The year that was – how we’ve fared and what we’ve learnt

This year has been a trying one for all of us – a year marked by hardship, social upheaval and personal and professional loss. For many foodservice professionals, the effect on business and livelihoods has been profound. Yet it has also been a year in which innovation and adaptability have come to the fore, with foodservice businesses moving swiftly to identify and exploit new sales channels so as to weather the storms of lockdowns and limits to dine-in service wrought by social distancing restrictions.

We have seen local communities rally around and offer their support in a new recognition of the value of the hospitality market and how it enriches us all, not just with sustenance but in providing an essential avenue for social interaction. As we look forward in the hope of a better and brighter year ahead, we’ve asked some well known industry figures to share their impressions of how 2020 has changed the foodservice market and what positives they see as having come out of the experience.

“The decision in early November to reopen restaurants in Melbourne and allow more customers inside as we move closer to Christmas has provided a way forward for Victoria, and across many other states around the country the hospitality industry is in a further stage of recovery,” points out Wes Lambert, Chief Executive of Restaurant & Catering Australia.

“We’ll see some initial change as the state borders reopen, but the longer term recovery won’t be until international borders reopen, which we don’t expect will be the case until 2021. That’s mainly due to second and third wave Covid cases around the world and countries with low case numbers remaining open to those with high case numbers. So we expect a cautious approach to be taken with regard to tourism and that will put some downward pressure on hospitality overall.

“We do expect to bounce back later in 2021 but inevitably there will be some closures. There will also be a lot of consolidation in the industry, as landlords seek to get abandoned tenancies released – they’ll likely lease them to groups with the working capital and asset base to enable them to run them effectively even in a slightly depressed industry. We also expect menu prices to continue at elevated levels due to input costs being higher. Delivery, which was eight per cent of dining pre-Covid and peaked at 100 per cent during lockdown, has come down to between 25 and 30 per cent, and we expect it to stay there given dining habits have now changed.”

Mark Normoyle, chef/restaurateur of Luna’s Food and Wine Bar St Kilda and the resident mentor for the Proud to Be a Chef mentoring program, has seen first hand how hard Victoria has been hit, but has been encouraged by the support offered from around the country. “Our chefs associations and networks have been working overtime to hold out a hand and help each other, especially here in Victoria where if people have had a couple of days to spare they’ve gone out to help others keep their doors open for no pay. Restaurateurs have put aside their friendly rivalries to work together and help get as many professionals through this as possible.

“We’ve also seen initiatives where chefs have developed new take-home ranges which they’ve actually delivered to customers themselves rather than going through the major delivery platforms. It’s been so heartwarming to know that customers are supporting us – we talk to people who come in and they’re always asking how we’re doing and encouraging us to hang in there. That kind of positive feedback has been amazing and so important and helpful.”

Consultant chef Adam Moore of Chef’s Milk Crate says 2020 has provided an opportunity for society to “reset and reconnect”: “People have started connecting with each other again more than in the past 15-20 years, we’ve seen more empathy, we’ve become more creative and even the earth has started healing itself with animals coming back out in nature. If you look at history, many of our greatest innovations happened during our darkest hours and this is still the case today. We needed to reset our industry because we’ve had chefs working far longer hours than they should have.

“Fine dining is dead right now and polished casual is set to be the new norm. Instead of a 10 page menu we’ve gone down to one or two pages but we’re delivering better quality product. Chefs have been making life decisions to better themselves in their careers. All these have been positive changes and I think this year will go down as the time when the world changed. The new normal can be a step forward in so many ways, and as a nation we’re probably going to bounce back stronger than any other in the world.”

Alex Patterson, Executive Chef at The Ary Toukley on the NSW Central Coast, says 2021 will be all about recovery and evolving foodservice business models. “Our club would never have thought about offering takeaway or even contactless dining with no menus, but this is what the new normal has wrought. Our key focus has been to increase our footprint in the local community and offer all we could in terms of support during Covid. On the other side of that, we’ve got people coming in and talking about how we went out of our way to phone them and check in on them – the older patrons in particular really appreciated that and keep letting us know. 

