R&C April 2012

Restaurant

<How smartphones have killed loyalty cards, page 28 <The rise and rise of the Dude Food, page 25 <How to manage consumer reviews, page 19<See Heston

live! page 8 <Sherry for people who don't wear cardigans, page 30

Brothers Peter and Michael Harrington reveal how they

turned Sage restaurant around

Wisdom from Ros Harvey of The Grand hotel, Richmond:“I work on my business not in my business, and as a result, I have the perfect life”

Official Journal of

Restaurant & Catering

Catering april 2012 $6.95 GST incl.

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Sage advice

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In this issue ...Upfront

6 From the AssociationJohn Hart on the modern award, and Brien Trippas asks why no-one in Canberra will listen…

8 News and events Heston arrives; an award for OzHarvest founder; online habits; and more...

Wisdom19 Anti-social mdia

Can your restaurant’s reputation be managed online in a world of food bloggers and reader reviews?

22 What I’ve learntRos Harvey of The Grand hotel talks about working on, not in, her business

25 Dude foodDude Food: is the business opportunity as appetising as the food itself?

Stuff28 A different loyalty

In a move that is great for restaurants and bad for printers, smartphones are taking over loyalty cards

30 Organic growthPeople wearing cardigans, rejoice! Sherry is back in fashion

32 The business of breakfast Why the most important meal of the day can also be your most profitable

35 New productsThe latest and greatest stuff

36 Coffee Product GuideInformation on the best coffee for your business is right here

38 Kitchen Equipment Guide The best gear for your kitchen

42 Design Architect Adam Dettrick produced the third interpretation of Melbourne’s Spanish-inspired MoVida restaurants

Contents

April 2012 $6.95 GST incl.

Family tiesBrothers Peter and Michael Harrington are changing the Canberra dining scene with their winning moves at Sage.

Cover Story14

RESTAURANT & CATERING 5

6 RESTAURANT & CATERING

Restaurant & Catering magazine is published under licence on behalf of Restaurant & Catering by Engage Custom Media, Suite 4.08, The Cooperage, 56 Bowman Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009 www.engagemedia.com.au

Editorial Director: Rob Johnson Creative Director: Tim Donnellan Sub-editor: Kerryn RamsayContributors: Sharon Aris, Nicole Azzopardi, John Burfitt, Ben Canaider, Kellie Morle, Kerryn Ramsey, Danielle Veldre

Commercial Director: Mark Brown Sales Director: Cameron Boon Direct: (02) 9660 6995 ext 502Fax: (02) 9518 5600Mobile: 0416 205 965Email: [email protected]

For all editorial, subscription and advertising enquiries, ph: 1300 722 878Print Post approved PP: 2255003/06505, ISSN 1442-9942

©2012 Engage Custom Media. Views expressed in Restaurant & Catering magazine are not necessarily those of Restaurant & Catering or that of the publisher, editor or Engage Custom Media.

Printed by Bright Print Group

The Association has lodged a submission to vary the modern award and has asked for three key changes. Firstly, to penalty rates shifting Saturday penalties to the sixth day of work and Sunday penalties to the seventh day of work. This would end the discrimination against

businesses that operate on the weekends but provide staff time off on other days of the week.

The second is that the variation calls for caterers to be brought into the restaurant award. Finally, the Association is calling for a minimum rate for small business within the award that is equivalent to the minimum wage at all classification levels. This would recognise that small business needs to have more flexibility to make over-award payments for high performing staff. In the coming months R&C will be asking for your assistance in providing evidence to support these changes. Please let us know if you are prepared to provide examples from your business. The timeline for the review of the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 will be announced in the coming month or so. This is when the real battle will begin. To keep up to date with the campaign go to our website at www.newrestaurantaward.com.

John Hart CEO, Restaurant & Catering

Restaurant & Catering Restaurant & Catering’s mission: To lead and represent the Australian restaurant and catering industry.

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The battle beginsThings are hotting up in our campaign to amend the modern award for the restaurant industry

from the Association

7,661 - CAB Audited as at September, 2011


Restaurant & Catering AustraliaSuite 17, 401 Pacific highway, Artarmon NSW 20641300 RCAuST (722 878) Ph: (02) 9966 0055. Fax: 1300 722 396,Web: www.restaurantcater.asn.auRestaurant Guide: www.restaurant.org.auCaterers Guide: www.caterer.org.auEmail: [email protected]

President: Brien Trippas (NSW)Senior Vice President: Kevin Gulliver (QlD)Junior Vice President: Terry Soukoulis (SA)Treasurer: Richard harper (VIC)Chief Executive Officer: John hartR&C is a federation of the following associations, working together on national issues on behalf of their members.

Restaurant & Catering NSWPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (02) 1300 722 396Email: [email protected]: Ian Martin

Restaurant & Catering QLDPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (07) 3252 7554Email: [email protected]: Con Castrisos

Restaurant & Catering ACTPh: 1300 722 878. . Fax: (02) 9211 3800Email: [email protected]: Fiona Wright

Restaurant & Catering SAPh: 8351 7837. Fax: (08) 8351 7839Email: [email protected]: Cath KerryChief Executive officer: Sally Neville

Restaurant & Catering TasPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (03) 6224 7988Email: [email protected]: Phil CaponGeneral Manager: Steve old

Restaurant & Catering VicPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (03) 9654 5286Email: [email protected]: Matteo Pignatelli

Restaurant & Catering WAPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (08) 9328 7366Email: [email protected]: Warwick lavis


Wrapped in red tapeWe tell the government about the reality of running a business, but few seem to be listening

I really do feel for the small operators in our industry that are doing the right thing and complying with all of the regulations that government lays upon us. I know we find it hard in my business, and we have a reasonable scale to make it work. There is very little empathy, particularly from the

Federal Government, for small business. Even those with some interest in small business do not understand what it is to live through the pain they induce. My fear is that the level of pain is such that small businesses will opt out of compliance. This makes it harder for those doing the right thing to compete.

Restaurant & Catering has tried to get parliamentarians to appreciate what it is like to own and operate a restaurant. At the recent lifetime Achievers event, once again, operators stood up and told their tales of woe to the assembled MPs and Senators. Some got it. Some looked bored.

If cost pressures continue, many will have no choice but to opt out. This will force all of our businesses into a downward spiral of non-compliance. The upcoming hearings on the ‘modern’ award should provide yet another avenue to have the real life examples from our industry heard in the public domain. lets hope someone is listening!

Brien TrippasPresident, Restaurant & Catering


ALSCO • AON • APRA • Bartercard • H&L Australia • OAMPS • Vittoria Coffee

American Express International • Bidvest • Westpac Banking Corporation

Australian Mangoes • Coca-Cola Amatil • Goodman Fielder Food Services • Lion • Meat & Livestock Australia • Treasury Wine Estates

Diamond partner:

HOSTPLUS

Heston Blumenthal returns to Australia in 2012 for his first national tour of exclusive, ‘one night only’ events, live on stage in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. This enthralling evening will focus on Heston’s unique

philosophy and approach to cooking, exploring taste and flavour, and his passion for the multi-sensory experience of eating and drinking. With special guests, the chef of the three Michelin starred Fat Duck Restau-rant in the UK and star of Heston’s Feasts and the Mission Impossible TV series will conduct live scientific experiments and cook recipes from his latest book, Heston Blumenthal at Home. Heston will open people’s minds to new paradigms and new ways to approach cooking.

Heston will take us on a journey from humble beginnings to the creation of iconic dishes such as The Sound of the Sea with edible sand, logic defying Hot and Iced Tea, his famous Snail Porridge and the epic Mock Turtle Soup that takes three days to make.

Get the inside story on Heston’s incredibly moist Christmas puddings with a candied Valencia orange inside which were so popular they sold out in the UK’s Waitrose supermarkets in moments with bidding wars on ebay. As it cooks, the essential oils from the orange peel infuse the pudding from the inside out. Now Heston has created a minced pie that promises to make the house smell like a Christmas tree.

Join Heston on a journey searching the archives at Hampton Court for

historic British recipes which inspired the creation of new dishes for Din-ner by Heston Blumenthal in Knightsbridge, which has just been awarded its first Michelin star after only nine months in operation.

