Disrupted dining: decline of the premium food services segment in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic

This review article analyses the premium “fine dining” segment of the Indian food services sector, examining trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we discuss the challenges encountered and initiatives taken in response to the global coronavirus outbreak. Using secondary data from market research agencies and government reports, the future of fine dining is conceptualised, supported by academic literature. Our analysis found that the fine dining segment has been shrinking since 2015, with slower overall growth rates than all other segments of the hospitality industry. The augmentation of fine dining restaurants with food delivery services, apps and aggregators is transforming the essence of the sector and foreshadows an ambiguous future. This study of contracting food services in India will aid practitioners studying the challenges and opportunities of this evolving market and how to adapt to a “new normal”. The article contributes to the literature because there are few studies of fine dining in India and research on the impact of COVID-19 on food services is still under development.

Marketing luxury services beyond affluence in the new normal: Insights from fine dining during the coronavirus pandemic

The market for luxury is no longer exclusive to the affluent society and the prevalence of conspicuous consumption among the mass society is a testament to the rise of mass prestige (masstige). Of particular interest in this study is fine dining, a luxury service that consumers pursue and enjoy in the hospitality industry. Though many studies on luxury goods avail, few studies have investigated luxury services such as fine dining, with little insights on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its consumption. We argue that research in this direction is important given the unprecedented impact that the pandemic has had on humanity and the need to respond to potential changes in customer expectations for luxury services such as fine dining in a post-pandemic era. Hence, in this study, we investigate the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with fine dining using a Delphi study to acquire and examine field data from customers who continue to dine in fine-dining restaurants during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that fine diners place an emphasis on food quality (sensory experience, satiety value, menu selection), hygiene, and price when evaluating their satisfaction of the fine-dining experience during the pandemic, which significantly influences their future recommendation of the fine-dining restaurant to others. No significant differences in customer behavior based on income were observed, thereby lending credence and support to the idea of masstige marketing.

Exploring Consumer Emotions in Pre-Pandemic and Pandemic Times. A Sentiment Analysis of Perceptions in the Fine-Dining Restaurant Industry in Bucharest, Romania.

This research paper aims to analyse how consumer emotions have evolved during the pandemic period in comparison with the pre-pandemic period in relation to restaurant demand in the Romanian fine-dining industry and uses valuable information based on social-media sentiment analysis and content analysis. Focusing on theories of consumer behaviour, the study aims to emphasize how, under the influence of an epidemic crisis caused by an infectious disease, individual behaviour adapts to the "new normal", embracing a series of changes in the preferences, attitudes, and cognitive choice-making processes. The article takes into account a comparative analysis of the consumer emotions between the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (2010-2019) and the pandemic period (2020-present), based on the online reviews provided by customers for five fine-dining restaurants from Bucharest, the capital city of Romania: The Artist, Relais & Chateaux Le Bistrot Francais, Casa di David, Kaiamo, and L'Atelier. The research was based on two mining analyses-content analysis and sentiment analysis-and explored the emotional intent of words, with the data being collected from TripAdvisor through web-scrapping. The empirical results defined the fine-dining experience during the pandemic as being associated with the quality of the dishes and also with the quality of the service. The overall consumer sentiment in the direction of the restaurants analyzed is positive. The sentiment research found that throughout the epidemic, the consumers' attitudes about restaurants deteriorated. In this sense, consumers seem to be less satisfied with the restaurants' services than before the pandemic. This is another thing that the restaurants had difficulties in when adapting their operations for the pandemic.

Delivering the Multisensory Experience of Dining-Out, for Those Dining-In, During the Covid Pandemic.

In many parts of the world, restaurants have been forced to close in unprecedented numbers during the various Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns that have paralyzed the hospitality industry globally. This highly-challenging operating environment has led to a rapid expansion in the number of high-end restaurants offering take-away food, or home-delivery meal kits, simply in order to survive. While the market for the home delivery of food was already expanding rapidly prior to the emergence of the Covid pandemic, the explosive recent growth seen in this sector has thrown up some intriguing issues and challenges. For instance, concerns have been raised over where many of the meals that are being delivered are being prepared, given the rise of so-called "dark kitchens." Furthermore, figuring out which elements of the high-end, fine-dining experience, and of the increasingly-popular multisensory experiential dining, can be captured by those diners who may be eating and drinking in the comfort of their own homes represents an intriguing challenge for the emerging field of gastrophysics research; one that the chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant groups, and even the food delivery companies concerned are only just beginning to get to grips with. By analyzing a number of the high-end fine-dining home food delivery options that have been offered (in the UK and in the US) in this narrative review, we highlight a number of promising directions for those wanting to optimize the at-home multisensory dining experience, wherever in the world they might be.

How Will We Dine? Prospective Shifts in International Haute Cuisine and Innovation beyond Kitchen and Plate.

Haute cuisine, the cooking style for fine dining at gourmet restaurants, has changed over the last decades and can be expected to evolve in the upcoming years. To engage in foresight, the purpose of this study is to identify a plausible future trend scenario for the haute cuisine sector within the next five to ten years, based on today's chefs' views. To achieve this goal, an international, two-stage Delphi study was conducted. The derived scenario suggests that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will lead to significant restaurant bankruptcies and will raise creativity and innovation among the remaining ones. It is expected that haute cuisine tourism will grow and that menu prices will differ for customer segments. More haute cuisine restaurants will open in Asia and America. Local food will remain a major trend and will be complemented by insect as well as plant-based proteins and sophisticated nonalcoholic food pairings. Restaurant design and the use of scents will become more relevant. Also, private dining and fine dining at home will become more important. The scenario also includes negative projections. These findings can serve as a research agenda for future research in haute cuisine, including the extension of the innovation lens towards the restaurant and the business model. Practical implications include the necessity for haute cuisine restaurants to innovate to cope with increasing competition in several regions. Customers should be seen as co-creators of the value of haute cuisine.