Gourmet food takes home delivery route | Economic Times

Nachiket Shetye and Bansi Kotecha have a lot on their plate since the pandemic began. Six months ago, they co-founded Kytchens, a “kitchen as a service” tech platform, out of Mumbai. Almost instantly, restaurants from across the country inundated them with requests to create models to take food to clients’ doorsteps, while retaining the packaging, presentation and taste patrons would have experienced if they had come in to eat. Many of these requests that turned into business for Shetye and Kotecha — who get into strategic partnerships with food and beverage brands to help them grow and expand — were from restaurants that seldom or never delivered before. It showed how even the fanciest of restaurants were adapting to the new reality. In a pandemic-struck world, where going to a restaurant has become anxiety-ridden or bothersome, restaurateurs have decided to take gourmet food and great experiences to the customers. Hundreds of high-end restaurants have suddenly popped up on the delivery map for the first time and a bunch of firms have gotten on to the gourmet cloud-delivery bandwagon.The pandemic was reason enough for hospitality industry veterans Anirudh Singhal, Prasanjit Singh and Abhijit Mukherjee to set up a new gourmet cloud kitchen, Shackhood, in Gurgaon. They didn’t want to sell step-down affordable food like other cloud kitchen brands. Ripped bags, crumpled packaging or soggy boxes were just not acceptable. “It isn’t just that the food has to have topend restaurant quality taste, it also has to come in good packaging,” says Singhal, who was keen on catering to their target audience in upscale residences even during the pandemic. Two months into the business, Shackhood has enough business to look at expanding. Food has never looked more attractive, Singhal says. “Inconsistencies were not an option for us. We have made YouTube style tutorial videos for our chefs on how to make and pack food to retain the gourmet experience.” Everything is boxed in the finest quality cardboard with glazed butter paper. This is not the usual cloudkitchen product, he clarifies. The average order for their gourmet delivery business is about Rs 1,500 for two — 3.5-4x more than the usual. 78972203Gourmet deliveries are especially characterised by customised service offering, better trained riders and food handlers as well as a dedicated call centre for patrons.Since the in-home dining experience has to be different albeit more attractive, Shetye says, it also must come with correct-sized service portions. “Some of these restaurants are not designed for delivery orders and are delivering large-sized sharing portions. It has to be more personalised than that. Customers wouldn’t mind paying restaurant-style prices but only as long as they get customised experience,” he says.As the pandemic shut down restaurants for good for a short period, Amit Ahuja, who runs Asian restaurant chain Misu in Bengaluru, realised that people’s cravings for good food would remain unfulfilled. Deliveries were never a big money spinner for Misu as their in-restaurant dining experience was the star attraction. So Ahuja decided to adapt to the new reality at warp speed. “With restaurants shut, we quickly switched from being a dine-in space to a delivery platform. We noticed there was so much demand for good-quality restaurant food at home that we even opened another cloud kitchen space to service a different part of the city.” Misu’s restaurants are now open but it will continue to operate its cloud kitchen to cater to the additional demand, Ahuja adds.If that does not indicate the potential of this segment, check out these numbers: Before the Covid-19 outbreak, Misu made only 10% of its revenue from deliveries. Now, it delivers 60-70% of its food; in-dining business is yet to take off like earlier. “It helped that we already had a brand. We only had to set up extra kitchens and make newer delivery friendly recipes,” he adds. 78972210While restaurant promoters are gung-ho about the revenue potential of the new model, gourmet chefs are happy to go beyond their kitchens to reach patrons.So when Sorrentina in Mumbai decided to send its exotic dishes to customers’ homes, it added a chef to the package. That way, its tajarin tartufo and burrata caponata can have the restaurant’s signature flavour till the end.Executive chef Aabhas Mehrotra says the restaurant has done about 10 such experiences since they launched this service a couple of months ago and has another 13 events lined up for next month. “This is not exactly a restaurant experience but we’re able to at least bring the gourmet experience to homes. We’ve been getting a lot of queries for preDiwali parties,” he says. The average at home experience from Sorrentina is Rs 2,500 per person. In Mumbai, Chef Prateek Sadhu, the coowner of Masque, says businesses will have to adapt to keep business going. The fine-dining restaurant delivered everything from brisket burgers to thukpas during the pandemic with surprise elements like balloons with the baskets of food. They also hosted tailgate events in their parking lot — customers could come and eat in their cars while maintaining social distance. “Customers don’t mind paying a little extra for personalised menus and qualitative food. Kitchens are restructuring their business models,” says Sadhu.In Delhi, Rishiv Khattar has taken the concept a step ahead by targeting the home chefs. His company, Makery, delivers do-it-yourself kits to customers who want ingredients — fresh and cleaned — so that they can make gourmet food at home easily. 78972230It has signed up with some of the most eclectic restaurant companies to cater to patrons. Makery puts the kits together, with an instruction card, while the restaurants collaborate at the recipe stage. The packages are hand-delivered by the company staff — sometimes in a car to ensure the packaging is intact.As fine-dining restaurants join the delivery bandwagon, pure cloud-kitchen players are getting into the gourmet space.Zomato sees a big potential in the segment, says Mohit Sardana, COO-food deliveries. The restaurant aggregator set up a gourmet delivery service this month with 350 partner restaurants in five cities. “Consumer behaviour has changed a lot since the pandemic. It has created this opportunity for us and the restaurants. And as we’ve noticed before, once a behaviour gets instilled, it is less likely to go away. People are likely to continue to order gourmet food at home even after the pandemic,” adds Sardana. 78972238Zomato didn’t have a gourmet category before. Next year, the company expects 15-20% of its business from this segment. “That is close to double of what it is right now. We will also soon have a dedicated fleet of riders for gourmet deliveries. They will be specially groomed and trained,” he adds. The company will also help create more rider-friendly packaging solutions.Restaurateurs say aggregators charge 20-30% of the order value as commission. The bigger the order, the larger the commission. Swiggy, the other major food aggregator in the country, has partnered with hotels such as ITC Hotels, Marriott, Hyatt and the Hilton across major cities. Some of these chains even tailored their offerings with a deliveryspecific menu to ensure the experience is best suited for home delivery. 78972254The aggregator has noticed that one in seven customers now order from gourmet restaurants. When compared with its preCovid levels, there has been a five-fold increase every month in signing up fine-dining restaurants for online deliveries. Its order value has grown 3X from pre-Covid days.Swiggy even has a curated gourmet selection for its sub-platform, Scootsy, in Mumbai. A Swiggy spokesperson says it has on boarded top-notch restaurants like Yauatcha and Hakkasan, The Table, Masque and Royal China, among others. “The delivery partners for Scootsy undergo a specialised training programme which covers grooming, food handling, restaurant etiquette and customer interaction. In fact, Scootsy on Swiggy has a list of special items for which we provide detailed training on right handling,” the spokesperson adds. 78972268As malls and restaurants shut down, LiteBite Foods, which usually positions its brands in food courts, was quick to realise that innovation was required to stay afloat. So it improved its packaging to enter the gourmet delivery space. Sushi is delivered on ice packs so it remains cold and fresh, airlock packaging keeps food hot, the company changed its menus five times in the last seven months to incorporate local, seasonal products. It also added more “food that travels better”.Rohit Aggarwal, director at Lite Bite, is confident of this business doing well. “Eating out has reduced but celebrations will continue,” he adds.