No.688 October 2012
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
foodservice
accommodation
Dessert queen Q&A with Momofuku’s Christina Tosi
JINGLE BELLS Festive season heralds financial cheer PLUS Champagne days ahead
What’s cooking? Come inside the shiny kitchens of three of our hottest new restaurants
Manfield
Print Post Approved PP349181/00109
on a mission Christine Manfield leads foodservice industry in battle against the bulge
beverage
management
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ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Martin Sinclair martin.sinclair@reedbusiness.com.au Ph: (02) 9422 2607
Editor’s Note
EDITOR Rosemary Ryan Ph: (02) 9422 2880 rosemary.ryan@reedbusiness.com.au JOURNALIST Danielle Bowling Ph: (02) 9422 2667 danielle.bowling@reedbusiness.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Christine Salins Ken Burgin Tony Berry ADVERTISING NATIONAL Rhonnie Merry Ph: (02) 9422 2481 Fax: (02) 9422 2863 rhonnie.merry@reedbusiness.com.au
pleasure now, spread with butter and making your eyes roll back in your head with the naughty delight of it. But even though attitudes have shifted, and we are bombarded by messages of healthy living we are still, as a society, getting fatter and fatter, and obviously things have to change. While the fast food industry has been under pressure for a while to go on a health kick, the role that the wider foodservice industry can play in this change has this month been in the spotlight.
WHEN my dad turns all nostalgic one of his favourite childhood memories is tucking into the solidified fatty remnants from the baking dish of yesterday’s roast dinner spread thickly on some white bread. “Hmmmm, bread and dripping,” he’ll say, looking wistfully into the middle distance. But how things have changed. You wouldn’t catch many people spreading a thick layer of animal fat onto their sambo. And white bread? It’s kind of seen as a decadent guilty
Unilever has launched a concept called Good Fork Week that’s aimed at encouraging the foodservice industry to start to take more responsibilty to promote healthy eating by reassessing their menus and cooking methods, and also portion sizes. It’s come up with the great description “seductive nutrition”, the idea of “nudging” guests by offering nutritious dishes that are just as appealing to diners as the not so nutritious ones. It’s a strategy based on a number of insights from Unilever’s research showing that while the majority of people look for the healthy option when dining out, most also say they want to treat themselves as well. And while their brain says
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to go for health, they feel the healthier option usually is less appealing, too expensive and not very filling. My feeling is that the issue of providing healthier dishes on menus is where vegetarion options was a few years ago. While vegetarians used to have to be content with a tacked on afterthought to the main menu, increasing numbers of smart passionate chefs are approaching things differently, embracing the vegetable as the hero of a delicious dish rather than a side. Change is a’coming. Time to jump in and show your customers how much you care about them.
Rosemary Ryan
contents 4 News
12 Mystery diner
Hospitality in workplace watchdog’s sights. Golden Chefs hat winner on a roll.
Brisbane hot spot Public gets a visit.
Features 20 Love my kitchen
16 Chef Chef Christine Manfield leads restaurants in battle of the bulge.
6 Openings Latest restaurant arrivals opening their doors.
Three chefs show off their kitchen’s shiny new cooking equipment.
28 Jingle bells 41 Burgin
8 Workplace Don’t risk big penalties for underpayment.
Work it baby. The power of images to promote your business.
10 Secret ingredients
42 Dr Hospitality
Q&A with Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi.
Your hospitality management dilemmas answered.
The silly season fast approaches. Are you ready to make the most of it?
38 Best in show FACEBOOK.COM/hospitalitymagazine TWITTER.COM/hospitalityed hospitalitymagazine.com.au
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No.688 October 2012
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
foodservice
accommodation
Dessert queen Q&A with Momofuku’s Christina Tosi
JINGLE BELLS Festive season heralds financial cheer PLUS Champagne days ahead
What’s cooking?
Average Net Distribution Period ending March 12 13,941
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
Manfield
on a mission Print Post Approved PP349181/00109
MATERIAL The publisher does not accept responsibility for any editorial or advertising material forwarded or held in storage nor will material be automatically returned. Whole or part of this publication cannot be reproduced without prior written approval from Hospitality’s management.
Come inside the shiny kitchens of three of our hottest new restaurants
Christine Manfield leads foodservice industry in battle against the bulge
beverage
management
Who are the best product award winners from Fine Food Australia 2012?
ON THE COVER: On our cover for this issue is the unmistakable and unforgettable Christine Manfield, the superstar of the Australian culinary scene who operates her sublime and acclaimed Sydney restaurant Universal while generally flying a little under the radar when it comes to publicity. But the chef, restaurateur and author has recently taken on the mantle of ambassador in a campaign launched to address the issue of Australian waist lines. Manfield told Hospitality’s Danielle Bowling that
she was prompted to get involved in the launch of the new Good Fork Week campaign because Australia’s obesity problem is “out of control”. “We really need to consider our responsibility in the industry and how we are looking after people,” she says. Head to page 16 to find out more about the campaign and how Manfield combines the creation of mind blowingly delicious dishes with her philosophy of offering healthy and nutritious food.
hospitality | october 2012
3
news
Industry fights TAFE cookery closures CHEFS in Victoria’s Yarra Valley are angry at the decision of one of the local training institutions to discontinue cookery training as part of its course offerings. Well known industry leader and black hat chef George Hill, who lives in the area, said chefs in the Yarra Valley and Dandenongs are at “boiling point” with the decision that would see Swinburne University’s Lilydale campus close its cookery training department. He said the move would have a major effect on the region’s tourism and hospitality industry. “This is a blatant and irresponsible disregard to the needs of a community that will have a long term negative impact on the local tourism and hospitality industry,” Hill said. “The paradox is on one side we have the tourism bodies praising and promoting the region as a foodie destination and on the other the only provider of hospitality skills development in the region is closing a well respected facility.” Hill said there were around 30 students at the campus. “That represents 30 locals who belong to our community, 30 future skilled artisans who will continue to raise the standards in the region,” he said. Hill said there was already a shortage of skilled chefs in the popular tourism area with predictions the industry would continue to be undersupplied into the future.
HOSPITALITYMAGAZINE.COM.AU
MOST READ STORIES
1 2 3 4 5
Complaints trigger FWO hospitality crackdown Sepia named Sydney’s Restaurant of the Year WA recruits Irish to address shortage Meat producers in fight to stop fake wagyu Service quality at risk without wages reform
Source: hospitalitymagazine.com.au, 1-5 October, 2012
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hospitality | october 2012
Apprentices
Young chef on a roll with Golden Chef Hat award win Queensland’s Adrian Winoto has proven again he’s a young Australian chef to watch by adding another culinary award to his cupboard. THE DYNAMIC young chef team of Adrian Winoto and Braden Honnery packed their bags and headed to Germany this month after being named this year’s Nestle Golden Chef Hat Award winners. Winoto, who works at Essence at Jupiter’s in Townsville and Honnery from Michel’s restaurant in Townsville beat eight other teams of young chefs from around Australia to grab the top prize in the long running award that aims to recognise and encourage our best apprentice chefs. Last month the finalist teams competed in a gruelling cook off in the kitchens of William Angliss in Melbourne preparing a menu of entree, main and dessert for the team of judges. Winoto and Honnery were over the moon when they were announced the winners at a dinner held at Melbourne’s Sofitel on Collins hotel. Winoto, who earlier this year was a state finalist in the Electrolux Appetite for Excellence awards as well, said the competi-
Braden Honnery congratulates his team partner Adrian Winoto after their win.
tion had been an invaluable experience for him. “It can be a bit stressful but it’s very good to be able to come together with the other chefs and see what everyone else is doing,” he said. The pair received a $15,000 prize to travel to Germany where they attended the 2012 Culinary Olympics in Germany with the Australian national team. Winoto and Honnery’s menu included a gold medal winning
entree of seared Harvey Bay scallops, barramundi boudin and crispy skin, creamed leek, soft boiled quail egg, broad beans and a tom yum froth. Competition director Deb Foreman said the standard of food at this year’s competition continued to raise the bar. “Considering the standard of chefs this year, there’s no doubt Adrian and Braden have very bright culinary careers ahead,” she said.
Chef mentors train in indigenous program THE FIRST students of the new National Indigenous Culinary Institute started their training last month with the support of some of Australia’s top chefs as their mentors. They kicked off their training with a meeting at Sydney’s William Angliss Institure with Sydney restaurateur Michael McMahon from Catalina (pictured) who is one of a group of “culinary guardians” who will mentor and train them through the three year course. Others include Neil Perry, Matt Moran, Peter Doyle, Guillaume Brahimi, and Barry McDonald.. The students will spend each year of the course working in the restaurants of one of the supporting chef mentors. Neil Perry said the hospitality industry welcomed
the opportunity to provide indigenous trainees with the skills and training required to work in the country’s top restaurants. “Our longer term aim is for indigenous chefs to be a major force in the Australian restaurant industry,” Perry said.
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
news
Workplace laws
Complaints, staff numbers trigger new Fair Work hospitality crackdown Hospitality businesses’ workplace law compliance under the microscope. THE HOSPITALITY industry is the target of a new national education and compliance program by industrial relations watchdog the Fair Work Ombudsman that’s been launched ahead of an audit of operators planned for early next year. The audit will involve the Fair Work Ombudsman contacting more than 1000 accommodation providers, pubs, taverns and bars throughout Australia and asking them to supply employment records for inspection. The focus on accommodation providers, pubs, taverns and bars is the first stage of a wider threeyear campaign targeting the hospitality industry. It will be followed later next year by a similiar push involving cafes, restaurants and caterers, and then take-away food
operators in 2014. The crackdown on the industry follows the FWO’s previous national education and compliance campaign targeting the hospitality industry in 2008. Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the hospitality industry is again being targeted
Clearer view of substance abuse THE ISSUE of substance abuse is a serious one for the community in general but for the hospitality industry in particular. Hospitality magazine is joining forces with Chris Mordue from counselling service Clearheaded, to get a clearer picture of how substance misuse within the industry is affecting members and businesses and we’d like your help with a survey we’re conducting to find out more. Mordue said he hoped to engage industry members and get a better understanding of the prevalence of the problem, and to raise awareness. “My personal and professional experiences both in Australia and the UK confirm there’s substance misuse and addiction issues facing the hospitality industry,” Mordue said. “We’re asking people to relate the issue to their personal and professional experience. My hope is we can start to raise awareness and lower the barriers to talking about the subject.” Find out more about the survey at www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au hospitalitymagazine.com.au
because it employs hundreds of thousands of workers and generates a large number of complaints each year. Mr Wilson said the last campaign which involved audits of 664 employers around the country, found that 36 per cent of employers were non-compliant with workplace laws.
$78,000 fine for staff underpayments TWO COMPANIES and their director have been fined $78,600 over the underpayment of two staff at two Melbourne food outlets, in the latest prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Turbo Cafe Watergardens, which operates a Turbo Cafe at the Watergardens shopping centre at Taylors Lakes, was fined $26,400, while Turbo Cafe Point Cook, which formerly operated a Turbo Cafe at the Point Cook Town Centre shopping complex, was fined $39,000. The former owner of both outlets, Domenic Versace, was fined $13,200. The penalties were imposed by the Federal Magistrates Court in Melbourne and followed an investigation and prosecution by the FWO.
AHL makes splash with QT Sydney opening
in brief Sydney restaurateur in $4m court battle John Szangolies, CEO of the Urban Purveyor Group of restaurants and bars, is in a legal battle with advertising icon Ian Elliot, who claims Szangolies’ company owes him $4.1million. Between 2002 and 2008 Elliot was a consultant for the Bavarian Hospitality Group, which is now known as the Urban Purveyor Group and comprises venues including the Bavarian Bier Cafes, Sake Restaurant and Bars and The Cut Bar and Grill. The case returns to court on October 19.