Catch Heston on 1 May in Sydney; 4 May in Brisbane; 8 & 9 May in Melbourne; 11 May in Adelaide; and 15 May in Perth.

There is only one Heston. Book now at www.hestonlive.com.au.

The UK’s leading chef returns in his first national Australian tour

A feast of Heston

News&events

Ronni Kahn gets awardRonni Kahn, CEO and founder of OzHarvest, has been awarded the prestigious Veuve Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development award. Based on the World Bank and United Nations criteria, this Award identifies exceptional women who live and work in Africa, Asia and South America, and who have demonstrated the qualities of audacity and boldness to influence the economic development of their country. Corporate Social Responsibility has been the one most significant criterion for the selection of these awardees.

The entries were judged by an esteemed panel of judges, with the final selection being made by the international network of Veuve Clicquot Award winners, who selected one winner from each continent.

In 2004, Kahn set up the food rescue charity OzHarvest which now delivers over 340,000 meals each month to people in need across the country. The charity has since delivered over 11 mil-lion meals and for her significant contribution to society, Kahn was awarded Australia's Local Hero of the Year in 2010. Kahn will join a group of exceptional women at the International Busi-ness Women's Forum held in Reims, France during October this year, alongside the global winners.


Heston Blumenthal is returning to Australia next month.

Crown Casino switched and savedMore and more establishments, large and small are switching to Tork hygiene solutions and making substantial savings.

“ Straight away we started seeing savings as people only take one napkin at a time...,” said Sreekanth Sarikonda, Staff Restaurant Manager, Crown Casino, Melbourne, when they switched to Tork Xpressnap.

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* Sign up for 20 or more dispensers with Tork Advantage for free dispensers, with free installation. Complete terms and conditions can be found on the website. Use the QR code or visit tork.com.au/foodserviceRCM for more details. © March 2012 SCA Hygiene Australasia Pty Limited Tork® is a Registered Trademark of SCA iezziG153

News&events

Hospitality industry slow to adopt e-commerceA survey of the Australian hospitality industry shows that although the boom of online, e-commerce and digital media are well on their way to being powerful business strategies, the hospitality industry is still wary of online business and ecommerce.

The survey of more than 850 businesses highlighted that almost a third of the respondents don’t have a website for their business and more than 52 per cent do not feel the need to buy or sell any products or services online. The survey, however, did show an increase in interest toward the utilisation of online marketing. Although more than half of those surveyed do not use the internet to buy or sell, 82 per cent stated they would begin to engage in online buying and/or selling in the future.

Additionally, while 85 per cent of business owners surveyed believe that a website is important for their business, a quarter of them do not believe their customers find them online. Furthermore, more than one fifth of business owners in the hospitality industry believe they are unaf-fected by the internet and mobile commerce.

The survey was conducted by online directory GoHospitality.com. Account manager Kylie Tabrett said, “Although there is indication of attitude changing towards the internet and digital strategies in the

hospitality industry, there is still very little action going on. Although the internet is the preferred source of information for the hospitality industry, their actions just aren’t matching their needs. In addition to leveraging the internet to source products for their business, it seems the hospitality industry is yet to realise the real potential of it as a tool to future-proof their business and build on the engagement and loyalty of each customer. Otherwise a discount will trump quality every time.”

Your customers love it, so why aren't you selling online?

19–20 JUNE 2012 MELBOURNE EXHIBITION CENTRE

REGISTER TO VISITCLUBSANDHOTELS.COM.AU/REGISTERSCAN TO REGISTER



FOOD lovers love Red LanternXYZnetworks’ LifeStyle FOOD Channel has announced the results of the I Love FOOD Awards 2012. With over 134,000 votes received, it has been the biggest awards to date. The overall national I Love FOOD Awards 2012 Favourite Restaurant is Red Lantern in Surry Hills, New South Wales, which also won Favourite Vietnamese Restaurant, for the second time running.

“There was a genuine international flavor to this year’s results, with Vietnamese, Mexican and Italian being the three most hotly contested categories,” said Karen Goldhawk, marketing director, LifeStyle Channels. “Winning restaurants came from all parts of Australia, many true local favourites. We couldn’t be happier with the results, and congratulate all of this year’s winners. Aussies love to eat out, and these awards are a wonderful opportunity for hidden culinary gems to rise to the top. With a record number of votes, the awards offer a true insight into where and how Australians are eating out.”

For all of the I LOVE FOOD Awards 2012 results, go online to www.lifestyle.com.au/food.

Baristas line up to competeNow in its 10th year, the Danes Grand Barista Champi-onships (DGBC) will continue to challenge baristas across the country in 2012, with finals being held in Sydney in August at the Specialty Food and Drink Fair. The winner will be flown to HOFOX in Hong Kong to compete in the 2013 DGBC Australasian final.

The first round of heats in Melbourne last month at Mad-Cap Café in Fountain Gate attracted a lot of competition with over a dozen people taking up the challenge. Andrew Page from Coffee Hit cafe in Hawthorn was named the Victorian Grand Barista Champion winning $2000 prize money and a trip to Sydney to compete in the na-tional finals. Sydney baristas

will have to wait until later in the year, with heats to be held at Danes head office on Wednesday 22nd August and Thursday 23rd August.

Baristas in the competi-tion will have just 10 minutes to create their repertoire of coffees. They will be judged by a panel of industry experts on the criteria of taste evalua-tion, beverage presentation, barista technique, personal presentation and service to judges. The Australian finals will be held at the Specialty Food and Drink Fair in Sydney on Monday 27th August, with the Australasian Final held the next day. Winner of the Aus-tralian Danes Grand Barista Championship will be flown to HOFEX in Hong Kong in 2013 to represent Australia.

Food trucks hit SydneyA fleet of 10 food trucks has been chosen to deliver on something Sydney-siders told the City of Sydney council they want—more quality food at all hours. Sydney's 10 successful food-truck operators will serve up exciting new food options including modern Australian from a former Tetsuya’s sous chef, steamed yum cha, and vegie burgers from a truck shaped like a barn—complete with the herb garden on the roof.

More than 30 hopeful operators lodged applications when the City sought expressions of interest last year, following extensive consultation on the city’s night-time economy. The hopefuls went through a rigorous testing process that included looking at their business plans and back-ground, and compliance with health and waste management codes.

The last step was a taste test, where contenders had an hour to cook meals from their proposed truck menu and were judged on the taste, their overall concept and their complete menu.

The operators can now fit out their trucks, which will start to hit the streets in coming weeks.

Opening hours will depend on the location and when existing restau-rants and cafes close. A smartphone app being developed by the City of Sydney will soon provide a real-time map, links to food truck menus and other details.

Mark Jensen of Red Lantern, winner of the I Love FOOD Awards 2012

April —May 2012

Masterchef winner and Orange local, Kate Bracks, shows off her talents at F.O.O.D Week in Orange, NSW, on April 13-22.

orangefoodweek.com.au

what’s on

18The month-long judging of the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show is

followed by today’s awards lunch. sydneyroyal.com.au/finefood

Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence kicks off with the WA regional

winners announced at Margaret River. More announcements from

June on. restaurantcater.asn.au

1716To all Thai restaurants owners and staff–happy Songkran (Thai New

Year) on April 13-15. May your restaurants be full for the entire

celebration!

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Cold ale and that famous crunchy biscuit are popular treats during

ANZAC Day.

25Regional food, Clare Valley wines

and cool jazz are highlights at Rhynie’s A Taste of Good

Things event in South Australia. southaustralia.com

22Twenty wineries join forces

with local caterers in Mudgee, NSW, to produce tonight’s

Go Grazing event—a two-course gastronomic delight.

mudgeewine.com.au

21A Consumer Trends & Food

Technologies Forum is on offer at the Food & Hotel Asia exhibition

in Singapore on April 17-20. foodnhotelasia.com

19

No vegging out at California’s Asparagus Festival—try the

Asparazone rides, Spear-It run and the Canstruction sculpture. On

April 27-29. asparagusfest.com

29Creative thinking at wineries

this weekend with The Gum Ball music fest in the Hunter Valley

(thegumball.com.au), and Vintage & Classic car event in McLaren Vale

(vintageandclassic.com.au).

