What's happening on the menu?
Barry Winiker / The Image Bank
Americans are cautiously venturing back out into the world as they emerge from the abject fear that gripped many of them as the coronavirus pandemic struck in March, but how to coax them back to restaurants depends on who they are and on what you’re serving them, menu trend expert Jack Li told attendees of Restaurants Rise Powered by MUFSO.
Li said that consumers’ mindset has moved from one of “fear” to one of “caution” in which they and the businesses they patronize have some level of control over their safety.
Of the consumers surveyed by Datassential, 83% said restaurateurs should require guests to follow safety guidelines such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
Once you’ve assured them that your restaurant is safe, you have to give them a reason to leave their homes.
While early on in the pandemic consumers were craving comforting items such as grilled cheese sandwiches and mac & cheese, they want something different now, Li said.
“Seven months of eating comfort food, eating stuff inside the house, not having a hug from anyone outside of our immediate family — through all of that food boredom has really started to settle in,” he said, noting that 65% of survey respondents said they’re tired of cooking at home, and 79% said they’re craving something new.
He said that, in particular, they wanted food that they could not easily make at home, or that they didn’t make at home, and that was of restaurant quality. The foods most craved by the people surveyed were Chinese food and Sushi, although other Asian cuisines, pizza and Mexican dishes also ranked high.
“This is actually how we excite people: We show them foods and flavors that they couldn’t make from home, and we borrow from … around the world,” he said.
But what particular flavors or ingredients do you offer? Li said that if you asked him 20 years ago what the big trend of the year was, he could have told you, but those days are over.
In fact, he said that Datassential had identified 363 trending ingredients.
He said an approach to drawing customers in with trendy ingredients while not scaring them away with weirdness is what he calls “fuesbiquity” — taking ubiquitous items like pizza, burgers and salads and adding a globally influenced flavor.
“They will still feel safe to the consumer, because at the end of the day it’s still just a burger, it’s still just a salad, it’s still just a pizza, and that’s what makes for a really successful new menu innovation,” he said.
More broadly, he said, members of Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980, tend to prefer premium products, Millennials like “authenticity,” and members of Gen Z want things that are fun, unique and personally distinctive, Li said.
That’s why as Gen X’s disposable income rose, so did interest in items like Angus and Kobe beef, wood-fired items and other foods and techniques that called out “premiumness.” Once Millennials came along there was an interest in artisanal foods with global flavors, Li said. With Gen Z, it’s Instagrammable things like boba tea and chewy mochi dishes — “Really over-the-top foods,” Li said.
Finally, he said, consumers have shifted their interest beyond the usual four factors used to decide what food to buy: Taste, convenience, affordability and familiarity. Now, they’re also looking to buy food and support brands that amplify their personal values, whether that’s the environment, social justice, veterans’ causes or other issues.
He said the causes that are priorities for your customers, should be considered as you develop your menu and the messaging around it, but that above all else you must continue to excite your guests through innovation.
Source: NRN.com / Oct 26, 2020
Watch the Session Here
While the COVID crisis has disrupted virtually every aspect of restaurant operations, menu has come to the forefront as a restaurateur’s primary customer-facing vehicle and chefs have stepped up their games with items that deliver comfort, craveability and a welcome sense of fun to beleaguered consumers.
During Restaurants Rise powered by MUFSO, menu trend wrangler Nancy Kruse pinpointed what is hot and what is happening on the menu:
Produce continues to be the hottest category on the menu, boosted on the one hand by its healthful image and on the other by its ready availability and versatility. Buoyed by unbridled culinary creativity, cauliflower continues its successful run as a gluten alternative and pillar of lifestyle diets like Paleo and Whole 30.
It takes the starring role in the Blackened Cauliflower & Fried Egg entrée at wildly popular Hope Breakfast Bar in St. Paul, Minn., which operates out of a rehabbed fire house and where the spicy cauliflower gratin is served with seasoned hash browns and a fried egg.
Carrots retain their recently acquired status as gastronomic heroes with nifty treatments like Roasted Carrot Yogurt from Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans. A memorable way to start the day, the signature dish includes bright carrot marmalade, fruit, artisanal granola and “other fun stuff.”
Speaking of fun stuff, mushrooms have also been getting more play. With their dense texture, pop of umami and easy compatibility with condiments and sides, they’re a natural substitute for animal protein, as at Saxon + Parole in New York City, which promises “meat-centric eats and plant-based deliciousness” like the hearty Pulled Portobello BBQ Sandwich served with Brussels-sprout slaw
At Stix in San Francisco, Crispy Korean Corn Dogs
Chefs have long played the key role of culinary arbiters as restaurants became the point of entry for international foods and flavors, a distinct competitive advantage over supermarkets.
Stepping up to the challenge, Dove’s Luncheonette in Chicago offered a Mexican-accented Cemita Sandwich as a limited-time special. Combining green chile chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, Muenster cheese, smoked pepper aioli and maple syrup, it was served on cemita, a brioche-like bun topped with sesame seeds.
