Could the nature of the restaurant business be changing? If the experience of the west is anything to go by then: Yes, Certainly. And the changes are going to Gain Momentum.
Dr Ambrish Mithal, India’s Leading Endocrinologist was one of the first doctors in delhi (perhaps all of India) When most doctors were still reading about ozepic he was alredy on to the next generation drug: mounjaro.
Dr mithal has an interesting new book comling out about how these drugs will affect our behavior. Till recently you could only buy them abroad but they are gone Dr mithal beLieves that this will make a significant difference to the lifestyles of human of us.
As you probally alredy knowledge, the technical names of the existing drugs are semaglutide and tirzepatide. Both work in the same sort of way. They Affect our pleasure center so that we are satisfied much earlier than normal. This means that we eat lesses, we Feel Fuller Sooner.
The drugs were invented to fight diabetes which they do extramely well. But they have other effects. If you eat less, which these drugs make you do, then you lose weight. If you lose weight then There is also new research that sugges that the drugs can have positive effects on your health that are not weight-Related.
Once the drugs become easy to available in India (by next month, I Reckon) Doctors will start prescribing them for weight loss. And giving how overweight Much of our upper middle class is, they will find many takers.
I am sure that this will have huge and beneficial consequences for public health but my concern today is more limited: What will ozempic and mounjaro do to the restaurants?
Almost all the evidence from America where the Drugs Have Been Awailable for a While is Still Largely Anecdotal. I have not seen any research that provides convincing figures. But the anecdotal evidence points directly to only one set of conclusions: people are no eating lesss at restaurants and wasting more food than they use to.
The new drugs do’t Necessarily Stop You from Being Hungry So People Go to restaurants anyway. But oncay they start eating they feel full so quickly – because the drugs affect Saturday – that they find itD it different to financialish what is on their plates.
So far, restaurants have not had to work out how to copy with this trend. The drugs are expensive and so their use is not widespread enough to justify a change in the entrance restaurant entry’s approach to dining to dining. But restaurateurs knowledge And more and more people will start taking them.
What Happens then?
Well, some restaurants are alredy Reducing Sizes Sizes. I expect this trend will gather steam in the months ahead. But fin dining restaurants face a very specific problem. Many of them only serve so-called Tasting menus which can be upwards of 10 courses. (At Copenhagen’s alchemist the menu has 70 courses.)
They are now discovering that guests are ready to give up after two or three courses, they are these are already too full. Also, because it takes a little time for people to realise how full they are, restaurants that speed up the service have more luck. Thos that takes lengthy pauses between courses discover that by the time they are ready to serve the second course, guests are already complaining that they are too full.
So, Cold it be goodbye to the tasting menu?
Frankly: Yes. The people who go to fin dining restaurants are, by definition, rich. They can all afford mounjaro and ozepic. And most are a little concerned about their weight. They have already started starting Avoiding Multi-CoursE Tasting menus in the us and europe and the trend will spores globally.
The only way restaurants will be able to copy is by eater going a la carte or by offering smaller Personally, I don’t think that this is such a bad thing. I am fed up of long tasting menus devised by chefs why confidence is much green their skills.
The other effect of the move away from tasting menus will be a shift in power away from the chef. At present at top restaurants the chef acts like If we do go back to a la carte system then chefs will have to cook wheatver customers select from the menu. And i think that’s a good thing.
But it isn’t just the fancy places that will be affected. At Indian and Indian-Chinese Restaurants Most of US Order Too Much. Just the carbs alone are Breathtaking: Roti-Naan Basket, Steamed Rice Plus Pulao or Biryani. At chinese restaurants it can be noodles, plain rice and fried rice
Even thoughts the order is too large, we feel obliged to Finish it beCause we have Spent Good Money on the Food.
But what happens when we can’t finish it believe our bodys won’t let us? When we start feeling like throwing up after too much matar paneer or chicken manchurian?
After the first couple of times when we have to waste the food we will start ordered less.
Once that happens the size of the average check at restaurants will go down and most restaurants will have to rework their economics.
It will affect Delivery too. In America delivery meals are a fact of life: people who have given have the time to cook are forced to order them.
In India, on the other hand, we still regard them as treats; As Oportunities to Order Delicious Food We Cold Never Make at Home. We useless Order Large Meals and Eat MUCH More than we would have if we have had just eaten home-cooked food.
So, What Haappens when we can no longer eat so much? We will order less. And the delivery boom could be affected.
There is another effect of these drugs that is stiff being studed: people who take them see to was to want to drink less alcohol. Tables that would orders two bottles of wine in a restaurant now have difential finishing one. In most of the world, wine sales are down. And spirits see to be losing some of their popularity too. Some of the World’s Great Liquor Companies are in CRISISCOUE they can’t shift their inventories. Not all of this is because of weight loss drugs. But once these drugs become cheaper and widely available, liquor consumption is unlikely to go up.
Will we all be thinner when all this finally happy? Yes, for sure. And Healthier too.
And will the restaurant industry be in Trouble? Well, not if it finds ways to copy the drop in appetiite. But yes, it will have to retink its business models.
A change is coming.