28To celebrate the 15th anniversary

of Singapore’s World Gourmet Summit, Australia’s Dietmar Sawyere presents the gala dinner. On April 25-May 8; worldgourmetsummit.com

27Adelaide’s Tasting Australia kicks off tonight and continues until

May 3; tasting-australia.com.au

26

Oodles of products and services are on display at the the

Hospitality Expo and Conference WA in Perth on May 1-2.

ahawa.asn.au

‘How to feed the planet in the future’ is the key theme at the

World Association of Chefs Societies’ congress in Korea on

May 1-5. wacs2012.org

2 3Heston Blumenthal’s 2012

Australian tour kicks off in Sydney tonight; then to Brisbane on May 4; Melbourne May 8-9; Adelaide

May 11 and Perth May 15; hestonlive.com.au

May 1Go Aussie restaurateurs go! The S.Pellegrino World’s 50

Best Restaurants Awards are announced in London.

theworlds50best.com

30

Meat-and-greet in Qld’s Rockhampton during Beef

Australia on May 7-12 with cattle judging, the Big Beef BBQ and

cooking demos.beefaustralia.com.au

8Bill Clinton has a mission—tackling childhood obesity. Discover his solutions at the

National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago on May 5-8.

restaurant.org/show

7Bidding is fierce at the Grampians Winemakers’ shiraz auction—all

part of the Grampian Grape Escape in Victoria on May 5-6.

grampiansgrapeescape.com.au

6More than 75,000 patrons can

sample tasty treats at The Uniquely Tasmanian Wine & Food Centre at Launceston’s Agfest on May 3-5.

agfest.com.au

5Baristas, roasters and latte

artists are brewing up a storm at the Melbourne International

Coffee Expo on May 4-6. internationalcoffeeexpo.com

4

Must-have gadgets can improve your business—see the latest at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association Expo in

Sydney on May 9-11. cedia.com.au

Searching for the tastiest vegies in the nation? Check out

the winners at the Ausveg Awards for Excellence in Hobart.

ausveg.com.au/convention

Make sure there’s plenty of chilled champagne on hand; it’s one of the busiest days of the year—

Mother’s Day.

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South Korea shows off its selection of quality meat and

wine products at the Seoul Food & Hotel exhibition on May 8-11.

seoulfoodnhotel.co.kr

10If there’s too much heat in the kitchen, check out the latest

air-conditioning and refrigeration systems at ARBS 2012 in Melbourne on May 7-9.

arbs.com.au

9

The Harvest Celebration in Victoria’s Beechworth offers ‘A Feast of the North East’, where

blackboard specials display local produce. On May 13-15;

harvestcelebration.com.au

If your interior is a little drab, check out the latest design

trends at the Hotel Hospitality & Design exhibition on May 14-16.

hhdexpo.com.au

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here’s a memory from Peter Harrington’s childhood of growing up with restaurateur parents he says provides a complete circle to his present role as owner of Canberra’s Sage. “My earliest memory of being in a restaurant is sitting on the kitchen bench in Mum and Dad’s restaurant and peering out the door into the front of house, but being told, ‘You can’t go out there—that is where the customers are’,” he recalls. “There was always that sense of intrigue of what was going on out there.

“I never guessed I would become the guy looking out the door, and being in charge of the top restaurant in Can-berra. It’s a good feeling.”

With a laugh, Peter, 33, adds, “The other memory about our upbringing was being at pre-school and asked what my favourite food was. Everyone else replied hot dogs and hamburgers. My response was sautéed calamari in hol-landaise sauce. I wasn’t being smart—that was the world that was ingrained in us from the beginning.”

The ‘us’ Peter refers to is his brother Michael, who is also his business part-ner in Sage, the winner of the 2011 Restaurant & Catering ACT Restaurant of the Year. The brothers are the sons of noted Canberran restaurateurs Sue and John Harrington.

“We have been working in family kitchens since we were kids, and I was kitchen hand for Mum when I was a kid, after school and on Sundays—that was where I cut my teeth in hospitality,” Michael, 32, recalls.

“It was the logical thing for us to go into. The essential is passion. This game is a labor of love, more than anything.”

Peter adds, “And what Mum instilled in us is you have to be hard working, do what you do really well, don’t cut corners and always follow your vision.”


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Brothers Peter and Michael Harrington are changing the Canberra dining scene with their winning moves at Sage. These sons of the national capital claim their ideas are from a lifetime of learning on the job. By John Burfitt

Familyties

The Harrington brothers obviously learned their lessons well as Sage is making a distinc-tive mark on the Canberra dining scene. The restaurant in the historic gorman House Arts Centre in Braddon has also won such acco-lades as Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering ACT European Restaurant of the Year, Austra-lian Gourmet Traveller Top 10 ACT Restaurant and was listed in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 and 2011.

Peter began as the manager of Sage in 2008. “At that time, we were lucky to be seating 100 people a week,” he recalls, before adding that they now play host weekly to

about 600 customers. He bought the business in october 2009, and six months later, Michael joined the team.

Peter began his career at such Sydney es-tablishments as the Park Hyatt and Belmondo before joining forces with Michael and their father John to open Pangaea cafe in Canberra’s fashionable Manuka in 2004.

Two years later, Peter headed west to join Perth’s Star Anise, and then took a change of pace to work in the laundry of an oil drilling ship off the coast of Broome. “Along the way, I also worked in security, as a fishing guide and

removed asbestos,” he adds. Michael, mean-while, started at Sydney’s Level 41, before moving to Aria and Tetsuya’s, before returning home to work at Pangaea. Three years later when Peter bought Sage, Michael moved over to complete the team.

Both agree that being so close as brothers, they are destined to clash occasionally as business partners. But it seems the pragmatic approach of ‘business first’ always applies in the professional relationship.

Peter believes theirs is a case of their differ-ent personalities complementing each other. “Michael keeps me grounded—I am the vision-ary and idealist, and he is the rock and the realist,” Peter says. “So we balance each other well. But we share the vision and do what it takes to make it happen.”

Peter was making plans for Sage from the day he began as manager almost four years ago. That first day on the job was so bad, how-ever, he went home thinking about how he would resign. He was then struck by a moment of clarity, which changed their ultimate course.


cover story

One of the elements in the success of Sage was renovating to extend into the courtyard (above) and hiring French chef Clement Chauvin (right).

“Michael keeps me grounded— I am the visionary and idealist, and he is the rock and the realist. So we balance each other well. But we share the vision and do what it takes to make it happen.”Peter Harrington, Sage, Canberra


“After one night, it was not for me. We did six people and it was going downhill backward,” he recalls. “Then something just clicked. I actually realised this could be a great opportu-nity to turn this business around.

“So the next day, I organised a meeting with the entire team and we got out pens and paper and listed all the things not working and what needed to be fixed. Then we listed all the ways we wanted the place to work. So we picked it apart, put it back together and put a new plan up on the office wall. That breathed some life into it and things started to pick up.”

But not enough, it seems, as the business still was not profitable. Months later when Peter was asked if he wanted to buy Sage, with more drive in mind than dollars in the bank, he agreed. “It was a risk as it was not making money, and this was a small place and in an out of the way location,” he says. “But I kept wondering what I could do with the place to turn it around. It was then I discovered that while we were doing about 100 people a week, we were actually licensed for 200. We had this huge outside courtyard and doing nothing with it.”

Peter also lodged plans changing the restaurant from a room that could house 40, to a multi-purpose indoor-outdoor estab-lishment that could play host to a variety of purposes.

“The Heritage Council gave approval to knock out the front wall and build a deck, so we are now nearly double the size,” he says. “Then I turned the rest of the courtyard into a garden bar,

and we finally had the opportunity to turn this into a drinking and dining hub for Canberra.

“As soon as that happened, the energy changed and every-thing that happened with the business changed. The plans were not a pipedream and we showed we could make it work.”

Michael says there have been other significant additions to the business in the past 18 months that have taken Sage to a new level. In late 2010, French chef Clement Chauvin joined the team, bringing experience from his time at the Michelin-starred Maison Pic and nicolas La Bec in France, as well as Claridges in London.

“When he joined us, we told him we would get ACT restau-rant of the year—and we did that,” Michael adds.