Farmers’ beef over fake wagyu Wagyu cattle farmers will introduce genetic testing and tougher certification to protect their prized meat from unscrupulous suppliers who charge premium prices for meat from inferior breeds of cattle. Several prominent breeders say some restaurants and butchers are deliberately substituting cheaper steaks.
Don’t miss out! Entries for this year’s Fonterra Foodservices’ Proud To Be A Chef competition close at the end of this month. It’s the competition that will see 30 apprentice chefs selected to attend some cutting edge masterclasses and have the chance to win an international culinary scholarship to the value of $7,500. To register for the competition head to www.fonterrafoodservices.com.au before October 31.
Bidvest gets sustainability tick
HOSPITALITY giant AHL has injected new life into an iconic Sydney site with the opening of its new QT Hotel - the first new CBD hotel for the city in 20 years. With restaurateur and chef Robert Marchetti appointed as the hotel’s creative food director, working with executive chef Paul Easson (ex-Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne), the hotel has a major food focus wrapped up in the quirky boutique hotel package that the QT brand has become known for with the group’s previous QT openings. QT Sydney is the third property in the QT Hotels and Resorts portfolio that also includes the Gold Coast and Port Douglas resorts. AHL has flagged plans for further properties in the next two years.
The certification of foodservice distribution giant Bidvest as a supplier of sustainable seafood has opened a gateway for all foodservice operators to gain certification, says the Marine Stewardship Council, the body behind the certification program.
Nilsson booked for Melbourne The rising star of Nordic cooking Magnus Nilsson will be one of the headlining chefs at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March. His topic is why we should eat less meat.
hospitality | october 2012
5
openings
O Bar and Dining The iconic Sydney restaurant that’s been known as the Summit for the last 44 years has been refurbed and relaunched by chef and restaurateur Michael Moore as O Bar and Dining. Perched 47 floors above the city it still has the revolving floor that captures the amazing 360 degree views for diners and features the restaurant and two bars. Moore said the new look operation was a “complete departure” from the previous restaurant and was aimed at meeting the need in Sydney for a “standout, world class venue that allows you to take in the best of our city from high above it”.
Opened: September Owner: Michael Moore Head chef: Michael Moore The food: Moore’s menu has a strong focus on local seafood and seasonal produce with dishes that also reflect the chef’s commitment to his healthy cooking philosophy. Dishes on the contemporary Australian menu include quinoa crusted crab and chickpea cakes with lemon yoghurt, buttermilk organic chicken, buckwheat crust and apricot mustard and kingfish pastrami with coriander, citrus and cumin. Address: Level 47 Australia Square, 264 George Street, Sydney Phone: 02 9247 9777 Web: www.obardining.com.au/index.html
The Meatball and Wine Bar Grain at the Four Seasons
Lovers of meatballs rejoice! This new Flinders Lane opening is described as an artisan meatball restaurant and is dishing up a range of artisan balls of all kinds - meat, fish and vego - with the promise that every meatball delivered from the kitchen will come with a pedigree and a provenance. It’s the brainchild of owner and film producer Matteo Bruno who has also enlisted some top chefs including Neil Perry, Peter Evans and Guy Grossi to develop celebrity balls that will be on rotation on the menu. Opened: September Owner: Matteo Bruno Chef: Ashlee Connell The food: Simple and uncomplicated sums up the menu that offers a range of handmade artisan balls using top produce from the rare-breed Kurobuta pork of Byron Bay to pasture-fed Black Angus beef from Gippsland. There’s also artisan charcuterie, “heroes” (three balls on foccacia), sliders, mozzarella balls, seasonal salads, and “Whoopie Mac” ice-cream sandwiches. Address: 135 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Phone: 03 9654 7545 Web: www.meatballandwinebar.com.au 6
hospitality | october 2012
The Four Seasons Hotel has unveiled its new “bespoke” bar that combines the bar talents of David Ramos Hernandez and the food dynamism of high profile chef Hamish Ingham of Sydney hot spot Bar H. With a street frontage as well as access from the hotel, the bar comes ahead of the planned new restaurant across the foyer also involving Ingham’s talents. A feature is the island bar clad in slabs of Queensland blackbutt over a frosted glass core. Opened: September Bar manager: David Ramos Hernandez Chef: Hamish Ingham Seats: 180 at capacity, 80 seated The drinks & food: Ingham and Hernandez worked together to match cocktail, wine and beer lists with the bar food at Grain. The menu includes dishes like Deep Fried Old Man Saltbush with aioli, oysters by Steve Feletti, yabbies, and Grain’s own dry aged beef short rib burger - just the thing to down along with the bespoke Grain lager. Address: 199 George Street, Sydney Phone: 02 9250 3114 Web: www.grainbar.com.au hospitalitymagazine.com.au
workplace
Get wages right or risk the penalties The penalties for businesses who fail to meet their staff wage obligations are severe, not just involving repayment but also hefty fines for operators, says Restaurant and Catering Australia’s workplace relations team. BUSINESS OWNERS are committed to certain legal obligations ranging from OH&S to record keeping. Central to these obligations is the requirement to financially reimburse employees for their work, and to do so in line with relevant minimum wage classifications, or any contractual arrangement that may exceed legal minimums. Failing to do so can have severe penalties, so taking measures to ensure requirements are met ought to be of paramount importance to all employers in the hospitality industry. While yearly minimum wage adjustments may put financial burden on businesses, attempting to operate outside the award structures can, and will, be far more costly for the organisation. Underpayment cases are extremely serious, and as the external environment becomes more challenging a correlating rise in underpayments is occurring. What business owners must realise is that successful prosecution of underpayment cases rarely results in a simple repayment, more than likely a business, which has actively sought to underpay,
will be administered a fine on top of the repayments. These penalties can be up to $33,000 per individual breach. For the hospitality industry, a combination of increases in wages, a decrease in consumer sentiment and gradually increasing fixed costs (such as gas, electricity, and refrigeration costs) has made operations tough. The solution is not however, to illegally lower wage expenditure. Investments in correct wage structures and other HR systems are a safer and more effective way of maximising profits and minimising expenditure. Correct remuneration isn’t merely the payment of wages - it’s the correct stipends of entitlements such as annual leave and personal leave. Further to this, ensuring that payment upon termination is correctly adhered also falls under this category. While ignorance is not a defence, minor breaches without malice or intent can be easily reconciled. Obviously, avoiding such action is beneficial to all parties, so correctly interpreting the relevant award, or seeking professional advice is likely the most advantageous approach.
A Modern Award covers each industry; these industry specific awards specify a correlating minimum wage and classify staff into specific levels and grades. Recent changes in Federal Workplace Relations laws have seen the calculation of correct wage minimums descend into a nadir of complexity, making minimums problematic to observe. Consequently there is also the risk that businesses can be overcompensating and paying more than they are required to, resulting in unnecessary costs. While it’s better to be paying higher than necessary, and avoiding underpayments prosecution, doing so can be deleterious to commercial success. A case heard recently before Fair Work Australia highlights the extent to which underpayments prosecutions can adversely affect offenders. In the case of Fair Work Ombudsman v Turbo Café Point Cook Pty. Ltd. & Anor [2012] FMCA 795, 6 September 2012, the Federal Magistrate said: Story continues on page 46
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hospitality | october 2012
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newsextra
secretingredients Having just received the prestigious James Beard Rising Star of the Year Award in the US, the creative power behind the ever growing chain of quirky Momofuku Milk cafes, Christina Tosi, was in Sydney recently as one of the headlining chefs at the Sydney International Food Festival’s World Chef Showcase event. We managed to grab five minutes with her.
Congratulations on receiving the Rising Star of the Year Award! What does an award like that mean to you? Ah! Thank you. Being the recipient of such a prestigious award is a little insane, though nothing short of a life changing honour. I think I blacked out when they called my name. I was actually really embarrassed/humbled to be nominated at all, in my mind there was no way I was going to have to go up there and give a speech with so many other talented men and women on the ballot and so many more who were equally as deserving. It is a total mind meld. And I’ve resigned that all that we can really do is to keep being who we are, keep doing what we do. It was good enough to get us this far, and it’s going to be good enough to keep us going, keep us pushing, keep us dreaming and keep us creating. Can you tell us what it is about dessert and baking you love enough to make it your career? I have a sweet tooth. Always have. Always will. There’s something about the love for all things dessert, combined with the nurturing spirit behind baking, that made me, and makes me, so confident in choosing this path for myself. It never gets old, and I never go hungry. What or who would you say have been the biggest influences on you that led you down this path? Wylie [Dufresne] was my biggest influence for so long on food, thinking and restaurant family/ culture, but Dave [Chang] has also been a huge influence the past few years in food, how to create a team, how to lead, how to passionately stand behind the Momofuku name. What was your aim when you started out with the Momofuku Milk Bar concept? Honestly, the only goal was to make a bakery called home. American baked goods with a quirky point of view. A little storefront to call home where I could bake all day and all night. I got it. And then four more followed! What are the biggest challenges for you in runnin your business? Balance is always my biggest challenge. Whether it’s balancing flavours in a dish, balancing workload, balancing life outside of work with work, balancing the amount of cookie dough I eat etc. 10
hospitality | october 2012
Momofuku Milk Bar New York City.
You’ve become well known for your “weird and wonderful” desserts. What inspires you? The “weird” and “wonderful” inspirations that drive our baked goods and menus come from everywhere: from travel, from eating out, from cookbooks, from cooking at home, from grandmas and grandpas, from baking on islands in the middle of nowhere, from making family meals, etc. We never limit where we get inspiration. Why do you think the Milk Bar concept has so grabbed people’s imagination and charmed them? I have no idea. All I can say is I have a point of view when it comes to baked goods and desserts. I saw a hole in the industry and I decided to be the one to fill it. I created Milk Bar for myself first and foremost. It now belongs to everyone and everyone on staff contributes, which I believe makes it even more charming. We never go too far off the grid, too far from relatibility and the “I get it” factor. Everything is as tasty as we can make it. And it’s all honest, which I think people see and relate to more than anything else. We hear you love eating cookie dough. Do you have a favourite? Chocolate chip cookie dough is my fave. Somedays I eat around the chocolate chips, sometimes I eat them by the handful. I grew up eating one
grandma’s oatmeal cookie dough and the other’s sugar cookie dough. The both taught me how to bake. I was already hooked on the dough. Your favourite thing on your menus? I’m really into the pretzel milk right now. I swear I can drink it all in one gulp. Salty meets sweet. What’s your favourite ingredient at the moment? Pretzels! Pretzel cake, pretzel milk, pretzel ice cream, pretzel bread. Pretzels! Apart from your own, what’s your favourite place to go out to eat? I just cant’ spend a week not eating at Mission Chinese in NYC. The beef and broccoli is like candy to me. What’s your most memorable food experience? Butter chicken at Angar, at Yas Viceroy in Abu Dhabi. It was the most unexpected shock of a dish. It was so silencing and powerful - I ate there three nights in a row. What’s the most important trend in foodservice? Relatibility is big now. Delivering on flavours you promise in a dish. And quicker foodservice shops - not necessarily fast food, but good food faster than via a multi-course tasting menu. hospitalitymagazine.com.au
review
Public, Brisbane Receiving the award for Best New Restaurant in Queensland’s inaugural Good Food Guide awards recently, the team behind Public restaurant is wowing local diners with their focus on top ingredients with a touch of whimsy. Our masked diner was suitably impressed.
