In a candid chat with Franchise India, Chef Sandeep Pande talks about the current F&B trend, menu designing and also about his role at the hotel.
What is the current food and beverages trend in the industry?
The current food and beverages trends include using local ingredients, adopting simple presentations and offering small plates.
How does restaurant communicate their use of ingredients to guests?
We communicate use of ingredients to guests by way of mentions on the menu.
Your expertise includes multiple cuisines like Mediterranean, Indian, Thai and British. Which of these is your favourite and which is the most preferred by customers?
My preferred cuisine is Mediterranean and the bold flavours of Garlic, Olives, and a lot of seafood is very much preferred by the guests.
What all things come along in designing a restaurant menu?
While designing a menu, we keep in mind our guests’ preferences, weak areas of existing menus, current trends, availability of ingredients, seasonal tastes etc. Menu tweaks include live counters, smaller tasting portions, seasonal, local and guest driven tastes.
We see lots of foreign restaurants coming to India. What is the reason?
Reasons to attribute to this current trend are like- increasing number of people willing to experiment and eat out; increased per capita income and a stable population coupled with increased exposure and travel are the main reasons encouraging foreign chains to debut in India.
What are you doing at your restaurant to go delicious by design- creating a lifestyle relevance right from store design to food layout?
I am doing two important works- live counters and involving guests at every stage of menu.
What is your role as Executive Chef at Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel?
I lead a well-chosen team to deliver excellent guest experience by way of providing a ‘wow’ dining experience to them.
What are the different types of cuisines served at your restaurant? Which one is most preferred?
Indian, Western, Chinese, Italian are the different types of cuisine served at our restaurant. We keep on doing various food festivals as well to attract customers. The most popular cuisine is Indian.
What do you do to ensure the quality of food going out to the customer?
To ensure quality of food which is going to be served to the customers, I always ensure there is right receiving, we have a well trained team and consistency in preparation.
Tell us something about your journey at Oberoi Hotel to a senior member of the UAE Culinary Guild and a member of the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, USA?
The journey has been very rewarding. During my journey, have worked with some big names and cooked for even bigger names.
