By Claire Reilly
Uniting professional chefs with gourmet food lovers and high-end appliances: that’s the idea behind Harvey Norman’s Gourmet Institute, a series of cooking demonstration nights held in conjunction with Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine in Harvey Norman stores.
After running the Gourmet Institute in Sydney’s Harvey Norman @ Domayne megastore in Alexandria for six years, the concept has hit Melbourne for the first time this year, with demonstrations from some of Australia’s leading chefs, held at Harvey Norman’s Chadstone store.
The Gourmet Institute brings together the cooking veterans such as world-renowned chef and author Christine Manfield as well as up-and-coming trendsetters such as Dan Hong who are making their mark on the Australian restaurant scene. In a night of canapés, champagne and fine food, consumers get the chance to see their favourite chefs in action, cooking on premium appliances that are sold in Harvey Norman stores.
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According to Gary Brown, Harvey Norman’s senior brand manager, it’s a great way to unite the Harvey Norman name with a premium cooking experience.
“We’ve supported the Gourmet Institute by having leading, up-and-coming chefs in our stores; our involvement is the involvement by association, and they’re cooking on products that we sell,” he said. “The chefs are getting these results and cooking these dishes on domestic appliances, not in a professional kitchen — there’s a vast difference between the product you see in the back of a restaurant and what you see in the kitchen in suburbia.
“So the chefs have a bit of fun and give a few hints about creating dishes, and it’s quite an entertaining night.”
The connection with Harvey Norman is also a logical one for Australian Gourmet Traveller, with the magazine’s editor Anthea Loucas calling it a “win-win-win” for everyone involved.
“We love it because it’s the only regular cooking demonstration program that we do, the readers love it because they get to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s finest chefs, and Harvey Norman love it obviously because it brings people into their store,” she said. “It’s a fantastic program.”
“I think there’s a guarantee if it’s a Gourmet event then it’s going to be top notch. Our brand value is very strong and our reader loyalty is so strong that for Harvey Norman, it’s a guaranteed success.
While it’s a great way to bring foodies into Harvey Norman to seeing cooking appliances in action, Brown said it wasn’t about trying to pressure consumers to purchase.
“There really is no sales pitch,” he said, though he conceded that Harvey Norman does have “a fair bit of input with what the chefs are going to use and what they’re going to cook”.
Instead, it’s about opening Harvey Norman up to a demographic that is interested in food and cooking, and giving them the option to purchase if they choose.
“Once they receive their tickets, guests receive an offer from us,” said Brown. “We actually open our store an hour before the event starts so people can come and look at the products that are going to be cooked with and ask any questions that they have.
“But it’s not really an evening to make sales, it’s more about creating awareness. Most of the recipes the chefs cook can be done by anyone that has some cooking ability, and by using the latest technologies like induction, it makes it a bit easier to get a chef-quality result.
“It’s about promoting the fact that these are technologies available and it’s not out of the reach of the normal home cook.”
While the Gourmet Institute is now established in Sydney and Melbourne, Brown said it was the kind of concept that could easily spread across Australia to bring the Harvey Norman cooking experience to even more foodies.
“In a perfect world we’d be doing the Gourmet Institute across the country in all the major centres, and that may be a strategy for the future.”
For the most comprehensive look at the Australian cooking appliance market available, turn to the August edition of Appliance Retailer magazine.