Goa has undergone a sea change in the culinary world in the last few years. Various restaurants have originated with astonishing plating, presentation and taste, and that is unmatchable to many foods and menus available worldwide- and kudos to every chef, entrepreneur and restaurant who has made it possible. The keynotes speakers at the culinary conclave organised by the Culinary Club of Goa observed and highlighted this.
The Culinary Club was started because Goan Food had taken a back step, and the idea was to ignite Goan Cuisine amongst chefs and aficionados through recipe sharing, programs, and conclaves for networking and knowledge sharing across the table.
Goan cuisine is legendary, with the Goan fish curry being the most popular dish. What is praiseworthy is how the milieu of restaurants in the State is giving its own spin to Goan food and coming out with its own flavour and variation of Goan cuisine. An innovation is also the fusion cuisine, which allows experimentation of the local traditional cuisine with flavours from around the world, making Goa a melting point of flavours besides keeping the traditional food heritage alive.
As we delve deep into culinary tourism, we realise that what goes beyond flavours is the current universal word ‘sustainability’ – which includes indigenous sourcing of ingredients, minimising waste and following eco-friendly practices with a strong need to protect our culinary heritage for generations to come. Of late, we see a strong shift towards the ‘farm to fork’ philosophy – resonating with both locals and tourists alike, that prioritises menus that change with the season and lays emphasis on local fresh produce as a source of the produce, thereby benefiting farmers. Also noteworthy are the skilling centres that have mushroomed in recent times. These centres give young talent the know-how and ability to succeed in the world of the food business and mentor, train, and nurture the new generation of young chefs.
Expectations, challenges & opportunities
Key challenges are infrastructure, labour and competition. Earlier, there was a clear bifurcation of the tourist season from October to March due to the charters from the UK, Scandinavian countries, and later Russia, which were relatively non-fussy. But recently, we have seen a huge jump in domestic tourists who are high spenders and more demanding, and for whom, besides culinary, memorable experiences like selfie points or Instagramable posts are important. Furthermore, design thinking is absent in planning, as cities and villages must be beautified to appeal visually to tourists who look for curated experiences. Roads and infrastructure are in bad shape after the monsoons, which is also a deterrent.
What is noteworthy is that the restaurant industry business has crossed pre-covid levels at 4.07 lakh crore today. However, post-covid, what you see now is the polarisation of traffic. Earlier weekdays and weekends, you hardly saw a fluctuation of 20%; now, you see a 25-35% fluctuation between weekdays and weekends – business is slower during the weekdays and very busy during the weekends. This results in certain challenges, such as vendors not being able to supply requirements at the regular price, price fluctuations, quality issues, and labour problems.
During a recent general managers’ survey across India, the biggest challenge noticed was 30% in human resources and manpower. Quality manpower is an issue as the graduates passing out are unemployable and need much training. Consistency in business is a prerequisite for running an efficient business; however, in Goa, as of now, October-March is a very busy season where the businesses require additional manpower, and for the remaining six months, they must take harsh measures of retrenching staff due to slow business. Also, there is a huge influx of migrant labour due to the unavailability of local labour, and locals are averse to giving housing on rent to the migrant labourers employed by the restaurant industry, so housing becomes a major issue.
The opportunities are in creating soulful experiences, adventure sports, and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) tourism. Goa lacks a big convention centre for MICE; hotels can, however, collaborate on room inventory. It's important to attract tourists in specified sectors—MICE or marina tourism—instead of concentrating too much on the beaches or waterfalls, which need to be safeguarded.
Post-covid, undoubtedly Goa is the food capital of India, and this is here to stay. And, as one speaker summed it up, ‘Goa is the world’s happiest place.’
(The writer is Assocham Goa Empowerment chair, GCCI managing committee member, Laghu Udyog Bharti Goa executive committee member)
