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My travel schedule for mid-July/August read as follows:July 16-19 Delhi, 20-22 Chandigarh, 23-25 Mumbai, 29 Dubai, 30-31 Delhi, August 1 Delhi, 2 Bengaluru, 3-4 Pune, 5-7 Bengaluru, 8 Mumbai, 9-12 Singapore, 13 Bangkok, 14-17 Mumbai, 18-19 Kolkata, 20-21 Bengaluru, 22 Mumbai, 23 Delhi, 24 Mumbai, 25-26 Amritsar, 27-30 Delhi, 31 Bengaluru.“Crazy, so much travel!”, you may say.But such is my life as a travelling entrepreneur.I am indeed honoured, grateful, and truly delighted for the opportunity to travel so much, meeting interesting people and going to interesting places.I enjoy the business of life through adventures in so many places, it is such an amazing feeling.In 2024 to date, apart from the UAE, I have been to the USA, Mexico, Australia, Singapore (where my home is), South Korea, Mauritius, United Kingdom, multiple times back home to Japan, and of course, to many cities around India where I spend most of my time working.Pardon me, I digress.Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on how crazy pricing Japanese food has become in some places overseas.Did you notice, I was in Dubai in July? Yes, in fact, I was there for 24 hours.I had last travelled to Dubai for Gulfood 2023 in February of that year, and this time, I went to see a friend who I’ve known for about 2 decades during my time working with Virgin Group’s Richard Branson san.Since I was in Dubai, a chef and a friend from a 5 star hotel in India suggested I visit a new Japanese eatery there. Situated in a 5 star hotel in Dubai, I entered and looked at the menu, and my eyes literally popped out, it was way too expensive, it was what I call crazy.Allow me to give you a taste on what was on the menu.The Uni Ikura Donburi (Sea Urchin and Salmon Roe Bowl) cost a whopping AED 8000 or some USD 2100 INR 1.83 lakh or JPY 320,000!!!This price for a simple bowl of vinegared rice with raw sea urchin and raw salmon roe.Unbelievable.But people were ordering it…How can one justify such a price for one dish?It is way too expensive, simply crazy.As some of you know, I used to religiously go to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market for over a decade every Saturday when I used to live in Tokyo, and I do want to believe that I understand quality and pricing from a sourcing point of view, and I have been to some top restaurants around the world, and feel have some relevant experience on pricing, value, and quality.This experience in Dubai got me thinking.First, I would likely never go back to this restaurant.Second, I started to reflect on the interesting relationship between some key words : “price” “value” “quality”as well as “affordability” “acceptability” “fair price”.We sometimes hear our customers say “your soy sauce is expensive”.This is when some customers are comparing our soy sauce (which is a pure and natural soy sauce which takes months for traditional Japanese brewing process to make) to other soy sauces (which may not even be soy sauce according to the FSSAI regulations, or may be chemically induced and has a short manufacturing period).I say to these customers, you are in fact comparing two different products, one is a pure and natural soy sauce, another is something other than pure and natural. In other words, we are comparing, to illustrate the point, an apple (our product) to say a peanut (other products).The apple that we are offering has the right mix of price value and quality, in fact, we believe that the quality offered is affordable, acceptable, and fair value for money, and fairly priced, for the price offered. Millions of customers of ours around the world in fact agree and they are our loyal repeat customers, continuing to purchase and use our product with confidence over many many decades in over a hundred countries.However, the peanut is a completely different “soy sauce” product. It may be around the same price or cheaper, but we can say when you compare it, its quality and value are no way near the balance of true quality-price-value that our apple offers. In other words, my understanding is there is an imbalance between quality-price-value for some of the other “soy sauces” in the market.Is the Uni Ikura Donburi from Dubai reasonably priced for the quality and value delivered? No, absolutely not. That is clear for all to see. This is where the price is unreasonably high for the quality and value delivered.We like to believe our products are reasonably priced, affordable, and fairly priced for the best quality. And I think more and more professional chefs and restaurant owners are starting to understand that they have to offer the best product, reasonably priced, to their customers, and so many have already switched to our sauces.It will take time, but the switch is happening, the realisation is happening all over India.Soy sauce is an essential ingredient for Chinese and pan-Asian cuisine – just imagine these cuisines without soy sauce. Why use a peanut, a product that has a mismatch of quality-price-value when you can use a better product, an apple that has a balance of quality-price-value?Third, as a Japanese Cuisine Goodwill Ambassador, I realised that restaurateurs and chefs have a responsibility to deliver quality products at a reasonable affordable price, to deliver fair value.Unless that happens, premium Japanese restaurants at the top end, whether in New York or Dubai or Singapore, will be so expensive that it becomes an elite product that is only appreciated by a handful of people. In other words, do we want to see Japanese food as something that one expects to pay AED 8000 for a bowl of Uni and Ikura Donburi? Probably not.As I always say, the choice is always yours.You can always choose a better quality-fair price-value product.Over to you.The author, Harry Hakuei Kosato is Member of The International Federation of Journalists, Japanese Cuisine Goodwill Ambassador, Founder of Sushi and More India, and Kikkoman’s India representative. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of hoteldealers.in.
Published On Aug 24, 2024 at 01:00 PM IST
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