TANDOORI OVEN TAKES SPOTLIGHT AT WEGMANS

ROSEANNE HARPER / Additional reporting: STEPHANIE LOUGHRAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Wegmans Food Markets has expanded the international flair of its prepared-foods menu with the installation of a tandoori oven in a store it just opened in New Jersey.

The oven, designed for making tandoori chicken, lamb and Indian flat bread, called nan, is situated behind the Chef's Creations prepared-foods area. As it does in other Wegmans' units, the chef's station turns out a daily roster of lunch and dinner entrees that customers can eat in the store or take out.

According to a source at that station, the oven is made of brick and clay, is cone-shaped inside and can be cranked up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Tandoori chicken and lamb, familiar items on Indian restaurant menus, are marinated in a mixture of spices and yogurt and then cooked at a high temperature, which sears the meat and creates a crusty exterior.

Right after the Wegmans unit opened, the Chef's Creation station offered a "grill mix" baked in the oven but it wasn't that well received. In fact, it was discontinued, a store-level source said. More popular as a dinner entree is a half tandoori chicken served with two sides, with a retail price of $10.99. It reportedly is selling well.

Some Indian items also are served up on the store's Wokery self-service Asian food bar.

A regular, everyday menu featuring Indian food will be offered if demand calls for it, the source said.

Wegmans' move to take on Indian food as its next ethnic food venture isn't a surprise given the demographics of the area surrounding Woodbridge, N.J., the site of this store -- the 66-unit chain's fourth in New Jersey. The area has a high density of Indian and Pakistani residents.

But Indian food also is gaining favor with the general population as consumers, who are eating out more often and becoming more adventurous, have become better acquainted with it.

"Indian food is a growing niche, and a lot of Indian recipes feature all-vegetarian ingredients. That's important too, because [vegetarianism] is a trend growing nationally," said Jim Frackenpohl, vice president, of Making a Statement, a Rochester-based consulting firm that works with supermarkets. "This is a smart thing Wegmans is doing. Knowing them, they'll do it right, too. They'll educate their customers. They'll do sampling to let them try different items."

Frackenpohl, a 12-year veteran of Wegmans, was there in the beginning when Wegmans launched the Market Cafe concept. The first full-blown prepared-foods department featured made-to-order Asian food and a pizza station that flourished and since then has been expanded to include a spin-off pasta station. Ethnic programs as part of its prepared-foods concepts have continued to be winners for Wegmans, Frackenpohl said.

Indeed, at one point, the chain was forced to bring back a service pizza station and Asian food after it had decided to chop them from the menu. When it opened its huge, flagship store in high-income Pittsford, N.Y., a few years ago, it left the pizza station and the Wokery out and installed a more upscale carving station, industry sources told SN.

Not that they didn't like carved meats, but disappointed customers immediately began asking why there wasn't a pizza station or a Wokery.

True to its word that it listens to customers, Wegmans did some re-tooling and put the concepts back in at Pittsford.