Eating Out

In COVID Times

Thinking of stepping out and grabbing a bite or indulging in a meal for two? You can, but with caution, advises Dr Nishant Kumar. The leading retinal surgeon talks to industry experts and gives you the lowdown for your safety

Safety measures at ITC Grand Central Hotel Mumbai

2020 will go down in history as the year when the world changed. Not by a war or by a series of natural calamities but by a microscopic virus – SARS-CoV2. In Dec 2019, Wuhan, China reported the first cases of the disease we would all get to know as COVID-19. Most people thought COVID-19 would be contained within Wuhan and may have a small ripple effect restricted to South East Asia, and so the world continued to function as though nothing had happened.

I myself was in London for Christmas and New Year in 2019, and despite being a man of medicine had no idea that this would be my last overseas trip and that the only passport stamp I would have in 2020 would be that of my return from London in the first week of Jan 2020.

It was clear by April that COVID-19 had changed the world. Flights were suspended, all travel severely restricted, strict lockdowns enforced; restaurants, hotels and places of worship were all shut till further notice. Wearing a mask became compulsory, social distancing was the new normal and eating out became a dream.

Soon myths and misconceptions started to spread regarding COVID-19.

Many of the falsehoods regarding COVID and SARS-CoV2 are related to food and eating out. Can you get COVID through food? How should fruits and vegetables be cleaned to avoid COVID? Can COVID be spread through milk? Is eating raw food more dangerous, is it better not to eat meat during COVID? Can the virus survive in hot cooked food? Is it safe to import fruits and vegetables from abroad? Should we avoid Chinese food? (don't laugh, this is a question I have been asked many times!), are just some of the thoughts many have.

COVID spreads mainly through close contact between people. Transmission of the virus is either by droplet infection, airborne transmission or by contact with infected surfaces.
There is almost no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 can spread via food.

There is no evidence that COVID spreads via meat, fish or vegetables as long as the meat and fish is stored correctly at the right temperature and the vegetables washed and cleaned as per standard protocols.

Hot cooked food is also thought to be a very reliable way to ensure the virus is unviable and non-infectious.

Since Oct 2020, restaurants in Bombay were allowed to open with certain riders; seating capacity was reduced to 50% of pre-COVID capacity, logs of patrons was to be maintained for 30 days to ensure contact tracing if needed, social distancing between tables was to be ensured, all guests had to be screened for temperature and had to be wearing masks at all times apart from while eating, there were to be no buffets and no live entertainment, hand sanitisation was mandated for guests and staff, and all staff were to be wearing masks at all times.

Standard operative procedures during COVID vary widely between restaurants. All eating establishments have adopted the standard government protocols on hand sanitisation, wearing of masks by staff and reduction in seating capacity.

Most restaurants have replaced traditional menus with a QR code; the menu can be accessed on the mobile phone using the code. Some have adapted to using disposable menus or laminated menus that can be cleaned with alcohol sanitisers between diners.
Restaurants in luxury hotels have the advantage that COVID protocols for the hotel, including rooms, banquets and common areas, are enforced in all the restaurants as well. Large chains like the Taj, Oberoi, Leela and international chains in India like Marriott, Hyatt, Four Seasons have the advantage of having large advisory boards guiding their COVID protocols.

At the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, Mumbai, all the staff working at the hotel and in the restaurants are residing at the hotel, limiting any external travel and exposure.

Mehernavaz Avari, Deputy General Manager at the Taj Mumbai said, "By ensuring that all staff stays in-house after a negative PCR test we can ensure that the risk of transmission of COVID through our staff is as close to zero as possible.”

At all the restaurants, tables have been spaced apart, usually more than six feet, and wherever possible the tables not in use have been put into storage so when you visit the restaurant you don't see empty tables and chairs with a 'cross mark' or 'do not use' sign.
Mehernavaz, who has been overseeing arrangements at the restaurants, commented, "At the Taj, people are coming as much for the experience and the ambience as they are for the food. We try and ensure that each restaurant maintains its character despite the reduced seating and the restrictions due to COVID. Our COVID protocols are visible, but not in your face.”

Another very notable protocol across all Taj restaurants is the use of individually packed, pre-sanitised crockery and cutlery. The plates and all the cutlery is sanitised to international standards and then packed in paper covers and sealed to ensure that post-sanitisation, no one touches the plate and cutlery and the first point of contact is the diner.

