The buzz around cloud kitchens

Forecast is brutal business in the best of times, but during a pandemic, it’s almost hazardous. But if there’s one promise that the current crisis has kept its date with, it is to expect the unexpected.

With typical off the table, masked diners, gourmet food delivered in DIY kits, five star hotels catering to meals on wheels, reduced seating, and insta-glamourised images of food and drinks replaced with instareal photos showcasing a restaurant’s hyper-hygiene cleaning protocols are just the starters in a multi-course re-plating of the restaurant industry. “Restaurants have always been innovative; that’s the nature of our business. So you have to add other avenues of business; if you weren’t delivering, you will have to start, maybe look at doing cloud kitchens,” says Zorawar Kalra, Founder & Managing Director of Massive Restaurants Pvt. Ltd.

With a business model that’s as pandemic-adjacent as possible, a cloud kitchen, also sometimes called a ghost kitchen, is a virtual restaurant or RAAS (Restaurantsas-a-service) that is designed for online ordering and delivery.

The online food delivery segment in India is set to grow at around 12 per cent annually, with Covid-19 accelerating and shifting consumer preferences to online ordering. “Swiggy took the lead on the cloud kitchen model in India back in 2018 as a win-win proposition for restaurant partners even before cloud kitchens became a trend,” says Vishal Bhatia, CEO, New Supply, Swiggy. Earlier this year they launched ‘BrandWorks’ through which they have co-created several delivery brands with existing restaurant partners by leveraging unutilised kitchen capacities at their dine-in facilities such as ‘House of Chow’ from Bercos.

“Cloud kitchens certainly seem to be the answer to cater to the skyrocketing demand for home delivery of premium foods with minimal operational cost,” says Rohit Aggarwal, co-founder, Lite Bite Foods — one of India’s leading F&B retail companies. The company has recently forayed into cloud kitchens, with a plan to launch 36 across five cities.

The expectation from most people is that a cloud kitchen should be cheap. But if it’s good quality food prepared by well-paid chefs, working in a top kitchen, packed in fancy bags and adding the commission to the aggregator, it isn’t going to be inexpensive,” says Vicky Ratnani, culinary consultant who has helmed many restaurants around the country. So what does it mean for the customer? A consistent supply of high-quality food options for consumers across various price points with the added benefit of safety provided by no-contact deliveries. Innovations like DIY meal box, cocktail mixes and spreads by restaurants will keep the dine-at-home trend interesting. After all, every cloud has a silver lining.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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