“I love Canberra and know it has a lot to offer as it is almost a country lifestyle with the benefits of a city. In terms of the restaurant game, that gives us the opportunity here to create something special people will respond to, which is a far cry from what big centres like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, are doing. We want people to walk in and say, ‘wow, there is some-where exciting to eat in Canberra’. We want to shake the place up and break new boundaries.”

Peter adds, “We look at what interests and excites us and how we can engage that with our customers. To have customers wowed because you exceeded their expectations is what we want to do. It is what gets me up in the morning.”

cover story


A new way to connect with your customersRegistration Coupons Store Locator Ordering Barcode Loyalty

To find out how you can take advantage of RedCat’s Mobile Applications, call 1300 4 REDCAT or visit www.redcat.com.au

RedCat’s mobile applications can provide you with a loyalty system, send out coupons and special offers, allow your customers to order remotely and much more.


alking down one of Sydney’s best known streets, you can’t miss the classic sandstone building. Particularly on a Saturday night when the music hints of fun and a five-star restaurant. But reading about it online I came across this review: “Indifferent service and food that I thought came out of a can”.

That was just one of 60 other reviews for this restau-rant, but certainly the most memorable. It may be tempt-ing to laugh off sites that offer consumers a chance to review a business, such as UrbanSpoon.com.au or TrueLocal.com.au, but the reality is that we are living in an age where businesses can be either devastated or elevated by the internet.

Today the world increasingly operates online, particu-larly for that young, child-free generation who have a high disposable income.

“In 2009 there was a survey done by the Harvard Business School which said approximately 64 per cent of Generation Y get information from the internet. Less than one year later that’s gone up to 79 per cent,” says David Wasserman, director of Wasamedia, a public relations company that specialises in taking restaurants out of the suburbs and onto the Web.

“I do think online reputation is growing in importance. We do love radio, print and TV, but we see a lot more clients on bloggers’ sites, like notquitenigella.com, and a lot more traffic on Eatability and UrbanSpoon,” says Wes Lambert, executive

Can your restaurant’s reputation be managed online in a world of food bloggers and reader reviews? Mary Banfield investigates

Would these seats be full if the online reviews were

more positive?

Anti-social

director of Pacific Restaurant Group that runs five restaurants on the east coast of Australia.

Every month TrueLocal has one and a half million hits recorded by Nielson Australia, according to Simon Carson,

general manager of TrueLocal, who encourage businesses to

maximise the potential of online media. “We are teach-ing everyone out there how to manage their profile. We want to make sure people are benefiting from the power and not missing the

opportunity.”In a survey conducted by

TripAdvisor, which lists 780,000 restaurants around the world, 71 per cent of people like to see an engagement between a business owner and reviewers.

Uploading photos and menus or responding to comments shows a business is alive.

“The basic numbers are that if

Management

“I do think online reputation is growing

in importance. We do love radio, print and TV, but we see a lot more clients on

bloggers sites.”Wes Lambert, executive director,

Pacific Restaurant Group

media

people add content to their listing, including photos and copy points (opening hours) it’s about double the page views. On average if you have one review, you get four times the pages views and if you have 10, it’s 20 times the views,” says Carson.

That reflects the very strong message being sent by online experts who once advised, ‘Brand Brand Brand’ your product. Today, that’s moved on, and the advice is ‘push your reputation online’. That’s the key to success.

Reputations are fragile and the ease in which con-sumer voices can be heard makes the internet very powerful and potentially dangerous to businesses. What is worrying restaurants is reading, time after time, reviews that slam a business.

A critical review begs the question: ‘does someone have a bee in their bonnet’? ‘Are they a competitor?’ ‘Who wrote this review?’ “I generally find that you have competitors jumping on and writing negative comments. But what can we do but laugh it off?” says Pasquale Trimboli, Mezzalira Ristorante, Canberra.

If a review is malicious, there remains the option to have it removed by the website.

Yet Wasserman advises against this, as a first response. Just respond politely, apologising if it’s appropriate. But in the end every business has a right to operate without biased or spiteful comments.

Wasamedia recently represented a small restaurant in South Australia that prided itself on providing a humane service that brought farmers’ produce straight to the plate.

Yet someone took offence to the name of one of their dining rooms, The Rabbit Trap, and began an online campaign.

“What happened is that someone from an animal rights group got onto their Facebook page and uploaded pictures of poor

little bunny rabbits being pulled apart,” recalls Wasserman.While the owner’s instinct was to rip down the photos,

Wasserman counselled strongly against this as it would imply the organisation had something to hide. Instead, each time a photo was uploaded the owner would respond, carefully outlin-ing their policies to reinforce that no animal cruelty could be attached to their business.

Over the days slowly devoted clients chipped in to protect the reputation of the restaurant. Still this wasn’t enough to quell the tide of comments.

Finally, there was no alternative and on the advice of Facebook all the photos and comments were removed. It may not have been ideal, but the crisis was controlled.

That’s one of the most important principles for TrueLocal who will investigate negative reviews and remove information if deem unfair.

Yet there are times when a business must carefully consider the reviews. “If there is a common theme or tone, good or bad, we really need to take those onboard”, says Trimboli.

This is the same for the Pacific Restaurant Group. This is an organisation that takes its online reputation very seriously. Every week, every online comment is emailed to each restau-rant. It’s a time to sit back and reflect on both the good and the bad. “95 per cent are positive and we still respond to

those. If a picture is worth a thousand works a review is worth 1000 customers!” says Lambert.For quality assurance they still look at the remaining five per

cent. “We really do pay attention to the negatives to improve the food quality. Complaints are a good positive means to improve your business,” says Lambert.

But in reality the percentage of negative comments compared to total patrons is miniscule, .0001 per cent, and that’s not so bad. “We have a lot of comments that say we have a slight arro-gance. But they are confusing arrogance with self belief. We are putting in 80 hours a week and delivering a service at high risk and we need to be left to do what we do best,” says Trimboli.


It’s online where most younger customers will seek out information about your restaurant.

How to manage and embrace consumer reviews1. Always keep a close eye on consumer websites

2. Upload your latest menu, or photos

3. Respond to all reviews, both good and bad

4. If you are concerned that there are unfair comments ask the website to remove them

5. Remember 80 per cent of reviews are written by 20 per cent of people. TrueLocal encourages restaurants to invite Local Stars review their business, maybe entice them through a special deal.

Thanks to Simon Carson for these tips!

“95 per cent are positive and we still respond to those. If a picture is worth a thousand words a

review is worth 1000 customers!”

Wes Lambert, Pacific Restaurant Group

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The former Restaurant & Catering Victoria President and owner of The Grand hotel, Richmond, talks about working on, not in, her business

I went into my first restaurant business in 1977 without one day’s experience. I had a real estate background. With a friend I purchased a milk bar and renovated it and we opened a cafe, Posh Nosh, for breakfast and lunch. Hard work was one of the most important ingredients—long hours and a big dedication to the business. I loved what I did and found I had a flare for it. Success is often timing. I’ve always had a good sense of seeing opportunities.

The most significant thing I’ve done was the business Epicure Catering. Epicure commenced as a catering company without any venues. Before then, if you wanted high quality catering, you’d have to go to five-star hotels. Over the next 10 years we establish 10 exclusive function venues; this was achieved by negotiating long-term leases or by the purchase of freeholds. We had a much higher quality of catering. We bought the George Ballroom in St Kilda. It was a distressed room that photographed beautifully. By getting the number of venues with excellent views or something special, we really dominated the wedding market.

Epicure evolved. I know you’re meant to have a five-year plan, and a 10-year plan. I was a single mother and when I founded it I had to have lifestyle balance. As Epicure grew we’d get one venue which worked well, then get the next and the next.

I’ve always understood financials very well. If you don’t understand how and where you’re making money, you can’t move your business. But if you’re simply looking to make money from catering it would be pretty miserable too. You have to have a great product and get the highs from that.

I tried to run Epicure as ‘our business’, not ‘my business’. Making decisions with everyone rather than being the boss. You allow staff to be the best. If they ask a question, you ask a question. Allow them, if they’re on the right path to go with that. It worked 99 per cent of the time.

But not everything’s been a success. Around the GST time I had two city restaurants. I was taking money but not making money. I was in the wrong location and stuck there too long in the belief I’d work it through.

