Gordon Ramsay brand comes to Singapore - will it succeed?

Gordon Ramsay, famed and infamous celebrity chef, has joined the plethora of other celebrity chefs in creating a dining concept in Singapore. The in built Singaporean desire for 1) dining out and even better, 2) being able to say you dined out at celebrity restaurant through social media attracted Ramsay to take up the challenge of making a success of his new venture Bread Kitchen. that and oodles of money from Marina Bay Sands where his new restaurant, Bread Kitchen will be situated.

Bread Kitchen is a brand new easy dining European concept that has already opened in London, Hong Kong and soon to be Dubai as well as Singapore on June 19th.  It's a brave move to come to Singapore but by working with the casino, sorry, integrated resort, Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Ramsay is working with the best and largest operator in town ideally located to target locals, expats and tourists.

The Ramsay brand has great credibility in Singapore thanks to his Hawker Challenge last year. This was where he and SingTel created great TV and social content by putting a Ramsay spin on various local dishes and then battling with local eateries in Hawker Centres to see which the public thought was the best.

Although Ramsay got kudos for his version of Singapore's Chilli Crab he was beaten by Ryan Koh from 328 Katong Laksa  who beat Ramsay by the biggest margin — 19 per cent of the votes — while Foo Kui Lian from Tian Tian Chicken Rice won by 6 per cent. Ramsay’s chilli crab beat Jumbo Seafood Restaurant’s Ang Kiam Meng’s dish by 5 per cent.

What impressed local people was his enthusiasm to learn new dishes and new techniques and compete on a local level. He also impressed everyone with his empathy and had no airs and graces for someone as rich and famous as he. Social media went mad as thousands shared their experiences and photographed their experiences both of eating the food and with Ramsay himself. 

Ramsay is, for once, following in nemesis Jamie Oliver's shoes. Oliver already has a casual Italian dining concept here in Singapore. Although it opened with much fanfare and queues locals and expats quickly grew tired of the poor service and sub standard food.

Jamie's Italian, in the more mass market and much larger shopping mall, Vivo City is only rated 1,382 out of 7,321 restaurants in Singapore on TripAdvisor and it is has as many very good's as poor and terrible markings. Needless to say it's no longer the place to go in Singapore. This will be Ramsay's challenge, once the celebrity gloss washes off it's down to the food quality and service.

Service in Singapore is the biggest challenge due to the talent squeeze and restrictions on employing the best service staff as they don't tend to come from Singapore where it is not a profession held in any great esteem.

Ramsay's Hong Kong Bread Kitchen is 612 our of 5,000 restaurants in Hong Kong on TripAdvisor and has enough average, poor and terrible marks to be worrying for him and his operators as it matches the total number of very good's. Will the same thing happen in Singapore? Style over substance like Oliver's Italian?

Some celebrity restaurants manage it over the long term in Singapore, Daniel Boulud's amazing DB Modern Brasserie and Oyster Bar at MBS along with Joel Robuchon's twin approach of the fantastic "L'Atelier" and ultra expensive (even by Singapore standards) of the Joel Robuchon restaurant itself. 

When I was in Dubai a few years ago I visited Ramsay's then restaurant at the Hilton. Then because Hilton closed it and make more money from their own offering than having Ramsay's there.  A brand can be stretched too thin but that was fine dining, Bread Kitchen is a casual bar and bistro so expectations and standards (and hopefully prices) can be lower. 

Singapore is an unforgiving and highly competitive market place for restaurants. Often in flavour places will close at a moments notice. Social media can drive people to and from places very quickly. There are few who can compete with Singaporean's when it comes to food porn. Instagram, facebook and twitter are full of Singaporeans at all kinds of restaurants and every single meal they serve good and bad. That's the opportunity but that's also the threat.

MBS and Ramsay have taken to social media to whet the appetites for both the concept and the arrival in great number. Ramsay is a great believer in content driven social media and uses it to great effect for all his entrepreneurial ventures. 

Ramsay's Instagram has 16,000 likes for just mentioning that he was coming back to Singapore. On facebook his 4million followers have been fully informed on what he is doing in Singapore as have his 2.3million twitter followers. He also has actively posted YouTube videos for his restaurants as well as having a million unofficial posts for  his various TV programs both of which enhance his personal and restaurant brand.

At the moment all Ramsay's social media is full of his Iron Man achievements but I am sure he will turn them to focus on Singapore with the opening and expected visit this week. He has also invested in local social media engagement too:

Official hashtag #BSKMBS (2015)

Official local page https://www.facebook.com/breadstreetkitchensingapore

https://twitter.com/BSKSingapore

Jamie Oliver may sell more books (37 million at the last count) and be richer according to the Sunday Times Rich List but Ramsay attends all his restaurant openings and spends time in each country before hand. Oliver, infamously, didn't attend his own Hong Kong opening and was barely noticed at his very brief Singapore opening and hasn't been back since then and that was a couple of years ago.

What I also like about the way that "Team Ramsay" approached the opening is that they went local and B2B to engage not B2C. They choose to target the hospitality schools on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. This was part of MBS commitment to future proofing the culinary and catering industry in Asia.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/gordonsfirstintern

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/gordonsfirstintern

The stats speak for themselves with over 2 million impressions across Twitter and facebook and more on Linekdin. It was a very original way of engaging the local community and winning people onto his side before he even opened.

Ramsay has sowed the positive seeds of social engagement by investing time in Singapore and with the people. He generated fantastic PR for his Hawker challenge event and that will hold him in a good sway, at least for the initial months after opening. Then it's down to whether they can deliver on a consistent basis.

*Just for the record and for those cynical ones amongst you, no I am not paid to write this for either MBS or Gordon Ramsay. I am never paid to to write for anyone, not because I am not asked, (as I am constantly) but because it would effect your view of my blog if I did. Where we sponsor an event, such as the Chief Innovation Officer Summit this week where I am also Chair I say in my blogs - apart from that all views on all my blogs on mine and mine alone. Thank you for reading.