From the monthly archives:

October 2010

Predicting 2011 Food and Dining Trends

by Janet on October 30, 2010

ice pops

Photo:  Rhubarb & Raspberry Yogurt by Flickr user La Tartine Gourmande.

I recently wrote about 2011 food and restaurant trends based on the predictions from Andrew Freeman & Co. This time the forecasting comes from Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. Inc., international restaurant consultants based in Brooklyn.  I found myself comparing the two lists — there were some similarities (including the popsicle trend) as well as some contradictions.  For example, Freeman predicts big things for hot dogs, yet Baum & Whiteman think they’re on the downside.  They both agree that cupcakes have probably peaked, Meatless Mondays have gone mainstream, and ethnic influences are stronger than ever.

Here’s a summary of Baum & Whiteman’s food and dining trends in restaurants and hotels for 2011:

  • Artisan ice pops: Popsicles are taking on an upscale, global vibe bursting with exotic flavors.  In New York, La Newyorkina sells flavors like tamarind and passionfruit,  People’s Pops creates treats-on-a-stick like roasted red plum, blackberry-black tea and pear-ginger, and you can find pomegranate-tangerine, Mexican chocolate and orange-mango-ancho at Locopops in Raleigh and surrounding towns.
  • Meatballs. Old Italian is getting new respect. Meatballs are gaining momentum, along with other old-school Italian classics like eggplant parm and lasagna. The Meatball Shop in New York (five kinds, four gravies) has endless lines, and Disney opened a Meatball and Beer Bar (also four kinds).
  • Korean spicing and condiments. Kogi, the LA food truck that launched a thousand wheels, has propelled Korean cuisine into the big time.  Bulgogi, bibmibap and kimchee will enter America’s gastronomic lexicon. Publicity around the Momofuko chain will also give Korean a push.
  • Tacos with global and wacky fillings. Look for an outburst of outrageously creative mult-culti tacos, soft and hard, from fast food to haute cuisineries.
  • Grits are the hot new grain.  Expect grits to leap from morning food to an all-purpose starch.  It’s part of another trendlet: down-home southern cooking.  Shrimp and grits could be the dish of the year.  Grits are also gaining popularity because of its gluten-free status.  Look for more gluten-replacing starches like grits, quinoa and chickpeas on menus.
  • New-fangled sandwiches. Last year it was gussied up hot dogs and gourmet hamburgers, next year it’ll be sandwiches over the moon but they’ll be called something else.  There are Mexican cemitas, Vietnamese banh mi, baos (traditionally yeasty steamed buns with savory fillings that are now being formed as fluffy flatbreads to wrap around banh mi-like ingredients, tartines, and regional American sandwiches.  To me, it seems Banh mi (pronounced “bun me”) will be the sandwich that really breaks through. This Vietnamese street food that unites the flavors of France and Vietnam has sparked the site BattleoftheBanhmi.com that allows visitors to search for and nominate their favorite banh mi shops by states, and includes recipes so you can make your own at home.

bahn biPhoto:  Banh mi by Flickr user Ric_W

  • Convenience store cuisine. Drug stores and convenience stores are ramping up their food departments with newly conceived fresh “grab-and-go” departments.
  • Popup restaurants. The recession created lots of empty restaurants and lots of chefs with no kitchens.  Now we have popup restaurants (like food trucks) with no location at all.  Impromptu  food places are popping up and customers are finding them via Twitter and word of mouth. Many popups are now treated in the media alongside major restaurant openings.
  • Food trucks 2.0. Expect to see more food truck “rodeos” where a dozen or more vendors turn an empty field or parking lot into a food fair on wheels. Look for more restaurant operators and big-name chefs to supplement their businesses by chasing after customers with their own trucks.
  • Snacks and multiple snacks replacing meals.
  • Breakfast all the time. More restaurants and chains are entering the breakfast biz, and soft slow-cooked eggs are appearing all over upscale restaurant menus.  They’re comforting, turning fancy dishes into homey offerings — runny eggs on pasta, pizza, braised meats and grits.
  • Going collaborative. Group couponing and location-based restaurant promotions — Groupon, Village Vines, Open Table.
  • A couple of nutrition trends: “Free-from” foods, especially gluten-free items on restaurant menus, and “gross is good.”  Baum & Whiteman say the recession has everyone so stressed that they’re finding refuge in the massive “calorie bombs” that are showing up on menus.

