Table-side presentation - Top 3 benefits and future food trends

I must admit when I started the restaurant, Platypus Test Kitchen, with my business partner. I had no idea that we would eventually serve soups table-side at such casual cafe. But I am so glad we jumped in and presented some of our soups in this manner.

My Leek,potato & crab bisque in action

The first soup I did ‘tableside’ for the restaurant was a very luxurious Leek, potato and crab bisque; I designed it such that my kitchen could prepare individual components separately, then when an order came in, they would quickly fry up a crab fritter, set it at the bottom of a bowl and top it with a small salad of micro coriander and chilled crab meat. Upon reaching the table, the server would then pour the creamy bisque into the bowl to encapsulate the fritter.

So why did we do it? Well, it just made business sense to serve it that way.

1. Components can be prepared individually - reducing food wastage increasing kitchen efficancy Certain components can be stored in the chiller, some can be frozen and some items, well namely salads, have to be prepared a-la-minute. Having that in mind, it makes no sense at all to prepare the entire dish at one shot; kitchen efficiency comes with the management of processes and streamlining the assembly of food.
2. Marketing and vial appeal of the action After introducing the leek, potato and crab bisque to the restaurant, there was, very quickly an increase in orders. Customers would be delighted by the experience of their soup being poured ‘table-side’ and they would tell their friends about out it. Granted, we did have alot of customers just ordering soups for about a week. However, this brought about new hype to the restaurant and new customer loyalty to the business.
3. It just looks pretty darn good I don’t know anyone who would dislike presentation in this manner, especially if it costs the same price as other similar dishes.

So there we have it, increased efficiency in the kitchen, a reduction in food wastage, great marketing potential all from introducing a table-side presented dish and it looks so impressive and good. What’s not to love?

The final presentation of the bisque

This is not just limited to soups; gravy's, sauces, foams and even a sprinkle of gremolata (combination of chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest)  at the table-side can instantly add flare to your meal! So table-side presentations are here and are here to stay!

What do you think of table-side presentations and what are some of your experiences with them?

Bermuda - Home to pink sand, exquisite waters, bermuda fish chowder and the perfect dark & stormy

It was four hours before my 10am flight to Bermuda from JFK airport, I woke up, dazed from entertaining clients just a few hours ago; the pizza we ordered from Stone Street just stood there, embedded in my stomach like a bronze boulder. That uneventful Saturday morning I almost didn’t jump onto Jetblue flight 1731, I almost didn’t experience a place so life-changing that I would eventually consider it the holy-grail of relaxation, I almost cancelled my trip to Bermuda; but instead I rolled out of bed, stuffed some clothes and a brown suit into a kaki-green duffle bag, took the elevator down 21 floors, gave a passing smile and a nod to my doorman Julio, then I jumped into a yellow cab and I was on my way.

Bermuda - Pictures don't lie; crystal clear waters, pastel houses and amazing people

A 2-hour flight later, I was in the land of pristine pink sandy beaches, immaculately clear waters and, best of all, the home of Bermuda fish chowder and Dark & Stormys (a cocktail) - I was blown away! Bermuda is perhaps one of the most beautiful places I had ever been to and I was kicking back at the Fairmount shortly after my arrival; chilling at the beach, sand in-between my feet and an icy-cold, perfectly prepared, Dark & Stormy in hand.

The proper color for a Dark & Stormy

Amidst the beautiful pastel colored colonial houses, the beautiful people on the hundreds of beaches sprawling across the island and lilac sunsets (not kidding), I did manage to find two culinary gems in Bermuda, which were, before my trip, unknown to me.  

Bermuda Fish Chowder

A chowder so potent with rum and sherry pepper sauce, you can almost describe it as happiness enveloped in seafood broth. The Bermuda fish chowder is essentially a chowder of white fish, some shellfish and then spiked with copious amounts of dark Bermudian rum and a swig of sherry pepper sauce (potent stuff). Although the recipe varies from restaurant to restaurant, the underlying characteristics of Sherry Pepper sauce really makes the entire dish and gives it a unique distinctive taste. I have tried recreating it with other brands of hot sauce, but the taste just pales in comparison to the original Outerbridge’s brand. 

Dark & Stormy (cocktail)

Often been described as Bermuda's National Drink (no wonder Bermudians are always happy) they are served in plastic cups on the beaches, the serving method really doesn’t do this drink any justice. It’s perfect for warm and humid weather. PERFECT for the weather we have in Singapore!!! The drink in itself is rather simple, a combination of Gosling’s Dark Rum, Ginger beer and a wedge of lime, but there’s something special about this combination. Maybe it was the pink sand or maybe I took one to many Dark & Stormys in Bermuda, but I have been drinking it ever since coming back and I predict I will be drinking it for many years to come.

Recipe for Nick’s Dark and stormy Serves 2 

120ml Gosling’s Bermuda black rum
240ml Bundaberg Ginger beer
2tsp lime juice
2 lime wedges, for garnish

Oh did I mention how beautiful the beaches in Bermuda are??? I would love to go back there, perhaps cookup a storm on the beach, hit back 3 or 4 drinks and just listen to the waves and the sound of silence before retiring to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

Have you been to Bermuda? Would you like to see Bermuda fish chowder and Dark & Stormys at a restaurant near you soon?

Video Recipe - Rocket Salad with Tuna Ceviche

It's that time of the year once again, we are all over eating, our bellies over growing and we are starting to bring out our 'fat' clothes from storage. But don't worry too much, seasonal and healthy food can still be eaten over the holidays. So in the very first video that my team shot, we present to you a very nice summery salad which can be served up for the holidays; a tangy Rocket salad with tuna ceviche and avocados.

