Prepping for the festive season in uncertain times

This is usually the time of year when function centres and foodservice businesses are beset by bookings for festive season celebrations, end of year parties and more. But given the uncertainties of the past few months, it’s difficult to plan too far ahead – hence the need to be flexible with function menus, pricing structures and food presentation. We caught up with our consultant chefs to find out how they’re tackling the challenge of prepping for festive functions while restrictions are still in place.

Ready to adapt whatever the situation

“On today’s morning news the Queensland health minister is saying it's not a case of if we get Covid but when,” says Gary Johnson, Brisbane-based National Executive Chef for ALH Group hotels. “While we seem safe here in Queensland, we’re nevertheless all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for that next case to cross the border. So when it comes to festive functions, we've got a bet on several numbers across the roulette wheel right now – if I can put it like that.” 

Gary acknowledges function bookings are slow right now, even in Queensland which has been least affected by lockdowns in recent months – “I think it’s because customers just aren’t confident. People are hesitant if not a little bit shy to move forward with their plans.

“That said, we have several menus we're marketing at the moment - set menus, buffet menus, degustation menus, organised small groups, family dining - virtually every concept available so we can adapt depending upon the cards we're dealt.

“We don’t believe in being reactive, rather we are proactive and always have contingencies. We know we need to be nimble, because we're a big ship - if we turn too slowly, it will be to our detriment. In other words, we’re trying to keep all our options open - we're ready for just about any situation except total lockdown, and even then we might get a lot of boxes and deliver Christmas lunches in take-home packs! Even that is challenging at the moment, because we’re not allowed to use any single use plastics - so we have to be a bit cleverer and go with cardboard, paper, anything that’s compostable.”

Packaging and presentation to the fore

Peter Wright, who is involved in a Melbourne-based catering business named Calibre Feasts which provides function catering for corporate dinners, weddings, sporting teams and more, says his team is also focusing on packaging and presentation: “We’ve been looking at little containers or smart little recyclable gift boxes of food. Instead of a waiter walking around with canapes on a tray, which you can’t do because people can’t touch the food, it now has to be more individualised - so it might be something like a small bento box with a couple of compartments, a sausage roll in one, a skewer of meat in another, an arancini ball or tempura prawn in a third. We’re serving desserts in individual jars so everyone gets their own, such as mousses, panna cottas, little gelati serves in 15g cones that present well.

“In these circumstances presentation becomes extremely important - if it's in a packet or a box, it's got to be cool – so you attach a ribbon or a bonbon or something festive, maybe even a balloon attached to it. And with demand going the way it will, you should be getting on to your packaging supplier pretty quick.”

Peter says the number one problem is the lack of ability to plan far ahead – “this has been the case ever since the start of the pandemic and unfortunately we never know when lockdowns will start or finish. Without firm dates everyone in the supply chain is left hanging – and what the public don’t understand is that even when a lockdown ends, there’s a time lag before your business can get back on its feet. Also the service levels have to reflect the environment that we're in and that makes it tough for everybody. But I think people are so used to it now that everybody is very accepting – we’ve all evolved pretty quickly and that’s been one of the saving graces.

“I’m just trying to look on the positive side – it’s like an extended hibernation period for the function market, but now with vaccination rates accelerating the government is saying that once we get to certain levels we'll be open again and we can only hope that's true. I’m looking forward to having a solid Christmas trade and moving into what they call the new Covid normal – I do think the dining public will be hankering to get out, dine out and spend all the money the government has been doling out. There’s been so much stimulus that people will definitely be cashed up to spend in foodservice!”

Marrying the traditional with the contemporary

Adam Moore says “retro recipes” are on trend for the festive season as people’s time in lockdown has refocused their attention on family and tradition. “People have been separated from their families and loved ones so there’s a focus on the traditional, authentic recipes of the past and we’ll see those on the festive menu, albeit in individualised boxes and serving presentations which can be personalised. Individual puddings, sticky date or Christmas fruit puddings in boxes, served with gourmet ice cream or premium sauces will be on the cards.

“I think what will be a big trend this year is caterers preparing food for people to order in at home, and marrying the traditional with the contemporary – barbecue style meals in keeping with the relaxed Aussie approach to Christmas, potato salads and seafood, Yorkshire puddings and so on as opposed to the full Christmas spread. The idea of people being able to share their Christmas via ordering the same food from the caterer, even if they’re not all sitting down together, is one that will resonate. Some caterers are advertising this kind of service already – appealing to families to overcome the tyranny of distance by having a virtual meal together, and encouraging them to pre-order now.”

