S pecial Requests Three F&B directors explain how offering lighter food choices can make their businesses healthier. Lighter fare, smaller plates and Asian-inspired cuisine, all topped the National Restaurant Association's "What's Hot…What's Not" survey last year as the "hot" restaurant trends in the United States. Some trends may come and go, but eating light, the common thread among these top-rated food trends, has definite staying power, as more and more Americans favor light cuisine as part of embracing a healthier lifestyle. As a result, more restaurants, not excluding those located in hotels, have incorporated lighter choices in their offerings and have even developed new restaurant concepts to address this burgeoning trend. Cooking Light At the New York Palace Hotel in New York City, Executive Chef James Stanion and F&B Director Jeffrey Selden noticed a shift, particularly last year, in the ordering patterns of their hotel guests.

Meals ordered through the in-room dining menu were being special-ordered en masse, with many requests for limiting oil or fat, cutting back on salt or even minimizing portions. "While there are always special orders, we were continually getting special requests from our hotel guests to make foods leaner or healthier," Selden says. "Jim was tweaking many of his recipes, which started to become very time-consuming for him and his staff. We wanted to think of a way to address this trend." Selden happened to have a great relationship with someone at Cooking Light magazine, a publication that supplies readers with recipes and tips for preparing healthy meals. That "someone" happened to be his wife, a public relations executive at the magazine's parent company. After brainstorming, the couple developed a program to introduce a Cooking Light menu to the hotel. While the initial concept was well received by the hotel's management team, choosing which items to feature took some planning. Stanion and Cooking Light's executive chef collaborated for several months before unveiling the program in mid-November. After deciding on how many items he wanted to offer in each of the categories-breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizer and dessert-Stanion was advised on which choices would be good sellers. The two continually fine-tuned the menu, settling on things such as presentation, serving size and value perception.

They also incorporated some staples from the Palace Hotel's former in-room restaurant menu and made them leaner, by preparing the dishes with lighter cooking methods or ingredients. "We have a lot of guests who are frequent travelers," Selden explains. "We needed to have some familiar choices to show consistency to our guests." To make the program more visible to hotel guests, the Cooking Light in-room dining menu, formerly tucked into the hotel directory, is presented separately with its own leather bound cover. Each of the menu items has a comp-lete listing of the nutritional guidelines, such as the number of calories, sodium, fat and fiber, in anticipation of questions from guests. While there are other restaurants in the hotel as well as a basic in-room dining menu, the Cooking Light Menu is only offered as an in-room dining option. "By marketing it separately, we can really showcase the program," Selden adds. "A lot of menus have an asterisk next to their menu items to indicate they are lower in calories, salt or whatever, but there is no guarantee that they have been nutritionally checked. Cooking Light has a certain standard that many guests are familiar with, and our menu is geared toward good quality and tasty food. We didn't want to put 'diet' food on [the menu]. Yes, they're smaller portions, but they're also nutritionally sound."

Turning Japanese Asian cuisine, particularly the Japanese variety, is practically synonymous with light and healthy eating with its mainstay staples of fresh vegetables and seafood. Morimoto Restaurant, arguably the most famous Japanese eatery this side of Tokyo, recently opened its third location in the United States at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, part of the hotel's recently completed $220 million renovation. "The primary driver for wanting to attract Morimoto to our resort was the impeccable quality of the products and the contemporary interpretation of the Japanese cuisine," explains Paul Grimm, the property's F&B director. "His art of presentation and the flavors that he puts together are really amazing." Because the hotel is also a club with a young and active clientele, having a restaurant that mirrors the image and lifestyle of its members only makes sense. "Everyone here has an interest in eating healthy and wholesome foods in general," Grimm says. "There is a definite movement to eat more seafood, lighter foods in general, smaller portions and even more frequently. Sometimes our members just stop by for a few pieces of sushi and a drink. The restaurant seems especially popular with women." Since Morimoto still oversees his two other locations and travels around the world, he has put executive chef Takao Soejima in charge of the Boca location. "We cook everything from scratch," explains Soejima. "We make our own soy sauce and even husk our own rice to make sure it's flavorful and moist, not mushy. We source our seafood from all over the world, like the Mediterranean and Canada, to make sure that we have the freshest and finest fish. When food is fresh, it tastes so much better and is healthier for you. We also explain to our guests not to dip the rice in the soy sauce, just the fish, which is healthier for them. It's very flavorful on its own." Soejima, who came to Boca from the Morimoto Restaurant in Philadelphia, says that he really likes his new location since the customers come more often because it's a club with a membership, not just a special occasion spot. "We get to know the people because sometimes they come in once or even twice a week," adds Soejima.

"We can explain to them all about Japanese cuisine and how we prepare the food. The customers are interested since they're concerned about eating healthy food." Smaller Can Be Better In response to the trend of Americans wanting to eat smaller plates and perhaps even more often than three times a day, Embassy Suites launched a new restaurant concept, Flying Spoons, last year, and it's currently being rolled out to about 50 of its locations. According to Kris Beck, director of brand operations support, former F&B director of Embassy Suites and a chef, Flying Spoons offers healthier meals and smaller plates in a restaurant that exudes a coffee house and café vibe. The contemporary eatery is open the majority of the day to accommodate travelers who want to eat when they want to, not necessarily at traditional meal times. "Flying Spoons is about serving fresher and lighter foods in a contemporary environment," Beck says. "The menu offers some basic items and other more unique ones to appeal to all palates. And customers can get in and out quickly. It's a step up from fast food because the food is healthier, but it's not a huge step up from what people are spending and how much time they need to enjoy a meal." One simple way they've improved traditional fast food fare is by eliminating French fries. Instead of fries accompanying sandwiches, the meals are served European style, with a small green salad and basic vinaigrette. Portions are also scaled down, which also keeps the pricing affordable. After 5 p.m., the menu is expanded to include heartier items like scallop and roasted tomato risotto and grilled salmon with artichokes. While these items sound like they require a lot of food preparation, the menu was carefully crafted to utilize similar ingredients for both lunch and dinner offerings. And an increasingly popular technique is being utilized to make meal preparation almost only about food finishing techniques.

"We are utilizing sous vide products, a technique pioneered by the French," Beck explains. "The oversimplification of it is that it's a frozen product that is boiled in a bag. Sous vide gives you a great starting part in preparing meals quickly, but then we season them to a high degree, which makes them unique and different. Consumers really want highly flavored foods-foods with an edge." And from a business perspective, the restaurant model addresses two important components: labor and space planning. "Labor is the biggest expense in the restaurant, usually at about 30 percent. In a freestanding restaurant, it can be as high as 40 to 50 percent with benefits, but most places try to bring it down to 35 to 40 percent. We're at about 20 percent. And we are able to do that by standardizing food items, farming out our resources and, of course, using many sous vide products." The restaurant maximizes the current back-of-house and comp services areas for food preparation. And its lobby location also helps to generate sales from local business people who are searching for an alternative to fast food restaurants.

(by:Ahmad Jayadi,General Manager Wingate by Wyndham Hotel and Resort, WY, USA C.H.A 808 AVOCA AVE LOT 17 SHERIDAN, WY, 82801, USA Direct Line: + 1-307-752-9447 and 307-673-0504 Email: ahmadjayadi@yahoo.com

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