BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Awards and Summit 2017 was held in The Leela Ambience Gurugram on 23rd and 24th March 2017. The theme of the conclave was 'Ramping up for the Future'.
A post lunch panel discussion on the 23rd March was based around getting the supply chain right for International food products.
The panel saw industry experts from all the domains in the hospitality industry.
Sahil Sablok (Executive Chef, The Claridges ), Manisha Bhasin (Senior Executive Chef, ITC Maurya), Keith Sunderlal (India Representative, California Walnuts Commission), Abhishek Basu (Executive Chef, The Park Hotel New Delhi), Michael Swamy (Owner and Chef Patron, Nueva), Neeraj Tyagi (Executive Chef, Shangri-La's Eros Hotel New Delh) were part of the panel.
The session started with the thought of how the times are changing and with this the demands of the consumers. Consumers now want traceability of the ingredients. The chefs are looking for fresh products and mainly home grown. This raises a conflict in the idea of procurement of the ingredients for hotels. This has become a heated debate among the industry veterans.
"As a chef I am looking mainly at home grown ingredients, to serve to the consumers. Now with the new FSSAI regulations we know where every ingredient is sourced which gives a better credibility," said Manisha Bhasin.
Keith Sunderlal stressed on the idea that there is a need to serve everything around the year for consumers. "Consumers want each and every fruit round the year, they do not care what season it is. As a businessman, it is my duty to serve what they want and if that requires imports from any country of the world I will not hesitate in doing so," he said.
Sahil Sablok stated that the biggest challenge right now is to get the right quality of global ingredients. "We need to get the right kind of ingredients for our hotels, which is a problem because of the low shelf life of the products. The supply chain is complex and the demand is very niche," he added.
