Grazers' edge

A typical meal at Duetto restaurant in Wan Chai consists of a chicken tikka appetiser followed by a tagliata pasta main course. At first glance, this combination of Indian and Italian dishes might seem odd. But for Moss Bakar, managing director of Chiram Strategic Group, Duetto's parent company, it's merely the latest thing in dining: the multi-cuisine restaurant.

Bakar says Duetto isn't simply a restaurant with a 'continental' or 'international' menu of basic Eastern and Western items, in the same vein as many hotel coffee shops, but a genuine Indian and Italian restaurant.

Bakar's company previously operated two separate restaurants on the same floor of Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai: Milano served Italian food and The Viceroy specialised in Indian.

As the two restaurants were next to each other, customers would on occasion order Indian food at the Italian restaurant and vice versa. Such requests became so frequent Bakar decided to combine the two eateries into one, opening Duetto in the space previously occupied by The Viceroy.

The take at Duetto has outperformed the two restaurants combined, with profits up by 25 to 30 per cent since its opening last June. 'Our motto is: be a leader, not a follower,' says Bakar. 'And I'm convinced this new restaurant model has a place in the Hong Kong culinary scene.'

Bakar isn't the only restaurateur to offer customers a choice of more than one cuisine; nor is he the first - Aqua at One Peking in Tsim Sha Tsui has been serving Italian and Japanese dishes for several years.

More recently, Esther Sham Ei-hung, the chef and owner of year-old private kitchen Ta Pantry, created three tasting menus from three different cuisines - Japanese, Shanghainese and New American. Sham attributes her restaurant concept to her lack of formal culinary training.