Building the experience for the customer

Alex Paterson, Operations Manager at The Ary Toukley on the NSW Central Coast, acknowledges that “in a normal world we’d be putting out our Christmas menu right now to all the local business. This year it’s obviously completely different, because we don’t know what’s going to happen - so we might just recycle last year’s as a backup if we’re allowed to reopen our function areas.

“There’s no issue with delivery of product - we've got pretty tight suppliers. The hardest part for us is getting the menu to the customer at short notice - however we have a fully functional restaurant, and especially now that we’ve instituted order-from-the-table service we should be able to create a set menu that will be appealing. We’ll be dressing our table with Christmas themes, but we’re going to keep it simple  - at the end of the day it’s really about building the experience for the customer.”

Buffet style functions were completely removed last year once Covid hit, because as Alex acknowledges, “It’s just not feasible to do at this time. Technically you can still offer buffet style food, but it has to be plated up, which takes away the key appeal to the customer of being able to self-serve. They lose that opportunity to get exactly what they want, to pick and choose.

“And as we all know, when you switch to sit-down meals it’s a more costly exercise: you need to put on an extra chef, an extra kitchenhand, an extra waiter to run the food out - so your labour cost starts going up and you have to charge more. Right now, we’re individualising everything - you can't walk around with platters anymore so it all goes into nice looking containers. That said, we’ve got the opportunity right now to work towards bigger and better for next year and look at how we can deliver a more innovative style of food presentation.”

Looking forward to the challenge of opening up

Markus Werner, Corporate Executive Chef for Delaware North Australia, says with the end of lockdowns on the horizon, “everything is starting to amp up”, but notes that at the same time “you can’t take too many risks”. “Our full timers are all coming back on board next week and bookings are not looking too bad, but the downside is the number of casual workers who have left the industry. It has been heartbreaking to have to tell staff that they’re being stood down at short notice, but at the end of the day our hands have been tied by the repeated lockdowns.

“If you have 200 casuals and you tell them, yes, come in, we’re all back to normal, and then you’re told at 10pm that you need to lock down again by midnight, it’s understandable that those people will make the decision to leave the industry and find other work. They can’t afford to gamble with their income, they have to do the best thing for their families – even people I’ve worked with for years have had to leave. Many of these folk are passionate chefs, but they’ve found something in different fields, and often it pays better too. So all I can do is appeal to their sense of job satisfaction: are you still happy when you come home at the end of the day, or do you miss hospitality, the camaraderie and the teamwork and the social aspect?

“Hospitality is built on teamwork and this is lost when you haven’t had a team together for the past two years. We build close connections, close relationships – we like to entertain as much out of the business as in, if we’re not serving food to somebody then we’re serving it to each other or going out together. None of this has happened for almost two years so there is a lot of rebuilding to do and it will take a long time. Having said that, I think everyone in hospitality has been pushing so hard to reach this latest goal of 80 per cent vaccination, we all understand that’s the target, but once we hit that we need to be able to push ahead.”

Markus says that in the short term, the pressure will be on the fulltimers to get everything up and running – “there’s going to be last minute call-outs, we know there’s a staff shortage so everything will have to be last minute, because I can’t guarantee work two weeks in advance. So we’re taking a kind of gamble and only buying in what we really need. It might be a little bit difficult to get ingredients, but I don’t think more than a fortnight’s gone by when I haven’t called our suppliers and had a chat. They know exactly where I’m standing so it won’t be a surprise if I call them at short notice. They’re part of the industry too, it’s part of their life and they know what we’re going through. Having those relationships in place means you can rely on each other and this is very important.

“At the end of the day I don’t want to be negative – I personally can’t wait, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of opening up. Maybe I’ll have to work harder – realistically, we know it’s going to be tough – but this is what we’re living for, so bring on the twelve to fourteen hour days and we’ll make it work! I’ve always enjoyed cooking and entertaining, I never really think of it as work – that was what got me into the industry in the first place. I suppose my family will miss not having me around so much and my dog will miss not being walked twice a day, but I can’t wait to raise a glass in the restaurant and meet up with everybody again!”