mysterydiner MANY RESTAURANTS head in a particular direction with food; be it country of origin, regional specialities or style, and there is a degree of security in doing so. Public has none of that safety net and flies higher for the experience. It delves into any number of cuisines and serves them in differently priced plate sizes rather than the traditional entrées and mains. This is food to be shared, with a sense of purpose, confidence and no small amount of humour and irreverence. By Public’s own description it’s “perched in a glass box” on the first floor of an otherwise nondescript office building. It’s a well designed venue with muted noise, an open-ish kitchen on one side and bar in the middle. The separation divides the floor into rooms of differing sizes, there are bench seats along the walls and floor to ceiling glass to view the passing parade. Meals are divided into price bracketed Small Plates with four to each group in the $12, $18, $22 and $26 range and then two choices in Big Plates, which emphasise the sharing philosophy, at $70 for the pork belly and $80 for the saltbush lamb. Following these are four dessert choices at $14. It’s a tight menu - but well laid out with variety, breadth and a good lot of vegetarian options. Descriptions are minimalist with a straightforward ingredient declaration – and major ingredients only. It’s less confusing than it sounds and we are ably assisted by the floor team who appear at pains to make sure we don’t over order. Even with their guidance, we appear to have fallen into the trap of eyes bigger than belly syndrome. They also manage the order of the meal delivery and timing of sides; I feel I’ve relinquished one layer of control too many, but I’m happy to go along. First up comes the KFD ($26) – Kentucky Fried Duck; three pieces of tender duck in a brown paper bag with a side of potato and gravy endearingly pokes fun at an icon. It also tastes fabulous, with a heat to the spices in the coating of this tasty bird and it is a simple pleasure. Then comes Prawn, Chorizo, Pequillo ($18), a traditional combination in a most un-traditional way. There are three thick splodges of deeply flavoured seafood bisque on the plate, each crowned with a perfectly cooked prawn. Between these are burnished slices of the prawn’s best friend - chorizo. These are draped with a soft ribbon of sweet, roasted, pequillo pepper. A wonderful complex dish using such complementary ingredients. The first of the main style meat dishes Emu, 12
hospitality | october 2012
Beetroot and Jerusalem Artichoke ($22) turns up next with our side of Asian slaw. The slaw has a lovely chilli hit through the creaminess that works well with the rare slices of emu criss-crossed over some artichoke puree. Beetroot was dehydrated and decorating the plate as dust as well as being shaved, wafer thin, and then scattered across the top with a handful of leaves. Next was a dish that represented the best $12 I’ve spent in many a long year. What is simply described on the menu as Mushroom, Truffle, Pine nuts is so much more - a dark, square tile is the canvas for a magical assault on the senses, artfully laid out on the diagonal with three different sorts of mushrooms, sautéed and placed along a truffled foam. There are an ample number of pine nuts strewn over with a mushroom salt seasoning. Woven through this complex assortment was a gel ribbon flavoured with thyme that our waiter made us try independently of the dish. The ribbon was interesting. The overall dish outstanding. Lastly, the Wagyu skirt ($26) came with crunchy potato and horseradish. Again, cooked rare and laid one piece over the other, it was lovely, with texture and tension. The chunks of potato were as crunchy as described on the menu and it was well accompanied by the last two sides – pumpkin, chilli, coriander and potato skins. This, however, was my only issue for the meal. By the
time the potato skins arrived our table was groaning and struggling to keep pace. I would have liked a tad more control and a bit less speed. If you dine at Public, save room for dessert. The Chocolate Marquis, Coconut and Lime ($14) is amazing - gooey marquis topped with a quenelle of lime sorbet and surrounded by coconut snow and broken choc biscuits. Brilliant. This is a seriously cool restaurant and, with the only hiccup being the timing of the meal, we were mightily impressed. The food quality, innovation and presentation were exemplary and the floor team well drilled and personable. Grab a glass of the Argentinian Reserva Malbec and enjoy the ride. We sure did.
The details Public, Brisbane Where: First floor, 400 George St, Brisbane Phone: (07) 3210 2288 Website: www.lovepublic.com.au Open: Monday to Friday midday – 11pm; Saturday 5pm – 11pm Owners: Bonnie Shearston, Tom Sanceau, Jason White Chef: Damon Amos
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newsextra
Marquee Hospitality on the menu at
It may specialise in glitzy and spectacular nightclubs but the US company, the Tao Group, has a commitment to the good old fashioned principles of hospitality at its heart, discovered Danielle Bowling.
A
t the age of 24, I thought my nightclubbing days were behind me, imagining that if I set foot into one of Sydney’s countless nightspots I’d be laughed out by the 18-year-olds and ridiculed for wearing more than a crop-top and shorts. But then I sat down with Richard Wolf, one of the four partners of the Tao Group, which owns some of the United States’ - and perhaps the world’s - most glamorous places to ‘be seen’. Wolf was in Sydney for the launch of the group’s first venture outside the US, which opened in the new The Star in March and is out to raise the bar in Australia when it comes to late night venues. Wolf, together with partners Mark Packer, Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg own a swagger of restaurants and nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas including Tao Nightclub, Lavo Nightclub and Marquee Las Vegas. The 20,000 square feet space at The Star is impressive. Extravagance is the focus here, and the venue boasts a number of different bars and three separate rooms: the main room which pumps out house music, the Boombox for RnB fans and The Library, which will soon be a members club and 14
hospitality | october 2012
function space. At Wolf’s invitation I headed along to Marquee to personally experience what this venue is all about. Hey, any self-respecting journalist would have to test out the vodka sodas and the bar in the bathroom to truly understand the concept. Wouldn’t they? I was pleasantly surprised at not being the oldest person there, and even more so at not having to queue at the bar for 15 minutes every time I needed a time-out from the dance floor even though the place was packed to the rafters - if you’re after a quiet drink and a good two metre personal space perimeter at all times, Marquee isn’t the place to go. But if you like the idea of dancing til the wee hours, glow sticks in hand, to the tunes of some of the world’s best DJs, accompanied by a giant pink ape on the stage shooting confetti from a canon, then this is your new nightspot. According to Wolf, the secret to turning nightclub sceptics like me into regular patrons is an unwavering commitment to the principles of hospitality. “We look at hospitality as our number one competitive edge,” says Wolf.
“What does that mean? When [US casino mogul] Steve Wynn built his nightclub in Las Vegas he allegedly spent $100m. We’re never going to spend $100m, so how do you compete with that? “The only way we can compete is by offering better hospitality, throwing a better party, making the guests feel more welcome, following up with them, driving them to other venues, asking them if there’s anything we can help them with while they’re in town, even if it’s not at one of our places. “So we’re an extremely hospitality-driven company where it’s all about the guest, the guest, the guest. Hospitality, hospitality, hospitality - that’s all we talk about. And we believe that if you take care of the guest everything else will follow, including the money.” So what brought the Tao Group to Sydney? The location played a big part, says Wolf, with The Star recently completing major renovations and rebranding which saw it transformed with a new hotel, a jazzed-up casino and a list of high profile restaurant openings. “We’ve been looking at international opportunities for years now,” says Wolf. hospitalitymagazine.com.au
newsextra
Tao Group’s Richard Wolf
The many faces of Marquee.
“We had a relationship with Lary Mullin [chief executive of The Star’s owner, Echo Entertainment Group] and we danced with each other for a couple of years. We saw that he had a vision and we like to do business with people who have visions, who see the big picture and who get it. He’s been a great partner to work with and he built us a beautiful facility. “We were a little worried that we would be received with a little skepticism [in Sydney] - we’re always concerned that when an American group comes into a foreign country there might be a little bit of hating going on, but I think we’ve delivered and brought a little bit of Vegas to Sydney. What I’ve heard from everybody that lives here is that there’s nothing like this in Sydney.” And while the venue - complete with scantilyclad women posing as mannequins in the windows - is mind-blowing and unique for Sydney, Wolf’s commitment to hospitality is refreshingly old-school. “Any hospitality venue, whether it’s a restaurant, bar, nightclub or lounge, is a sum of hundreds of details, and so for example, have you ever been to a nightclub that had a strict dress code and wouldn’t let you in?,” he says. “The bouncer wouldn’t even talk to you? You felt completely walled off and like you were never hospitalitymagazine.com.au
‘We look at hospitality as our number one competitive edge.’ going back to that place? Well, I don’t buy into that. I don’t buy into that rope mentality. “The show starts at the rope. From the first person you come in contact with to the last person, they have to have some warmth, make you feel like you’re walking into your living room.” Entering Marquee is a little more expensive than your standard living room however, with a cover charge ranging from $10 to $80, cocktails averaging $14, wine at $12 to $14 a glass and $9 beers. But while Wolf admits the venue “is not inexpensive” he’s adamant that once you’re inside you won’t want to leave, and that’s all because of the people he and his partners employ. “There’s a certain sense of wanting to please other people, of caring, of enjoying life, that can’t be taught by us - that’s something that’s taught from birth,” he says. “Opening a bottle of champagne is something I can teach anybody. So I don’t necessarily need someone to have that skill - it’s nice to have, but it’s not needed. “What I need to have is something that I can’t
teach anybody; that sense of wanting to make people feel warm, feel welcome and to please them. If there’s any one thing I would say that is key to the success of any nightclub, it’s the people you hire. “They can make you or break you. We look for people whose face at rest has a natural smile on it, and people who have the right attitude, are caring and have a warmth that they want to extend to our guests.” Wolf’s other weapon in his hospitality arsenal is a desire to always be on the front-foot, breaking new ground rather than following others’ lead. This was part of the reason he was in Sydney, to explore options for the Tao Group’s next venture here - a dayclub. The seven-year-old group already has a popular dayclub in Las Vegas but Wolf is now keen to introduce the concept here. While details were still under wraps, Wolf says two Sydney sites were being considered as potential locations. “It would basically be a nightclub during the day,” he says. “There’d be dancing, music, bottle service, go-go dancers, there’d be a hundred beach balls flying around, there would be worldclass DJs, cabanas. It’s a day-time party.” “Everybody’s doing their thing during the day, whether that’s bike riding, running, sitting at home watching TV, reading a book, but if there’s a great party going on, why not? Instead of going to brunch and having tea and pancakes, you could go to a dayclub and still have tea and pancakes but when the DJ goes on and the go-go dancers get up and the confetti canon starts and we have a parade of blow-up water animals going through the crowd, and someone orders ten bottles of champagne, it’s such a great experience. “It’s so different to the nightclub experience which we’ve all done hundreds and hundreds of times before.” hospitality | october 2012
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chef
The delicious and nutritious Christine Manfield.
chef
The mark of Manfield She’s one of Australia’s most well known and respected chefs. Now Christine Manfield is using her influence to help raise the profile of the issue of our ever growing waistlines. By Danielle Bowling.
