By Muhammad Faizan Naeem Khan

Breaking apart the term, culinary means “related to cooking” and arts refers to any broad area of interest. So, put simply, culinary arts refer to” the art of preparing, cooking, presenting and serving food. “This may often be in the form of meals in a restaurant, but culinary arts can refer to “trends among chefs and all the professions in the restaurant industry that involve preparing, cooking and presenting food.

One simple way to think about culinary arts is to consider what makes food appetizing to begin with. As humans, we judge food by the way the food itself looks, how it is presented, how it smells, how it performs or behaves while we taste it, how it feels on the tongue and of course how it makes us feel. We may not have realized that all these factors play a role in our enjoyment of food, but these senses are all working every time you have food in front of you. It’s the role of the culinary arts professionals to ensure that all of these senses are satisfied positively.

Culinary arts industry has faced many problems during the pandemic, as the pandemic has become a huge problem of every industry. Many industries had to suffer during the pandemic as the culinary industry is also suffering because of the pandemic. Too many of the hurdles has taken place due to the pandemic in flourishing the culinary industry in Pakistan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant challenges in the foodservice industry over recent months. The closure of non-essential businesses, social distancing, and a state of emergency in many countries have negatively impacted restaurants and other food services companies.

To survive the pandemic, restaurants will need alternative strategies to adapt to the plight of customers. Lesser disposable income, increased awareness about health, and increased need for convenient alternatives to dining in are some of the factors that foodservice industry players need to adapt to currently.

Culinary industries and institutions came forward to cope up the situation and to overcome the hurdles that have been created during the pandemic.

They had suggested many ideas and came forward with different creative suggestions and strategies to overcome the situation and loss that was created by the pandemic.

Six key strategies to help foodservice industry players survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

These strategies included the following:

• Foodservice companies should ramp up cleaning processes and prioritize the health and wellness of employees
• Companies must stay updated on government policies that can support them, like the CARES act
• For their Gen Z and millennial customers, companies should focus on providing high quality food and premium deliveries as 56% of chefs now consider outdoor dining as the new way forward
• 58% of chefs are confident that this ‘new normal’ will offer new opportunities with regards to different dining experiences, which can hopefully be capitalized on. 76% of chefs have noticed and become aware of the impact that COVID-19 has had on dietary choices in the restaurant environment
• Half of chefs are now cooking more plant based dishes since the beginning of lockdown.
• the staff of culinary industries believe that COVID has made them feel more flexible in terms of further businesses they may own or work at in the future

In addition, this flexible thinking has inspired more creativity with regards to dining experiences. Some of chefs are considering using private dining in the home as a potential revenue stream. Others have also considered pop-ups and have contemplated collaborating with other businesses to bring their creative ideas to life.

These creative minds and strategies will help out the culinary industries to grow in their own ways.