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2011 Food and Restaurant Trends

by Janet on October 26, 2010

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

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
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

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

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Tagged as: 2011 restaurant trends, Andrew Freeman, food trends, restaurant trends

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A Recap of 2010 Food Trend Predictions

by Janet on January 1, 2010

Photo courtesy of Flickr user La Tartine Gourmande

On this first day of 2010, I thought I’d review all of my recent food trend posts. You’ll see predictions from a variety of sources — a forecast of what we’ll be eating in 2010.

Top Dining and Restaurant Trends for 2010 (Baum & Whiteman, Restaurants & Institutions)
Top Restaurant Trends for 2010 (Mintel)
Chefs Identify What’s Hot, What’s Not in 2010 (National Restaurant Association)
Epicurious Predicts Top 10 Food Trends for 2010
2010 Food Trend Predictions from The Food People
Top 10 Food Trends for 2010 from The Food Channel
A Taste of Nostalgia (National Association for the Specialty Food Trade)
Consumer Behavior Trends in the New Economy (Mintel)
2010 Consumer Packaged Goods Trend Predictions (Mintel)
Another Look at the Simplicity Trend

Some of the trends are best brought to life in a video. First up, 2010 predictions from Bon Appetit magazine: meatballs, new Austrian cuisine, modern vegetarian, sriracha sauce (my favorite!) and homey “slump” desserts.

Here’s a video summarizing the top ten food trends for 2010 from The Food Channel.

The UK’s Food People review their trends in this video.

Phil Lempert reviews his take on trends in this two-part video series.

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Tagged as: 2010 dining trends, 2010 food trend predictions, 2010 food trends, food trends, restaurant trends

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Top 10 Food Trends for 2010 From The Food Channel

by Janet on December 9, 2009

: Photo courtesy of Flickr user La Tartine Gourmande

The trends keep coming. This time the 2010 food trend predictions are from The Food Channel, based on research conducted in conjunction with CultureWaves and the International Food Futurists. Check here for the full list. I’ve highlighted a few of the trends below.

Food Vetting
You are what you eat, and we are big into understanding ourselves. That’s what’s leading this trend — our constant need for assurance that we are eating the right things, that our food is safe, that we are not ingesting pesticides or anything that will someday prove harmful. If we can provide jobs, help the economy, protect animals and ensure a sustained food supply at the same time, well, that’s all the better.

Call it food vetting, sourcing or whatever you want — the issue is that people are asking where their food comes from. We call it the “new luxury food” because it can be more expensive to include that traceability into delivery, but we want it anyway. It’s everything from looking for mercury-safe seafood to wanting to know that humane treatment was given to farm animals. It’s about no hormones in meats, and organically-grown fruits and vegetables. It’s about Fair Trade chocolate and spices.

It’s about branded meat coming into its own so that you can trust the source and make your choices based on what the animals were fed, where they were pastured and how they were slaughtered. Expect to see more like what Dean & Deluca is doing with its Brandt Beef, from single family natural beef producers.

Photo source: Courtesy of Brandt Beef

We might even begin tagging our food so we can follow it from source, to purchase to table. While society is more than one step removed from much of its food source these days, food vetting is an attempt to pull us closer and give us an element of control. We want to know where our food comes from, how it’s grown and harvested and whether it’s truly good for us or not.

Mainstreaming Sustainability
Sustainability has gone mainstream. Unlike a year ago, when people were somewhat afraid to use the word, now it flows trippingly off the tongue. America in particular is just now learning how to be sustainable, and Americans are holding themselves responsible. They aren’t doing this to create an illusion — there are a lot of “green echo” people out there trying to make it look like they are green. In 2010, we’ll see people and companies becoming sustainable for authentic reasons; they are doing it to make a difference.

If we are gong local and sustainable, some things are going to change. “Nearby” and “hometown” may help clarify that “local” designation. After all, how does a town like Las Vegas, that doesn’t really grow anything, offer local vegetables?

With packaging, you’ll see more bamboo and biodegradable, and “nude food” that is more transparent with less packaging. Eating local, seasonal and fresh will be recognized as a sustainable way to eat. We’ll see more grass fed beef, which is all about sustainability and flavor. We are assimilating sustainability and making it work for us instead of fighting it.

