With the F&B market becoming increasingly cut throat as customers expect more bang for their buck, creating theatre in your restaurants could help ensure you stay ahead of the game

As F&B professionals get pumped up for the event of the month — Gulfood 2010 (February 21-24) — where sourcing new products and services, meeting suppliers and hunting down new trends is the mission, they have one overall objective — making money for their outlet/s. This means staying ahead of the game by ensuring their F&B concepts are innovative and tempting to both hotel guests and general consumers alike.

In order to stay competitive, F&B directors are being forced to be increasingly creative. No longer is it enough to serve good food and provide good service — interactive concepts and experiential dining are expected.

It’s what has become known as restaurant theatre and according to many F&B professionals, outlets across this region have become adept at putting on a show due to challenging market conditions.

According to Grand Millennium Dubai director of F&B Nils Fromm, the region is actually fairly advanced in this respect: “The Middle East, and especially Dubai, is in many ways more advanced in creating new concepts as the competition is fierce. The investors also look for new and exciting ways of creating a theatre in order to push revenues and ROI.”

But even though the Middle East F&B industry is “one of the fastest growing in the world”, it has a “long way to go” before it catches up with the likes of London and New York, which according to Hilton Dubai Creek director of restaurants Luca Gagliardi, have mastered the art of interactive dining and creating theatre.

Beat Enderli, executive chef at Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa, Oman, concurred but drew attention to Asian examples of theatre such as hawker stalls in Singapore, food courts in Thailand and food streets in Beijing. “In comparison, interactive cooking and dining is still not that common in the Middle East,” he added.

But Craig Cook, director of F&B at four upcoming Mövenpick properties in Dubai, said he believed the Middle East had “a great opportunity to innovate” and to “become a ‘blueprint’ for others”.

So, Hotelier set to work finding out the best way to liven up your outlets.

Why theatre?

Cook’s colleague Peter Drescher, VP culinary Middle East at Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, said theatre was important because these days, “diners don’t go to restaurants simply to eat — they want to be stimulated in some way and come away remembering the experience”.

Cook added: “I think first and foremost it is not about regurgitating what has been done before.

Entertainment in this day and age must be fresh and lively and should breathe new life into outlets.

“Interesting demonstrations, performers, technology or media walls from inside the kitchen and most importantly, music, are all key in providing the overall experience and showmanship.”

Guests are also eager to see and be part of the action according to Fairmont Bab Al Bahr executive chef John Cordeaux.

“Guests want to engage and be engaged more than ever,” he said. “It is important to offer theatre-style dining as guests have a better understanding of the work behind preparation and cooking processes.”

He said it was important to “break down barriers and create open spaces so that the energy and activity from the kitchen can merge with the guests in the dining room”.

Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi F&B director Dirk Bansemer agreed and said diners should be allowed to create parts of their meals themselves, while Al Bustan Palace’s director of F&B Rocco Bova said he would like to see a chef’s table inside the kitchen as well as singing waiters.