C
hristine Manfield doesn’t like to be pigeon-holed. As one of Australia’s most revered chefs, and one who has stood the test of time in the volatile, high pressure industry that is hospitality, she doesn’t feel the need to subscribe to any one cuisine or cooking style. Her Sydney restaurant, Universal, serves up an a la carte menu inspired by various flavours of the world and has been a favourite in the city since its opening in August 2007. She’s also not interested in trends, and unlike many others in the industry, doesn’t want to grow a mini-empire of restaurants or go from being a professional individual to a ‘brand’. Somewhat refreshingly, she’d simply prefer to keep doing what she’s already doing so well and that is to be a hands-on restaurateur, food writer and food manufacturer (Manfield has her own range of pastes and condiments). However, Manfield does subscribe to one style of cooking and is urging others in the industry to follow suit, not so much to create a trend but to fundamentally change how the industry approaches cooking (and eating). That style is healthy and nutritious, two areas she’s passionate about and always striving to show her diners that eating out doesn’t have to be the naughty indulgence that many perceive it as. Manfield says obesity in Australia is “out of control” and believes both chefs and diners have a responsibility to address it. “I think there’s a massive problem with obesity in this country and nothing seems to be getting done about it. We need to have a look within our own industry and the practices that we adopt so that we are presented as a healthier role model to the public at large,” Manfield told Hospitality. Now Manfield has taken her passion a step further taking on the role of ambassador for the new national campaign Good Fork Week, an initiative from Unilever Food Solutions running from October 22 to 28 that aims to enlist restaurants and chefs to commit to offering healthier, but just as tasty, options for their diners. Unilever has developed the concept of “Seductive Nutrition”, which basically revolves around the idea of making healthy food sexier and more appealing, and has tools and information on how to achieve this which will be provided to establishments that sign up as participants in Good Fork Week. By asking chefs to take part by tweaking some of their dishes so they both tantalise diners and pack a nutritional punch, Unilever is hoping the program will start an industry change and a more hospitalitymagazine.com.au
Manfield’s Curry Fish Salad. Image from Fire and Spice published by Penguin Books.
‘We need to have a look within our own industry and the practices that we adopt.’ unified approach to healthy eating. The campaign is based on findings from the Australian supplement of Unilever’s World Menu Report 3, which found that only half of Australian diners look for or choose a healthier option when dining out, but 66 per cent say they prefer healthier options. It also found that people want healthier options but believe the meals usually sound less appealing, are too expensive and not filling enough. Perhaps one of the most important findings of the World Menu Report however, was that the majority of people frequently look for healthy options on a menu, but 72 percent say they prefer to treat themselves when eating out of home. Manfield says many chefs haven’t had the training they might require to dish up food that is both delicious and nutritious, but she says adjusting menu items so that they are both seductive and healthy isn’t as daunting as it might seem. “I’ve always been very much driven by flavour,” Manfield says. “I think the use of spice is enormously beneficial and I think the awareness and realisation of the health benefits of using spices are coming to the fore, which is a great thing to see. It’s one way of introducing really good flavour into your food.”
Manfield has some practical tips which she herself swears by in the Universal kitchen. “I think everyone needs to look at alternative cooking methods, whether it’s steaming, sous vide, gentle poaching or dry grilling,” she says. “Most of the cuisines in the world that have a long history have always been healthy. It’s about using fresh ingredients and not using food that’s already prepared entirely for you. Instead of offering fried chips you can have a nutritious vegetable salad that just speaks for itself and has clean, light flavours. “And using more vegetables, having a mixture of raw and cooked [ingredients], looking at your cooking methods. So if you do a lot of frying and cooking in oil, look at alternative ways like do a quick stir-fry which only needs a smear of oil on a wok. Grilling, baking, poaching is one that I like, hospitality | october 2012
17
chef
The seductive Universal restaurant.
and I also do a lot of sous vide and steaming.� While insistent that action is needed to address ustralia’s obesity problem, Manfield doesn’t believe the restaurant industry needs to go down the same path as the QSR market with fast food businesses now displaying the kilojoule counts of each item on menus. No two dishes in a restaurant are exactly the same and monitoring each meal’s calorie content would be near impossible,
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she says. “That would create a huge amount of work, it’s incredibly bureaucratic,� Manfield says. “I wouldn’t do it, because I haven’t got the time to manage the administration we have to go through now let alone that as well.� Rather than stress over calorie counts, Manfield says what’s really needed is a mental shift in the industry to where health is a major consideration, and a good place to start is portion sizes. “I
think it’s a shift in the way you think, and it’s not just about what you eat, it’s our plates,� she says. “Reduce the size of your plate, straight off the bat. We need to look at portion sizes, they’re American-style, by and large. People have become accustomed to 30cm plates, so bring it down. Everything we do here at Universal is small, we have small plates and you eat sequentially, one course after the other. It’s small amounts and you get maximum impact with your flavour.� Manfield admits that for some restaurateurs, committing to a healthy, nutritious menu could be not only daunting but also time consuming and challenging at first, but says that’s where Good Fork Week is a promising initiative. “Sometimes it takes a bit of nouse and commitment and it can be a bit more expensive, all those factors come into play, but given that people do work within budgets, I think Good Fork Week looks at [getting people] thinking about it,� she says. “I think there needs to be greater public debate and awareness [about healthy eating], and it’s not just about restaurants. This initiative is great in that it will be driven by public dining across the board and hopefully it will just be the start. We need to consider our responsibility in the industry and how we look after people, because it’s about health and care as much as having good times.� To find out more about the inaugural Good Fork Week and to register to take part head to www. goodforkweek.com.au
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Equipped for success
Good-looking efficiency: Colin Fassnidge in his 4Fourteen kitchen.
Now more then ever foodservice operators need to take advantage of the latest in cooking equipment technology to increase efficiency and productivity in their kitchens. We headed inside the kitchens of three of our top new restaurants to see what the chefs are using. By Rosemary Ryan & Danielle Bowling. 4FOURTEEN, SYDNEY WHEN CHEF and restaurateur Colin Fassnidge was designing the kitchen for his latest venture, 4Fourteen, the challenges included getting it up and running in six weeks, and how to make the most of the small space, using the minimum amount of cooking equipment that would still provide the muscle to produce the large amount of covers it would need to. Plus, as an open kitchen it had to look pretty good too. Working alongside his business partners Joe Saleh and chef Carla Jones, Fassnidge designed a kitchen for the Surry Hills restaurant that has chefs working around a central island, and decked out with a cooking line from Waldorf that 20
hospitality | october 2012
features a sleek new black enamel finish option. Helping to dish up 4Fourteen’s grazing-style menu is a six burner oven range, a split pan fryer, a four burner range, 300mm chargrill, target top with oven and a salamander. Also providing plenty of grunt is the Convotherm gas combi oven that both Fassnidge and Jones are singing the praises of. “It steams and roasts, it’s got a computer pad on it so you just program in what you want it to do,” Fassnidge told Hospitality. “It takes the human part out of it, if you know what I mean. “You can set programs in it, so you lock in a program and it locks in the time, the temperature, the humidity, the exact way you want it done.
“So I can set in my style and tell the apprentice to press number one and it just does it. It takes out the idiot.” As a very busy kitchen, and with Fassnidge also juggling Paddington’s Four in Hand and Paddington Arms kitchens, the fact that the Convotherm oven does a lot of thinking for itself is a big plus in the Irish-born chef’s eyes. “We use it for roasting for service, because the oven’s quite big and 4Fourteen’s quite a busy restaurant,” says Fassnidge. “Then the minute that’s over you just press the button and it cleans itself at night time, then we just load it up for braising. “The Convotherm is more for when we’re not hospitalitymagazine.com.au
insidekitchens
‘We had to configure it cleverly so it was efficient and also conducive for the chefs to work in.’
TROCADERO, MELBOURNE
there. You just set your programs, load up your trays and head off home for the night.” Fassnidge says there’s little down time for the hard working kitchen with the combi being used through the night to prepare the ingredients for dishes for the next day’s service. “We braise the Blackmore brisket overnight on 99C - that’s served as licorice brisket with pickles,” Fassnidge says. “We also confit our lamb breast over night and then just pan fry that and served with red pepper chutney and white anchovies. And it’s used to dehydrate our pork skin for crackling, and meringue for our Eton mess.” Fassnidge says he chose exclusively gas for his cooking appliances after it became apparent late in the fitout process that electricity was an issue for the site. “All of our kitchen is gas because when we took over 4Fourteen we had problems with the electricity, there wasn’t enough power for the building,” he says. “So it’s an electric oven but it’s run by gas which means it saves you money as well.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au
CHEF ANTHONY Musarra has been involved in designing many kitchens in his long career but none is ever like the last one. “I wish I could say it was,” he says. “But no, they all have their own different quirks and requirements.” When it came to creating the kitchen for the new 220 seat Trocadero restaurant, the latest Melbourne operation of the Van Haandel Group that’s part of the revitalised Hamer Hall, the planning was shaped by the tight space and the demands of the busy brasserie style restaurant that it had to cater for. “The Trocadero is built for speed and large numbers - it’s open every day so the kitchen needed to be very efficient and durable,” Musarra says. “The capacity of the restaurant is quite high because we’re open all day and also have the luxury of having the pre-theatre trade too so it’s a kitchen that’s going all the time. But the kitchen was a very restricted space so we had to configure it cleverly so it was efficient and also conducive for the chefs to work in.” The back bone of the kitchen is two Rational combi ovens that have been stacked on top of each other - to maximise the limited space - and which head chef Nick Bennett and his team use in tandem with an Irinox blast chiller/cooker that’s located alongside it. “They are the key [pieces of] equipment,” says Musarra. “The combis we use a lot for cooking overnight – they are so versatile. Nick’s using them for things like his oxtail bourgignon dish. It gives you that versatility and speed of being able to prepare and do things in large quantities. Musarra says the combis sit between the hot kitchen and the larder and pastry sections so both have easy access. “And with the combis we have one opening to the left and one to the right to make it easier for the different sections,” he says. The kitchen also features a line of equipment from the Garland Master Series that includes two large format burners, a large target top, and a gas grill. There are two Frymaster pasta boilers plus deep fryers and a salamander. The heavy duty stuff is backed up with some smaller cooking appliances that are used cleverly hospitality | october 2012
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insidekitchens
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hospitality | october 2012
Built for speed and efficiency: The kitchen at Trocadero.
‘The operation of the kitchen is totally open to the dining room - the chefs are part of the dining room.’tc at 4Fourteen by Bennett to streamline his operation including a series of water baths used for gentle cooking as well as heating food for service. “I think a lot of chefs got carried away with using water baths for proteins too much and everything started to be the same texture but Nick is using it very cleverly – they are just another versatile gentle cooking method, not a gimmick,” says Musarra. Induction cooktops are being used in the pastry section to great effect where they allow the chefs to cook while keeping the space cool. Musarra says before creating a kitchen you must first be very clear about the concept of the restaurant, and then what equipment you need to deliver that concept. “It’s the sum of all its parts,” he says. “You have to identify the concept and the offer and that dictates what equipment you need. “You must be very specific and very disciplined and only put in the equipment that you need. Understand the layout and the workload and then only have the important pieces of cooking equpment to meet the need. “Be careful not to over embellish where you don’t need to – there’s so much out there and chefs want to jump on the next big thing and that’s great but if it’s not related to what you’re doing then it’s just taking up very valuable space. “What we wanted to do was to do a really
smart brasserie that did quality food food but it has to be achievable both in terms of maintaining the quality at the numbers we’re doing and in terms of costs. So it’s actually about using the equipment in a really clever way - like combining the combi oven and the blast chiller to create those efficiencies in the way the kitchen operates. Musarra says a large part of the craft and skill of the chefs happens at the preparation stage well ahead of service. “Then all the short order stuff happens when it comes to the service – that’s really how venues that are clever are able to achieve a good product but also the labour costs that are acceptable - banging the food out there very quickly at service time.”