In 2000 Spotless purchased Epicure. For anything to be saleable there has to be something to buy that’s of value. Having a premier name was a key element. Spotless is huge, but they wanted an elite brand name so it was the product they wanted. By having several venues meant having a track record and an on-going business.

There was no obligation to work once I sold. But they offered me management of the MCG catering. I did this for 18 months—I took my skills with me and did best to improve the food and service. It was a very interesting challenge.

I have a very good relationship with Spotless. We now have a joint venture

with Zinc at Federation Square. We have a shared vision of the venue.

I feel it is getting harder for small business. A small caterer now would struggle to do what I’ve done because of industrial relations, compliance and the current

economic climate.

I’ve been on the board of R&C for about 15 years. I’m really pleased with our progress. There’s potential for huge

steps forward to help our industry.

I’m proud of what I did with Epicure. I managed to create a business in a short space of time that was recognised as a great product. I came out of that financially independent. It’s not easy to achieve that and it’s made a big difference to me.

Now I don’t go to work every day. I work on my business not in my business. I have the perfect life. I can live four months in Como, Italy, in our holiday house. And I still work back here. A lot of people work as hard as me but don’t get that. Now we’ve got a pub in Richmond—The Grand hotel. My son Barnie Bouchaud runs it. It has a chef ’s hat. It’s a great product with a really friendly customer base. It’s really a pleasure to be involved.

HarveyRos


What I’ve learnt

“If you don’t understand how and where you’re making

money you can’t move your business. But if you’re simply

looking to make money from catering

it would be pretty miserable too.”

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our typical Dude Food enthusiast may be a little rough around the edges, but you certainly won’t hear them utter that colourful ‘f ’ word… ‘Fusion’. “It’s not re-ally about that,” says Daniel Wilson, chef at Huxtable restaurant, Fitzroy. “It’s about staying true to cuisines but having lots of different ones.”

“I guess Dude Food is food that can be ‘dumbed down’; fine dining food that can be eaten by hand,” says Wilson. “You’re still using quality ingredients but in a more fun, cheeky, playful way.”

Dude Food is all about bold flavours (Japanese Kew-pie Mayonnaise packs a flavour punch and is a Dude Food staple). The style features luxury ingredients such as foie gras in small, hip-pocket (and love-handle) friendly quantities, and the food is generally enjoyed in a social rather than formal environment. “It’s geared around sharing and, yes, some of it spends a bit of time in a vat of hot oil,” says Wilson.

While this American-born concept may be gaining some momentum in the eyes of the media and even consumers in Australia, the chefs said to be leading the charge say the idea of Dude Food is more perceived than real. “I never sought

to be labelled that way or say that’s what I do,” says Wilson. “I guess I was just cooking the food I wanted to cook and some of it got labelled

Dude Food.” Similarly, Adam D’Sylva, chef and co-owner at

Melbourne’s Coda Bar + Restaurant, says it’s a label

that has been applied to what he was already doing; offering a casual

environment for diners to enjoy hearty food.

According to D’Sylva, the chefs who epitomise

this style of food are not reinventing the wheel, but

instead doing what has been done for hundreds of years across a number of cultures by embracing tapas and banquet-style eating tradi-tions. Nevertheless, as customers


Marketing

“Dude Food is food that can be ‘dumbed down’; fine dining food that can be

eaten by hand. You’re still using quality

ingredients but in a more fun way.”Daniel Wilson, Huxtable Restuarant,

Melbourne

Dude Food: It’s fine dining without the table linen (or table manners) and it’s fast becoming the accidental hero of Australian cuisine. But is the business opportunity as appetising as the food itself? By Amanda Lohan

DudeFood Melbourne’s CodaBar

+ Restaurant was offering Dude Food

before it had a label.

drift away from structured meals, both Wilson and D’Sylva agree that the idea has merit as a business concept.

While the food sharing concept may not be new, its popu-larity certainly continues. Customers are clearly enjoying the social aspect of the shared dining experience but it also gives them the chance to try new things and build their meal from smaller dishes. “For me personally I much prefer sharing five dishes with my wife and kids than having one plate to myself and having the same flavour for the same meal,” says Wilson.

Financially, this can be a boon for both restaurateurs and customers because it allows the customers to dine more regularly. While 20 or 30 years ago it may have been unheard of to dine out multiple times a week, Dude Food (and other budge-conscious styles) make this a reality—particularly for the younger generations. Dude Food also encourages be-tween-meal and pre-theatre style dining, which may help to get bums on seats during traditionally quiet hours. “People don’t want to feel restricted to having to spend $40 on a main course,” says D’Sylva, “(With Dude Food) you can go to a restaurant and have a bite without breaking the budget.”

In tougher economic times this becomes increasingly important, although again it may be the perception, rather than the reality, that dictates success. In other words, while customers may be paying less for individual dishes, if you play your cards right the total bill may still work out in your

Marketing


“People don’t want to feel restricted to having to spend $40 on a main course,” says Adam D’Sylva (above, in Coda’s kitchen).

favour. D’Sylva says the key here is the perception of value, which can be enhanced through generous portion sizes and the addition of carefully selected luxury ingredients.

From a chef ’s perspective, Wilson says that Dude Food is more intellectually challenging because it allows for creativ-ity in establishing “light and shade” across a menu. “It allows more imagination, just on a smaller scale… It keeps it inter-esting.” The style also allows chefs to educate the public by introducing foreign cuisines and ingredients by degrees.

Even the cost savings from not having table cloths can add up quickly to make casual dining a favourable business choice but, as with any new business venture, there are risks that need to be considered. Food wastage is a key issue for restaurateurs in this high-turnover field, and can become a real problem if not managed carefully. The sheer quantity and complexity of the dishes can also create significantly more work in the kitchen. But Wilson says, “If you do it properly and control all your costs then you can’t really go wrong.”

When dealing with “honest food” it follows that restaurants need to be honest in their approach. So, while Dude Food is in many ways an attractive business concept, both Wilson and D’Sylva warn against blindly following the trend. “Trends come and go,” says Wilson. “The Dude Food handle is a bit of a trend, so if you’re specifically trying to follow that trend you could get left behind.”


Tips for Aspiring Dudes and DudettesFor restaurateurs looking to incorporate Dude Food into their menu for the first time, Adam D’Sylva, chef and co-owner at Melbourne’s Coda Bar + Res-taurant, offers the following tips:

1. Get your concept right and stay true to your indi-vidual style. Don’t try to copy what everyone else is doing. Make it your own.

2. Nail the dishes. Even if there are only two com-ponents to a dish, you need to make sure you do it right. The flavours need to work.

3. Add value to your dishes. Offer generous portion sizes and carefully selected luxury ingredients.

4. Train your staff. They are the ones who will communicate your concept to your customers.

5. Ensure that all your customers are relaxed and enjoying themselves. After all, isn’t that what hospitality is all about?

stamps add up on your app keeping a record of whenever you make a purchase.

The Wealie iPhone app also lets op-erators of cafes, restaurants and the like

update their menus, promote special offers and be in control of what they

want to say, whenever they want to say it, so customers can keep abreast of what is happening. “I had a friend come around for

dinner one night last year and I noticed how thick his wallet was so I asked him what was taking

up so much space,” Patrick Schil-ling, inventor of the Wealie iPhone

app, says. “He pulled out 15 loyalty cards. When I asked him who he was loyal to he replied ‘no-one’. I then started drawing up a map of how loyalty cards could work as an app and then I decided to find someone who could actually

or Darren Surjan it was an easy decision. Download the Wealie iPhone application to see if it would increase awareness of his Peaberry Espresso business and help him ultimately grow his revenue.

“I was approached by Patrick Schilling late last year who designed it and I thought why not?” Surjan says. “It seemed a smarter way to attract cus-

tomers and keep them up to date with what I am do-ing.” Surjan believes that his business in Darlinghurst, Sydney, sees more of his customers in the eastern suburbs use the app than in other parts of the city, but he thinks this will change over time.

“I have increased my revenue as well as the range of customers so it is working for me,” Surjan says.