Keeping it Real
In a back-to-basics economy perhaps it is natural to return to basic ingredients. This isn’t about retro, or comfort food, or even cost. It’s about determining the essentials and stocking your pantry accordingly. It is about pure, simple, clean and sustainable. It is—dare we say—a shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking, now that we have more time than money and more food knowledge and concerns.

It is a natural shift, when you think about it. The trend is toward concentrating on quality, basic ingredients and building a menu from there. That’s where the value is going to be in 2010. It’s partially based on how chefs eat at home—something we all know more about thanks to the increase in sharing from celebrity chefs, cooking shows and foodie blogs. It’s economy driven to a point, but think about it—we aren’t all digging out the Spam®. Instead, we’re exploring the extendability of known ingredients to prepare ourselves for the long haul of economic recovery.

Basic ingredients are trending high because people are still eating more at home, and they need a foundation for nightly meals. Expect to see more education that focuses on what you need in your refrigerator and pantry. Expect online shopping to focus less on luxury items and more on basics. People will be willing to spend more of their money on basics and will find that, in the long run, they end up spending less because they have less waste, higher quality and more value.

This will include some variety and the general acceptance of “new basic,” with some items we consider essential that our grandmothers may not have used—for example, olive and other oils in different flavors and styles. So while we are keeping it real, we’ll also be redefining what the staples are in many kitchens. We’ve already made a substantial shift in how we shop, prepare food, and eat, and we don’t expect this to change even if the economy improves. We are done with excess, and ready to knuckle down for an extended period to the essentials of life and of food.

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Tagged as: 2010 food trends, food vetting, restaurant trends, sustainability, sustainable

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Chefs Identify What’s Hot, What’s Not for 2010

by Janet on December 1, 2009

Now the National Restaurant Association weighs in on restaurant trends for 2010. Locally grown and sourced products, farm-branded ingredients, sustainable seafood, a back-to-basics approach, nutrition, allergy awareness and better-for-you children’s meals are among the top trends identified by 1,854 professional chefs, members of the American Culinary Federation. Some of the “hot” items revealed in the survey: ancient grains, grass-fed beef, mini desserts, black garlic, artisinal cheeses, house-made ice cream, micro-distilled liquor and gluten-free beer.

photo source: Flickr, patrick properties

Here’s a list of the top 50 trends and the percentage of chefs ranking them as “hot.” Check the link to Restaurants & Institutions for the full list of 150 trends.

1. Locally grown produce          88%
2. Locally sourced meats and seafood       84%
3. Sustainability      80%
4. Bite-size/mini desserts 79%
5. Locally-produced wine and beer 79%
6. Nutritionally balanced children’s dishes         77%
7. Half-portions/smaller portion for a smaller price         75%
8. Farm/estate-branded ingredients 75%
9. Gluten-free/allergy conscious        74%
10. Sustainable seafood               73%
11. Superfruits (such as acai, goji berry, mangosteen)         73%
12. Organic produce           73%
13. Culinary cocktails (savory, fresh ingredients)           73%
14. Micro-distilled/artisan liquor           72%
15. Nutrition/health            71%
16. Simplicity/back to basics       70%
17. Regional ethnic cuisine           70%
18. Non-traditional fish (such as branzino, Arctic char, barramundi)             70%
19. Newly fabricated cuts of meat  (such as Denver steak, pork flat iron, petite tender)   70%
20. Fruit/vegetable children’s side items        69%
21. “Kid cuisine”/gourmet children’s dishes    69%
22. Artisan/house-made ice cream            67%
23. Ethnic breakfast (such as Asian-flavored syrups, coconut milk pancakes) 66%
24. Organic wine/beer/liquor          64%
25. Exotic fruit (such as durian, passion fruit, dragon fruit, paw paw, guava)       63%
26. Artisinal cheeses    63%
27. Black garlic               63%
28. Food-beer pairings 63%
29. Specialty iced tea (Thai-style, Southern/sweet, flavored)     62%
30. Craft beer/microbrews              62%
31. Ancient grains (such as kamut, spelt, amaranth)        62%
32. Tapas/mezze/dim sum (small plates)         62%
33. Dessert flights/combos              61%
34. Bar chefs/mixologists          61%
35. Grass-fed beef                          61%
36. Flatbreads (naan, papadum, lavash, pita, tortilla)        60%
37. Free-range poultry/pork        60%
38. Gluten-free beer               60%
39. Ethnic fusion                      60%
40. Micro-vegetables/mico-greens      59%
41. Organic coffee     59%
42. Specialty beer (seasonal, fruit, spiced)       58%
43. Children’s entree salads          58%
44. Inexpensive/underused cuts of meat (beef cheek, brisket, pork shoulder, skirt steak) 58%
45. Umami       58%
46. Savory desserts        57%
47. Flower syrup/essence       57%
48. Heirloom tomatoes            56%
49. Specialty/gourmet sandwiches             56%
50. Specialty potatoes (purple, fingerling, Baby Dutch yellow)       56%

