Hotelier India studies the implications of serving up a healthy meal on its shelf life, taste, cost and demand.
Today there is a buzz in the industry around putting healthy food on menus.
From Ramada Powai’s zero transfats, to Westin’s SuperFoods and Gateway’s Active Foods to putting this kind of cuisine on menus without any branding, most hotel chains seem to be making some effort to serve up something that will keep their guests guilt-free after having eaten a meal.
But how does this impact the taste of food we bring to the table? Will putting greens and baked items on the counter result in the guest turning up his nose and opting for a next-door eatery serving up some mouth-watering fast food?
Will our costs escalate in our bid to use fresh produce and more healthy ingredients in the cooking process? Hotelier India talks to some experts – chefs, brand management and suppliers who have already begun offering healthy food to foresee how this practise is likely to pan out.
Taste-wise
Popular perception has it that healthy food would be tasteless and boring whereas a guest dining at a five star expects the hotel to serve up a sumptuous meal.
Gateway hotels’ COO PK Mohankmar says that it is possible to achieve both goals with some simple tricks.
“At Gateway, chefs are aware that health food may lack palette appeal so we have come up with some interesting ways of ensuring this. So when it comes to omelettes we prepare an egg-white omelette, fried with olive oil.
Egg-whites may not be very tasty so we include things like spring-onions, coriander and rock salt which add a good taste to it,” he says. The Westin, which launched its SuperFoods cuisine about two years ago also uses a similar ‘tastespinner’ strategy to make popular healthy foods like egg whites tastier.
Egg whites are filled with parmesan cheese and broccoli which gives it a very interesting flavour. “The idea is to pick ingredients that are familiar to us (and also healthy) so the final dishes do not bring a change in the taste,” says Westin Hyderabad Mindspace executive chef Rakesh Upadhyay.
He has made other innovations to the humble egg white as well. Another option is egg white scrambled with grilled chicken Panini (pepper, jack cheese, whole wheat bread, cured tomato and arugula).
Other examples of how Gateway makes healthy food tasty include using wheat upma (marinated since wheat does not present the same tastiness as rice) cooked with fresh peas versus the regular upma consumed, serving fresh water fish as it is lower in salt, serving tandoor items versus fried items, steamed foods like momos which are very tasty, and so on.
Similarly, The Westin as a brand has made interesting combinations of fresh fruit juices that will see demand. Upadhyay shares some examples.
“Beverages like blueberry banana smoothies and blueberry orange protein smoothies are healthy and yet very tasty,” he says.
Other innovative tasty options in their SuperFoods menu include berry, apple and granola muesli, organic eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, silken tofu and avocado and spicy smoked turkey taco.
Their views are cemented by chef Devider Kumar, vice president (F&B) at Le Meridien New Delhi, the author of ‘Just Kebabs’ which details 366 kebab recipes including 127 vegetarian options and 59 seafood options.
“It is a myth that healthy food cannot be tasty. Olive oil serves as a good means to notch up the health value of food. Yoghurt can be used as an alternative to cream or butter. The idea is to replace unhealthy ingredients with healthy ones while trying to retain good taste,” he comments.
A good lesson he imparts is the chicken dishes served in a cream sauce, which can be replaced by a carrot sauce. “We use potato in so many of our soups but there are other alternatives. Chefs have enough expertise – we just need to get creative with healthy ingredients,” says Kumar.
Supplier Jaswant Sarvaiya who is the founder of Fine Foods, which imports ingredients from Italy, Portugal and Spain agrees with this and says that hotels simply need to focus on the type of ingredients they use such as extra virgin olive oil, whole-wheat pasta and gluten free pasta.
Shelf life
Chef Gunjan Goela who just returned from ‘Terra Madre’, The International Conference on Organic Food in Turin, Italy where she made a presentation, says, “In India we usually dine out to celebrate or for something special so we want to celebrate our food.
A simple way for chefs to retain the health component on their menus is to go with what is seasonal. Tasty ingredients that are in season should be used or served versus processed or frozen foods.” She acknowledges the challenge here which is that while this does not affect taste, guests may not be happy to find something ‘unavailable.’ Fresh food however, does take less time to cook, she points out.
Freshness is in fact seen as the key to ensuring that the food being served is healthy. “Tinned, processed foodstuffs are automatically very unhealthy whereas fresh produce is automatically much healthier,” says Kumar.