Buzz-worthy foods and ingredients:4482216155_883e4bb7ce

  • Coconut water, awash in a mythology of good health
  • Bourbon, for people who actually like booze
  • Cucumbers, lavender and  hibiscus, especially in cocktails
  • Burrata cheese
  • Umami along with stealth use of miso
  • Sangria with new twists
  • Peppadew
  • Macarons, not macaroons
  • Whoopee pie
  • Fregola, a pasta from Sardinia
  • Designer donuts imitating froufrou cupcakes
  • Pesto variations
  • Greek yogurt, even larger

Photo:  Kiwi Cucumber Cocktail, Flickr user Zespri Kiwifruit

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2011 Food and Restaurant Trends

by Janet on October 26, 2010

Photo: Flickr Lara Ferroni

Photo: Flickr Lara Ferroni

It’s time for new trend predictions.  The 2011 food forecasting comes from leading restaurant consultant Andrew Freeman & Co., who recently conducted a webinar to predict food and restaurant trends for the upcoming year.

You’ll find a great recap of the webinar and a slide show on The Huffington Post. The original article was written by Ron Ruggless for Nation’s Restaurant News.

Here are the predictions for what will be hot in 2011:

  • Pies are the new cupcakes.  Expect to see more pie shops, including sweet, savory and bite-sized pies. Hill Country Chicken in New York City sponsors a “Pie Happy Hour” to showcase its wide variety of pies from whiskey-buttermilk to apple-cheddar and more traditional banana and coconut cream pies.
  • The new mom and pop. Self-financed restaurants built on limited budgets are growing in number. “This is an economic decision,” he said. “There are a lot of people out there who still want to open up restaurants, and it’s a good opportunity to look at real estate in a down economy.” The restaurants are typically small and the owners are extremely involved. Some examples are eVe in Berkeley, Calif., and Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.
  • One-ingredient restaurants. “Restaurateurs are taking one ingredient and building full restaurants around them,” Freeman said. Following on the several-year trend of gourmet burgers, the trend is extending to grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs and sliders. “We’re predicting perhaps a peanut butter restaurant next or a big biscuit restaurant,” he said.
  • Mini plates. “Small plates were the big buzz word over the last couple of years,” Freeman said. “This year mini is the new buzz word. Mini everything: mini portions, mini desserts.” The reason, he said, is it fits into tighter budgets. “Everybody wants a little more of everything. Our sense of wanting to be satisfied and fulfilled and experience as much as possible is really, really key.”
  • Multi-purpose spaces. Eataly in New York is an example. “We are going to see markets opening in the corners of restaurants,” he said.
  • Minimal menus. “A couple of years ago, we found a lot of people were getting very wordy and descriptive in their jargon on their menus,” Freeman said. Eleven Madison Park in New York focuses on ingredients.
  • Dirt. Abandoning sauces, some chefs are turning to dried, crumbled, powdered ingredients to add texture and flavor. Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers radishes with toasted-malt “dirt.” Such a technique may be used by chef Dominique Crenn, who plans to open a restaurant in San Francisco in January.
Langoustine & Oyster at Noma, by Flickr user Sakena

Langoustine & Oyster at Noma, by Flickr user Sakena

  • Hearth-healthy. Wood-fired ovens will be used to roast vegetables and larger cuts of meat and whole animals.
  • Hot dogs and sausage shops. Examples include Brats Dogs & Wieners in New York. “They are moving from stands into restaurants,” Freeman said.
  • Vegetables. “There are even restaurants that are going meatless Mondays,” Freeman said. “The reason is the celebration of gardens and farms and relationships with farmers.”
  • Fried vegetables. Once-obscure vegetables are getting the crisp treatment with such items as fried Brussels sprouts, fried cauliflower and turnip chips.

    Fried brussels sprouts Flickr: roboppy

    Fried brussels sprouts Flickr: roboppy

  • Soft-serve. Chefs are using soft-serve ice cream machines to produce savory flavors as well as more exotic flavors, such as the coconut-water soft serve with brownie bites at Belly Shack in Chicago.
  • High-end junk food. “I feel like that munchies we grew up on are going to show up with interpretations done by chefs in really the most unique ways,” Freeman said, suggesting house-made Cheetos, Bugles, Slim Jims and jerky.
  • Popsicles. Similar to the soft-serve trend, iced treats are showing up in flavors such as sugar-snap pea.
  • Yogurt. It will show up as sun-dried, freeze-dried, smoked and pressed and in imported variations such as skyr from Iceland and labne from Lebanon.
  • Swede inspiration. As a trend-influencing region, the Scandinavian countries are now invading U.S. menus.
  • Breads. “Chefs are doing signature breads that they are serving as if they were a course,” Freeman said, citing the Popovers at Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco.
  • Bellies. Goat and lamb belly are showing up on menus as pork-belly prices rise, producing such dishes as the lamb-belly watercress BLT at the Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lamb meatballs with lebne, Flickr: roboppy

Lamb meatballs with lebne, Flickr: roboppy

Freeman predicts the new hot ingredients will be:

