The S factor Talk Show Episode 13 held an impactful session on Recreating Magic in the Food Industry along with game-changers on Saturday July 31 at 4 pm IST.

Influencers Shekhar Vijayan and Sameera Fernandes hosted the event and the episode featured Selvaraju Ramaswamy, Executive chef Vivanta by Taj, Rajat Braganza, founder of LAMARA, Aslam Gafoor, general manager, Luxury dining- DINEOUT, Raunak Kundu, founder of Bangalore Foodies Club, and Vivek Vaid founder food advisors.

Speaking on the trends which is in vogue nowadays in the industry with the onset of the pandemic, Raunak Kundu said that the bigger brands who could weather the storm have successfully survived this and have been finding innovative ways to bring out their offerings. “Whether it is barbecue in a box, feast in a box, brunch in a box or ready to grill, there are a lot of offerings that bigger restaurants are coming up with,” he said.

In term of technology and the whole experience, dinning is not only about the food, explained Raunak. “When you go to a restaurant, you go to socialise and to experience the service and have a nice time,” he said. With the pandemic on the row, people are finding innovative ways to socialise over food like by having breakfast over zoom calls with other people. A lot of food aggregators, according to Raunak, are coming forward to provide a niche and a value proposition which is unique to others.

With the pandemic putting the food and beverage industry in a turmoil, Aslam Gafoor spoke about where the business stands at this point. “Dining out or dining in, which is the new trend, will always be evergreen and that is our basic need as social animals,” he said. Food is an emotion and when you are going out or eating at home, you are fulfilling some need but most often we are celebrating something and so come what may of the troubled times that we go through, the business of food will always be there, he said.

He said that even if the pandemic was not there, the industry has gone through many setbacks. Restaurants had to go through hard times during the recession, demonetization and even the liquor ban but no one could predict what we went through in the last one and half years, he said.

“The paramount thing which is needed for the revival of the industry is to show that the food is safely made and the cuisine is something unique,” Aslam said. He went onto say that there should be proper communication between the customers and the restaurants. Cost is going to be controlled but technology is going to play an important role in the way business is done in the F&B world, he added.

One of the things that the pandemic had taught us is to cherish each moment and today we cannot simply call a friend and ask to dine out without thinking twice whether it’s safe to step out, Aslam said. This freedom which is gone is what we should try to bring back to dinning, he added.

“It’s not just one remedy of a discount but rather a collective approach of incentivizing the customer and showing them what the restaurant is doing and showing that it is a safe place to dine out,” Aslam said.

Explaining about food advising during the pandemic, Vivek Vaid said, “Engagement here is trying to get people to get back to the restaurant and make them trust in them again.” Everyone is looking for the magic portion for the industry to survive, but it’s going to take some time.

There was a time when food used to attract customers but now its safety, which is primarily how safe the environment is. “It is scary trying to get the people to trust in a restaurant again. We are working overtime to help chefs and restaurants to survive,” he said.

Speaking on the core of survival of the industry today, Vivek said, “I have been telling restaurants to keep a database. 80% of their business is going to come from 20% of their customers. Today I can’t get any new customers to get into my restaurant but at least the old customers will come back to me.”

Adding to what Vivek said about databases, Raunak said that the food aggregates are doing a bigger disservice to the industry than helping it by accumulating customer databases. “The aggregates are seeing the trend and putting their money more of where the orders are coming from. But this lacks diversity,” he said. A direct customer model of communication is needed in house and that’s when you survive, he added.

Agreeing to the above made comments, Rajat Braganza said, “Aggregators have removed the interpersonal relationships between brands and their customers.” For a long-term success, a direct to customer model is required, he said.

Explaining that there has been some light at the end of the tunnel, Rajat said, “I have been someone who worked a lot in the online food space and for a lot of online brands, there has been quite a lot of optimism even when the pandemic had started.” He said that it gave a lot of new brands an opportunity to come out of their shells and try and start new things.

When asked about the secret success behind everything, Selvaraju Ramaswamy said, “I learned each and everything from my chef mentor at a very tender age. Then step by step I worked and even got opportunities to work with top chefs all over the world and even studied at Culinary Institute of America for some time. All my success is a result of working together with various chefs.”

Answering a question of the customer relationship building with respect to apps like Zomato and Swiggy, Vivek said, “You can outsource delivery because it’s not personalised and there is no relationship with the customer but you cannot outsource the experience. The food is the relationship with the chef and somebody else cannot speak about it.”

“Customers are very dear to restaurants and I don’t think we are at a stage where we can trust aggregators with our customer building. The aggregates job is not to open competitive brands but to support restaurants,” said Rajat.

Further answering the above-mentioned question, Raunak took the example of Dominos food chain. “Today Dominos Pizza has 60 to 70 percent of their delivery through their own channel whereas all the other aggregators put together are 30 percent. They pay the least commission to Zomato and Swiggy and the reason is that they know that Dominos can survive without them. They have a very mechanised process and a standardised menu but still they maintained their relationship with the customers which gives them that margin.”