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By Benjamin Solomon, Bloomberg
December 1, 2018
Next year, the restaurant's experience will be defined more than ever by technology, according to the speakers at The Year Ahead: Luxury on Bloomberg on Thursday. Blockchain, surge prices and facial recognition software have all been listed as ways in which catering will evolve in 2019.
Maria Font Trabocchi, Washington restaurateur behind Fiola and Del Mar, talked about what will happen in a refined dinner during a panel entitled "The 50-Course Meal: The Future of Dining" with the Copenhagen chef Rasmus Munk and the co – Alinea Group founder Nick Kokonas.
The event, which took place at the headquarters of Bloomberg in New York, saw the participation of speakers such as the hotelier Ian Schrager, the technical director of Lamborghini, Maurizio Reggiani and the CEO Equinox Harvey Spevak, as well as executives from Hermès, Cartier, Shinola and Goop.
The subject arose after the moderator and Bloomberg food publisher Kate Krader asked a question from an unlikely source: the head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. David Solomon, a passionate restaurant goer. "The Goldman CEO has a question for you: how will restaurants be broken in 2019?", Krader asked.
Font Trabocchi, who manages the Fabio Trabocchi restaurants with her husband, suggested that the chefs implement the blockchain, which proved to be effective in tracing the maturation, color and sugary content of tomatoes to document the supply chain and reduce deterioration. WWF-New Zealand has also implemented technology to help eliminate illegal fishing in the Pacific Island tuna industry.
He is working with Oceanic Global and Ocean Elders with his company Hamdy Font to make it a reality. "How much can we do in the ocean?", He asked "We need to save it and make sure it grows with us".
Blockchain was not the only prediction shared by the Washington-based entrepreneur: it is also ready for fine dining to learn from technology companies like Uber Inc.
"Having to wait for the check? It's ridiculous," he said.
The online booking systems will soon allow diners to finish their meal and leave without a credit card. Facial recognition technology is also implemented as a way to facilitate the culinary experience.
Co-founder of the Alinea group Nick Kokonas was equally optimistic about how technology has improved customer service. "We have your Facebook and Instagram, we can do it," he said during the panel. It is the kind of data that can help owners create what he called a "magical experience, in which they seem omniscient".
Kokonas, who is also co-owner of Tock's culinary booking system, previously told Bloomberg that he thinks customers should be able to pay for the meal in advance. "I am a big supporter of dynamic prices", he said during the panel.
Rather than creating culinary gimmicks with artificially inflated prices to make ends meet, Kokonas thinks that restaurants should introduce "rush prices" like those offered by Uber and Lyft. In the restaurant version, meals would increase and decrease in price based on demand in the booking system.
"It's about quality, it's what you're buying that's the important thing, not the price." Kokonas also confirmed that Tock earned another $ 9.5 million in funding from Valor Equity Partners.
In the meantime, the Danish chef Rasmus Munk, of the next Alchemist 2, had a much less technological prediction. When Krader closed the panel asking what ingredients we should expect to see a lot in 2019, the chef provided an answer that could only come from Copenhagen: the cow udders.
© 2018 Bloomberg L.P.
This article was written by Bloomberg's Benjamin Solomon and has been legally authorized through NewsCred's network of publishers. Please address all license applications to [email protected].