He adds that fresh vegetables and other ingredients also score better on taste. The Gateway also insists on completely fresh ingredients – chefs are told to cook only the right amount of food to avoid wastage and reuse of food for the next meal.
Mohankumar adds that fresh berries (even the Indian ones like jamuns) add antioxidant value as well as taste to the food. “Fresh vegetables grilled with additions for taste like broccoli and zucchini are very tasty.”
To retain the health value of salads served on buffets, the salad is blanched, mentions Mohankumar. Goela says that supplies – particularly of fruits and vegetables should be procured once or twice every day.
Will costs escalate?
Opinion here is divided. According to Kumar it is untrue that putting quality food that is healthy on menus escalates cost. “True, olive oil is more expensive than butter but also compare the quantities that you would need to use. I don’t see it falling more expensive at all,” says Kumar.
Mohankumar agrees with Kumar that a cost saver is the limited use of oil.
Upadhyay underlines that since SuperFoods ingredients are usually ones that are easy to use and available throughout the year, The Westin hasn’t experienced any cost escalation due to their healthy menu practise.
“The cheapest vegetable is usually the one which is in season which is automatically also the healthiest option by virtue of being fresh,” Goela additionally points out. Another great suggestion from her is to look back into traditional Indian eating habits and identify which of those ingredients are freely available.
“Ayurveda offers principles for healthy eating that aren’t very expensive. India offers so many varieties of healthy food like bajra, dhaniya and buckwheat. Today we eat oats as it is a fad but what about raagi which is freely available in India but consumed only in the south?” Goela asks.
For other ingredients she says hotels should be open to spending a little. “Wecan put tenders out to ensure our procurement teams get the best possible rates,” she says. So it basically comes down to encouraging procurement teams to focus on this area.
This hasn’t been supplier Sarvaiya’s experience with the hotel industry as a market. “Many hotels say that they are not interested or have problems with the cost when it comes to healthy food,” he says, adding that it is mostly fine dining restaurants that show any interest whatsoever because their guests are savvier and can tell the difference.
“In many cases people don’t know what they are paying for, both hotels and their guests. They get put off by the price tag before even studying the nutrition values put on the box.” According to him, there are very few people who can differentiate between quality olives, identify virgin olive oil or recognise good pasta.
“The challenge is that this isn’t Paris or London. Indian diners are yet to catch up. We bring the best products here but procurement teams and chefs are under pressure to cut costs,” he explains.
Mohankumar acknowledges that costs are higher but says that since it is one of Gateway’s brand values, the management doesn’t mind the added cost. Goela insists that such initiatives will benefit a brand in the long run.
“Start a revolution. Serve only fresh food or only seasonal ingredients and develop it into a USP. It will eventually catch on and you could still enjoy the first mover advantage,” she suggests. Upadhyay’s experience has been exactly that.
“Innovative healthy dishes also bring recall value for guests thus repeat business. Guests relate SuperFoods to the Westin Brand and look for it at every Westin. They also market SuperFoods to friends and family which in turn has got us better business,” he says.
In testimony to this, most Westin general managers and directors of F&B have said that the brand enjoys a very loyal following from the local F&B market. Sarvaiya makes a good point of this.
“How often have you heard of people very strict about their health food diets refraining from eating out?” he asks indicating that we’re losing out on a market by ignoring this facet of F&B provisions.
Demand is still small, segmented
Demand is growing slowly. Gateway sees approximately 10% of its Indian guests and 50% of its international guests opt for this kind of food. “The trend is more pronounced among our international guests due to more awareness in that segment,” says Mohankumar. Le Meridien witnesses similar demand – 10 % of guests opt for healthy options on menus.
Demand is seen largely among corporates who spend a large part of each month travelling and therefore consuming hotel food. “As the Gateway brand we like to give them a choice because healthy eating is not a fad anymore.
Busy executives require this as preventive care. It is also the least we can do for this segment of the market that usually presents repeat-guest value,” says Mohankumar.
What’s in demand?
Healthy honeys to replace excessive use of sugar, whole-wheat pastas, pastas that are gluten free, high protein pastas and sparkling water (that is so rich in calcium that it can replace milk) and extra virgin olive oil are reportedly the health food products that hotels are now demanding according
to Sarvaiya.
How to go the healthy way:
• Use fresh supplies only
• Use seasonal ingredients
• Olive oil and in minimal quantities
• Whole-grain items
• Identify healthy tastemakers (berries)
• Find healthy replacements (replace cream with yoghurt)