GOWINGS BAR, & GRILL QT HOTEL, SYDNEY When the kitchen activity is on as full display as a part a restaurant’s design as it is at the new Gowings Bar and Grill at Sydney’s new QT Hotel it creates some extra challenges for the kitchen design team. So too does the challenge of dealing with the idiosyncracies and limitations of building a thoroughly modern kitchen in a historiclly significant building. They were just two of the hurdles for the team that worked on fitting out the very sexy engine room of the hotel’s signature restaurant featuring a menu designed by Robert Marchetti who has the role of Creative Food Director at the QT. The hotel has transformed an iconic site, the former Gowings department store in a project that had to navigate through the restraints of a heritage building. Consultant Ken Sangster, who worked on the kitchen design and fit out with interior designer Nick Graham, said the open kitchen needed to hospitalitymagazine.com.au
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The kitchen at the Gowings Bar & Grill is an intrinsic part of the restaurant design.
look as spectacular as the rest of the restaurant but also be highly efficient and functional. “The operation of the kitchen is totally open to the dining room - there is no semi dividing wall, nothing, the chefs are part of the dining room - there’s no where to hide. And it has to look fantastic. But it also of course has to be very efficient and feature all the cooking equipment that the brigade needs to be able to meet the demand and produce the kind of food that’s been designed.” The result is a slick and sexy black tiled affair that combines the latest hi-tech cooking equipment with some theatrical punch in a highly productive space where up to ten or so chefs work at the height of production in the kitchen that operates from breakfast until late. The premium Italian equipment brand Baron was chosen for its quality, durability - and its good looks, says Sangster. The Baron 1100 Series double sided suite featuring controls on both sides of the bank for better access for the chefs includes two griddles, one smooth and the other ribbed, a barbecue top, a six burner range with a large oven, and a frying station. Meanwhile, Australia’s Beech Ovens was enlisted to create the custom made ovens, grills and rotisseries that add a dramatic look to the space, and some rustic cooking methods to the menu. They include a 1500mm wide circular “Magic 24
hospitality | october 2012
Fish Grill” featuring skewers sitting above the grill for cooking fish, a glass doored hearth oven, and a rotisserie oven that can turn out whole animals from pigs to ducks. Sangster says while the Beech hearth oven runs on gas it creates the flavour and also the illusion of being a traditional wood-fired oven. “The wood is at the back of the oven - its just to impart the flavour - the temperature is maintained and modulated by the gas,” he says. “So you can have this very accurate cooking equipment but with the wood providing that rustic flavour - and the theatre. The oven has glass doors so you can see the flames flickering at the back. It gives the impression that it’s all being cooked with wood - and that’s what we wanted to get across to the public. It’s all a bit of smoke and mirrors. But people really love that, that whole experience it creates.” While perhaps not as visually striking, the latest technology in combi ovens also provides some precise and valuable cooking muscle to the kitchen’s operation. “It’s used primarily for preparing accompaniments,” says Sangster. “We chose the Convotherm for its slide away door - the door opens in front of the rotisserie so the slide away door works well. “This is a small space but a very busy operation so we needed to chose equipment that was really robust and efficient but also fitted into the need for space efficiency.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au
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hospitality | october 2012
HERE WE are on a sunny but slightly cool Sunday morning, relaxing with friends for breakfast at a civilised hour. The coffee and conversation abounds as we await our meals. Upon arrival of the food, there’s the usual offering of freshly cracked pepper and sauces before the usual comments and judgements are passed. It’s then that I notice that the plates are stone cold, and before long so is the food on the plate. Imagine sitting on a bench when it’s cold outside? Your bottom gets chilly pretty quick. The same thing happens to your hot food when you put it on an unheated or cold plate. It’s an age old problem and all too familiar issue that has many viewpoints and opinions. While it’s not absolutely essential that plates be heated before serving food, it’s a nice touch. It helps keep food warm longer on the plate, allowing the meal to be enjoyed at a steady pace and not rushed before it goes cold - and a lot less appetising for the diner. Let’s face it; the idea of a meal out with friends is as much about enjoying the company and conversation, not to mention a glass or two of your preferred liquid, as it is about the meal. So having heated plates can only enhance the meal as well as the overall dining experience. One of the many challenges faced by foodservice operators these days is, of course, space kitchens aren’t getting any bigger by any means. However, there are a few different ways plates can be heated before serving that can be incorporated into smaller areas. One of the simplest solutions is plate lowerators. These are a great option as the tube is heated and the unit is spring loaded which raises the plates up each time one is taken out. These are generally available in both mobile plug-in units as well as fixed. The fixed units can be ideal as
‘So having heated plates can only enhance the meal as well as the overall dining experience.’ they can be installed into an existing bench, space permitting. The mobile units can be very beneficial when storage space is a premium as they can be moved around outside of service allowing for the reloading of the clean plates directly from the dishwashing area, thereby acting as a storage unit when not in use. Another option is overhead heat lamps. These are available in a plethora of sizes and options from fixed halogen lamps to adjustable units as well as overhead heat gantries. They can even be custom made to mount above existing benches or even in a pass, where they can have multipurpose uses by not only heating the plates but also keeping the food and plate heated until the waiters collect them. Of course there are many other methods of heating plates including placing them in an oven, although this can limit the oven space for cooking purposes. A microwave is another option, although it’s best to check that the plates being used are microwave safe to avoid cracking your valuable tableware. It’s worth considering that heated plates can also extend the dining time, thereby increasing the opportunities for dessert and cheese plates as well as additional beverage sales. Brandon Clarke has more than 25 years’ experience as a hospitality industry consultant specialising in commercial catering equipment. You can contact him at brandon@kimiragroup.com hospitalitymagazine.com.au
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crucial a s i n so y tive sea s e spitalit f o e h h r T o f e reak tim b r omers o t s e u c n mak he time w p a , s r o pend u s d n operat a ge o indul t y d a some e o t e are r k o sp te. We rs a r b e l e operato l to c u f s s e c ost suc m r u o ps for of i t r i e h t few of e to get a ut of th o t s o an the m ary Ry m e sucking s o R me. By i t e v i t lucra
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festiveseasonplanning
I
t’s one of the most important annual countdowns for the hospitality industry - the lead up to the time when customer’s thoughts start to turn to summer, celebration, and Christmas, and the busiest and potentially most profitable time for the industry. It’s the season that’s crucial to hospitality business operators when the month of December alone can see revenues double and when businesses can set themselves up for a very happy new year. Making the most out of the period comes down to some solid planning and preparation – and plenty of good old fashioned hospitality in the true sense of the word, say some of the best in the business that Hospitality spoke to about their festive season strategies. “It’s the money shot,” says the head of Sydney’s Aqua Dining Group of restaurants, Bill Drakopoulos, about the month of December when average spend per head in his restaurants shoots up by around 20 per cent. “Pretty much from the end of November to New Years Eve is very strong and some of our sites continue to be very busy in January and February but there’s no doubt that December is big,” he says. “In one month it would probably give us more than 15 per cent of our annual revenue.” Despite operating a group of high profile waterside venues, Drakopoulos says he leaves nothing to chance when it comes to ensuring the group’s venues will make the most of the season taking full advantage of the celebratory mood of diners. “Many operators at the end of the year rub their eyes and say I didn’t have a very busy season but they expect it to just happen,” he says. “It’s there if you want it but you have to make it work for you. It doesn’t just fall in your lap. I’ve got more than 700 seats across my venues and we want to have them filled, especially when the festive season is here and people are looking for somewhere to celebrate. We can’t afford to just wait for them to call.” Drakopoulos says he does his marketing plans 12 months in advance with plans for Christmas beginning as the last one is ending with a strategy that revolves around strict record keeping and smart use of the group’s strong data base of customers. “Record keeping is critical – and diaries,” says Drakopoulos. “They’re not just for the figures, but to give you a good picture of what’s happened, if you’ve had issues with your service or issues with your staff, and you note why this occurred, then you can make sure it doesn’t happen again.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au
Drakopoulos says the data base is used to strategically begin contacting customer about their Christmas plans, with the process starting around March. “We follow people up depending on the time of their last function and the type of function,” he says. “If someone had booked a party of 120 you might contact them in March. But if someone had booked a table of ten you might contact them in September or October. “So you have all those procedures in place – your data base, your website, you advertising – these are the prongs of your attack – it doesn’t just fall in your lap it needs to be very calculated.”
READY TO INDULGE How to most take advantage of your guests more relaxed and celebratory mood should be part of your festive planning strategy as well - in the nicest possible way. “Without a doubt it’s a time when people are feeling more indulgent and are inclined to spend a bit more money and it’s there for the staff to not exactly take advantage of, but to offer good service and some smart suggestive selling,” says Drakopoulos. “People will have that dessert wine or maybe add a cheese platter at the end, or go for a better bottle of wine. “If the restaurant is prepared and the staff are prepared we will be able to take
‘Without a doubt it’s a time when people are feeling more indulgent and inclined to spend a bit more money.’
advantage of that, in a very sincere way, and accommodate what the customer would like. Knowing just what your customers want at this time of year is very important.” Chef Philippa Sibley – who earned her strong reputation as a pastry chef first but who now looks after the entire menu in her role at Melbourne’s Albert St Food & Wine agrees that making sure your menu has a touch of the decadent is important to tap into the festive frenzy. “People are in a more indulgent mood, definitely,” Sibley says. “Especially if their boss is taking them out. [Tapping into] that is a way to make the most of Christmas, by making sure you have the options like beautiful lobster and crayfish for people to have. People are more keen to spoil themselves and their families. We will definitely be doing something special with some lovely crayfish - I really associate that with Christmas.”
FESTIVE MEMORIES Sibley looks to her own childhood and family festive traditions when she’s planning dishes for the menu in her restaurant and in the attached retail food store in the lead up to Christmas - so there will be plenty of peaches, fresh berries, cherries and tarragon. “One of my favourite things in sum- >> hospitality | october 2012
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mer is tarragon, proper French tarragon,â&#x20AC;? Sibley says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We use it a lot here. I use it in an amazing Bois Boudran sauce that is tarragon, chives, chervil and ketchup - it goes well with roast poussin or even scallops. itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a classic Roux recipe that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tweaked. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pudding wise there are always raspberries and peaches involved - I do a bread and butter pudding with panettone with peaches and lemon verbena. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s served warm and has the panettone so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a seasonal thing but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really fresh and summery.â&#x20AC;? Cherries will make an appearance on the menu in one of Sibleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature clafoutis. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cherries are very traditional for me,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used to have bowls of them everywhere at Christmas [when I was a child]. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So when cherries come in I will start doing the clafoutis with cherries and pistachios - served warm with something a little boozy, some pistachio ice cream with some pistachio praline through it. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very Christmassy dish and though its served warm its still summery.â&#x20AC;?
