A FRENCH AFFAIR

Taste buds were tickled and restaurant awareness boosted during the first French food festival at The Palace at Sun City.

The Palace at Sun City hosted a French gourmet week recently, the first of a series of international food promotions designed to boost restaurant awareness. GM Peter Birchall and his F&B team expect these promotions to put the hotel restaurants on the culinary map for guests, as well as local residents in Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounding areas.

These promotional dinners will coincide with occupancy valleys and tie in with an overnight stay at The Palace plus breakfast. This first promotion ran from January 13 to 18 and retailed at R1 400 per couple for the evening meal, bed and breakfast.

Putting the festival together was a team effort, inspired by Birchall and co-ordinated by executive chef Peter Washbourne and F&B manager Mark Martinovic. The guests of honour in the kitchen were visiting chef Hussein Chodjai and his wife Patricia, owners of Le Petit Paris restaurant in the Périgord region in France, close to Birchall's hometown.

The Chodjai's came to South Africa for a ten-day break while their restaurant closed for the winter, and spent five of those days in a sectioned off area of the main kitchens of The Palace. They produced meals typical of their hometown and restaurant, including ingredients the area is well known for, such as foie gras, truffles and duck.

Careful planning beforehand, including procurement of ingredients and timing of deliveries from Johannesburg, as well as staff training, is key to success in any food promotion, explains Birchall. "Our goal is not to make money at this stage, but to do something special," he says.

Planning began in September 2001 and included forecasting quantities of ingredients needed, formulating and printing menus and flyers, and finding suitable décor for the restaurant. The chefs collaborated on the menu and sourced ingredients and Martinovic worked on the costing and revenue side as well as the overall package.

The visiting chefs were said to be awed by the size of the kitchen, which is substantially larger than the small kitchen they were used to in their village restaurant. Washbourne made them feel welcome by providing a smaller kitchen for the duration of the festival as well as a dedicated team of four staff. The menu consisted of a limited number of items from the Chodjai's restaurant.

Creating the right ambience with themed décor played an important part in overall customer satisfaction. Martinovic scoured the resort décor warehouse for framed prints of the region in France and even dressed waiting staff in classic white dinner jackets and bow tie with long white aprons. A mini-restaurant was created just off the Crystal Court, usually used for private functions or main restaurant over-flow.

"Food promotions create activity and excitement, which guests love. It also keeps us from getting into a rut," Birchall maintains.

The promotion was assessed from an exposure as well as a profitability point of view. Martinovic looked at how many courses guests ordered, the beverages they chose, and the types of foods they opted for, i.e. would they try something exotic like foie gras. Washbourne conducted a sales mix analysis to identify top sellers, which included the pan-fried foie gras salad (R70) and confit of duck with red wine marinated onion compote (R95). A wide range of local and French wines was included in the menu.

The promotion was designed to persuade guests to try something different and in this they were successful. Washbourne can attest to the fact that South African's tastes are changing and people are becoming more adventurous.