“Being able to give back to the community has been a great feeling – it’s always been embedded into the club market ethos, but it’s even stronger now, definitely front of mind and we’re pretty proud of that here. Working in an RSL is all about looking after your elderly, your youth and your community and as a result I think clubs really have earned a lot of respect.”

Alex adds that business right now remains down about 19 per cent on the same time last year – “this is down to the 1.5sqm rule, in that we can only allow 300 people in the club right now. We used to sit 200 in the restaurant and now we can only take bookings for 120 max. So we’ve had to adapt – our takeaway business is going well and is definitely going to be part of our future. We’re offering the full menu as a takeaway option – we had to invest a lot into the packaging and gear and we had a limited menu at first but people slowly started asking for more and more so we decided to just go for it!

Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef for ALH Group which operates more than 340 hotels nationally, says business now is “as back to normal as we can be under the circumstances,” adding: “We’re somewhat down on capacity due to social distancing, but hopefully beginning to make Covid a distant memory. We’ve had to reconfigure our dining areas but outdoor areas have been a little easier to manage and especially in Queensland we’ve had good weather so have been able to use outdoor for dinner as well as during the day and that’s worked to our advantage. Our indoor areas have all been redesigned so we can abide by the 1.5sqm rule – people can’t drink at the bar, they have to stay seated. All shifts have an appointed Covid Marshal who is responsible for ensuring everyone is complying with social distancing and all safety measures are being adhered to. So we’ve been able to keep our patrons well spread out in our venues. The support from customers has been great – everyone wants to be out and having a good time, so most people are willing to do the right thing.

“The pub is still one of the social hubs of any community, they’re not going to die out, but we will need to reinvent ourselves from a trust perspective so that our seniors don’t develop into a new generation of hermits. Seniors have always been the demographic that have kept the Monday to Thursday pub market afloat – we do 50 per cent of our business on weekends, but the remainder has to come from families and seniors throughout the week so our focus right now is to make sure we can reassure those customers and keep them coming through our doors. Part of that also is building a greater expectation and awareness of the food side of what pubs have to offer.”

Markus Werner, Corporate Executive Chef at Delaware North Australia which operates a wide range of hospitality venues, says Melbourne’s reputation as Australia’s food capital has taken a beating and a lot of work needs to be done to “bring the magic back”: “Melbourne has been seen as the centre of innovation in food and the saying was that if you can make it as a chef in Melbourne you can make it in the rest of Australia. That, and the fact that it was international and multicultural, is why I moved here and why a lot of my colleagues moved here and now we need to build it back up again. Normally you see any new food trends in Melbourne first, and if we lose our momentum in embracing the innovative, it will be a sad day. I know from talking to colleagues that recently we’ve lost a lot of young, very talented chefs because they couldn’t wait this long for businesses to reopen, so they moved to other capitals like Brisbane or even went back overseas because they had no ties to Australia. So I would hope we can open our borders as quickly as possible and let our sponsor Visas start coming back in, and hopefully be a little more open to them so we can get those influencers coming back.”

Markus adds that in addition to opening our borders to those seeking culinary schooling at lower levels, we also need to bring in the middle management of the kitchen brigade, as they typically have a strong drive to expand their horizons. “Chefs tend to do a lot of travelling in their middle management years so they can get as many different techniques under their belt as possible - that helps them develop their own food style and then they make up their mind where they want to settle. We’ve even had quite a few senior chefs settle here who have embraced our great Australian and particularly Victorian produce and combined them with their own national influences and techniques to create a fresh spin. Just think of [Peruvian restaurant] Pastuso – you couldn’t find a better food and beverage ambassador for Gippsland than Alejandro Saravia, yet he has brought his Peruvian influences to the table, and this kind of synergy is what has always made Melbourne a great food destination. So I think we need to encourage this trend and make it even stronger in the future.”