The Wealie iPhone app is like a loyalty card that you don’t have to carry around. Simply download the application for free from iTunes and whenever you make a purchase at a Wealie venue, you simply press the scan icon in the app and point it at the QR code at the point of sale.

All the venue details and purchase will appear on the screen. Furthermore, all the

In a move that is great for restaurants and bad for printers, smartphones are taking over loyalty cards. By Louis White


Technology

loyaltyA different

“I tell all my customers to

download the free app and the majority are happy that they did so because it is

an easier way to keep track of your loyalty.”

Keith Lewis, DeliZiosa, Sydney

design how it would work.” Schilling then teamed up with Hilton Rosenfeld and by last August it had become a reality.

“The biggest test for me was to design and promote this without spending a cent,” Schilling adds. “That has continued today. All my marketing has been word of mouth and approaching new venues.”

Keith Lewis, who runs DeliZiosa in Martin Place, Sydney, be-lieves the Wealie app is a “fantastic idea”.

“I wish I had thought of it myself,” Lewis says. “Patrick ap-proached me last December and I have been converting custom-ers ever since. I tell all my customers to download the free app and the majority are happy that they did so because it is an easier way to keep track of your loyalty.

“I am just about to start using it regularly to update specials and inform loyal customers of when discounts are being offered so I will wait with interest to see the results then.”

Schilling, an investment banker by trade, estimates that a coffee shop can save between $500 to $600 a year by not printing loyalty cards. But that is only the tip of the iceberg.

“Let’s say there are 15,000 cafes and restaurants in Australia,” Schilling says. “Let’s assume half of them have loyalty cards. Most of them print approximately 5000 of these loyalty cards meaning we have 38 million loyalty cards being printed every year. We can minimise land fill by stopping printing loyalty cards and using apps. Loyalty cards are dead-end marketing. They say nothing about the venue besides the address. They don’t give details on the menu; catering, opening hours and they just provide basic details, which you know already. We have designed an app that can be updated whenever you want and you can promote your business at 3pm in the afternoon that will help drive foot traffic, reduce stock and increase your cashflow.”

But Schilling is not the only person to catch on to the use of iPhone apps to promote loyalty instead of the traditional printed loyalty card. Jon Williams designed The Specials Board, a free app that gives you access to offers from local restaurants, bars and cafes across Sydney and Melbourne.

“I came up with this idea in London in 2009 and when I relo-cated to Australia in 2010 I realised no-one was doing it here,” Williams says. “It took a while to convince people initially because it was a new idea but we started giving people free trials and then business started to flow.”

Williams says they have now signed 400 restaurants and cafes across Sydney and Melbourne but not all are live. They have also made ventures into the Queensland market with a hospital-ity company. Furthermore, the app can be downloaded on all iPhones, androids, Nokia devices with Windows 7 development just completed.

“So far, we have had 25,000 downloads and 10,000 redemp-tions of offers to date,” Williams says.

“We built all the sales in the first year between myself and one guy in Melbourne. We have made everything as simple as possi-ble. Users of the app can control what goes on there, when, how and why. We are far more sophisticated than a loyalty card and far more imaginative.” Apps are the way forward. It is just a matter of ensuring that you are using it to your full advantage.


The smartphone is offering an alternative to cardboard loyalty cards, but there’s also benefits for restaurateurs.

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uch like the fashion industry and its close ally, the sustainable/organ-ic food game, the drinks business is very seasonal. Spring is sparkling wine; summer is wall-to-wall crisp whites and rosé; winter is about glasses of red wines so rich and thick that you can stand a spoon up in them. And

autumn is often that time of year when tirelessly tweaking beverage managers entice their customers with sherry.

Old-fashioned conservatives like me delight in this, of course; we like nothing more than donning our best cardigans and sorting out a cold Sunday afternoon with a bottle of amontillado. But more importantly, something called ‘young people’ are nowadays also liking sherry. Socio-cuisine commenta-tors point out that sherry is enjoying this interest thanks to the growing popularity of Spanish food, or tapas, as it is called. Food and wine rules make this equation complete by insisting that tapas style food be served with its natural wine partner—sherry.

Sherry is a many-headed beast, however; so it is best to master the sub-categories before you start dropping too many “olé’s” in the holding bar.

Sherry runs from pale and dry all the way through to primor-

dial blackish/green and stickily unctuous. With this progress also follows alcohol-by-volume measures, from about 15 per cent for fino, to 22 per cent and beyond for the dark dessert styles.Fino: dry, pale; made from the neutral white grape palamino; the wine is fermented, lightly fortified to 15 per cent, and then put

into barrels for three years, wherein a flor yeast grows over the wine’s surface, protecting

it from oxygen’s discolouration, but allowing the trademark pungent tang

to creep into the wine’s smell and flavour. Fino is more or less the basis upon which most other sherry styles are made. (Hidalgo Fino, $14, The Wine Company, [email protected])Manzanilla: fino made in

Sanlúcar de Barrameda, with its distinctive additional bouquet

and taste (see below). The sherry of the moment. Both fino and manzanilla are pre-dinner sippers accompanied by a few

dead things in a small terracotta dish. Two people sharing one 375ml bottle of 15% fino are clearly only going to make the world a better place, not endanger your liquor licence. Delgado Zuleta Manzanilla ‘La Goya’ 375ml, $12ish, www.thes-panishacquisition.com

People wearing cardigans, rejoice! Sherry is back in fashion (and cardigans are too), says Ben Canaider


Drinks

Bite of the sherry

While a certain trendiness is helping

sherry’s sales, that same trendiness has been rather

fortuitously coupled with recent quality

improvements.

Amontillado: copperish coloured but dry and nutty, this style is fino left for five years, towards the end of which the flor dies, let-ting more colour and oxidation characterise the wine. Seppeltsfield Clara Bianca (Amontillado), $20, www.negociantsaustralia.comPalo Cortado: amontillado with extra nuttiness and more weight. Another wine for the aficionados. Palo Cortado can be hard to find, yet both it and amontillado can be good partners for earthy soups, like pumpkin served with walnut bread croutons. Terrines can be good here too. Sanchez Romate Palo Cortado ‘Regente’, $40, www.thespanishacquisition.com. Oloroso: heavily fortified after fermentation thus preventing flor growth; aged in barrel, much darker and more raisiny in flavour. Sherry spruikers will tell you that good, dry oloroso is fair game for meat dishes; I think the higher alcohol gets in the way. A more harmonious matching—at least to Australian palates—might be cheeses. Emilio Lustau Dry Oloroso ‘Don Nuno’ Sherry, $31, www.negociantsaustralia.com. Pedro Ximénez: liquid bitumen; made from partially dried grapes of the same name. Hard to pour out of the bottle. Useful on icecream. Seriously. Valdespino Pedro Ximénez, $27, www.negociantsaustralia.com.

Unsurprisingly it is the dryer wines that lead the pack. And at the pointy end of the trend you’ll find the aficionados who only drink manzanilla. They’ve invariably just returned from Sanlúcar de Barrameda—the Spanish coastal village that makes the stuff—and will tell anyone who will listen that it is the sea-mists that give the manzanilla its distinct salty tang. Whether that is really true or not, it does provide an entrée of auto-suggestion to any customer lingering too long over the pre-dinner drinks list.

While a certain trendiness is helping sherry’s sales, that same trendiness has been rather fortuitously coupled with recent quality improvements—particularly concerning packaging and shipping of said wines.

Screw-capped 375ml bottles with an emphasis on bottling and refrigerated shipping expedience are now more the norm—or should be. If your distributor can’t guarantee you fresh stock bottled within the last few months then find another distributor. Freshly bottled fino is as different to the old cork-sealed exam-ples as young Chablis is to a cardboard cask of Fruity White Lexia.

Finally, if the emphasis on sherry now seems very much in favour of Spanish originals, you’re right. To add to the market-ing problems of locally made sherries comes a new name by which those wines must be labelled: ‘apera’. Much like many of the trade agreements the Australian wine industry has forged with the EU since 1994, wherein we agreed not to use the term ‘Champagne’ on our local fizzy wine anymore, Australian sherry may now not be labelled sherry. The Spanish have claimed that ‘sherry’ is their word, albeit an anglicised form of the Spanish city Jerez. The theory is that geographical or regional European names may not be used to label wines made from without said region. Fair enough; but as anyone who has spent more than about 90 seconds working behind a bar will know, Australian fine diners still call the $27 sparkling white from the Hunter Valley “Shampoigne”… And we will still call sherry sherry, no matter where it’s made.


