Food festival to upgrade service

Food festival to upgrade service

By Lenah Susianty

JAKARTA (JP): If you have never heard a waiter or waitress
wish you Selamat makan (enjoy your meal) at a restaurant, try one
of Jakarta's 39 restaurants participating in the Jakarta Food
Festival.

Launched with the motto "salute to restaurant service", the
first food festival aims to improve services in restaurants, as
Jakarta carves out a bigger segment of the Meetings, Incentives,
Conventions and Exhibitions market.

"This market and our growing economy have attracted more
business people to carry out their business in Indonesia,
especially in Jakarta," Fauzi Bowo, head of the City Tourism
Office told The Jakarta Post.

In its Nov. 14 edition, Fortune magazine rates Jakarta as one
of the world's best cities for doing business. "Of course, eating
will always be one of the most important things during their
stays. However, many business people are reluctant to eat outside
their hotels because they do not know where to go and they are
not sure about the standard of hygiene," Fauzi said.

Lack of information about restaurants in Jakarta, which offer
good healthy food, in pleasant surroundings with the proper
service, has made tourists and business people hesitant in
exploring restaurants in the capital, he said.

"Hong Kong and Singapore are good examples. They are not only
famous for doing business but also for their good restaurants. It
encourages people to do more business in these two cities or to
hold their meetings there," said Roy Tan Hardy, Marketing and
Sales Director of the American Express Travel Related Services.

Therefore, in a bid to become a more competitive city for
doing business, the City Tourism Office, the Indonesian Tourism
Promotion Board and American Express Travel Related Services are
holding the food festival, which winds up tomorrow.

"This is not the kind of food festival which features food
from a particular region. Despite its name, the Jakarta Food
Festival actually presents restaurants which are located in the
city but offer international foods such as Italian, Chinese,
Japanese and Korean as well as Indonesian cuisine," Fauzi said.

The 39 restaurants

Some of the restaurants involved in the festival, which began
in late September, include the Arirang, Cafe Marco, Country
Kitchen, Forum Shark's Fin, Happy Valley Seafood, Il Punto, Koi
Gallery, Le Bistro, Le Matsuzaka, Oasis, Palki Pub and Indian
Restaurant, Red Lobster and Zigolini.

During the festival the 39 restaurants offer vouchers which
are valid for use on the next visit to the same restaurant.
Patrons of a participating restaurant are asked to fill in a
voting form with their opinions about the restaurant. The voting
forms are collected and entered into a database system which will
sort and select the best restaurant in town. The voting forms
will also be used in a lucky draw, with three prizes.

"We hope, by organizing this festival, restaurants will be
aware of the need to give the best of service to their patrons.
We also hope to set a standard for good restaurants. By surveying
patrons we have found that many business people do not put prices
at the top of the list when they go to a restaurant. But for the
money they do pay, they want good service and of course good
food," Roy told the Post.

He said people tend to forget where they can get the cheapest
food, but not where the best food can be found.

Commenting on the small number of restaurants participating in
the festival, Roy said that when Hong Kong organized such a
festival for the first time, eight years ago, there were only
eight restaurants taking part. Last year 286 restaurants
participated.

Organizers expect more restaurants will take part in the event
next year. The festival is scheduled to be an annual event of
Jakarta. Currently the only restaurant to take part featuring
Indonesian food is The Oasis.

"The first festival is very important. If a participating
restaurant provides bad service, bad food and a gloomy
atmosphere, consumers will think that other participants are of
the same quality. Therefore, we were very strict in choosing
which restaurants joined the festival," Roy said, hinting that
most of the Indonesian restaurants have not met the criteria yet.
That criteria includes the food, service and atmosphere.

Fauzi acknowledged that Indonesian restaurants are usually
identified with bad hygiene and that if the festival is
successful, there will be more Indonesian restaurants wanting to
participate, and for that purpose they have to upgrade their
food, service and atmosphere.

"There will be a certain standard of Indonesian restaurants
and more restaurants will try to meet that standard," Fauzi said.
With time, not only top quality Indonesian restaurants will
benefit from and apply the standard, but the more common ones as
well, he said.

There will be more Indonesian restaurants applying for
participation in the coming festivals because the festival not
only benefits them in term of quality but also in term of income,
Roy said optimistically.

During the first five weeks of the festival (September to
October), sales increased by 166 percent over the same period
last year with total spending valued at US$1.2 million.

"This is only the income calculated by American Express from
purchases using American Express cards. Therefore, the total
amount is actually much bigger," Roy said.

American Express and the City Tourism Office are also planning
to publish a guide book on Jakarta's restaurants. And, of course,
only the best will be mentioned. (als)