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Tagged as: 2010 restaurant trends, American Culinary Federation, chefs name what's hot, children's menus at restaurants, food trends, hot dining trends, menu trends, National Restaurant Association, restaurant trends

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Top Dining and Restaurant Trends for 2010

by Janet on November 30, 2009

"Little Gem Salad" with pig ears at the Publican. Flickr, JoeM500

I’m back again with more trends. I warned you I’d be hitting the topic hard for the rest of the year!

I previously reviewed restaurant trends identified by Mintel. This time the trend predictions are from the restaurant consultants Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. Inc. The Brooklyn-based firm just released their annual list of 12 restaurant and hotel food and dining trends. This list is followed by 20 menu trends from Restaurants & Institutions.

Here are the predictions from Baum & Whiteman:

1. New priorities for beaten-up consumers: People today are expressing entirely new — and more complex — sets of concerns. Now they’re focusing inward. Their concerns are personal, emotional and ethical. The economy has people scared and they’re looking for a “safe harbor.” The consultants advise hotels and restaurants to lure these hunkered down consumers from their psychological storm cellars by replicating the “campfire experience” — building emotional ties and connecting to communities. They need to audit their businesses based on next year’s hot buttons: economic survival, reassurance, intimacy and friendship, feeding my knowledge, feeding my emotions, artisan/hand-made, neighborhood/local, authentic/real, comfort and safety.

2. Putting focus on the left side of the menu: That’s where the emotional resonance is. Look for more creative snacky things, more small plates, more portion options…things sized for one, for two, for a crowd. This isn’t just a small plates phenomenon, because it isn’t about the size of the plate. Sharing is the key, sharing responds to consumers’ needs for comfort and safety, for intimacy and friendship.

3. Upscaling the downscale: Consumers are trading down in order to trade up. That’s what’s behind the explosion of “gourmet” hamburgers smothered in the likes of manchego cheese and Iberian ham, or artisan hot dogs and Kobe dogs served with goat cheese and guacamole or home-made relishes, or french fries revved up with parmesan cheese and truffle oil.

4. Fresh = local = hand-made = safer = better: Baum & Whiteman believe the words “organic” and “natural” are diluted (polluted, actually) by big-brand food companies, so they’re being replaced in consumers’ minds by “fresh” and “local” and “hand-made.” People are looking for edibles they can trust, and for food communities that stand personally behind their products. Restaurants and hotels are spotlighting house-made or locally-made bread, artisan-cured salami, chef-pickled vegetables, locally-butchered beef, honey made from nearby hives, foods purchased from regional farms — all these theoretically reflecting sustainability and helping local farmers and being better for the environment.

5. Fried chicken is the new pork belly: The new trend is fried chicken — crisped in all sorts of inventive ways by lowly diner cooks and exalted chefs alike. Ahead of the curve: Korean fried chicken, invisibly coated, amazingly flavorful and fried twice for ultra-crunch, moving out of traditional Korean-towns into mainstream neighborhoods.

Duck fat fried chicken thighs, Flickr chotda.

6. Putting in “good” additives instead of taking out nasty ones: The trend of fortifying foods to make you healthier and more beautiful is being transferred to the restaurant scene. Watch for bartenders (err, mixologists) to get into the act by concocting good-for-you cocktails with “enhanced” beverages — on the theory that you can drink yourself into good health and become beautiful while getting sloshed. Beverage buzzwords include guanara, acai, goji, green tea, hibiscus and acerola.

7. They laughed when we said “tongue”: Baum & Whiteman said some bloggers thought they’d gone bonkers by predicting that tongue (beef and veal) would be hot last year. Well, here’s the Offal Truth: For 2010, it’ll be tongue (including lamb) and oxtail along with beef and pork cheeks, chicken gizzards, tripe and other innards. Savvy chefs are using these odd parts to offset downsized portions of expensive steaks and chops.

