Reprinted Courtesy of Restaurants, Resorts & Hotels and Sunbelt Foodservice - January, 1994

FAUX DESSERT TRAYS, OTHER ITEMS HELP INCREASE SALES
by Francesco Dorigo/President, Fax Foods, Inc

It's every restaurateur's nightmare. Two hours ago, that scrumptious dessert tray the servers presented to customers was brimming with everything from black forest cherry torte to strawberry cheesecake. Everything looked fresh and appealing.

But at room temperatures the desserts soon sagged strawberries began to darken, the chocolate appeared off-color and the whipped cream was less than presentable. Customers took one look at the tray and immediately asked for their check. Ancillary post-entrŽe sales were lost.

A cost-effective solution that many major restaurant chains are employing to avoid this dilemma and increase sales is utilizing replica foods.

Replica foods have been around for quite some time. The ancient Egyptians used to mummify certain foods and entomb them with the Pharaohs. But after the Pharaohs faded into antiquity the concept lay dormant for over 40 centuries until the end of World War II. An influx of western foods introduced in Japan prompted some entrepreneurial firms there to create faux western foods using beeswax models. Hesitant customers not familiar might feature, for example, a model of a hamburger and fries with a corresponding price, and not be embarrassed and lose face inside the restaurant when ordering. The technology has since improved and today's replica foods are made using plastic shaped in silicone models which are hand painted to duplicate in color, texture and detail the real food item. Water-based paints are now used instead of oil and acrylic because they aren't toxic.

Virtually any food can be replicated - fruits, vegetables. Luncheon meats, even gastronomical works of art such as three-foot chocolate-covered bananas. The advantages of using replica foods for both restaurants and food manufacturers are manifold.

One of the most popular replica food items is kale. Shoney's Inc., is restaurant headquartered in Nashville, TN. The company operates Shoney's Family Restaurants, Captain D's, Pargo's Fifth Quarter Restaurants and Lee's Famous Chicken.

Shoney's used to spend about $1 million each year on the leafy vegetable, used in salad bars. Over the past six months, however, Shoney's purchased about $275,000 worth of replica kale for all company-owned Shoney's Family Restaurants, saving more than $700,000.

Many leading national restaurant chains have followed suit, including Ponderosa Steakhouses and Bonanza Family Restaurants of Dallas, both owned by MetroMedia (the restaurants use replica kale for their salad bars), and a number of Wendy's franchisees.

Darryl Acoba is marketing director of Long Beach, Calif. Based Acapulco Restaurants, a 33-year-old chain of 47 Mexican restaurants located throughout California and Oregon. Last September Acapulco began using replica dessert trays consisting of the restaurant's most popular desserts - key lime, pina colada and chocolate chip cheesecakes; peach melba; flan; and deep fried ice cream. Prior to the rollout of the replica dessert trays, and often after an hour or two many of the desserts would either begin melting or drooping a visual turn-off even for diehard sweet-toothed customers. Acoba said. He added that before the replica dessert trays were used, a training video was shown to all servers that educated them on the importance of add-on sales, how to show the tray properly, and tips on the care and maintenance of these replica desserts. Acapulco test-marketed the dessert trays in four restaurants in Los Angeles and San Diego in 1991. During the first month, the results were startling - dessert sales doubled.

"We've now made it a company policy that every customer is shown the dessert tray," Acoba said. "The replica desserts have proven to be a more effective merchandising tool than our traditional dessert menus."

Dallas-based Bennigan's Restaurants, a chain of 223 restaurants located nationwide, has been using a replica dessert tray display for almost a year. Steve Ortiz, division vice president, said Bennigan's display consists of a hot fudge brownie bottom pie, better known as 'Death By Chocolate' - three types of ice cream and fudge; the hot pie of the day; and a coffee drink.

Ortiz said 'people eat with their eyes' and since the replica dessert tray display was initiated company-wide, dessert sales have 'more than doubled.'

"It's a very effective method because the desserts always appear fresh and are visually appealing to the customer," Ortiz said. "Once our employees overcame their initial reluctance to use something that wasn't real but looked real, and saw that not only was it accepted by customers but helped put more money in the severs' pockets, it was readily accepted."

Ortiz added that Bennigan's has reduced their refrigeration costs too because the dessert trays don't have to be stored in a freezer or refrigerator they're simply placed on a shelf.

There are also other inherent advantages to utilizing replica foods. A number of industrial bakeries in the U.S. have begun using replica breads to establish strict quality control guidelines. Once a prototype is made the bakers can compare coloration and form as the warm loaves come off the production line. Previously, these bakeries used a real loaf of bread and used it as a standard - as long as it maintained its freshness. But over time some bakeries found their standards deteriorating because so many different real loaves were used as a prototype.

Replica foods can also alleviate possible health concerns. Foods such as hanging salamis, hams and cheeses can last up to two years, but over time they can secrete grease globules which can drop onto a counter. There is also the danger of insect larvae infestation. With replica foods, these problems are eliminated.

The notion of using replica foods will become even more popular in the near future as people overcome their reticence to using something 'fake' as opposed to using certain types of fresh foods which don't look very fresh after a short period of time outside the fridge or freezer.

Replica foods can be used in restaurant to present the 'daily special,' helping to create demand for certain entrees. They are also being used to enliven interior decors, e.g. Chi-Chi's Restaurants, a national chain owned by Foodmaker, uses replica chili, garlic and corn strings, as well as a variety of fruit balls to spruce up their interiors.

Replica foods are being displayed in restaurants, museums, movie studios, supermarkets, delis, and fast-food eateries - even the new Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. uses dog-eared replica turnips as part of their visual display illustrating the diet of the Holocaust victims. Airlines may also find replica foods cost-effective - airline food cycles, for example, change about every 30 days. Each time the airline chef has to create a perfect prototype. By creating a number of replica dinners, only one prototype would have to be made, saving both labor and money.

So the next time you're at a restaurant and start salivating at that hot fudge sundae perched atop the server's dessert tray, chances are you probably won't even know you're looking at a replica food. But you'll order, nonetheless, and receive the real food item. You'll have then fulfilled the replica food's 'raison d'etre' - a culinary 'trompe l'oeil' that helps that restaurant increase its sales.

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