Innovation and creativity is the biggest strength of any business. The restaurant business is one such business that demands continuous innovation and creativity in its offerings. To meet such demands, chefs and restaurateurs continuously work on delivering the best experience on the table. From serving the freshest, homegrown, locally sourced ingredients on the menu to playing around with presentation and offerings to bring out the best on the table. Not only this, these days there are many restaurants that have their in-house farm and plating centers to work on the innovation and creativity around food.

“Menu innovation is very close to a chef's heart and they spend 80-90 percent of their time innovating. When we were growing, it was said that the one who innovates more, succeeds more,” shared Vineet Manocha, Senior VP- Culinary, Lite Bite Foods, and further said that innovation is the benchmark for a chef for being successful and not successful.

What’s Innovation?

“Anything new on the menu is innovation, anything which people haven’t seen before, not done before is innovation,” mentioned Manish Mehrotra, Corporate Chef, Indian Accent for whom innovation can come from anywhere; people and places.

Commenting on the same, Mayank Tiwari, Group Executive Chef at PVR Cinemas said, “Innovation comes from feedback, seasonality, and other factors that we are all aware of in our realm of operation. The whole scope of being able to put the boundaries and try and do something which is different and yet engaging is innovation.”

Though, for many innovations can be seasonality, a new way of doing things, experimentation at large, or just a simply put menu but there’s no denying that it’s an integral part of the restaurant ecosystem.

Also, as per a recent report by Restaurantindia.in, with growing consumer acceptance as newer generations view restaurants as a partner in their at-home meal prep. As per the survey, Gen Z adults are more likely to incorporate restaurant-prepared items into meals made at home than they were before the pandemic.

“Menu innovation is a very integral part of a restaurant where a customer who comes out from his home doesn’t want to eat the same food that they can easily eat at their home. So, they have come to a restaurant where they can try something different, in an innovative way,” added Vaibhav Bhargava of CHO mentioning that it could be a presentation or seasonal ingredient.

However, for Michelin-starred Chef Atul Kochhar, innovation is always like fashion, a new note of music, and in chefs terms seasonality. “I always get excited with change in season and that’s what lead me to decide what to do. Sometimes you have to keep up with the market but you don’t have to follow the trend always. If you want to be a trendsetter you do something that people follow you,” he explained.

Collaborative Innovation

“From a company standpoint, innovation for us has two angles - first is the product innovation and the other is an innovation by application. For us chefs play a very key role,” added Jinraj Adyanthaya, Branch Operations Head for OOH Business (NORTH India) - Nestle India Ltd that recently partnered with KFC India and launched Maggi bowl with chicken popcorn. The group also joined hands with McDonald’s to launch KitKat Mcflurry, and that’s where collaboration and innovation take place.

“PepsiCo in India is a challenger brand if I look at last two decades and very closely last 5 years, the two innovations that have really done well in this country is Mountain Dew and Sting that has happened at the product level,” shared Shailee Chatrath Tyagi, Sales Director - Organised Trade Channels, Pepsico India Beverages that has also partnered with KFC to launch Doritos popcorn range and it became a part of the pop culture and Gen Z specifically who want to have fusion.