Coronavirus shrinks menu at hotels

Hyderabad: Corona pandemic is having its effect on menu and preparations in noted hotels and restaurants in the twin cities. A majority of hotels now have a special and shortened menu with names of just 50 recipes and dishes.

This special menu fits a single page akin to the size of a pamphlet. This is very different from the customary practice followed by these hotels where the menu card used to be of in the form of a folded booklet with leaflets of various kinds of cuisines and special recipes under it.

Elaborating details, Ashok Hemrajani, founder and vice-president of a popular Group of Hotels, stated that a special menu with limited dishes was the order of the day at present. This method is being followed by hotels to avoid wastage of food in the kitchens. Starters, main course, veg or non-veg dishes, etc, which used to be prepared in different kinds of cuisines like North Indian, South Indian Chinese, etc, have been cut short and only selected recipes are being prepared and served to customers.

"The footfall to hotels is slowly picking up but is not satisfactory yet. This can be attributed to the fear factor in the minds of people and families to come out of the house and eat outside food. Hotels are following all safety guidelines and SOPs prescribed by authorities like sanitizing each table after it is vacated by the customer apart from sanitizing premises very frequently," he said.

To ensure zero contact between hotel staff and customers, the special menu cards are either saved in digital format or in a single-page pamphlet that can be thrown in the dust-bin after dining. Customers just have to scan the QR code of the menu at the restaurant entrance desk and a digital menu card appears on the phone screen. They can just go through it and place an order, hoteliers say.

Mandaar Sukhtankar, a chef by profession with 28 years of experience in top hotels in the city, supported the shorter menu policy. He said restaurants could serve fresh and good quality food if they limit the total number of dishes. The limited menu has to be changed every two months or as the season changes. He pointed out that star hotels usually restrict to 30 or 50 dishes for lunch or dinner, unlike conventional restaurants that have bigger menu cards offering 200 or more dishes to customers.