Sherry, promoted by all serious beverage managers and people who use the phrase “young people”.

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nce upon a time, a bowlful of porridge and a cup of tea at home was the only way to start the day. Today, however, breakfast is just as likely to be enjoyed with one hand on public transport, slurped through a straw in the car,

grabbed at a convenient hole in the wall on the way to work, or even provided at a morning meeting.

Despite the fact breakfast has been firmly on the menu for some years now, and that reduced recession-ary spending has taken a sizeable bite out of the morn-ing meal, the breaky segment is still officially classed as a growth area for Australian restaurateurs and caterers.

According to economic researcher BIS Shrapnel, a staggering 3.7 million meals were served by commer-cial Australian foodservice operators in 2011, with 10 per cent of those being breakfast.

Those 370,000 morning meals in the course of 12 months might add up to a whole lot of bacon and egg rolls, but data shows it’s actually a slight downturn from previous years—likely attributed to the fact Aus-tralians are curbing their discretional spending and re-turning to the porridge at home while funds are tight.

Conversely, some data also points to breakfast be-ing the beneficiary of more controlled discretionary spending, with some consumers swapping previ-ous fine-dining dinners or lavish lunches for a more budget-friendly morning meal out.

Tip Top Foodservice’s national manager, Darren O’Brien, says it’s a trend that shows up repeatedly across various hospitality sectors around the country.

“In recessionary times, we do see breakfast becom-ing a viable option for dining out, and foodservice operators need to follow that market to maintain their profit margins across the rest of the meal segments,” he says. “It seems a lot of consumers still choose to have their weekly or fortnightly dining-out experience during an economic downturn, but instead of going out for an expensive dinner, they often choose to

have a long, relaxed breakfast instead. They still get the enjoyment of din-ing out, but with the value that breakfast offers.”

While growth in the breakfast segment might have slowed, O’Brien said restaurateurs and caterers are still looking at solid consumer interest (and, hence, spending) in the morning.

But there’s a big difference between what they’re looking for on week-days and what they’re looking for on weekends, he warns.

“During the week, foodservice providers need to make it quick and easy, with familiar breakfast options like egg rolls, raisin toast, or muffins,” O’Brien says. “It’s also a good idea to think about the ‘to-go’ aspect of the meal, making it hand-held and easy to unwrap and eat while multi-tasking.”

On the weekends, the same consumers want something new and indulgent, with the speed of delivery rarely a driving factor, he suggests.

“That’s where diners are more likely to notice your artisan breads, the coffee beans you use, or the more modern options on your menu.


Special report

Why the most important meal of the day can also be your most profitable. By Lucy Robertson

The business ofbreakfast

Breakfast service has been recognised as a growth area for hospitality businesses, according to BIS Shrapnel.

“They have more time to spend, and they’re usually looking for an experience comparable to dining out at dinner or lunch, so slick service and impressive presentation is more important than during the week.”

BIS Shrapnel partly credits the emergence of a “strong Italian coffee culture” over the past decade for the continued growth of Australia’s breakfast segment.

“During 2009/10, many cafes saw a sharp decline in breakfast profits, as high as up to 40-50 per cent, but this was much less so when it came to coffees sold,” the data says. “The Australian cof-fee culture is undoubtedly contributing to an expanded breakfast segment in the foodservice market.”

For this reason, O’Brien recommends tying breakfast food items to the coffee segment to both attract and retain morning consum-ers. “All breakfast items should offer good value, whether it’s on the weekend or mid-week,” he says. “And for many people, coffee represents that. Try offering food items like toast or a muffin with a coffee, which is essentially upselling from the coffee purchase. People are often creatures of habit in the mornings, so if they have a good, fast experience with buying their coffee as part of a good deal one morning, they are likely to keep coming back.”

Using coffee as a hook to entice morning consumers in-store is a strategy employed by many successful cafes in metropolitan areas around the nation.

Just look at the signage in the windows and on street frontages

of any busy morning cafe or hotel, and you’ll see why promoting Toby’s Estate or a special blend of house-ground beans can bring much more than just the margin of a small flat white.

But if the lure of the habitual quick fix is so strong in the break-fast segment, where does that leave the other current growth area in the morning rush to the till: the one that’s driven by an ever-present focus on health?

O’Brien says health is not as much of a driver for breakfast as it is in the lunch or dinner segments. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to have healthy options on your menu.

“Offering alternatives like banana and yoghurt or strawberries on pancakes as well as just maple syrup is easy to do and keeps health-conscious customers happy,” he suggests.

Replete Providore in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Haw-thorn has twice been an RCA finalist for its strong breakfast pres-ence, and segments its morning menu by food group to target health-conscious diners. “Tutti frutti” items feature fresh rhubarb, natural muesli and yoghurt; a “breads” section specifies dark rye breads and grains; while “main events” offer guilty decadence with healthy alternatives. “The trick to turning a breakfast profit is to make sure you have a solid item at a range of different price points,” says O’Brien. “This means making sure you have a couple of good, quick-to-go items, some healthy options, a more indul-gent sit-down meal, and all packaged up with coffees or juices.”

And that’s the way to start the day.

Special report


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No wobbles, no worries!It’s a busy day at your cafe and you’ve just taken out one of your many cups of quality coffee. You hurry back inside to attend to more custom-ers when you hear a bang, a clutter of crockery and a yelp from an angry customer who is now drenched in hot coffee, after their cup fell off the unsteady table. You now have a messy, dangerous situation on your hands. Enter Easyjust – an innovative table design that will easily solve your table wobble woes and protect your customers and staff.

Episode winner of the ABC’s New Inventors in August 2011, Easyjust was created by Trevor Watson, a Sunshine Coast designer who came up with the concept while sitting in a cafe and experiencing the dilemma of a wobbly table for himself. “You invariably end up with coffee in your saucer, or worse still, down the front of your shirt,” he says.

While many cafe workers make feeble attempts to fix the wobbles by stuffing cardboard or napkins under a leg, Trevor says this is far from a practical solution. “Either the customer or staff have to get down to the ground, they have to mess around with the foot of the table… God knows whose feet have been on the foot of that table.”

An Easyjust table design is the simple, affordable and innovative concept your customers and staff will appreciate.Easy to use – Remotely Operated Stabilisation (ROS) technology allows the user to adjust simply the height of one table leg via a wheel at the top of the stand, thus creating stability.Hygienic – Eliminates the need to crawl on ground and fiddle with table legs.Safe – No more spillages and no more back-bending required to fix the table.Strong and durable – Only top quality products used.Versatile – 99% of existing table-tops will fit Easyjust bases.

For more information, visit www.easyjust.com.au or call Trevor Watson on 0409 574 038.

Why chefs find Garland the perfect choice!Garland has been manufacturing quality commercial cooking equipment for over 100 years. Used and adored by leading Chefs in Australia and around the world, Garland’s range of commercial cook-ing equipment offers unsurpassed performance, enduring durability and premium quality components.

With extra heavy duty, heavy duty and electric options, you can count on Garland to deliver a solution for any food service business.

Perfect choice for an extra busy, demanding kitchen!Master Series’ modular design allows you to create an optimised custom workflow that fits your space, and your menu. Chefs around the world are already familiar with the performance, flexibility, and durability that comes with Garland’s Master Series.

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The protected individual burner pilots eliminate spillover outages, while split ergonomic grates and two piece burners make cleaning easy and safe.

Speak with us today and find out why all the top Chefs choose Garland! Call our friendly Customer Service team on 1800 035 327.



Coffee Product Guide

Nespresso recently partnered with Chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre – owner of twice awarded Mi-chelin Star restaurant, L’Air du Temps in Belgium – to highlight the unique relationship between

Nespresso and haute cuisine. Throughout the event, Chef Sang Hoon treated key Nespresso partners to his unique style of cooking while they sampled premium coffees served on the Aguila machine.

The Aguila machine is designed with hospitality and high-volume establishments specifically in mind. With four ex-traction heads and state of-the-art milk frothing technology, the machine can deliver four high-quality coffees simultane-ously in less than 20 seconds.

