Tamil Nadu

What people think about eating out

PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN.

PLATEFUL: The limited meals introduced by hotels in the city.—

A simple spread of lunch at home costs more than what it used to be six months ago. For many, planning parties, birthday celebrations or family get-together means a closer scrutiny of the menu and ordering for the exact quantity.

Be it hotels, restaurants, individual small-scale caterers or canteens, maintaining the price line without compromising on quality of food and service is turning out to be a challenge.

Hectic work schedules and changing lifestyle have resulted in a larger number of people eating out more often now and this is expected to only climb up in the coming years. However, to those who eat out and also to those in food business prices have become a matter of concern with spiralling costs of the essentials and raw materials.

Dhamodarasamy Srinivasan of Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar Group points out that between 2007 and 2008 grocery and vegetable prices have gone up manifold. If an average family used to spend Rs. 1000 a month on grocery and vegetables last year, it has to shell out at least Rs. 2,000 for the same products now.

Nearly 100 items are needed to make the entire course of South Indian food for a day and in Tamil Nadu, most of the raw materials are sourced from other States. Viability of farming is affected in the State with lands near the cities going for real estate development and shortage of agricultural labour, he observes.

Vegetables and grocery contribute over 50 per cent of the input cost. “To make sambar, we need about 15 items and we cannot miss even a single ingredient as it will compromise on taste,” he says. Further, for a hotel, firewood price has seen a 63 per cent jump and commercial cylinder price has gone up. Mechanisation is limited to activities such as grinding, vegetable cutting and steam cooking.

Coimbatore has 1,200 bakeries and 750 hotels. Labour shortage is another serious problem here. When a person comes to a hotel, six to seven people are involved in serving food - from cleaning the table to billing.

Though a lot of hotels and restaurants are coming up in the State, many are closing down and are selling at rock-bottom process. Costs of items such as electricity, labour, shop rent and maintenance have shot up three to four times, he says. The hotels have sought Government assistance. “We should be recognised as an industry,” he pleads. Measures such as reduction in water tax and supply of Aavin milk at a reduced price will help control the food cost. Take the case of institutions that have in-house canteens. These are trying out various measures to hold the price line.

A senior officer in charge of catering in one of the corporates here says the company normally gets into annual contracts for catering. The material and men are from the contractor and the facilities are provided by the company. The employees pay 40 per cent of the food cost and the company bears the remaining amount. The rates for the contractor are based on a cost study usually done in November- December every year and the contract is finalised in March.

But, unfortunately this year, prices have shot up since March affecting the profitability of the contractor. Hence, the company has switched over to a flexible menu that depends on the current price situation. It also plans to add more equipment such as chappathi maker and dishwasher to reduce the number of workers employed in the kitchen.

Despite these, if the contractor is still not able to maintain the prices, the company plans to cut down on the variety offered.

Vahitha, who caters to individual domestic orders by cooking at home says customers are accepting the increase in prices though orders have come down. Rather than accepting orders to cook at home and supply, she now prefers visiting the hosts’ place and cook there since it reduces the transportation cost.

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