Rocket salad with tuna ceviche 

When we were filming this we didn't really know what to expect, we knew we wanted to develop cooking videos for Youtube but we didn't have the resources or a proper direction; so we took a few cameras, went to my home, I whipped out a few knives and a cutting board then we just decided to wing it (which explains my sweaty shirt towards the end). Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 bag Wild rocket salad greens (about 125g)
100g Salted cured tuna or sushi grade tuna
1 nos lemon, juiced
2 teaspoon capers
3 tablespoons olive oil
10 nos cherry tomatos
1 no avocado
1 bunch micro coriander
3 tablespoons yogurt
Pinch Maldon salt or Fleur de sel
Salt and pepper

Do try this at home and let us know what you think of this video.

Visual food menus - Do restaurants menus need to evolve?

One of my pet-peeves about restaurants, especially fine dining restaurants is the lack of visual displays on their menus. Sometimes the consumer needs some help to visualize the food before they can make a decision; this is especially so when menu items include rare and uncommon ingredients. I have toyed with this idea for many months at my own pasta restaurant and there are significant advantages to add pictures and convert restaurant menus into visual ones.

I am not saying businesses should scatter a flurry of photos all over their menus, but rather utilize photos and illustrations to effectively explain their food in a tasteful manner.

Beautiful visual menus at casual and high-end restaurants in Tokyo and Kanazawa

From my experience developing a visual menu:

1. Speeds up the consumer decision process Customers can, almost immediately, zero in onto the food items they desire. This really saves time, during the ordering process. Little is left to imagination and the consumer gets what he/she orders if the photo is not over exaggerated. The less time customers spend thinking means the restaurants will have more time to turn tables.
2. Increases service staff productivity One of the biggest problems I faced when running a pure pasta restaurant was having to explain what each dish was to my customers. “what is in this pasta” or “how do the noodles look like” were questions asked on a daily basis. Creating the visual menu rendered these questions redundant and enabled my wait staff to continue with their work more efficiently.
3. Manages customer expectations With a what-you-see-is-what-you-get style menu customers know exactly what they will be getting. I've learnt very early that a purely contextual menu can be a double-edge sword, and it all boils down to presentation. Customers can be delighted or very disappointed when the food arrives.

My first purely visual menu

So should every restaurant change their menu’s to a visual one? Personally, while I like the concept of a fully visual food & beverage world, I really doubt the higher-end restaurants would bite into this concept; especially so if they have seasonal or tasting menus which change very often.

So I’d encourage more casual dining establishments with somewhat fixed menus to go visual! Even fine-dining restaurants might want to consider keeping a nice visual-menu on hand for those hard-to-handle customers.

Left (non-visual) Centre (partially visual) Right (fully visual)
How my menu evolved over time.

One last consideration about visual menu’s is that restaurants really need to do it right; there’s no point to have a visual menu if the photos are tremendously better than the actual food or vice versa. So remember keep it real and your customers will thank you.

Are visual menus the menus of the future? How would you react if there were more photos on restaurant menus?

Ekiben (駅弁) (Railway boxed meal) - The new fast food for growing cities?

I was in Japan for two weeks in November and I had the opportunity to savour a whole load of different Ekibens (駅弁); Ekiben or Railway boxed meal are essentially bento boxes which are sold at train stations all over Tokyo. I was really amazed by the quality of these bento boxes; they were intricately designed with immaculate packaging and on the inside, the food was just picture-perfect. Some Ekibens also came with in-built heaters where at the pull of a string, hot steam would rush out heating the food contents.

Rich seafood Ekiben from Takayama and Kanazawa  

So I thought to myself could Ekibens be the future for to-go or takeaway cuisine in big and growing cities? They are extremely convenient, tasty and relatively affordable (averaging 800 – 1200yen). It is reasonable to assume that in bigger cities such as New York, Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney, there might be a sizable demand for these high-quality bento boxes. If so? Why is it so popular in Japan but not so much in other countries?

For the concept of Ekibens to work it all boils down to a number of factors:

• The availability of food delivery 24/7
  I lived in New York City for over 4 years so I can say this with some credibility, but in New York rather than buying a bento from the store I would find myself ordering delivery or picking up some pasta from the neighbourhood bodega. Granted I do purchase packets of sushi from time to time (usually from Dean&Deluca in SOHO), they, in no way come close to the level of perfection found in the Ekibens which I’d experienced during those long bullet train rides and even in my hotel room.
• Availability of cheap local food
  Now I live in Singapore and there is an abundance of cheap local food here. Would I pay SGD10 for a boxed meal when I can get a packet of chicken rice for SGD4.50? I doubt it, it’s not so much the culture of Singapore that does not permit there not being a market here, but rather it’s the high cost and the overall construct of the Ekiben which makes it feel like it should be eaten in a restaurant rather than at home or on the go. Maybe the majority of Singaporeans aren’t ready to pay the price for outstanding food at home? At who eats on the subways here!? It takes at most 3 minutes between stops and Singapore is really tiny.
• Train or traveling culture
  So that brings us to traveling culture; apart from in Japan, Europe and maybe India, I don’t think any other countries has as comprehensive a railway system. You could liken Ekibens to chargeable in-fight meals but that’s an appalling comparison. Perhaps there’s a market for interstate road-trips if freeways weren’t littered with fast food restaurants.

So would Ekibens ever work as a successful food business concept outside of Japan? I doubt it… However, there is a glimmer of hope in Shanghai, with the massive infrastructure that they are building up in China and the way Shanghai has developed as a city; being the hub of many satellite small towns.
I can see it now, business office workers rushing back home with a bento box filled with chilled meat paos. Upon reaching home they pull the string on the bento boxes to steam-heat the paos then kickback to relax, switching on the TV, opening a cold beer and munching down on the freshly heated, moist buns. That’s one business concept worth exploring.
What’s your take on the business of Ekibens? What do you think?