Aguila is technologically advanced with an in-built SIM

card that allows the machine to communicate directly with Nespresso Consumer Relationship Centres. This function allows Nespresso to provide an even higher service quality than ever before by addressing maintenance and service needs in a timely and proactive way. With a sophisticated design, Aguila is simple to use, with push-button opera-tion meaning almost anyone can operate the machine with minimal training.

Extending its distribution into prestigious high-volume establishments, Nespresso also recently signed an agree-ment with the Park Hyatt, which will be use the Aguila in its premium function space called the Guest House.

For more information about Nespresso Business Solu-tions, please visit www.nespresso-pro.com.

Aguila by Nespresso: The perfect partner for fine diningNespresso has the perfect machine for busy restaurants: the state-of-the-art Aguila, designed with hospitality and high-volume establishments in mind.

Discover the Finest:Café/Restaurant Chairs & TablesHotel, Bar & Pub FurnitureCommercial Outdoor FurnitureTo fi nd out more, visit www.cafeideas.com.auor call 1300CAFEIDEAS.

A seat forevery establishment


Kitchen Equipment Product Guide

So you own a restau-rant or takeaway store and constantly find yourself complaining

about the forever-rising costs of your cooking oil. With this brings an increased overhead to your business. What do you do? Increase your prices, which inevitably will lower the volume of customers due to your rising prices. Change the oil less frequently? No, because your fried food quality is your brand, you want your customers coming back for the quality they get with your product time and time again. So how do you save oil but maintain the quality of your fried products?

Here’s what you do–get the Ace filter machine! Guaran-teed for life!

That’s right, for life. How do you guarantee something for life? You sell a quality product and stand by it with confidence.

Ace Batt Mobile oil filtration and transport system is battery-operated, portable in design with a very small foot-print with its own on-board charger. Ace runs on mains and battery power. Ace is an extra heavy-duty machine.

It is modular in design allowing you to build the system you need with the ability to upgrade at a later time.

Zeco offers double or triple on-board filtration. A fourth level of filtration is to use Miracle Fry Oil Filter Aid powder to remove those fatty acids, which quickly destroy your oil.

Simply drain the fry oil into the Zeco washable filter basket which captures large debris. Oil is then filtered via a filter pad and then pumped through a micro-filter and back to the fryer. Finally, it transports your waste oil safely and pumps it into waste holding tanks. You will end up calling this machine “your money making machine”.

Ace machines are available on a rental contract (mini-mum two years) complete with automatic monthly issue of filter papers and Miracle filter powder, billed directly to your credit card.

Can implementing the three R’s – reduce, reuse and re-cycle – save you money? If you only implemented the three R’s in your kitchen, you would save money.

Call us today on (03) 9761 4920 or go to our website, www.acefilters.com.au.

From top left: Miracle Fry Oil Filter Aid powder, which helps remove fatty acids: the Ace Batt Mobile ready for action or Fryrite oil filter, which you will call your money making machines.

The Batt Mobile is here If the ever-rising cost of cooking oil is putting pressure on your bottom-line, there is a qual-ity, guaranteed way of controlling it: the Zeco Batt Mobile!

Visit our website www.acefilters.com.au or call 1300 555 204 and enjoy our

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Kitchen Equipment Product Guide

The latest fashion in hospitality is for chefs to ditch the trappings (and prices) of fine dining in order to bring good food to the people—to make great quality food in non-intimidating settings. A great

example of it is the new Sydney restaurant Kitchen by Mike, which is based in a warehouse in the suburb of Roseberry.

The warehouse has been converted into a big, open café with plans for a beehive and large kitchen garden out the front. Kitchen by Mike has been described by a Syd-ney newspaper as “a stripped-back, yet classy, version of a staff canteen”. This is former Rockpool head chef Michael McEnearney’s new restaurant.

The way it works is: chefs are in an open kitchen in front of a counter. Diners grab an enamel plate and order por-tions of various things from the counter. You are charged by portion for what you choose from the massive amounts of freshly cooked produce before you. The menu changes all the time, and patrons are kept up to date via Twitter and Facebook as to what’s available.

The restaurant and kitchen was fully fitted out with Fagor equipment, including a bank of 900 series equipment (simi-lar to the photo below, which is from Becasse), a Visual Plus

combi oven, a glasswasher and a pass-through dishwasher.Why they chose Fagor is evident from some of the testi-

monials others chefs have given the company over the years. For example, Ross Lusted, from The Bridge Room in Sydney (and former executive chef of Rockpool and Park Hyatt Sydney Harbour Kitchen & Bar), has said about Fagor equip-ment: “What I liked about the Fagor 900 series was that [is that] it has that versatility and adaptability. I have joined five pieces with one piece of connect so nothing moves—it looks like a fully suited unit, which from a cleanliness per-spective is important as well as being aesthetically pleasing. Fagor have really thought about the equipment, even small details like the levelling on the feet, which are important when you are doing an installation. Their VPE-101 combi oven is fantastic – it has a touch screen like an iPad, which is very user friendly. But the clincher in the deal was the service agreement: when you buy a $15,000 oven, if there’s a problem I want someone here to fix it immediately. With Fagor there is one service agent who deals with all their equipment. If I need something done I just call the one guy, and it’s always the same guy, and he’s here the same day, which for a small business like mine is vital.”

Fagor supplies Kitchen by MikeSydney’s newest and most fashionable restaurant has been fitted out with equipment by Fagor

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ceiling on raw steel sections. Then we added our own diffusers—acrylic diffus-ers that hang as blades on either side of the light. They look great and are quite economical.

“I did get to go to Spain, checking out various tapas bars. I also helped MoVida select the furniture for the res-taurant, with pieces from SuperStudio in Barcelona (www.superestudio.com). The fitout provided a really good level of decoration but Frank and his team personalised it by adding artwork. We set aside areas where they could hang paintings in the future, and the lighting is all set up for this as well.

“One day MoVida might make the leap to Sydney. They need to find the right spot, in the right area, in the right building. So far, the planets haven’t aligned appropriately, but we’ll keep you posted.”

he original MoVida and MoVida Nextdoor were very suc-cessful and after a couple of years, the opportunity came up for a much bigger venue. [Restaurateur/chef] Frank Camorra decided it was time to expand as the other restaurants were so overbooked.

“I started working on this building in 2008 and the restaurant opened in November 2009. It was a new build-ing—still in construction—so we got the opportunity to

change a few things to suit the restaurant. For instance, we added openable louvres down the side of the building where we introduced some dry bars facing north.

“The idea was to bring that MoVida identity but reinterpret it slightly. There’s a strong tradition of guerrilla art that MoVida identifies with but it didn’t seem right spraying graffiti on a brand new building.

“So we introduced a milk-crate installation in the restaurant, including the milk-crate light fitting over the bar. I’d discovered underground artists who build things out of milk crates—basically people—and hang them around train stations and places like that. We also used all sorts of things from the MoVida movement in Spain, bringing plenty of colour to the interior.

“The restaurant is 350 square metres and seats about 170 people. There’s a back-of-house area but the main kitchen is open. We use the kitchen and bar to really activate the restau-rant. It has a very vibrant feel; there’s so much action happening there.

“When it came to the kitchen design, there was a lot of input from Frank and the team. The chefs spend 10 hours a day in the kitchen, so it’s a bit much for an architect to say you should put your pan rack over there rather than over here. It’s really just making sure you have a good dialogue with the staff that use the kitchen. I’m very fortunate that Frank was the chef and owner of the business. He is very hands-on, as are all his head chefs.

“Lighting was very important at MoVida Aqui. We designed all our own lighting, captur-ing that beautiful uniform and industrial ambience. Frank wanted a warm interior and at the same time, he wanted that edgy feel. So we used fluorescent battens hanging from the

Architect Adam Dettrick took the bull by the horns—producing the third interpretation of Melbourne’s Spanish-inspired MoVida restaurants

MoVida Aqui


details

Adam Dettrick Architect305/20-22 McKillop StreetMelbourne VIC 3000Tel: (03) 9606 0774www.adamdettrickarchitect.com.au

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Documents

R&C April 2012