Taljinder Singh, Senior Vice President – Mumbai and SeleQtions, informed me that most of the iconic restaurants in the various Taj hotels in Bombay, which includes restaurants like Shamiana, Sea Lounge, Golden Dragon, Masala Craft, Wasabi, Thai Pavilion, Ming Yang, China Inc., are open to diners. The menus at all the restaurants had been truncated but the management has ensured that the favourites from each are included in the menu.
"Ensuring that the raw ingredient supply chain is not disrupted and that the senior chefs are in-house has meant that diners at the Taj can experience their favourite dishes even during the pandemic without any compromise on safety, the flavours and the quality of our food,” adds Taljinder.

Taj Mumbai has also introduced a new concept, Dinette Dining. Diners in a larger group (more than 10-12) are encouraged to dine in a small banquet hall that is reserved for the group and an ambience is created in the banquet room to simulate their favourite restaurant. "The menu is curated to include dishes from a particular restaurant or from different restaurants in the property for a bespoke experience. This ensures that the group can enjoy themselves and are safe in a private space and other diners at the restaurant are not intimidated by the presence of a large group in the restaurant,” informs Mehernavaz.

At present, the restaurants at the Taj are restricting tables to a maximum of eight diners.
I was at the Taj Mumbai to celebrate my father's birthday at the Golden Dragon and I must confess being at the lobby after almost nine months felt special. I was a bit reluctant to visit a hotel during the COVID pandemic and this was my first outing post the lockdown. But once you are there you realise that all precautions are in place to make your experience safe. The lobby chairs have been reduced drastically to ensure no overcrowding and loitering in the lobby. There are people reminding guests to cover their mouths and nose every time the mask slips down. Staff is friendly but maintain a distance, at hand to help but yet six feet away.

Other hotels are also going to great lengths to ensure safety of diners.

The ITC group of hotels has introduced a new operating process – WeAssure. These are a series of processes all ITC hotels have adopted to ensure safety during COVID. All the staff lives in the hotel and works on a four-week rota. Once in the hotel the staff has a PCR test and then stays in-house avoiding any interaction with the outside world, probably the safest way to prevent infection.

Table spacing has been increased and there are acrylic screens between tables. All the cutlery and crockery is cleaned and sanitised and packed in paper bags with a WeAssure emblem.

Amit Kumar, General Manager, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, informs, "Another change we have made as part of WeAssure is that all the food from the kitchen comes covered by a cloche (a glass dome) which ensures that the food from the kitchen is not touched by the server. The cloche is removed in front of the diner and the diner is the only one to touch the food once it's plated in the kitchen.”

One way of welcoming diners back to their restaurants has been by introducing special food festivals at their restaurants; "ITC hotels are known for their food. At ITC Grand Central we have acclaimed Master Chef Mohammed Shareef. We organised a special festival, Daawat-e-Shareef, showcased some of chef's signature dishes like nalli nihari, galouti, haleem, dal bukhara, sikanderi raan and his famous dum biryanis. By offering gastronomic feasts by our master chefs we hope to tempt our customers into coming out of their homes,” says Amit.

The meal by Chef Shareef was sublime. The kebabs were mouth-watering and tender, the nalli fell off the bone and the haleem was rich and sinful.

Eating freshly cooked kebabs is an experience no delivery service can replicate. Straight from the tandoor to the table is the way good kebabs have to be enjoyed.

Kebabs & Kurries has an open-plan tandoor kitchen, visible to diners, and it was reassuring to see that the chefs had their masks on despite the heat of the tandoor. Creating special menus, showcasing the best ITC has to offer seems to be working, going by the crowds I saw when I dined at the restaurant, there is definitely a big demand for good food, COVID or no-COVID.

The St. Regis Mumbai has adopted all the standards set forth by the global Marriott advisory board that has some of the most respected scientists, doctors, nutritionists and public health experts from across the best universities like Cornell, Purdue and Johns Hopkins.

The hotel has imported specialised machines to sanitise their surfaces. Using a customised atomiser machine with an electrostatic charge, it is believed that there is better adherence of the sanitising fluid to the surface and hence a more efficacious sanitation.

General Manager, Nicholas Dumbell, smiles and says, "We thought we would make the whole sanitising business a bit fun and so all our staff using the sanitiser machines are dressed in overhauls in maroon – makes them look like one of the team from Money Heist! Another fun but important thing we have done is have sand timers on tables. Once the table is cleaned the sand timer is turned. So when the sand timer is running, it lets our staff and diners know that this table is not ready for use, and it's much prettier than a 'do not use' sign.”

"We have a doctor who comes to the hotel everyday and apart from the routine temperature checks, we have random examinations of staff by our doctor. All our staff stays in the hotel for a month, we have more than 100 staff staying in-house. Our delivery of vegetables and meats has always been monitored to the highest standards but now we have additional processes in place to ensure the vegetables are cleaned and sanitised as per our international advisory before they are brought into the kitchen,” says Nicholas.
St. Regis Mumbai has been organising various festivals to engage with diners. Every weekend Seven Kitchens, their multi-speciality restaurant and coffee shop hosts a special menu. Past festivals included a butter chicken festival, Goan feast, Maharashtrian festival, and they plan to continue with special menus through the festive season.

