Simple versus gourmet

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Caterer investigates the region's latest dining trends as consumers demand less fuss, more flavour and better value when it comes to eating out.

With the saturation of quick-service restaurants and glitzy gourmet food and beverage outlets on offer in Dubai, new trends indicate that consumers are now favouring a "smart/casual" dining concept according to the Middle East's catering professionals.

The smart/casual dining sector has experienced global growth in the last year - especially in the Middle East with the help of the booming franchise market, explains Stephen Grey, general manager and head taster of The Taste Department.

"Consumer preferences are shifting from quick-service restaurants to a more casual experience rapidly.

"Customers want quality, healthy, organic, trans-fat-free, freshly prepared food with strong flavours, served in an outlet with a good ambience."

Other essential prerequisites for today's diners include innovative and flexible menu options with affordable prices says Grey.

To meet these needs, new brands are opening up across the region to cater to the demands of the continued influx of tourists and the expanding population explains Zaatar w Zeit brand manager Mahmoud Hard.

"We expect more competition and more casual dining restaurants to open to fulfill the high market demand."

This marked change in dining habits is partly due to the increase in health-conscious consumers comments Emirates Marina Hotel executive chef Chris Baker.

"Now the summer has arrived, people are starting to eat more healthily and they want to see this on the plate."

"Simple, homely and flavoursome food is what people really want."

The impact of rising food costs - especially with the recent rationing of rice - is also driving this trend according to Grey.

"Casual dining outlets are being forced to work more closely with their suppliers, which is enabling them to fix prices and get the supply chain to work for them."

Although increasing food costs are a constant concern, chefs suggest that Dubai's disposable income bracket is big enough to absorb recent price rises.

"Consumer demand works in harmony with the wallet, and with the extent of the average consumer's disposable income, we're not greatly affected by the food costs at the moment," says Baker.

With this in mind, chefs agree that it is consumer demand that is driving the smart/casual trend, rather than the increased cost of raw materials.

"Using the best products is very important to be true to the customer and the cuisine.

"Sometimes we cannot source alternatives and have to use expensive European products, which does incur some cost increases although customers are more concerned about quality and innovation," explains Park Hyatt Dubai executive sous chef Massimiliano Valenzi.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Too Simple
Posted by Tess, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 13 July 2008 at 16:42 UAE time


I was surprised and not a little dismayed to read your comments in the July edition of Caterer regarding gourmet cuisine.
I would like to point out that not everybody approaches food as a functional necessity. I have been a resident in the UAE for more than three years now and eating out — lavishly — is one of the great pleasures that I associate with Dubai.
For myself, and for many of my colleagues, good food is a reward for the hard work we put in during the week. What is the point in striving to succeed if you cannot reward yourself with your favourite indulgencies, which for many of us means food!
I believe that Dubai has done a great deal to raise the bar in recent years in terms of luxury dining and I for one say well done.
When I dine out, I want the most opulent, extravagant and elaborately-presented taste sensations that Dubai can provide. Otherwise I might as well have stayed in England and eaten baked beans on toast every night.
The purpose of a restaurant is to provide us with something most people can’t cook for themselves at home — that’s what we pay the often extortionate prices for.
I think that a chef that cooks “simple, home-style dishes just like mamma used to make” has absolutely no place in the kitchen of a restaurant in a five-star hotel. It’s lazy, unimaginative and a disappointment to most discerning customers.
I’m sorry, but everyone knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and a plain and boring dish would simply not win my heart.

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