8. Losing control over language: With the loss of old experts (such as Gourmet magazine), authority is dispersed among the instant opinion makers: bloggers, texters, twitterers, facebookers, yelpers — who broadcast “buzz” and bad news to a million people in the blink of an eye. Baum & Whiteman calls this a swap from good gastro-journalism to dubious opionating. Next year’s marketing and PR mavens will be experts at getting restaurants closers to their customers using all sorts of social networks and bypassing the former journalistic gatekeepers.

9. Sweet to bitter to tart: A decade or so back, American palates made a profound shift from sweet to bitter — which explains the rise of strong coffee, dark chocolate, broccoli rabe, brussels sprouts and other bitter food. There’s been another, quieter shift, from sweet-sweet to tart-sweet. That’s why chefs are now pickling their own vegetables to serve with newly trendy rich and fatty meats. You’ll see more pickled shallots, leeks or ramps atop steak instead of fatty onion rings. You’ll get it in the sour-salty flavor profiles of increasingly trendy Southeast Asian cuisine.

10. Menu churn: The tough economy and declining consumer traffic forces restaurants to poach customers by stealing competitors’ top menu items. Fast food chains are adding up-priced gourmet burgers, pizza chains are selling pasta, and juice chains are adding pizzas and flatbreads. Everyone is adding snacks and signature beverages and energy drinks, hoping to capture between-meal business.

11. Meet you at the supermarket: Consumers are re-discovering their dining room tables. Restaurant chains hope to replace lost in-store business by getting their brands onto those tables with supermarket products. Look for even more chains to move into the world of retail food as they seek new channels of distribution.

12. Catering to kids: Kids’ menus are popping up on more chain restaurants, and many are reformulating to create healthier options. Look for more restaurants and hotels offering cooking classes for kids, more “adult” things on kids’ menus, and more kids-eat-free promotions.

BUZZWORDS for 2010: Authentic Neapolitan pizza. Lamb riblets. Too many food trucks, not enough curb space. Latino street food. Farmed trout creeps up on farmed salmon. Curry and Indian-spiced fried chicken. Vietnamese sandwiches (bahn mi). Gelati. Global comfort food. Artisan hot dogs. Made-to-order ice cream. Chefs turned butchers. Casual comfort. Touch-screen kiosks and home delivery in fast food outlets. Wood oven cooking. More energy drinks and adulterated waters. Mood food. Backyard and rooftop bee hives. Stevia. Urban farms. Griddled burgers. Free food. House-made everything, especially sandwiches.

Here are R & I’s 20 menu trends for 2010:

1. Pot roast, brisket and stew. Homey favorites spotlighting affordable cuts for comfort-seeking and value-minded diners.

2. Asian + Latin.The Twitter-driven frenzy over Los Angeles’ Kogi truck and its signature Korean tacos gets some of the credit for this latest fusion craze.

3. Midday dining deals. With customers cutting back on dining out far more at dinner than at other dayparts, restaurants are turning to speed- and value-oriented lunch specials.

4. Beer. Beer’s star is still rising with operators sourcing craft and seasonal labels, promoting menu pairings and theme dinners, and opening beer-centric pubs and eateries.

5. Chains build better burgers. Premium burgers represent the ultimate marriage of value and indulgence, so it’s no wonder that restaurant chains are following the lead of high-end chefs and dedicated fast-casual concepts and nudging up America’s favorite sandwich a few notches.

Scotch Egg at The Gage, Flickr sassnasty

6. Eggs are the new bacon. Eggs are everywhere on menus — draped over burgers and pizzas, tucked into sandwiches and showcased in dolled up renditions of classic deviled and Scotch eggs as bar snacks and appetizers.

7. Drugstore-counter desserts. The retro-dessert trend just won’t quit and this time, spiffed-up shakes and floats are taking the spotlight.

8. Big-name chefs take it down another notch.The drive toward downscale dining continues. Witness Big Star, Chicago chef Paul Kahan’s just-opened dive bar/taco shack, Il Cane Rosso, the San Francisco sandwich shop from Daniel Patterson and Bar Symon, Michael Symon’s gastropub-style spot in suburban Cleveland.

9. Meatless meals. While Americans aren’t fully embracing vegetarianism, they’re eating meat less often in the interest of health and sustainability.

