WMvocento_admin
October 3, 2018
The era of 4.0 restaurants
Diego Coquillat describes himself as a ‘researcher’. He has worked for years in the hospitality and restaurant industry, yet has never ever switched on a stove. He analyses how consumption habits have changed with the arrival of new technological tools, and disseminates the advantages of digital transformation to the restaurant industry. ‘We are going through the most important digital revolution in history, where people are connected to new ways of eating through the use of technology,’ he asserts.
Today, and thanks to the digital world, you don’t enter a restaurant by pushing open a glass door. You go in via a screen. ‘Diners enter long before they even start eating. Things begin on social networks and relationships continue via portals and opinion forums,’ says the editor of the digital newspaper DiegoCoquillat.com, and the creator of The Best Digital Restaurants, the only awards in the world that recognise digital and technological management by chefs and restaurants.
For Diego Coquillat, internet is like a huge city that allows any establishment to position itself on a busy street, as long as it knows how to take advantage of the resources that new technologies offer.
Coquillat points out that this digital transformation has three speeds. The first is high speed, where large restaurant chains that have managed to use the digital sphere to makes their sales grow can be found. The second one groups chefs who understand that being different gastronomically is not enough.
Lastly, is the third speed; this includes independent restaurants and is a melting pot for a) those who are beginning to understand the importance of these relationships with diners, and b) those who have yet to adapt to what is in fact no longer a trend, but a reality.
For this consultant, the 4.0 era of restaurants has just begun. Augmented reality and 3D printing will change relationships with diners forever. In addition, the automation of activities will be crucial, as will the processing and analysis of information offered by big data – a key factor for making business-related decisions and improving experiences for diners. A new world of possibilities revolutionising the sector is opening up.
Manu Balanzino
