Ocean Basket’s first burger? Head of food, Alet Kilchenmann, serves up menu innovation

Danette Breitenbach chatted with Alet Kilchenmann, Ocean Basket’s Head of Food, about how burgers fit into the brand and the ongoing evolution of the brand (Image supplied)

Danette Breitenbach chatted with Alet Kilchenmann, Ocean Basket’s Head of Food, about how burgers fit into the brand and the ongoing evolution of the brand.

Explaining what head of food entails, she says that she is the leader of all things food.

“Together with my team, we cover everything to do with food, from the sourcing to how the food comes out on our customers’ plates.

“It is my responsibility that the end product that lands on the table at Ocean Basket is aligned to our food, customer strategy and business strategy.”

Can you elaborate on these strategies: the food strategy, the customer strategy and the business strategy?

Ocean Basket is and has always been extremely customer-focused, extending a feeling of generosity to its patrons and that is always at the forefront of whatever we are doing foodwise, whether it is developing a new recipe, sourcing a new fish, or opening a new restaurant.

Our customers’ experience is always top of mind. We want our customers to come to Ocean Basket for unique, fresh meals at a good and affordable price point, while our Mediterranean hospitality lets them feel at home.

Our Mediterranean hospitality is where our roots lie, where we come from.

This year our food strategy is to focus on what we do best, and that is seafood. We are removing fluffiness from our menu to focus and hone in on what we do well, our core menu items, which are our famous fish and chips, our combos, and our platters.

We are also continuing to focus on sustainability, traceability and community upliftment.

What are your sustainability initiatives or community initiatives?

We form partnerships with companies and establishments that share our vision and our motto when it comes to looking after the ocean, with a focus on traceability and sustainability.

In our restaurants, we train our staff on seafood sustainability, on the ocean and on all the products that they end up working with. When a new species comes onto our menu, the staff get to see it, feel it, taste it, and cook it.

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Ocean Basket has been evolving. Can you take us through that evolution?

We continue to evolve as do our customers, so this means we must understand what our customers want and how they want to feel when they are sitting in an Ocean Basket, when they experience a meal with their family.

Aesthetics such as lighting, comfortable seating, music, etc., are all considered to create comfortable and familiar spaces for our customers.

Our head of brand’s vision and strategy is to focus on the ultimate experience, from the moment a customer walks in the door till they leave. And everything in between.

It needs to be fresh and a bit funky, but also in keeping with our Mediterranean roots.

Our newer restaurants carry a different look and feel with ocean murals on the walls, more hanging elements, plants and canopy-style lights as well as booths, and round tables to create that family feel of sharing and feeling of generosity because that is at the heart of what we do.

How do you market all of this and the brand to customers and potential customers?

The Ocean Basket demographic has tended to be older people and people with families. Our focus now is to bring the younger generation into our restaurants.

We have worked hard to achieve this by upping our online presence. Talking about our sustainability and traceability has also appealed to the younger generation.

But it still comes down to food, so we have brought sushi and burgers onto our menus, which is what younger people want to eat, and it is attracting them to our restaurants.

But it is not only about new customers. We want to keep our existing customers happy, and people eat differently as food trends emerge and evolve.

Eighty percent of our menu will always be our seafood and focused on core plates – our fish and chips, platters, and combos, because that is what people know, and that is what they love.

We do not change these, but we have that 20% play, where we can follow trends, see where gaps are, and try to pioneer certain categories.

Ocean Basket recently introduced burgers to their menu, with special burger promos running through April and May to the end of May, and the response has been phenomenal. Picture: Alet Kilchenmann, Ocean Basket’s head of food with the three different seafood burgers on offer

Given this context, tell us about the introduction of burgers to the Ocean Basket menu.

Doing a burger well is not easy. There are many elements to a delicious burger. You must have the perfect bun, the right crunch element and sauce.

Add to that that we serve seafood… and a burger also has lettuce and a tomato element, and those do not work with our seafood.

So we went on a mission and tasted burgers from all over in every shape, every size, with any protein, to understand the makeup of the perfect burger.

After all our research, we produced the seafood burger you will not find anywhere else in the country.

It has a buttery, pillowy brioche bun that we ever so slightly toast for crunchiness, a little bit of our secret sauces, some crunch from veggie ribbons of carrots and courgettes and then a choice of hake, prawn or calamari.

With the crunchiness and the golden crispiness of our seafood, we think it is phenomenal. We feel like we have nailed it, that we have pioneered this burger, and we are pushing it hard.

It was also important for us to come in at the right price point for this product, and we feel we have accomplished that.

So far, we have seen the burger appeal to kids in a big way; it is an easy introduction to seafood.

Launched in September last year, the product has been well-received. Currently, the burgers are on a separate menu, but they will move onto the main menu in winter.

From here, we can only build on it and introduce new flavours.

All our burgers have been on in April, and have been so popular that we have extended the promotion to the end of May.

Going into winter, what food trends are you seeing?

Going into winter, the trend is sharing meals, like a big pot of mussels with bread and everyone dipping in together.

This trend aligns with our ethos. We believe that seafood should be shared and celebrated. It’s our mission to serve generous portions of soulful seafood that bring people together in warm, welcoming restaurants. Our platters are made for sharing and then sharing again!

For this specific winter, we will be going back to basics, focusing on our core meals.

Then we will innovate again come summer. Next winter, we want to bring in bold new flavours, but always ensuring seafood is the hero.