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AUG. SEP. 2020 XIV the purposes of marginality, unless you can control the food cost well. “The buffet is a formula that bar and restaurant managers like a lot,” says Mattia D’Avolio, F&B Manager & Co-Founder of Cornermanager, a consulting firm in the food sector, “but it must be well managed or it risks becoming a loss. It’s true that it saves in terms of personnel, but it risks exploding the food cost if you can’t design the offer correctly and precisely quantify the food to be prepared so as to avoid leftovers. In my experience, in 80% of cases it is difficult to control this cost item and therefore the buffet risks being at a loss. A restaurant working from breakfast to after dinner can afford to manage this loss, but if the buffet is the strong point of the offer, then it must necessarily be managed perfectly. Many club managers believe that they can margin with the buffet by “playing” on the sale of drinks, but this is not the case if you do not control the cost of the food well. This also applies to brunch and, in general, to all-you-can-eat formulas. The sales price must be established according to the number of places you plan to cover and the food&beverage offer you set. To ensure marginality by offering a quality product, for the composition of its buffet, an activity should prefer cereals and vegetables proposed with special and attractive recipes. With regard to fish and meat, instead, it is preferable to use a smaller quantity but ensuring a high-quality level”. The ban imposed on organizing free service buffets can therefore become an opportunity to improve cost management. “The buffet formula,” explains D’Avolio, “ is very attractive to customers, that’s why it is very practical despite the risks I was talking about. It can be improved and made safer for COVID prevention purposes by using small Plexiglas covers or cloches to prevent customers from coming into direct contact with food. An attendant must take care of the preparation of the dish, in order to control the portions as well. However, I propose to my customers to prepare express dishes or dishes already composed by the kitchen, this allows to better control the quality and, consequently, the costs, and to serve them at the tables. Another advice may be to propose recipes that can be kept for a few days or to use technologies such as vacuum technology, so you can rework what is left over. Not only restaurants, but also hotels need to rethink their methods of service, especially at breakfast time. “Here too,” explains the expert, “you can opt for the buffet served. Compared to a restaurant, the hotel is favoured in calculating the portions to be prepared because it can be based on reservations and attendance history. Since for many hotels, especially those in the city, linked to business tourism, bookings are falling, buffets could be avoided altogether, serving directly at the tables. The aperitif could also be managed à la carte”. THE EXPERIENCE OF A HOTEL In the Pineta Resort Hotel in Tavon di Predaia, in Trentino (Val di Non), the buffet is at the centre of the gastronomic offer: at breakfast, for light lunch and for snacks provided by the ¾ board formula, for appetizers, side dishes and cheese served at dinner. The hotel has therefore had to completely rethink its offer. Fortunately, we have reopened in full swing,” explains Andreas Sicher, owner of the hotel, “and we have organised ourselves in such a way as to guarantee maximum security for our guests, without ‘hospitalising’ our spaces and services. Obviously, we have rethought our catering proposal, revising the buffet arrangements, to guarantee safety while safeguarding the experience for the guest. We have structured ourselves in a different way at different times of the day”. At breakfast, as soon as the guest enters the room, he communicates the room number to the operator and receives a number. When he arrives at the table he finds a sheet of paper where he can write down the order for hot drinks and express food (for example omelettes, toast...). When it is his turn (maximum two people at a time) he goes to the buffet counter where he delivers the order sheet and chooses the products presented at the buffet behind a Plexiglas panel. The dishes are prepared by a waiter and taken directly to the table. “For lunch and snacks,” continues Sicher, “we have chosen a similar solution, unlike the dishes prepared by the waiter on the guest’s instructions, they are passed through a Plexiglas slit and the guest brings them directly to the table. To facilitate the sanitization in these two moments we ask everyone to bring the used dishes on a clearing table. For dinner, instead, we have chosen to abolish the buffet. We have added to the menu a gourmet appetizer that we serve at the table and leave a wide choice of side dishes and cheese, however served. All these measures have brought us more order to the meal times and a better service. Our guests have appreciated the changes”. NEW FORMS OF HAPPY HOUR But let’s come to the aperitif, where there is no lack of alternative solutions to the buffet, such as the one that has been adopted by Chinese Box, a trendy place in one of the streets of the Milanese nightlife, Corso Garibaldi. “We have been in the sector for 25 years,” says Luca Hu, General Manager of the restaurant, “and we have experienced all the evolution of the buffet aperitif, since the nineties. Now we no longer hold the buffet at the counter, but we make the aperitif with dishes served directly at the tables. In addition, the waiters go around with trays with additional daily specials, which are offered at the tables during the evening”. The clientele appreciates this formula, even if the target is changed compared to the free service buffet. “We still work well,” he says, “addressing those who prefer a better service. Of course, it is no longer possible to have the mass of customers we had in the pre-Covid, but the environment is tidier and we are sure to guarantee safety. We have kept prices at pre-Covid levels and we are able to guarantee a wide variety of proposals, at a higher level than when we did the classic self-service buffet. In fact, we prepare fewer pizzas and focaccia, but more gourmet dishes, such as meatballs or salmon tartare. In this way we are able to satisfy our MAGAZINE