The Leela Group of hotels with luxury properties across India, and some signature restaurants like The Great Wall, Le Cirque, Jamawar and Megu, have also led some novel initiatives. Their Leela Suraksha is all about protection and wellness during COVID. As part of Leela Suraksha, guests at the hotel and restaurants are welcomed with a complimentary immunity booster drink made using natural herbs.

If you do not want to venture out of the comfort of your home but want to enjoy gourmet food from The Leela, Anuraag Bhatnagar, Chief Operating Officer, Leela Hotels, has a solution for you; "We have started a programme where chefs from The Leela will come to your home with all the ingredients needed and cook you a special meal in your own kitchen to be enjoyed in the comfort of your house.”

At Leela Palace Delhi, the popular brunch buffet has been replaced with a trolley service. "As buffets have been stopped during the pandemic, we have introduced a new trolley service during brunch. Trolleys with small plates of hot food travel between tables and diners can choose what they want from the trolley and it will be served in small portions to them directly from the kitchen. We have been able to give diners the same choice as a buffet in a much more intimate and safe manner,” says Anuraag.

The Renaissance Mumbai has also re-imagined its Sunday buffet. Instead of large cauldrons of food, the new-age buffet now has the dishes plated as individual portions placed on display. Diners roam the buffet spread selecting the dishes they like which are then prepared fresh in the kitchen and served on the table, one portion per person. This avoids all the possible contamination and spread of COVID by multiple people using a common serving spoon or by people accidentally breathing down on a cauldron, but diners yet have the wide selection of dishes they would have on a buffet. This could be the new normal for buffets even once COVID subsides.

Standalone restaurants have also been equally innovative.

Karyna Bajaj, Executive Director, KA Hospitality, and the driving force behind Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Nara Thai and CinCin in India, has been hard at work finding new ways to keep people safe. Most of her restaurants have to adhere to the international standards set by the flagship restaurants in London and Bangkok, ensuring that even in Bombay, the strictest COVID protocols are maintained. "Being part of an international chain of Michelin-star restaurants, our kitchens and processes are randomly checked through video calls by our flagship restaurants and headquarters and we have to ensure we not only meet Indian government standards but standards from UK and the USA,” Karyna says.

Copper Chimney, Bombay's favourite Indian restaurant, has gone to great lengths to enforce COVID safety protocols but also to ensure diners can see the protocols in place – after all, seeing is believing.

The UV (ultraviolet) plate sanitising machines are placed in the visible parts of the restaurants so guests can see that their plates are coming from the UV treatment straight to the diner. They have installed cameras in the kitchen and a TV in the dining area relays the images of all the staff in the kitchen so guests can see the levels of hygiene maintained and that all staff are wearing masks, gloves and caps.

Karan Kapur, the man running Copper Chimney tells us,"We were the first to make all our safety practices very visible to the diner. Many of our diners had a very apprehensive look when they first came to the restaurant when we reopened post lockdown, but seeing all the precautions we have taken they have been recommending us to friends and family and many have come back again for their Copper Chimney favourites.'

I echo what Karan mentioned. The first meal I had post lockdown, even I was a bit on-edge despite wearing a N95 mask, carrying a sanitiser in my pocket and wiping every conceivable surface. I think it was a fear of not knowing what to expect and what precautions the restaurant was taking to protect me. But once you make the first trip, depending on where you dine and their safety protocols, I was very reassured that eating out is safe and all that can be done to be safe is being done.

Chef Ananda Solomon, the celebrated chef who started Thai Pavilion in Taj President, and is now head chef at Thai Naam by Ananda, believes restaurants must ensure that safety measures are truly adhered to and not just for show. He is at the restaurant every morning at 8:30 and leaves post midnight ensuring that all the staff are being temperature-checked as also all the vendors. All the produce is sanitised to his standard and the kitchen and restaurant is cleaned in front of him.

"I only opened the restaurant once I could safely get all the ingredients I needed from Bangkok. If I am not happy with my ingredients, my diners will not be happy with the food and so I ensure my herbs and spices are flown in from Bangkok even today during COVID,” says Chef Ananda Solomon.

It has been my experience that when the owner or senior chef is on the restaurant floor, not just when guests walk in, but is first-in and last-out, that restaurant will always achieve higher standards of hygiene and excellence.

