Orient Express

Making more of the opportunities that Far Eastern cuisine can bring to pubs and restaurants means getting more innovative and closer to authenticity. John Porter reports.

Persuading consumers to eat out is an uphill task, particularly in the current market. Far eastern food can be even more of a challenge – but it's also a big opportunity for operators.

Oriental flavours are now very much part of mainstream food offers. For example, Mitchells & Butlers offer a chilli, ginger and spring onion sweet and sour sauce as one of the standard choices for customers to add to grills, while spicy rice is part of the core range of side orders at Nando's.

As such flavours become more familiar, the incentive for consumers to order specialist oriental dishes reduces.

In its Ethnic Restaurants & Takeaways report in August 2010, analyst Mintel observed that the ethnic sector is under greater pressure from ready meals than the wider eating out market because "a lack of innovation and modernisation" by restaurant operators means that consumers see less difference between supermarket ready meals and out of home meals in this area.

Its research also found that consumers are increasingly confident about cooking oriental food at home, and so are looking for restaurants to offer them the chance to try dishes they haven't experienced before.

Sally Sturley, head of food marketing for Brakes, says: "The increasing number of consumers who are so well travelled has encouraged consumers to experiment and demand more choice from typical menus in restaurants and pubs."

The issue is not so much the range of choice available because there is a huge variety of regional dishes and cooking styles from countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Japan.

The challenge is working out which dishes will appeal to customers at different outlets. Sturley's suggestions for testing customer demand include introducing some pre-prepared dishes to see how customers respond. This is a simple way of adding an oriental twist to menus without a high initial outlay, she explains.

Also introducing themed nights offering customers a selection of oriental dishes, and using sharing platters as an opportunity to introduce oriental cuisine, as they allow for small portions to be served, and favourites such as dim sum work well for sharing.

Research by The Authentic Food Company (TAFC) shows that operators are increasingly using oriental flavours to tempt customers to increase their spend. Marketing manager Carly Taylor says: "While oriental is a small category in the pub sector, it has a larger presence in the starters section on menus."

For example, Punch Pub Company's Chef & Brewer brand is offering aromatic chicken skewers as a starter, served with an Asian style salad and drizzled with mango and lime dressing.

Pubs menus are moving beyond 'classics' such as sweet and sour to more imaginative dishes such as Indonesian king prawn curry and Singapore noodles.

In restaurants, the trend is for more Pan Asian dishes such as Tampopo, which combines tastes of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Korea.

Taylor adds: "Innovation is key and outlets need to offer a point of difference on their menus to stand out from the competition."

While buying in pre-prepared dishes has its attractions, once outlets become more confident about preparing and serving oriental food, another key advantage of this cuisine style comes into play.

With food costs and inflation running at high levels, oriental dishes offer the flexibility to use cuts of meat and fish from other dishes on the menu, as well as any surplus fruit and veg, cutting food waste and improving margins. They can also easily be adapted to use a number of ingredients, depending on price and availability.

Dishes such as Thai curries and stir fries can be made by combining whatever's in the fridge with a few specialist ingredients. Having ready to use sauces in the kitchen means that leftover protein can quickly become a beef in black bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken or fish curry special. For example Premier Foodservice's Sharwood's range of oriental sauces can provide a solution. A regular Monday night stir fry, served at a set price with an oriental beer, can be a useful way to finish off any produce left over from Sunday lunch service.

With so much of the flavour of eastern dishes found in the herbs and spices used rather than the protein, a product such as Quorn allows caterers to create dishes that appeal to vegetarians.

Tony Davison, commercial manager foodservice at Quorn Foods, says: "With the added perception that ethnic dishes are healthy and nutritious, sizzling stir fries, exotic curries and spicy sauces are proving popular.

"Caterers should also make the most of ingredients that will bring dishes to life such as cumin, ginger and coconut milk. As well as ethnic cuisine being fast food, consumers enjoy exotic dishes because there is flexibility to tailor them with spices to their liking."

Pritchitts, which supplies Millac coconut cream, says caterers shouldn't be daunted by the prospect of introducing oriental inspired dishes and putting something different on menus. Head of marketing Simon Muschamp says: "Dishes like soup and curries are simple to make and are an easy way to tap into a burgeoning and profitable market.

"Keeping a close watch on flavour trends allows operators to bring popular dishes and flavours from a range of countries into the menu mix. For example, the Culinary Institute of America has predicted that the growing popularity of Japanese cuisine could reshape the US Foodservice industry."

Jonathan Ashmore, commercial director at The Big Kitchen, makes the point that eastern cuisine is ideally suited to the social atmosphere of pubs and casual dining restaurants, and products such as satays work as light bites, starters and sharing dishes. "The fact is, customer dining habits are changing and we're getting more adventurous," he says.

"Travel and the emergence of internationally inspired dishes in supermarkets have resulted in great success for casual dining brands such as Wagamama and Yo Sushi. This means that established pubs and restaurants should be considering how an Asian influence could be introduced into their menus or risk missing out."