Social media went into overdrive this summer in San Francisco, where the object of the digital uproar was the city’s newly-opened Stix. Here, Crispy Korean Corn Dogs are battered in sweet Korean rice flour, rolled in panko bread crumbs and crinkle-cut fries or ramen noodles, fried and then dusted with sugar. The resulting sweet-and-savory mashup is presented with spicy mayo or honey mustard dips.
For decades, restaurant menus have served as the inspiration for supermarket packaged goods and prepared foods. As coronavirus shuttered restaurants and caused a surge in grocery-store traffic, it created an opportunity for restaurateurs to flip the script and look to grocery for ideas.
Stay-at-home, budget-conscious consumers have rediscovered canned meats; Bloomberg reports that sales of the previously lackluster category have surged 70% of late. Chefs might take a leaf from Cargo Food Authority in Minneapolis, sibling to Hope Breakfast Bar, which has featured Minneapolis State Fair Mac, all dressed up with cavatappi, creamy Brie, fried Spam, cheese curds and scallions topped with shredded Cheddar and panko.
Many long-suffering parents sheltering in place with their cranky offspring have turned to a tried-and- true kid-pleaser for breakfast. Kraft Heinz announced this summer that 56% of parents fed their children Kraft Mac & Cheese more often for breakfast during the shutdown.
Pasta for breakfast has been hovering just around the edges of menus for some time, and last year Better Luck Tomorrow in Austin, Texas, brought it right into the spotlight with the Spaghetti Sandwich, a bountiful brunch feature comprised of burrata and a heaping serving of spaghetti on Parmesan-crusted Texas toast.
TV dinners from chains like Lazy Dog are some of the new menu trends according to expert Nancy Kruse.
California-based casual dining chain Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar has gone back to the future for its playful line of TV dinners. While the compartmentalized trays are classic, the vibe is completely contemporary.
Last month The New York Times reported that “Orange is the New Snack” as it described the robust produce-aisle sales increases enjoyed by the immunity-boosting citrus fruit. Getting relatively little play on food menus, orange has sparked innovation on the beverage side.
Source: NRN.com / Oct 20, 2020
Watch State of the Plate Session Here
In a move to show customers how they are working to stop climate change, several brands have started labeling menus with carbon footprint information and using ingredients to reduce carbon emissions.
Here are some of the larger-scale changes the leading restaurant brands have decided to make to show consumers transparency about what they’re eating beyond calories:
Burgerville
The No. 6 Burger was introduced at Vancouver, Wash.-based Burgerville LLC a few years ago. The fast-casual brand created an initiative with the goal of making the Pacific Northwest the healthiest region in the U.S. through “trust, transparency, innovation and partnerships” including regenerative agriculture.
The burger launched at 11 locations, where it is still available during the pandemic, and was named after carbon’s atomic number, 6. It’s made from 100% locally grown and produced ingredients, including beef grazed on grass from organic-matter-rich soil with the capacity to store carbon rather than release it into the atmosphere to build greenhouse gas.
Starbucks
In January of this year, Starbucks released new goals to be “resource positive” and announced plans to reduce water, waste and carbon emissions by 2030, such as adding more plant-based beverages to the menu.
CEO Kevin Johnson announced a 2030 target for meeting the following goals: a 50% reduction in carbon emissions in Starbucks direct operations and supply chain; 50% of water withdrawal for direct operations and coffee production will be conserved or replenished with a focus on helping high-risk communities and basins; and 50% reduction in waste sent to landfills from stores and manufacturing.
In July of this year, Burger King released the Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper at select restaurants across the country.
The ground beef comes from cattle that have had 100 grams of lemon grass added to their daily diet in the last four months of their lives, and preliminary tests indicate that that simple change could reduce methane emissions from cattle by up to 33%, according to Burger King.
Just Salad
The New York City-based fast-casual salad chain introduced carbon labeling to its menu earlier this year. It uses a comparable measurement called the Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) that can “compare the environmental impact of a carrot to a chicken” but technically is “kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent.”
According to Just Salad, “Carbon dioxide (CO2) accounts for most human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But there are other greenhouse gases, so these are converted into the common unit CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent).”
The chain says the transportation of low-emission items like fruits and vegetables and high-emission items like animal products are around 10% of all emissions.
Panera Bread
Fast-casual chain Panera added carbon footprint labels to its menu. Using the new “Cool Food Meals” label, per the carbon footprint data from the World Resources Institute, about 55% of the menu at Panera will be labeled a Cool Food.
“The goal of this whole initiative was twofold: one it’s to educate consumers so they can understand that their food choices matter and they can have a positive impact,” said Sarah Burnett, vice president of food values, sustainability and public affairs at Panera Bread. “The second piece is to engage the rest of industry as we have led in the past with calorie labeling and clean food [….] collectively we can have a much bigger impact across the entire restaurant industry.”