Ho Chi Minh City wants to build its own 'bible' for the culinary industry
Báo Thanh niên•22/12/2023
Not just Michelin
According to the report of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, the restaurant system in Ho Chi Minh City is very large in number. Statistics of the Food Safety Management Board in 2022 show that there are more than 16,000 restaurants and eateries with fixed addresses in the city, with the scale and service quality leading the country. Ho Chi Minh City is also a convergence of domestic and international cuisine.
Ho Chi Minh City has many dishes recommended by Michelin, the "bible of world cuisine".
However, the Vietnamese restaurant and beverage service industry in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular do not have a systematic basis for evaluating service quality, food quality, etc.; there is no basis for evaluating truly quality restaurants to introduce to domestic and international tourists. According to current regulations, state management agencies conduct assessments and appraisals of tourist service standards for food service establishments according to standards. However, in reality, the regulations have not classified or ranked restaurants and food establishments to create motivation to improve the quality of culinary services. At the same time, there is no full assessment of the service quality of the restaurant, the restaurant design style, the skills of the chef, the quality and appearance of the dishes, etc. according to international standards. Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism proposed to develop a set of criteria to evaluate the quality of culinary services of restaurants and food establishments applied in Ho Chi Minh City to improve the quality of restaurants closer to the world's common standards. "Researching and developing a set of criteria to evaluate culinary services of restaurants and food establishments will be an important step to affirm the position of the F&B industry of Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general" - the leader of the city's tourism industry acknowledged. A representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism assessed that cuisine contributes to creating attractiveness, retaining tourists for long stays, stimulating spending and contributing to revenue for the service economy. In Vietnam, cuisine is an endless and indispensable resource for the tourism industry. Ho Chi Minh City has 1 Michelin-starred restaurant; an individual receiving the Michelin Service Award; 38 Michelin Selected restaurants and eateries (restaurants recommended by Michelin) and 16 Bib Gourmand restaurants (restaurants with delicious food at affordable prices). This proves that the development potential of this tourism product in Ho Chi Minh City is quite abundant. "From now until 2024, Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry will focus on groups of solutions including building a tourism development strategy, identifying culinary tourism as one of the key areas and ensuring compliance with the green economy. The city will continue to maintain and maintain quality, improve the system of restaurants and eateries in the area to not only have delicious destinations but also meet international standards in service. Ho Chi Minh City will pilot a separate set of standards to evaluate restaurants and eateries, approaching international standards so that in the coming time, not only will there be 55 restaurants on the Michelin list, but many restaurants and eateries will also have the opportunity to be selected" - a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism informed.
Cuisine is an endless and indispensable resource for the tourism industry.
6 criteria, at 3 levels
Through studying the experiences of other countries, the establishments that evaluate the quality of culinary services such as the evaluation standards according to the Michelin culinary guide, the AAA diamond rating system (of the US), the restaurant ranking according to the Forbes travel guide... The Department of Tourism proposed a set of criteria to evaluate restaurants and food establishments in Ho Chi Minh City (restaurants and eateries with fixed addresses) including general criteria, classification criteria, and framework criteria. Specifically, the general criteria have 6 contents including: Location - place to organize restaurants and food establishments; technical facilities and equipment; food safety; human resources; environmental protection - fire prevention; commercial civilization. Classification criteria: Restaurants and food establishments that meet the general criteria will continue to be evaluated for classification. Therein, the classification and evaluation of restaurants and food establishments are divided into three levels. Level 1: Restaurants and food establishments that meet quality standards (at least 70 points); Level 2: Good quality restaurants and food establishments (at least 90 points); Level 3: Outstanding quality restaurants and food establishments (at least 95 points). The framework criteria include: Location, architecture; layout and space; products and services provided; staff and customer reviews. In addition, the Department of Tourism proposes 3 additional bonus points including: introducing the story of the dishes, the energy value of each dish, and waste classification. For example, a good quality restaurant (level 1) in terms of location and design is located in an easily accessible location on main roads or car alleys...; a good quality restaurant (level 2) is located in an easily accessible location on main roads, major roads...; Restaurants with outstanding quality (level 3) are located in easy-to-access locations on main roads... Restaurants that use fresh food, with clear origins, limit the use of frozen products and foods, have their own creative food or drinks or follow traditional methods... will achieve level 1 food quality. Level 2 has additional criteria for using specific food products of the region or country to apply to dishes... Meanwhile, level 3 requires more artistic and aesthetic food decoration, stimulating the taste buds of diners, a rich menu, changing seasonally, having dishes with the chef's own mark, unique... Regarding the organizational regulations, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism proposed assigning the Ho Chi Minh City Culinary Association to research and disseminate the set of criteria to restaurants and eateries. The Culinary Association will establish a council to evaluate the quality of Ho Chi Minh City's culinary services and issue a process for receiving and evaluating restaurants.
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