MENU EFFICIENCY Chefs also need to take a practical view of the menu they plan for the festive period streamlining the style of dishes being served during the busier times. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to know youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to handle it in big numbers,â&#x20AC;? says Sibley. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to maintain the menu to the point that you can handle it but also maintain the standards and keeping
everything fresh.â&#x20AC;? Writing menus that are built for speed as well as being high on taste is top of mind for George Diamond too in his role of executive chef at the hospitality giant The Keystone Group as the festive frenzy begins to ramp up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In summer when we are writing menus we do make sure they are
built for service to make sure our customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations are exceeded,â&#x20AC;? says the chef who oversees the kitchen operations of the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than ten bars, clubs and hotels in Sydney. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You really need to take into account the logistics of the food that you are serving at a busy time [like the lead up to Christmas]. When you >>
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hospitality | october 2012
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festiveseasonplanning
Making a list (and checking it) When it comes to getting the most out of the festive season a
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bit of planning proactivity goes a long way, says hospitality industry consultant Ken Burgin. Here’s some of his tips to ensure it’s a bumper season to set you up for a strong 2012. • Prepare and upgrade your booking system. Online reservation systems are now expected by most of your customers. This also means fewer phone calls -- always a good thing! • Create special albums on Facebook. How about the 12 days of Christmas? Keep adding each day with the best photos. • Nominate a staff member with special responsibility for picture taking at large events and create a separate Facebook album for each one. Alert the organiser and guests so they can tag themselves spreading the message to their Facebook friends. • Theme your Facebook page. Give the large horizontal photo at the top of your page a special Christmas theme. Share the joy! • Create special deals for less popular times. These could be Sunday to Wednesday, or late November. Times when you drop the room fees or add beverage package extras . An empty room gives zero revenue. • Manage revenue on popular dates such as key Fridays and Saturdays in December or whenever you know is most in demand. Set a minimum spend for rooms or spaces, and stay firm. No discounts in December. • Make it easier for customers to pay deposits with a few clicks online. It’s easy to set up a business Paypal button on your booking page. • Promote and sell gift vouchers and hampers. They’re ideal gifts for people who don’t need more socks or ‘things’ in their life. Have these also available for customers to buy online. Is it only Lucio’s restaurant in Sydney that is going this properly? • Find space for different types of events. Can the balcony be roped off for a drinks party? Or a tent set up in the car park? You can even hire inflatable igloos! Where else can a stand-up event be held? • Make your place the most festive in town: not just one string of lights but 20. Choose one colour (preferably red) and go crazy. • Contact last year’s event organisers. You may have emailed them already, so now it’s time for a phone call! • Prepare for some serious list building. Run a competition to obtain name, email, mobile number and basic preferences.
are doing 600 or 700 covers on a Friday in the space of two hours at lunch time you need to make sure you can deliver, with both the speed of your service and maintaining the quality of your food. “You must be able to cope with that in the kitchen and with the skill level that you have. So we make sure the biggest emphasis with our food is to ensure it’s not too contrived - we just want it to look very natural and organic - trying not to do too much with the food.” A focus on the skills and the numbers of staff required is crucial too in any planning for the festive season. At Keystone the strategy is to have the numbers needed in place early to reduce the chance of new staff having to be thrown into the
busy time under prepared. “We do our recruitment quite early,” says Diamond. “A lot of businesses tend to hold off - they won’t hire as many people coming into winter and things like that but we do the opposite if we can and that allows us to really hit the ground running when things get busy. What it gives us is the ability to train these individuals up and get them ready for the summer onslaught.” Making sure all of the venues are in prime condition ahead of the pressure of the festive season is crucial too. “We make sure our venues are all in top order - after coming out of winter we go through making sure all our equipment’s working well - the fans are out, the air >> hospitalitymagazine.com.au
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festiveseasonplanning
conditioning, the outdoor lighting is functioning properly,” says Diamond. “All little details but important to the overall experience.” The power of social media is being harnessed very effectively to build Christmas bookings by many clever operators who realise the truth in the old adage that a picture speaks a thousand words. “We use social media a lot, particularly Facebook,” says Samantha Brady, event manager at the busy Armidale City Bowling Club in the regional city in northern New South Wales. “I get some pictures of previous Christmas events we’ve done and post it on Facebook and instantly we start getting bookings just from the pics. It’s a very effective way of reminding people and just asking the question, ‘Have you thought about Christmas yet?’. “Around early October I start putting pictures up and refreshing it in people’s minds. It’s a powerful tool for us. Being able to use pictures and have that direct interaction with customers is just amazing. “And we are finding we’re getting bookings through Facebook too now – people seem to find it a very comfortable and safe thing to do, to make enquiries via Facebook.”
PICTURE POWER Brady says she also makes sure she keeps up a stream of food pictures and updates about festive menu plans from chef Kevin Jones and his team. “That’s a great opportunity because it means people can really see what they’re going to be able to have, what they will be getting, what’s going to be coming out on the plate, which is pretty important to a lot of people,” says Brady. Celebrating Christmas early has proven another effective marketing tool for the build up to the real thing in the form of the club’s successful Christmas in July event. The club held it for the second time this year and found it was again enthusiastically embraced by the community. “We started it last year as a way to generate some extra business during the winter – it gets very cold in Armidale,” says Brady. “We had had a few requests for it so we knew there was a market for it out there so we developed a menu and started to use social media to generate some publicity and it worked very well, lifting our revenue considerably. “But as well as 34
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that it’s become a good practice run for the real thing – a way to show off what we can do for Christmas – and also a chance for the kitchen to try out some menus.” Brady says traditional festive foods like turkey and Christmas pudding remain top of the wishlist at the club’s Christmas events but usually with some seafood entrees added to the mix. “We make sure we offer a range of different packages - including all the decorations - so there’s something for everyone, and we make use of all the different spaces around the club that we have,” she says. Christmas is a time more than ever to offer your customers great value and put your best foot forward,” says hospitality management consultant Ken Burgin. “I don’t know about you but when I see banquet menus at most restaurants I think rip off ahead,” Burgin says. “It’s important to offer a set menu because people will want a package but they need to feel there’s lots and lot of value there so that might include party hats and bonbons, some Christmassy fluff that doesn’t cost lot but is seen as generous somehow. “Don’t try to short change we’ve all been at those Christmas parties where there’s not enough food and where a little whiff of lettuce is called a salad. The purpose of business is to create repeat customers and that does none of that.” Burgin says the busy time is an opportunity not to be missed to build business for the leaner times that come after the festive frenzy subsides. “The January bounce back is a brilliant tactic,” says Burgin. “That could be just a case of giving everyone who comes [during the festive season] a $10 voucher to use in January,” he says. “Not a mean little ten per cent but something of value that’s going to be a good incentive for them to come again.” Burgin says one of the keys to squeezing the most benefit out of the festive season is pushing hard to fill days of the week that are not the highest in demand. “You’re going to be trying very hard to fill Monday to Thursday - it’s time to really reactive previous bookings,” he says. “If they enjoyed it last year why would they want to go anywhere else so use your data base to get in touch and remind them about you and what you can offer.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au
festiveseason planning
This festive season Australians are more likely than ever before to go French when it comes to their choice of a celebratory glass of bubbles, writes Christine Salins.
W
hen the corks are popped at next month’s Melbourne Cup - signalling the start of the roller coaster ride into the festive season for the hospitality industry - much of the wine being consumed at lunches around the country will almost certainly be Champagne. A strong Australian dollar coupled with an aspirational-fuelled taste for Champagne has seen a boom in sales in recent years. According to the Champagne Information Bureau’s 2011 figures, Australia is the eighth largest export market for Champagne and sales are growing substantially, with a 32 per cent increase on 2010 figures. Although there’s a great choice of Australian sparkling wine on offer, the market for homegrown bubbles has been flat for a few years. It’s not easy to compete in a market where Champagne is $10 a bottle cheaper, on average, than it was five years ago.
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Lance Song, associate director of Nielsen Liquor Services Group, says it all comes down to affordability. “Despite three years of relatively flat sales within the sparkling wine category, Champagne continues to thrive,” Song says, adding that the segment has experienced two successive years of double-digit growth. Price of course isn’t the only factor, with profile also playing a role. For Champagne Mumm, the fastest growing Champagne by volume and value in Australia, aligning the brand with the Melbourne Cup has played a huge part in boosting sales. Mumm is now the third biggest selling Champagne in Australia, up from eighth only two years ago, and according to Julien Hemard, managing director of Pernod Ricard Australia, its partnership with the Victoria Racing Club has been integral to its success. Hemard said the partnership had
‘I loved the story. It had the complete wow factor for me. They had so many points of difference.’
helped it become not only the fastest growing Champagne in Australia but the fastest growing market for G.H. Mumm worldwide. It comes as the company celebrates 130 years since G.H.Mumm acquired vineyards in the Cramant terroir. Celebrating its bicentenary this year, the world’s largest family-run Champagne house, Laurent-Perrier, also has an association with Melbourne, recently confirming its position as a major sponsor of next month’s Taste of Melbourne, the event that this year will feature another stellar line up of Melbourne restaurants including The Point, MoVida, The Botanical and Albert St Food and Wine. Laurent-Perrier is imported by Winestock, whose wholesale director, Paul Stenmark, was critical earlier this year of parallel imports, where wines are imported from an overseas source rather than the Australian agent. Stenmark’s claim that the provenance of parallel stock is questionable is echoed hospitalitymagazine.com.au
festiveseason planning
by Linda Holmes, managing director of Zenith Wine Agencies, who says “the risk is that you can often get well-known brands at much cheaper prices but it might have sat on a dock and warehouse somewhere for two or three years.” She’s quietly confident that it won’t occur with Champagne Alfred Gratien, which Zenith has just been appointed the national distributor for. “We can’t prevent parallel importing but the thing with this brand is it’s quite small. They don’t have a lot of stock and they have distribution all over the world,” Holmes says. Moreover, the fact that the company is still family-owned, by the Henkel family, is also in its favour. “I have strong feelings they’re not people who would enter into that,” she says. Holmes is thrilled to be representing the company, which has been making wine in Epernay, France, since 1864. “I was looking for a strong brand and I loved the story. It had the complete wow factor for me,” she says. “They had so many points of difference. As well as being family-owned, nearly everything they make comes from premier and grand cru vineyards.” Chef de Cave and fourth generation custodian, Nicholas Jaeger, uses timehonoured methods similar to those used by only one other Champagne house Krug. He separately vinifies each grape variety and uses no malolactic fermentation. The Cuvées are fermented in small oak barrels and the reserve wines in large barrels. Aged on cork and hand-disgorged, they are on some of the finest wine lists in the world including Tour D’Argent, Restaurant Guy Savoy, Hotel Le Bristol Paris, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Jean Georges, Pierre Gagnaire and the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Zenith is importing the Alfred Gratien Brut Non Vintage, Brut Rosé Non Vintage, Brut Millésimé 1999 and Cuvée
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
Champagne Alfred Gratien chef de cave Nicolas Jaeger.
‘The risk is that you can often get well-known brands at much cheaper prices but it might have sat on a dock and warehouse somewhere for two or three years.” Paradis Brut. Holmes says the non-vintage is “not your average NV”, as it is stored for at least four years when only 18 months is required by law. “We’re positioning it a step up from your average NV,” she says. Zenith is waving the flag furiously for Champagne Alfred Gratien in the lead-up to Christmas, bringing out its director of commercial and marketing, Olivier Dupré, for trade and media tastings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“We intend to focus on small independent stores and we think sommeliers will love them,” he says. There’s also been a change in distribution for Charles Heidsieck Champagne, which in September appointed Robert Oatley Vineyards as its Australian distributor. Company president W Cécile Bonnefond said the company had enjoyed its association with Suntory Australia over the past three years but the move to “a more wine-focused partner” would be advantageous. At the time of going to press, Robert Oatley’s communications manager, Darren Jahn, was unable to say what plans were in store, but the flagship Brut Réserve and Rosé Reserve, the Vintage Brut and Vintage Rosé, and the acclaimed Blanc des Millénaires, are likely to become more widely available. Another rapidly growing Champagne brand is Champagne Duperrey, a range developed especially for the Australian palate, according to Michael Bynon, who heads Woolworth’s fine wine imports. Launched earlier this year and available at Woolworths Liquor, BWS and Dan Murphy’s, the range includes the non-vintage Premier Cru Brut, a Chardonnay Pinot Noir blend from premier cru and grand cru vineyards in Vallée de la Marne. The non-vintage Rosé, from mainly premier cru vineyards, delivers a lovely salmon pink colour and plenty of richness and fruit complexity. Both are aged on yeast lees for at least three years. There is also a 2005 Vintage Champagne. Woolworths is covering all bases with this range - it also has an Australian sparkling, Dumont Prestige Cuvée, made by the Champagne method. Bynon said the range offers a genuine and serious alternative to well-established grand marque Champagnes, aiming to bring “freshness and interest” into an increasingly polarised market.
hospitality | october 2012
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finefood2012
Best in show The annual Fine Food Australia Best New Product Awards put the spotlight on some of the most innovative new arrivals on the market for the hospitality industry. Here we present this year’s winners and finalists of the Best New Equipment, Best New Foodservice Product and the People’s Choice categories.
