatt Kochi, has put in place for a while now. “We go local as much as possible because it is part of our food philosophy. This gives us the necessary buffer to spend on certain key ingredients that often see a price spike due to seasonal changes. A good example is the kingfish that we have to buy even if the price doubles but we ensure that we use it from fin to tail!”

Changing ingredients, going local, and working the food board, however, is only one part of the game plan. Says Chef Gorai, “Inflation has become far more difficult to tackle today and it is tough to keep it away from the guest. Most prices have seen a sudden to permanent jump that makes it harder for restaurants, especially standalone outlets to tackle without making some kind of amends, be it in terms of presentation, portioning and in some cases even using labour-saving alternatives like purees and paste and resorting to bulk cooking.”

A re-inventing of recipes

While cooking in bulk has been traditionally the most effective way to offset the rising cost without it pinching the diners in hotels and restaurants, for Chef Sandeep Sadanandan of Byg Brewski, flexible recipes that work well with both fresh and single-processed food like purees have been the way out. Another aspect that has helped Chef Sandeep is the use of local greens, especially in salads, to lend an interesting twist.

Of course, effective replacements and outsourcing where needed have truly worked for him in the balancing act. “With a recent surge in oil prices, we replaced mayonnaise, an essential once, with fresh dips made with chenna, hung curd and produce. Our Salt Pepper Fish today is served with a tomato cumin dip that uses leftover trimmings like coriander roots.”

Cash from trash

Mainstreaming ‘cash from trash’ has been a work pattern with Chef Jerson Fernandes, Culinary Of Culinary, Novotel Mumbai Juhu, as well. And by trash, says Chef Jerson, “I do not just mean skin and roots but also the trimmings that can be used to create dishes to vow your guest.”

What helps the Goan specialist play the food game is his forte in traditional cuisine, especially Anglo-Indian, Goan and Maharashtrian which helps him bring out a new recipe off the hat with what is often considered trash. Paired with smart plating, “where portions are reworked for both food economics and visual appeal,” it becomes a win-win situation for all, he says. One aspect that has made this fruitful is the recent nutritional makeover of the menus, “which has made not just us chefs but diners more pragmatic about the overall dining experience.” Smart presentation is, in fact, an ace with consultant Chef Gaurrav Gidwani as well, who much like Chef Seth, prefers to work with fresh produce. “When it comes to local produce, I am still going to buy mine at a higher rate if the quality is good. That would ensure my yield; so I can use one tomato instead of two for my dishes and still give you the experience you expect with my food. Where I would work around is the way I present my food.”

Chef Gidwani, much like Chef Pal, uses AI and a waste audit system where food is weighed both from the kitchen and the diners to ascertain how to work their week and weekend systems. In fact, say the chefs, “This little add-on has helped cap the expenditure while keeping a buffer for uncertainties.”

Artisanal to the rescue

For Chef Dewan, this is achieved by outsourcing and constituting live stations, by which he can control food consumption. Outsourcing for sweets and dairy product-desserts is a standard practice in most cities like Bhubaneswar where establishments find collaborating with sweetmeat-makers to deliver them specialised products as a way to trade off the cost. Concurs Chef Seth: “The recent spurt of artisanal producers we have in both traditional and modern formats makes it easier to find quality ingredients and keep things sustainable at the same time. It allows the establishment to work on newer concepts like limited menus and specials.”

Training makes a big difference, adds Chef Gidwani. This proactiveness, along with the clever use of AI, has been the reason why chefs like Abhishek Gupta, Executive Chef, The Leela Ambience Gurugram and Chef Dewan have managed to keep the wastage to an outstanding below 30 per cent mark in a competitive market.

While there is no denying that battling inflation has been a work in progress, there are times when they have little choice but to pass the buck to the diners. The pandemic, says Chef Kinny, “was one such incident where the price took an easy 25 per cent jump in a matter of a few weeks and even while the industry recovered 75 per cent to pre-pandemic levels in the coming months, it was a burden that needed sharing.” And yet, says Chef Pal, “only three to five per cent was extended towards the diners given the price sensitive market we function in, the rest, like always, was shouldered by the brand.”

Chef Seth, who has increased his menu price twice in the last seven years, often finds a limited menu an effective alternate solution while Chef Sandeep still votes for bulk cooking. What has helped though, says Chef Jerson, “is the changing perception of diners, who are aware of the spike and won’t mind paying that much extra for a good experience.”