Chefs make way for money men

By Bob Gledhill

Chefs should not write restaurant menus because they rarely understand the financial implications of what they are doing, claimed a leading food service consultant last week.

Robert Payne, chairman of Tricon Foodservice Consultants, told delegates at a food service business conference in London, organised by CPC Caterplan, that a special team of head office accountants, unit managers and staff should design menus.

Chefs should have only partial input, he said, because the menu was the cornerstone of financial success.

"If you don't get the menu right, financial projections will be way out," said Mr Payne to the audience of about 100 directors and managers of food service companies.

Looking ahead over the next 18 months, Mr Payne predicted more customers would choose healthy options. Healthy eating was not a fashion but a trend, he said.

"Meat will become less significant, it will increasingly become a smaller part of a meal, not the main part. You will see an increase in meat avoidance," said Mr Payne.

Stephen Michaelides, a director of the Penton Foodservice Branding Institute in the USA, said another trend over the next few years would be the increasing power of brands.

"Customers have a mistrust of food that hasn't got a brand to it. They don't know what to expect," he said.

Mr Michaelides urged foodservice operators to develop their own brands and to look at forming partnership deals with well-known branded food concepts.

"By scaling down the size of the operation it's possible to get high street food concepts in business and industry staff restaurants and make it work," he said.

"KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Starbuck's Coffee are doing this in the USA and it could work here in the UK," said Mr Michaelides.