Q1. What are some of the latest trends in the F&B domain?
According to me, I’ve seen Responsible Sourcing, Plant based foods, Vegan food and the use of millets in the preparations as the latest trends in the F&B domain. These days’ guests are paying attention towards ingredients and dishes which will boost their immunity. In 2023, ingredients that offer vitamin and mineral boost are foreseen to be more captivating than those with less healthy ingredients.
Q2. What untapped opportunities can hotels explore by utilising their existing F&B
Infrastructure?
While most of the city hotels can convert their banquets into rental office spaces, there are opportunities like offering loyal guests a personalised team of event planners, chefs and butlers for their house parties, renting out scenic venues at a resort for pre-wedding shoots and similar.
Q3. How is the hotel handling food wastage?
At DoubleTree by Hilton Goa – Panaji, we maintain a limited amount of stock, especially for perishable foods. The culinary team practices methods like inspection of raw materials while receiving and rotating the stock using FIFO method, maintaining correct portion size, adding live counters to the buffet, maintaining right temperatures for cold storage of raw ingredients to keep a tab on the food wastage.
Wet food waste at our resort is converted into compost and is used for our gardens.
Q4. Should hotels consider leasing kitchens for cloud kitchen requirements during non-peak hours?
Practically peak hours of both hotel and cloud kitchens would be overlapping, also the strict hygiene protocols of the branded hotel kitchens are likely to be compromised.
Q5. What about hotels leasing their F&B spaces to standalone marquee restaurant brands on a revenue-share model?
This concept is working well in western countries and now few hotels in India have adopted this module. This business model has immense potential for success considering these standalones tie-up with brands rather than individual hotels.
Q6. How are training and development being taken up by the hotel for its F&B division?
It is imperative to lay emphasis on operational training for F&B division. We combine hands on training with virtual and interactive lessons for our newly joined team members. Conducting refresher training sessions in regular intervals on standard operating procedures and soft skills are also part of our training schedule. We also cover topics which includes knowledge of ingredients, preparation methods, tasting sessions, service excellence, compliance and safety.
