New Delhi : Experimenting with food is the new strategy brands are adopting with people opting to expand their taste palates.
For example sushi bars and bento boxes has made film-going experience more exotic at PVR cinema’s multiplexes. “Movies and food go hand-in-hand and food and beverages (F & B) are a great attraction for the audience. Today’s generation is independent and is keen to experiment with food while watching movies. Thus F&B in cinemas provides a huge support to multiplexes,” says Renaud Palliere, the movie chain’s CEO – International Development.
‘Simply Sushi’ a brainchild of Palliere has turned into a crowd puller by offering gourmet Japanese cuisine. Due to the popularity of this selection of Japanese food, it has been extended to Gold Class in Select Citywalk and Ambience, Gurgaon, and a restaurant attached to a PVR outlet in Mumbai is on the drawing board. “Rather than just putting Japanese food on the menu, we put it out as a brand, growing out of Director’s Cut,” Palliere says. Moving away from the conventional popcorn and coke diet of movie watching, a selection of Japanese dishes from varieties of sushi to the very popular linguine is offered along with other authentic dishes created under the tutelage of renowned Japanese chef Yutaka Saito. Saito has set up celebrated restaurants like Megu at The Leela, the Taihachi Japanese Restaurant and the Chiba and Fujiya at Tacoma in Washington. His years of experience working in India has made it easy to identify flavours suited to the Indian market, without compromising on the traditional Japanese flavour.
“The new in-house creation, the ‘Japadog’, is something we are introducing for the first time,” Saito says. Hot dogs sourced from India along with garnishes and sauces like Japanese mayo, grated daikon (a mild radish), soya sauce, wasabi from Japan will go into this new dish, he says. The ‘bento boxes’ which are delivered into the theatre halls in the Director’s cut has been very popular according to Palliere.