Best New Hospitality Equipment Award Winner: FRIMA VarioCooking Centre placed on its surface. The clever cooking technology incorporating a user friendly computerised control and monitoring system, means the unit needs minimal supervision. eliminating the time consuming routine chores of a kitchen like constant monitoring without any risk of overcooking, relieving a major stress for staff in a busy kitchen. The patented VarioBoost heating system allows users to cook three times faster than conventional appliances, with a perfect cooking result achieved every time due to the
LAUNCHED at Fine Food, the FRIMA VarioCooking Centre Multificiency was hailed by the judges as a genuinely new and innovative piece of equipment that has the potential to deliver greater efficiencies and benefits to commercial kitchens. It’s a multi purpose cooking system that features a tilting pan, kettle and deep-fat fryer. It’s capable of simultaneously boiling, pan frying and deep frying a range of foods, all the while using 40 per cent less energy. The unit features a pan element designed to reach 200C in 90 seconds, and it continues to accurately maintain this heat when cold foods are
The FRIMO VarioCooking Centre.
uniform heat distribution. Even sensitive products can be browned to perfection without sticking or scorching. The multi use applications means FRIMA also reduces the number of cooking appliances needed in a commercial kitchen saving valuable floor space. And in terms of efficiency it delivers reductions in water consumption, food waste through reduced food shrinkage and lower fat consumption. Contact: Comcater
FINALIST: ORWAK 1030 COMPACTOR “A clever solution to an ugly problem” was how the judges described the Orwak 1030 Compactor which delivers an answer to the challenge of handling waste in a foodservice business. Taking up as much room as a traditional waste bin or station, the unit swallows up around seven times as much waste as an ordinary bin. For the business operator this means a neater and more hygienic environment and increased efficiencies of staff time with a reduction in the amount of times rubbish has to be emptied. Plus with the compacting leading to smaller bin sizes, the unit can help reduce expensive waste removal fees. Customer hygiene is looked after too with the automatic opening of the waste flap eliminating the need for them to touch the bin when they’re dumping their rubbish. Contact: Orwak Balers & Compactors 38
hospitality | october 2012
FINALISTS: SAFETRAY The Safetray charmed the judges with its simple efficiency in solving one of the most common and costly problems for hospitality operators the instability of the humble waiters’ tray. Inventor Alison Grieve had the idea for a more controllable tray after seeing a waiter lose a whole tray of full glasses of champagne, a scene that’s a regular one in restaurants, bars and function centres. In fact research showed more than 90 per cent of servers had been involved in, or had seen an accident involving a tray, at their work. The tray features a clip that the user inserts their fingers into giving complete control over the tray even if a heavy item like a bottle is placed off centre. Contact: Safetray Products
FINALIST: HOTMIXPRO CREATIVE The new HotmixPro Creative was developed with the aim of creating one benchtop appliance that would do the job of some of the best commercial appliances on the market - but condensed into one unit. It makes available a series of techniques the makers say are often ignored because of the cost of purchasing individual appliances. The multifunction machine features special blades designed to operate as a mixer and a cutter with the added feature of a heating system that can be used to cook any kind of food at temperatures between -24C and 190C while mixing simultaneously at variable speeds. Contact: HotmixPro Australia hospitalitymagazine.com.au
finefood2012
Best New Foodservice Product Winner: Bulla Dollop Cream Portions IT’S A product that might look simple but behind the new Dollop Cream Portions from dairy leader Bulla is a story of very clever innovation. Bulla Dollop Cream Portions are individual servings of real cream, conveniently and hygienically packaged and delivered frozen for longer shelf life. Extensive research and development went into Bulla being able to overcome the challenge of freezing its fresh cream but still maintaining its quality. The product makes it possible for foodservice operators from cafes and restaurants to caterers and hospitals to offer fresh Bulla cream with the convenience of a single-serve portion control pack to accompany cakes and scones or other sweet dishes. Provided in 22ml hygienic sealed PC packs, the product can be safely stored in the freezer until ready to use, for up to six months after the manufactured date. Once thawed, the portions will keep fresh for a further five days. Contact: Bulla
FINALIST: READY BAKE BRANDY SNAP MIX Offering chefs the ability to make a creative dessert in minutes, Ready Bake’s new Brandy Snap Mix is a soft, light coloured pastry mix, that once baked, transforms into a caramelised, bubbly textured pastry. The mixture lets chefs easily craft multiple shapes and sizes, and create their own unique style. The ‘pastry-in-apail’ packaging means you can just scoop, bake, mould and serve with the process eliminating the problem of broken pre-made brandy snap shapes. Contact: Ready Bake
FINALIST: CYCLONE CONES
FINALIST: CHICKEN MINI KIEV BALLS
Promoted as a “new way of eating”, the Cyclone Cones pizza in a cone product offers some potential new solutions for foodservice operators. Available in two sizes and ready to heat and serve, they come in three flavours MediterraneanVegetable (a mix of zucchini, eggplant, onions, red pepper and mushrooms, wrapped in mozzarella cheese), 4 Cheese (combination of Swiss, blue, edam and mozzarella cheeses), and Mozzarella and Tomato (mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce). Contact: PFD Foodservices
The new Mini Kiev Garlic Balls product from Steggles provides a spin on an old favourite, re-creating the classic chicken kiev as a bite size finger food. They’re made from quality chicken, coated with a parsley sprinkled breadcrumb, with a garlic butter centre made from real butter and garlic with no palm oil, artificial colours or flavours. Sold as a frozen product, it performs well in the deep fryer maintaining a golden look and feel to the crumb. Contact: Steggles
People’s Choice Award
Finalist: Vintage Teas Morning After Tea
Winner: WMF 1200S Coffee Machine
From this specialist tea company based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland comes a range of tea blends designed specifically for morning consumption. Depending on which teas you choose the company reckons it can provide anything from a “gentle nudge to an earth shattering shake-down” to get its customers off to a good start when the sun rises. Although new to the Australian market Vintage Teas Ceylon has been manufacturing fine tea for more than 16 years. The range comes as loose leaf tea or tea bags. See: www.vintageteas.com.au
Unveiled to the Australian market at Fine Food 2012, the WMF 1200S is a new entry level super automatic coffee machine which features made in Germany quality, HACCP compliant automated milk cleaning systems, industry leading energy efficiency, and environmental friendly recycling credentials. The machine allows the user to consistently create a flawless real coffee/milk based specialty coffee at the press of a button by automating the process as much as possible. Contact: Australian Beverage Corporation
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hospitalitymagazine.com.au
management
Going green with images What kind of public face does your hospitality business project? Maybe it’s time to invest in some good imagery, says Ken Burgin. YOU MAY not have heard of green screen technology but it’s something you probably see every day - and it offers some good opportunities as part of the marketing of your business. A presentation on Green Screen Marketing delivered by industry stalwart Max Hitchins recently turned out to be a very popular seminar inspiring many with the potential of this technology - it’s the method that delivers the visual background you see nightly, behind the television news or weather presenter. According to Hitchins, who was presenting at a recent Clubs+ Sales & Marketing Summit that had a strong focus on innovative marketing initiatives, if you want to communicate with your young staff and young customers you had better ‘get into’ New Media (you all know my passion for online marketing). Green screen video is part of this as is YouTube - the areas Hitchens specialises in. What exactly is green screen video? Well mostly when that news presenter appears to be standing in front of a large map or a local icon such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge they are actually standing in front of a large blue or green background, which is then overlayed onto another background video. Because it’s been the playground of television stations and high end advertisers green screen video has traditionally been out of reach for most of us. But now emerging technology has changed all this making its potential more accessible to a wider group of users. Also on the value of visual effects when it comes to marketing was a session from professional photographer Mark Burgin who works extensively in the hospitality industry. Everyone’s heard the expression that a picture tells a thousand words, but now’s the time to embrace the mantra. Your image library is an integral part of your marketing strategy, and the quality of your pictures influences your customers’ response to your business. Mark posed the question, ‘What will you do to set yourself apart in 2013?. “Will you whip out the iPhone and do your best, rifle through the photos from a couple of years ago of meals that are no longer on the menu and featuring a waiter in the background who left in mysterious circumstances, or bite the bullet and plan a fresh photography shoot that reflects who you really are,” he said. For a great new look in 2013, it’s worth considering the professional approach. Here’s a hospitalitymagazine.com.au
quick guide for planning a successful photography shoot. • Establish a list of image requirements – menu items, rooms, views and happy staff. • Research photography styles in magazines, websites and cookbooks. • Develop a clear brief for the photographer. Discuss the shot list and requirements. • Decide on the location, timing and talent (staff or professional?). • Consider the possible ways you can use the photos. • Discuss menu options with your chef. • Develop a schedule for the shoot day - work around your busy times. • Delegate clear roles for department heads and key staff so everyone supports the project. • Ensure all stakeholders are involved and enthusiastic about the project. • Use a talent release for featured staff and patrons. You can then use the images in your new image library across so many areas - from your websites, your social media, menus, point of sale, advertising, brochures, TV commercials, vouchers and promos, magazines, cookbooks, and on iPads and smart phones. In hospitality there are four main concepts to illustrate – this applies to green screen video and photographic images: 1 Food and drink: The food should be shot in a fresh contemporary style. Be guided by what you are seeing in the latest magazines. Select dishes that photograph well and reflect your menu and atmosphere. Use shots of beer, wine, champagne and coffee as metaphors for a great time. 2 Good times: Whether a quiet meal or a celebration. Show your customers having a great time in a variety of contexts. Use happy extroverts as your models. Whether professional or staff talent, good casting and styling is critical. Make the most of staff talent. Remember your family market - create images of shared times and kid’s food options. 3 Service: Show friendly staff interacting with different setups like banquets, weddings, and meetings. 4 The best venue: Show the versatility of the spaces and amenities you offer. Cafes and coffee shops have their own unique aesthetic. Record the same venue with different setups such as banquet, theatre, wedding, and meetings.
The HMDA is the professional development arm of the Club Managers’ Association Australia (CMAA) serving management in the wider Hospitality Industry ‘I have benefited both personally and professionally in my career through education and training. HMDA offers all managers that same opportunity’ Ralph Kober Executive Officer
DID YOU KNOW?.... If you are a Chef, a F&B or Catering Manager, a Hotel Manager or a manager within a hospitality venue you are eligible to join Australia’s premier hospitality management association, the CMAA, & take advantage of a range of education opportunities, representation, and networking with similar professionals. Go to www.cmaa.asn.au to find out more.
DIARY DATES • CMDA 2012 Financial Summit November 13&14 at Liverpool Catholic Club & Canterbury League Club • CMAA Conference & Hospitality Expo March 12 & 13 @ Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour • CMAA Mid Year Conference July 17, 18 & 19 @ Jupiters Casino, Gold Coast Go to www.cmaa.asn.au and click on the CMDA tile.
THE CMAA GROWS THE PEOPLE WHO GROW YOUR BUSINESS For further information: Ph: 02 97464199 E: training@cmaa.asn.au
Ken Burgin is a leading hospitality industry consultant. Find out more about these topics at www.profitablehospitality.com
W: www.cmaa.asn.au
hospitality | october 2012
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management/comment
doctorhospitality Our resident hospitality management
Why has going out to dine become a race against the clock,
expert answers your questions.
asks our indigestion afflicted columnist Tony Berry.
We have a position available as a function co-ordinator, and have been approached by an experienced secretary who is keen to enter hospitality. Is experience more important or office skills? Err on the side of caution with people switching careers. The administrative ability will be handy, but it’s the previous job performance that will show whether they’re interested enough to dive in and get the job done right. Otherwise, you may be looking at someone who is just testing the waters for different kinds of work. Check the resume and references, and gauge their work ethic. If it’s consistent, the combination of office and hospitality expertise may serve you well. Why not let them do a few shifts to see their potential?
