There is an opinion that it is almost impossible for people who adhere to a healthy lifestyle to find suitable ready-made meals. For this reason, some avoid going to restaurants, believing that only at home, by cooking on their own, can they get food that meets the standards of proper nutrition. However, now in almost all Moscow restaurants you can find dishes that meet the requirements of proper nutrition. Additionally, it is considered normal to ask that no sauce or ingredient be added to a particular dish.
For example, the Italian restaurant Buono has dishes that can be classified as a healthy lifestyle. For example, artichoke carpaccio with green onions and Parmesan, cauliflower carpaccio with black truffle, homemade durum wheat spaghetti with tomato and basil, and for dessert blood orange jelly with bitter Sicilian orange jam.
Yakitoriya offers not only rolls and sushi, but also low-calorie salads. For example, “Green Salad”, which includes spinach, arugula, zucchini, cucumber, broccoli and sesame-peanut dressing. This dish contains only 91 kcal. “A more high-calorie, but equally healthy salad is the ebi-poke bowl. It contains shrimp, edamame, avocado, radish, quinoa, red onion, pickled seaweed, tomato, cucumber, a mix of iceberg lettuce, corn and carrots and yogurt sauce,” says Alexander Muratov, development director of the Yakitoria franchise restaurant chain.
In the Jan Primus beer restaurants, paradoxically, they pay attention to healthy lifestyle dishes in the business lunch section. “For example, borscht, asparagus soup and fish soup are completely healthy dishes, as are salads: nicoise, with roast beef, fitness salad. Among the second courses of lunch, a healthy lifestyle can roughly include pike cutlets and turkey cutlets with potatoes, if you do not serve them with sauce, pickled eggs (a traditional English appetizer), and Greek salad with olive oil. Definitely healthy food on the main menu is seafood: Magadan shrimp, Kamchatka crab, oysters,” says Yana Yungina, co-founder of the Yan Primus restaurants.
Kamchatka crab
Sage’s menu includes a protein omelet with zucchini and Tajian olives. “This light protein dish is ideal for an athlete’s breakfast,” says Dmitry Golenin, chef at the Sage restaurant. “And the green salad with sesame dressing was created in response to the guests’ request for a light, but at the same time nutritious salad, suitable for lunch or dinner. During Lent we created a mini-vegan set. Surprisingly, Moscow showed great interest in healthy lifestyle dishes, guests highly appreciated them and began to come specifically for healthy eating items.”
Why do restaurants introduce healthy lifestyle dishes to their menus?
The introduction of healthy lifestyle dishes into restaurant menus is not just a trend and a tribute to fashion or an attempt to please guests who care about their health. The choice of dishes to suit different diets and gastronomic preferences is a promising segment for attracting audiences.
“The fashion for a healthy lifestyle appeared during a period of economic growth, which contributes to market segmentation. Simply put, when the market rises, there is room for everyone. That’s when concepts arose, led by opinion leaders, most often not restaurateurs, – restaurants and cafes with menus without sugar, gluten, etc. And it was wonderful. Market segmentation and economic growth are great. But now we live in different times – this is a promising period for attracting additional audiences.
It often happens that there is a person in the company who is not satisfied with the regular menu. For example, I am now in the process of losing weight after giving birth. And my decision can influence where my family or my company goes or doesn’t go, simply because I simply won’t have anything to eat in some restaurants. There must be an alternative. But you shouldn’t expect any super results from this additional segment. In ABC analysis, such dishes will always be in category C. There is also such a thing as “trend”. When plant-based meat of decent quality appeared at a normal price, only the lazy did not include it on the menu. Just because it’s a trend.”
“In my opinion, not everyone in Moscow is keen on healthy lifestyle. Yes, there are cafes and restaurants that, along with classic dishes, add healthy lifestyle alternatives. But I think this is more of a tribute to fashion, which, as you know, always lasts for a limited amount of time.
Healthy lifestyle dishes on the menu are part of caring for the guest and his comfort. Typically, restaurants include two or three dishes on the menu for people who do not eat meat, fish, or who are allergic to gluten or lactose. I believe that there should always be a choice of alternative positions. Do I need to introduce a separate menu for them? It’s unlikely, unless it’s included in the restaurant’s concept.
When creating a menu, I always keep in mind that guests should have enough choice, regardless of their diet or gastronomic preferences. It is important that there are dishes made from meat, fish and vegetables, and there must be at least one gluten-free pasta. These are the principles we were guided by when we developed healthy lifestyle dishes at Buono.”
“More and more people are watching their health and weight. There are many programs and specialists that allow you to effectively build a nutrition plan taking into account your lifestyle. Green salads, for example, are good for immunity, digestion and are low in calories. Separately, it should be noted the high demand for farm products. This is again a consequence of the fact that people began to pay more attention to what exactly they eat. And more often they want to eat products, figuratively speaking, from the garden, more natural. Japanese cuisine, which always remains the philosophy of the Yakitoria brand, is, in principle, one of the healthiest in the world. After all, this is, first of all, fish, rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, and rice is a low-calorie product, which quickly creates a satiating effect.”
“In recent years there has been an increase in interest in healthy eating and vegetarianism. Many projects are actively developing in this direction, although they work with complex products – vegetables and root vegetables are not as simple as they seem. In order to get a cool result and create something really tasty, it can take a lot of effort and time.
Nowadays the trend is towards a healthy lifestyle; guests have a demand for it, especially among the female audience who watches their figure. Women, one way or another…