  • Neck. Lamb, beef, goat and pork neck.
  • Whey. In salads and sauces.
  • Kumquats. In salads, relishes and desserts.
  • Pimento cheese. Smooth, spreadable, spicy and nostalgic.
  • Smoking. Smoked olive oil, cumin and butter.
  • Hay. Used for roasting and smoking, such as the leeks roasted on hay at Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Ore.
  • Hummus. In sauces, spreads and ingredients.
  • Popcorn. In various courses, such as the popcorn ice cream at Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar in Sonoma, Calif.
  • Pretzels. Pretzel sticks and used as a crust, like in the pretzel-bit-covered crab cake at David Burke Townhouse in New York.
  • Honey. Chefs are developing partnerships with local beekeepers for use in sauces and dressings.
Hummus, Flickr: stu_spivack

Hummus, Flickr: stu_spivack

 

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/pies-top-2011-restaurant-trend-list#ixzz13SiyPKW2

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Food Trend Alert: Artisan is the New Quality

by Janet on October 23, 2010

What’s old is new again.  Today’s hottest food trend is all about tradition, nostalgia and authentic, old-fashioned food preparation.  In one word, it’s artisan.

Artisan has become a cue for quality.  It’s also been a way to bring the process into the product.  People not only want to know where their food comes from, they want to know how it’s made.

photo courtesy of Flickr user Patchwork

photo courtesy of Flickr user Patchwork

Even if that rustic loaf is not truly hand-made by artisinal bakers or that fig jam is not preserved by farm wives — they’re trying to look like it.

Rustic, small-batches, hand-crafted are the new desirable attributes.

In a time when many people feel increasingly distant from the means of production for what they eat, artisan foods carry inherent value by granting consumers an opportunity to know where their food comes from, to see the hands that made it and to understand how it is made, according to the Artisan Foods: Culinary Trend Mapping Report from the Center for Culinary Development and Packaged Facts.

Powering this artisan food trend are several important drivers that revolve around local and seasonal eating, a love of handmade and authentic food, a quest for exciting new flavors, a desire to engage with food and producers, and eco-consciousness.

Kimberly Egan, CEO of the Center for Culinary Development, said:

“Consumers, manufacturers, and restaurant operators all recognize that artisan is synonymous with quality when it comes to ingredients and preparation. The appeal lies in the stories that connect products to consumers which in turn offer deeper meaning and connects to personal values.

Artisan foods are everywhere, from their pervasive presence at large chain grocery store bakeries featuring in-house baked “artisan” loaves to fast casual chains such as Panera Bakery that have built an entire sandwich menu around freshly baked breads.

Even Starbucks is trying to jump on the artisan food trend.  The company refers to its beverages as “handcrafted” and uses artisan to describe its line-up of breakfast sandwiches and snack plates.

Manufacturers and restaurant operators have recognized that “artisan” has become another term for “quality.” It evokes small producers making traditional foods by hand, treating production as a craft and putting great care into the outcome. Larger producers are able to capture the aura of artisan with rustic-looking products, distinctive ingredients, unique cooking methods and stories that connect products to consumers.

photo courtesy of Flickr user FrogMiller

photo courtesy of Flickr user FrogMiller

The artisan food report identifies several ways this trend is coming to life.

  • Gastropubs: This hybrid breed of pub mixes a wide selection of often-artisanal beers and spirits with high-quality housemade comfort food and a casual, community-oriented atmosphere.
  • Condiments, Preserved Foods and Heirloom Produce: These locally sourced and home-grown foods are made using traditional cultivation and preservation methods, bringing consumers closer to the sources of their food and appealing to eco-minded people seeking to go green.
  • Boutique Booze: Small-batch spirits appeal to consumers seeking liquor with diverse and unique flavors.
  • Handmade Ice Cream: Using old-fashioned methods and organic and local ingredients, these ice cream innovators offer extraordinary versions of a familiar favorite.
  • Butchery: “Rock star butchers” are raising interest in meat, hosting meat cutting classes and demonstrations while placing an emphasis on locally sourced and heritage options.
  • Artisan Pizza: An Italian classic turned American staple gets an artisan makeover, as pizzaiolos take the craft to a new level, perfecting wood-fired crust, incorporating more high-quality ingredients and going global with toppings.
  • Reinvented American Cheese: Indulgent, hand-crafted and all-natural, artisan cheese is easily incorporated into a diverse array of dishes or enjoyed on its own.

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Food Trend Alert: Sustainable Foods and Beverages

by Janet on October 21, 2010

Demand for sustainable foods and beverages continues to grow.  No denying that.   More and more people see the value in eating green.

Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) has tracked more than 13,000 new sustainable food and drink products since 2005, and 84% of consumers say they regularly buy green or sustainable products. 

fair-trade-certifiedEven so, many people are unaware of what all these eco-claims actually mean.   It’s even hard to keep track of the latest green claim. 

David Browne, senior analyst at Mintel points out:

“Packaging claims such as ‘recyclable’ or ‘eco- or environmentally friendly’ are fairly well known to consumers, but sustainable product claims such as ‘solar/wind energy usage’ or ‘Fair Trade’ have yet to enter the mainstream consumer consciousness. They may have heard of the terms, but they’d be hard-pressed to define them.”

 

Of those surveyed, 40% have never heard of the solar/wind energy usage claim. The 37% that have heard of the claim said they’ve never purchased food or drink bearing the claim.

Reduced carbon footprint/emissions is another lesser-known claim, as 32% have never heard of it. Thirty-four percent say they’ve never heard of the Fair Trade claim.

So, why do they buy?

According to Mintel research, 45% of sustainable food and drink users cite a perceived belief in superior quality as the reason behind their purchases.  Browne says:

“These reasons vary in importance across different demographics. What’s most important to young adults may not be the primary deciding factor for affluent consumers. Marketers should consider this in their claims closely; noting that health, welfare, and safety are important for nearly all consumers.”

In the consumer survey, 42% say they’re concerned with food safety, and  43% say they buy sustainable food and drink because they’re concerned about environmental/human welfare.

certified-humane-certificateI’ve noticed the growing trend of “humane” claims. Could it be that  humane is the new local?   More and more products are touting humane treatment of farm animals and you can begin to spot “certifications”  on package labels.  Have you noticed?

 There are two main humane certification programs that attempt to validate the humane treatment of animals throughout the production process:  American Humane Societyamerican humane has the “American Humane Certified” program, and there’s the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” program that’s endorsed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other organizations.

Have you bought any products with these humane labels?  Expect to see a lot more animal-based products making this claim in a store near you.

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The Blinding Light of Health Halos

by Janet on October 7, 2010

photo courtesy of Flickr user digiyesica

photo courtesy of Flickr user digiyesica

Sometimes a single attribute of a food over-shadows all other factors.   That’s a health halo at work.

You can get blind-sided by words like low-fat, organic, gluten-free and vegan — and give products more credit than they desire.  Just because a donut is devoid of gluten or is ”green tea flavored” doesn’t mean it’s good for you.  An organic cheese puff is still a cheese puff — it’s not suddenly nutritious or lower in calories. 

Even so, it’s easy to fall victim to the allure of a health halo.  That’s the topic of my column in the October issue of  Cooking Light magazine.

I previously wrote about the impact of health halos on Nutrition Unplugged:

A health halo is one of those hidden persuaders that can get you to overeat or to eat more than you intended, says Brian Wansink, PhD, who has conducted a bulk of the studies on this phenomenon at the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. 

Health-halo based research got started because scientists were trying to explain what they call the “American obesity paradox.”  At a time when lower-calorie options and diet-friendly foods have exploded in this country — our collective girth continues to expand. 

We’re a nation of low-fat foods but high-fat people, Wansink says.

If a food is under the spell of a health halo, it increases a person’s serving size estimate.  For example, Wansink found that when people opted for a low-fat snack, they ended up eating up to 90 more calories compared to people who selected regular snacks.

When people know what they’re eating may be indulgent, Wansink says, they come much closer to estimating the right number of calories.

That’s why I’m more in favor of having a reasonable portion of the “real thing,” rather than always defaulting for the light, sugar-free or low-fat versions.  You may end up eating more and enjoying it less.  

Bottom line:  Keep your eyes wide open when making your food choices.  Don’t allow a health halo to cloud your view.  Don’t let a single claim or trendy ingredient skew your judgment.  Keep pleasure part of the picture and keep sight of your portions.  And remember, it’s the total nutritional package that counts.

Hope you’ll check out my column in Cooking Light and let me know what you think.

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Celebrities Tweet What They Eat, But is Their Diet Advice Worth Following?

by Janet on October 1, 2010

1209_W_cover_300wIn today’s digital age, it’s not uncommon to hear first-hand how a celebrity slimmed down for a movie or got their pre-baby body back through their posts on Twitter, Facebook or their own blog.

We no longer need to wait to read a story about the latest celebrity diet in the pages of fashion or entertainment magazines.  Now we can get the detox details straight Demi or find out what Gwyneth is eating, or not eating, these days.

Unfortunately, most of these diets don’t deserve to be “liked.”

People may want to look like celebrities (although Demi’s cover on W is stirring up some controversy of its own). I just hope they don’t try to eat like one too.

My latest column for msnbc.com is about celebrity diets.  Read the full story here.

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