“AM I READY to order? Of course waiter; I wouldn’t dare not be if your boss expects me to scoff and scoot in the meagre time he has allotted me. We’ll take the set menu - and some Alka Seltzers.” And so it has come to this, with fast food taking on a highly accurate but far from likeable new meaning. The burgeoning No Bookings brigade is being joined by more and more members of the Two Sittings and No Hanging About society. Both are sectors of foodservice which seem to be doing their utmost to transform dining out from a once leisurely and pleasurable activity into an almost barbaric scramble for a seat at table to suffer an inordinately rushed assault on one’s digestive tract. Those who stand staunchly behind this sea change in the way restaurants present themselves to their customers maintain it’s all for the good. Well, of course, they would say that, wouldn’t they? It’s all about profit, about maximising returns in tight markets, about putting bums on seats. All of which makes sound business sense in almost every area of commercial endeavour from making widgets to fitting tyres, or a hundred and one other similarly impersonal enterprises. But, as these pushers for profits have failed to notice, foodservice is different. It is, as the name of this august journal attests, about hospitality. It’s about people; about their leisure and pleasure. And those are activities and delights that cannot, and should not, be regimented and dictated. True, we set a framework of opening hours to which customers are expected to conform. But within that there needs to be flexibility, a freedom that caters to the public’s whims and wishes. It seems so negative to inform a would-be diner that they’re welcome to come but there’s no guarantee of a table for them. It’s the same with the growing number of places that operate regimented two-hour sittings. It’s akin to those ghastly dining schedules on cruise ships. Imagine being confronted by a waiter – as one reviewer recently reported – who states, “You can have that table for one hour”and only grudgingly extends this by 15 minutes when the diner protests. What happens, one wonders, if there is a hitch in the kitchen and a course is delayed? How do these clock-watching so-called hosts
We want to do a healthier menu for children, but what we offer doesn’t sell. Suggestions? Romanticising what your restaurant is about can interfere with the reality of what will work and what won’t. Many children are used to quick-fix and processed meals and won’t go outside their comfort zone. This is beyond your control. A successful healthy kids menu starts with a successful healthy adults menu. If you don’t have that, it will be hard to do it for children. Have a couple of simple options that can remain on the menu indefinitely and work from there – if they are drawn from your standard mise-en-place, there will be no waste. We are in an area with a large number of young tourists. How can we use them for cafe work without disrupting the business with their comings and goings? The best situation is to have a stable and hardworking staff who are capable of pulling together and compensating for a missing or late crewmember. Face it - tourist labour is unreliable, so the positions they fill should reflect that. Don’t ever place them in a situation where their absence will leave the shift in trouble. Their role should be one of support and backup. They can even perform different jobs each night, helping to clear tables when it’s busy and switching to washing up when things quieten down. Critical roles should be held by permanent staff, supported by good tight systems. Staff meals are out of hand. Do we have to offer them? Meals may be part of a benefit package or employment agreement, and always make sense if staff work long shifts. Human beings need to eat, and if you want the best out of them over a long shift, you need to offer nourishment. Create a list of staff meals that will be easy for the kitchen to prepare quickly. Offer them cheaply or at no cost, and remember if you offer nothing, staff will find a way to eat anyway, but behind your back.
Do you have a question for the good doctor? Send him your queries via Hospitality editor Rosemary Ryan with a quick email to rosemary.ryan@reedbusiness.com.au
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Don’t rush me
hospitality | october 2012
cope with a diner who is a slow and contemplative chewer rather than a gobbler? Such rigid schedules must surely result in chaos within the restaurant, to say nothing of the anger rising in those punters who’ve turned up for the second sitting and found their tables are yet to be vacated. Such recipes cooked up by management would surely outdo any kitchen-created disaster in terms of good customer relations and the building of future business. More and more the back of house boys and girls are being let down by the guys making the operational decisions. If the reason for the no-bookings policy is to combat the scourge of no-shows then there must surely be a better way than to take such a defeatist attitude. All this really achieves is to replace no-shows with no-comers and creates enormous uncertainty in the kitchen about how each day is going to pan out: house full or house empty? Do we prepare for dozens or keep things on hold and expect an early night? Similar uncertainty is created in the minds of potential customers, especially those who might form the basis of a regular clientele. If we can’t rely on getting a table, why should we bother? We’ll find somewhere else to make our regular joint. Of course, there are those who say the no bookings strategy works. Admittedly, those who put bums on seats before all else talk highly of fixed time dining. But it all smacks of excessive regimentation of customers in an industry that should thrive on flexibility when it comes to meeting the needs of those it seeks to encourage through its doors. They’re emotional and psychological obstacles that fester beneath the surface of what should be a happy and harmonious relationship. They can be interpreted as hesitation, even reluctance, about playing what should be the whole-hearted role of a warmly welcoming host. In a world already over-endowed with rules and regulations there’s little sense in would-be purveyors of hospitality adding to the stress such controls bring to our lives. Relax, ease back, and accept the fickle fancies of the great unwashed with a smile. Who knows? They might even come back or do a bit of wordof-mouthing for you. It’s worth a try, surely. For years known to Hospitality readers by his nom de plume, E S Scoffer, Tony Berry is a former editor of this magazine, restaurant reviewer, and restaurateur. You can find him at tonybee@ozemail.com.au hospitalitymagazine.com.au
whatsnew
shelfspace 2
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1 Versatility and fry life with new oil. Peerless Foods’ just released new oil product Pura Sun Ultra is providing the foodservice market with an impressive multi-purpose oil. Pura Sun Ultra is a 100 per cent High Oleic Sunflower oil featuring higher heat tolerances for longer cost effective fry life making it suitable for both deep and shallow frying. It also has a neutral taste that allows the natural flavours of food to shine through and making it ideal for use in dressings, marinades, mayonnaise and sauces. Available in 20 litre tins. See www. peerlessfoods.com.au 2 Self cleaning dishwashers. Meiko has released its much anticipated range of M-iQ dishwashers to the
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hospitality | october 2012
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Australian market. While they are around thirty per cent more powerful than previous models, they’re also more energy and water efficient, with the ability to better remove filtered food particles from the wash water without the need for additional water or detergent. A unique self cleaning capability requires that operators manually wash a small number of components, while the majority of the work is carried out by the machines themselves. Find out more at www.meiko.com.au 3 All-in-one cooking systems. Comcater has unveiled the Frima VarioCooking Centre Multificiency, a cooking system comprised of a tilting pan, kettle and deep-fat
5
fryer. It’s capable of simultaneously boiling, pan frying and deep frying a range of foods, all the while using 40 per cent less energy. The unit features a pan element designed to reach 200C in 90 seconds, and it maintains this heat when cold foods are placed on its surface. Thanks to an easy to use monitoring system overcooking is almost impossible. For more information see www.comcater.com.au 4 Spear some asparagus. The Australian asparagus season is now at full peak after a slow start because of cool weather in the main region for asparagus - Victoria’s Koo Wee Rup area, 65 kilometres south east of Melbourne where 93 per cent of our asparagus is grown. The
Australian Asparagus Council has plenty of recipe ideas to inspire you at www.asparagus.com.au 5 Vegetable preparation made easy. Designed with mobile catering, snack bar and delicatessen businesses in mind, the CL40 vegetable preparation machine from Robot Coupe is designed to cut a variety of vegetables in smaller quantities. It features a large hopper for bulky vegetables and a cylindrical feed tube for long, thin vegetables. Equipped with 28 disc covers, including slicers, dicers, graters and ripple cut slicers, the machine can cut vegetables into various shapes and sizes with ease. Find out more at www.robot-coupe. com/en-aust
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whatsnew
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10 6 Delicious dumplings. Yum cha is a dining experience known for its delicious range of product offerings, including dumplings. In a move that will delight dumpling lovers, foodservice supplier Hakka has extended its range to include nine different varieties such as pork dumplings with bok choy, and premium seafood dumplings. Pork, beef, chicken and vegetarian options are available. Each variety contains quality ingredients, and are encased in an authentic Chinese-style pastry. The dumplings can be boiled, pan fried, or steamed. See www.hakka.com.au 7 Get into the festive spirit. Just in time for Christmas baking cookware brand Savannah has rolled out
hospitalitymagazine.com.au
a new cookie press that features shaper discs in festive designs. The press also doubles as an icing set. It has a large capacity barrel that holds about 30 per cent more dough than conventional moulds and will press out 30 biscuits in one sitting. Contact distributor VGM on 1800 650 601. 8 New gloves to love. Ansell is rolling out its new VersaTouch brand of gloves specifically designed for the food processing industry. The change over to the new brand is part of a strategic realignment of its food processing portfolio aimed at making selection easier for the industry. The VersaTouch range will eventually incude both current and new high performance gloves
for managing thermal risks, fully immersible gloves for working with liquids, and single use gloves for wet and dry situations. For more head to www.ansell.com.au 9 A new twist on an old favourite. No longer solely used to create sweet treats, kataifi pastry can be increasingly found in the savoury entrees and mains of restaurants throughout the world, operating as a point of difference thanks to its intricate appearance. C&M Antoniou has responded to the increased demand for this versatile pastry, introducing a food service pack that contains 2Ă&#x2014;4kg per carton, and is available chilled or frozen. For more information, visit www. antonioufillo.com.au
10 Accuracy in the kitchen. The new 104-IR two-in-one food thermometer from Testo is particularly useful for chefs, as it can be used to ensure dishes adhere to food temperature guidelines and are subsequently safe for patrons to consume. Foods can be measured without contact using its infrared sensor, which operates by scanning the surface temperature of foods. Alternatively, users can opt for the penetration probe, which can be folded out and used to measure the core temperature of foods. It complies with HACCP and EN13485 standards, and is waterproof. Go to www.testoaus.com.au to see the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s range of product offerings to improve your food safety procedures.
hospitality | october 2012
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workplace Get wages right or risk penalties Story continued from page 8 “There is a need, in my view, to send a message to the community at large, including small employers, that the correct entitlements of employees must be paid and that steps must be taken by employers (of all sizes) to actively ascertain what are, and comply with, minimum entitlements. Compliance should not be seen as the bastion of the large employer with human resources staff and advisory consultants behind them.”
In this case the respondent contravened several sections of workplace law, in particular sections pertaining to annual leave upon termination, overtime payments and minimum wage payments. Considerations in this case took into account previous incidents of a similar nature by the respondent, and the nature of the breach. The Federal Magistrate concluded that both specific and general deterrents were necessary in this case, therefore explaining the severity of the breaches. In summary it is important to seek advice and understand all obligations of an employ-
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P R O D U C T S
er. Ensuring that obligations are met significantly reduces the potential for action to be taken. Underpayment prosecutions can be exceedingly costly and despite the obvious, yet fallacious incentive to minimise wage expenditure in this manner, the risk is simply not worth it.
This article was written by the Workplace Relations team at Restaurant & Catering Australia. You can contact them on 1300 722 878.
www.inghamsfoodservice.com.au
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No.685 July 2012
foodservice
foodservice
accommodation
beverage
management
Meaty issues
Service sublime
The role of top service and the leaders delivering it
What an event!
Tips from Australia’s award-winning caterers
Winter menu ideas for pork, lamb and beef from 7 top
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Review
Our diner “ducks” in to Esposito chefs
Plating up
Latest crockery arrivals for your tables
Singular focus
McLaren Vale winemak ers celebrate a unique region
Wages warning
Get wages under control or risk penalties
Trouble brewing Nip staff problems in the bud or risk costs
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