Photogenic food plate, and other factors eat into buffet market

A cocktail of factors – photogenic food, emergence of specialty standalone restaurants, social media craze, price increase, health consciousness, food wastage, non-availability of talent for bulk cooking, and other aspects have made hotels and restaurants witness their ala carte menu orders eating into the buffet business.

In addition, with people increasingly placing orders on platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, buffet takes a hit. People do not order buffet on these platforms.

And its the survival of the fittest in the marketplace, hoteliers and industry experts say.

“The market is seeing a lot of new concepts by new outlets. The market is also getting knowledgeable. Arabic, Korean, Pan Asian cuisine has caught up. In the bargain, the buffet is on the downslide,” Yangya Prakash Chandran, Founder and CEO, Crossway Hotels & Resorts said.

Sitting in the Cappella, restaurant inside the 23 room luxury boutique property The Palomar by Crossway on the East Coast Road in Chennai Chandran added, specially crafted cocktails have come into the market along with an increase in restobars.

Crossway Hotels and Resorts is a hotel management company managing a couple of properties now and in discussions with several property owners.

Another hotelier not wanting to be quoted said: “Factors like food wastage, consistency of quality whenever mass production is done, manpower shortage – food production and service- fluctuating volumes throughout the week and for the day are other reasons.”

“Comparatively buffet is going down now. Lot of fine dining restaurants are coming up. Attractive food presentation is possible only in the case of A la carte menu. People like what is appealing more to their eyes. People like to try a lot of new dishes which are the first feast for their eyes,” Revathi, Director, UGO Hospitality.

Continuing further Revathi said, star hotels have their own speciality restaurants. The focus is on overall food and beverage. They have a buffet offering. They cannot avoid that. But the buffet volume has come down.

Many hotels now open their buffet counters only if they have a confirmed reservation for 20 plates or above so that food wastage is avoided, an hotelier said.

According to several star hotel Executive Chefs, food has to be photogenic so that the guests can snap a picture and post it on their social media accounts.

“Earlier it is said food is first consumed by human eyes. Now after human eyes, mobile phones consume food. Guests first take a snap of the food plate to post it in their social media accounts and then start eating. So attractive plating is possible only in the case of A la carte menu items and not possible in the case of buffet containers,” Assin Sherif, Hotel Manager, Four Points by Chennai Sheraton OMR.

Similarly, standalone fine dining outlets have the freedom to change their interiors as well as their menu at regular intervals to attract and retain guests. On the other hand, star hotels have their restrictions, Sherif added.

Incidentally it was at the Four Points by Sheraton Chennai OMR the 2022 Chess Olympiad was held.

According to Sherif, buffet demand is good only on the weekends as the property is located away from Chennai.

Upward price revision by many properties have impacted the demand for buffet as people look at the quantity of food consumed and the price of buffet versus A la carte menu.

Now a buffet is available for a price ranging between Rs.1,500 to Rs.3,000.

“In terms of the final price that a guest pays, there is not much of a difference between buffet and ala carte menu. In the case of service, food plating and others, A la carte orders wins hands down,” Narayanamurthi Veerasamy, Executive Chef at the 187 rooms five star Feathers Hotel said.

Veerasamy said people have become health conscious and are looking at apt portion sizes so they go for an A la carte menu instead of buffet. They also do not want to waste food.

“Freshness, plating, convenience, cost, service are the reasons for people going in for the A la carte menu,” Veerasamy said.

Has this trend affected the food festivals at the hotels?

In the case of special food festivals hotels go in for buffet or set menu format“Special food festivals continue to be there. And marketing plays an important role for the success of food festivals.  Recently we did two festivals and our Sangamithirai restaurant got fully packed,” Veerasamy said.

On his part, Four Points by Sheraton Chennai OMR’s Sherif said the property will hold the Global Street Food Festival next quarter where street food from 20 different countries will be served.

Earlier star hotels had marketing officials to sell their rooms and banquets. Now with increased competition from standalone fine dining outlets, they have added one more person to market their food and beverages, hoteliers said.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com)