Says Chef Solomon, "I noticed that during the pandemic, people are stressed, anxious and restless. So we have created a special meditation room in the restaurant where diners can spend 10-15 minutes to unwind, meditate and relax. This area has become very popular with our diners. We purposely made the meditation room at the end of the kitchen so diners walk through the kitchen and can see chefs at work, smell the wonderful spices and also see that we pay attention to all safety protocols in the dining area and the kitchen.”

Despite having a seating capacity of 105 people, Chef has restricted the seating to only 30 diners and limits all tables to single seating. "Ensuring diners feel comfortable, welcome and safe is our main concern during COVID. I am only interested in keeping my staff occupied and our heads above water for now. Once the pandemic settles we will open up fully and I am sure as things improve people will be back as diners understand good food, good ingredients and good chefs,” he says.

Even small eateries have been innovative and doing the best they can to ensure diner safety. "We stopped all our air-conditioning and installed ceiling fans and exhaust fans at all Swati Snacks ensuring there is continuous flow of fresh air in the restaurant after we were told that the risk of infection may increase in closed rooms with ACs. Our staff lives in apartments we rented near the restaurant so they are not exposed while using public transport or in their homes and we can control their level of exposure. With these measures we have done more than what is mandated by the government,” says Karan Shah, Director at Swati Snacks, Bombay.

Amrish Arora, Proprietor, Flamboyante, Hammer and Song, and Fountain Sizzlers, has also gone the extra mile to ensure diner safety. "All the cutlery and crockery is sanitised and packed so that there is a strict no-touch policy. The diner is the first to touch the plate, forks and other cultery once they have been sanitised. Each diner gets a pre-packed sanitised hand towel set with two towels; to be used pre and post meal,” says Amrish. He also runs Cafe on the Ro-Ro boat service between Bombay and Alibaug and says they have moved to using disposable plates, cutlery and glasses on board the ferry.

There is a definite drive to do as much as possible to keep diners safe and every restaurant is trying to do their little bit more than government mandated protocols.
In these difficult times, the measures restaurants take to ensure diner safety will determine how quickly diners return to them. A good word about safety is all that is needed to effuse confidence in friends and family to venture to the restaurant.

I asked Taljinder from Taj if keeping a restaurant open at 50% or less capacity was financially viable and he had some interesting insights. "A hotel can subsidise the restaurant from room revenues, banquets and other activities of the hotel but standalone restaurants may struggle.”

Maybe this is why it is estimated that 40% of restaurants in London and New York may never open again. In India we do not yet know how many restaurants will be COVID victims but conservative estimates suggest that without government support at least 30% of standalone restaurants may shut shop.

It would be a shame if restaurants were unable to find financial viability because people are scared to venture out; scared not because eating out is a COVID risk but because of misinformation and hysteria.

So is eating out safe? In a single word, YES!

But here is a checklist of things you could do to convince yourself that you are going to be safe when you choose a restaurant:

Call the restaurant and ask them about their COVID protocols
If you are not happy with their protocols, do not visit them.
Be ready to walk out
I recently booked a table at a well-known Chinese restaurant for lunch. At the restaurant I was not very happy with their adherence to COVID safety protocols. I walked out. Did not eat there. Be prepared to walk away if you do not feel comfortable and safe.
Dine out with people within your 'bubble'
The risk of COVID is most if you dine with people who are not from your home or 'bubble'.
You cannot sit six feet away when you eat together and there can be no mask while eating. The risk of getting COVID from your dining partners is much higher than getting COVID from the restaurant.
Order cooked food
There is uncontroversial evidence that the virus does not survive in temperatures needed to cook both meat and vegetables.
Dine out at reputed establishments
International chains have international standards that must meet the rigors of global agencies that are often more strict and demanding than our government standards. Established restaurant chains, luxury hotels, restaurants with 'brand' value have a reputation to protect, and hopefully will not be penny-wise pound-foolish.
Look out for festivals and deals
Restaurants are offering specially curated menus and deals during COVID. The pandemic could be a gastronomic opportunity.

The restaurant eco-system sustains millions of livelihoods both in direct and indirect employment. Every restaurant that shuts directly impacts lives and the economy. UK was amongst the first to demonstrate how important the restaurant industry is. Eat out to Help out – a UK Government initiative helped get people back into pubs, bars and restaurants and this helped kickstart their economy and saved many pubs and restaurants from foreclosure.

After all the reading, research and analysis I have done for this article, I can assure you that eating out is safe as long as you choose your restaurant wisely, behave responsibly and follow the basic rules I have mentioned here.

Eating out is one of the few pleasures we can indulge in once again, during the ongoing pandemic. It is nourishment for the body, mind and soul and during these tough times. We need to 'eat out to help out'.

So let's step forward, confidently, positively and responsibly.

St. Regis hotel Mumbai kitchen safety measures