10. Deep-fried and fabulous. Bone-in fried chicken is the latest unlikely darling of upscale dining rooms.

11. Fast, casual fine-dining. Restaurants are rolling out special menus that cut the cost of multicourse meals and trim down dining time.

12. Low-carbon footprint dining. Green eating is going mainstream.

13. Morning meals shape up. Nearly 20% of consumers say they’d be more likely to eat out for breakfast on weekdays if options were more healthful, and operators are taking notice.

14. Liquor goes local. Whiskey, gin, vodka and other spirits sourced from nearby specialty and small-batch distillers are gaining popularity among operators with locavore leanings.

15. Coal fires up pizza. What gives coal-fired ovens a leg-up on those fueled by wood alone? It’s all about the heat.

16. Thank you for smoking. From the subtle notes of fruitwoods to the more-assertive marks of mesquite and hickory, smoking lets chefs imbue layers of flavor into products without adding fat, sugar or salt.

17. Gluten-free gets its day. The estimated 3 million Americans with celiac are finding more menus tailored to their needs.

18. High-time for tea. The favorite of the Brits is finally getting its due on American menus, and tea is only part of the story.

19. Lamb goes off the rack. Restaurants are still turning out chops, but look for off-the-bone cuts of lamb to step into starring roles too.

20. Back to basics. The image of chefs industriously canning and pickling produce, curing their own salumi and butchering beef, lamb and pork from primal cuts seems plucked from a quainter past, yet a growing number are embracing these back-to-basics techniques.

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Tagged as: 2010 restaurant trends, dining trends, food trends, gourmet food trends, menu trends, restaurant trends, Restaurants & Institutions

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Top Restaurant Trends for 2010

by Janet on November 20, 2009

photo source: Flickr, Waleed

What’s in store next year for restaurants? Mintel Menu Insights, a service that tracks U.S. menu trends, identified five predictions for 2010. The trends reflect a greater focus on high quality ingredients, classic flavor combinations and authentic, old-fashioned preparations to lure in diners.

“In 2010, we expect menus to go back to the basic roots of good food and drink,” said registered dietitian Maria Caranfa, a senior analyst for Mintel Menu Insights. Here are Mintel’s top five restaurant trends for next year:

Classically simple. Many restaurants did less pioneering during the recession and what did they discover? Simple sells. In 2010, Mintel predicts chefs will harness the power of classic combinations and simple, pure ingredients. This year the top new menu items for chain restaurants is an all-America classic: the burger. Look for more nostalgic, decadent pleasures on the menu: bacon, lobster, classic cocktails, milk-and-cookies and donut hole desserts.
Restaurant-grown. Just because people don’t have time to cook doesn’t mean they don’t crave homemade food. Next year, watch chefs add a homegrown — or rather, restaurant-grown — touch where they can: artisan breads and cheeses, house-infused spirits, locally sourced produce and meats. “Rustic” will be the buzzword that describes imperfectly-shaped pizza crusts and mashed potatoes. Restaurant-grown items are also a great way for restaurants to differentiate themselves.
Dining out in. “If you build it, they will come” isn’t working the way it used to. Half of Americans are spending less at restaurants because of the economy, so it’s time for restaurants to come to them. Burger King is one of the latest to sell its food (French fries) in retail stores, but expect more retail-restaurant connections in 2010. Additionally, more restaurants will uphold relationships with customers by using iPhone apps for menu changes and online ordering.
Inherent health. Nearly nine in 10 Americans think eating healthy is important, but 63% say it’s difficult at restaurants because there aren’t enough healthy items. It’s time for that to change: 2009 saw a trend toward healthier menus, but 2010 will see a sharp increase in good-for-you food and drink. Tomorrow’s healthy menus will feature inherently nutritious items — those with fiber, omega-3, vitamins and antioxidants — that deliver on flavor too.
Regional ethnic. In this great melting pot, it’s no wonder people love ethnic food. In July, four in five adults told Mintel they’d eaten ethnic food at a restaurant in the past month. Cuisines like Mexican, Chinese and Italian have become so mainstream, however, that it’s time to dig deeper. Restaurants will increasingly pinpoint specific regions — Tuscany, Brazil, Morocco, or even within the U.S., North Carolina BBQ — to develop tomorrow’s ethnic food.