A stalwart of the restaurant industry, the National Restaurant Show opened its doors in May, bringing exhibitors and attendees together for four days of products and presentations. Catersource was on site, putting in the steps and also sitting in on education sessions—all in an effort to report back on products, insights, and trends that piqued our interest.
Industry stats
During her session on Menu Trends, Nancy Kruse of The Kruse Company pointed to supermarket prepared foods as the fastest growing industry segment (at 3.8%) and noted that fast casual has experienced the most significant drop in US restaurant counts since 2008 (an example: Subway shuttered 359 stores in 2016).
As a whole, however, the restaurant industry is doing well, said Hudson Riehle and Peter Backman in their “US & UK Restaurant Trends” session, with a projected $799 billion in annual sales in the US alone. Yet, there are disruptive factors surfacing that may affect sales, such as the presidential campaign and administration dampening spending confidence, and gas and diesel prices on the rise.
Additionally, said Kruse, brick and mortar restaurants face competition from Amazon Fresh, food trucks, and also meal delivery kits like Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Marley Spoon.
So when the going gets tough…it’s time to crank up menu R&D. Here are some thoughts to bring back to your kitchen:
Restaurant menu trends
• Natural, less processed foods and fewer ingredients are paramount for consumers. A great example is from a restaurant you might not expect to read about: Denny’s. At Denny’s, its pancake recipe was revamped to just four ingredients that any consumer would recognize: real eggs, flour, fresh buttermilk, and vanilla (though personally, I wonder if baking powder and/or soda and salt are a part of that recipe). Still.
• With the US vegetarian population remaining stable, and “flexitarian” and “reducetarian” lifestyles ever-rising, more attention needs to be focused on using vegetables as the center of the plate, as well as care and attention given to sides. Cauliflower has been elevated in various iterations from whole roasted, to a pizza topping, to even a cauliflower burger seen at Hard Rock Café.
Quinoa is still tops, according to Kruse, with potato, kale, and asparagus going strong. Think, too, of new ways to present vegetables: such as radish carpaccio, flash fried veggie frites, and the thousands of ways you can serve potatoes as center of the plate, sides, appetizers, and shareables.
• Make your menu a vast global pantry, instead of relying on the big three cuisines (Mexican, Italian, Chinese). Indian cuisine is emerging with plenty of room for growth; the Asian noodlepalooza is upon us in the form of ramen bowls; and simple Japanese katsu is on the rise
• Specialty meats are garnering attention: go beyond chicken and beef on your menus and into specialty items such as pork belly, venison, wild boar, lamb, bison, and duck
• Finally, it’s play time. Unicorn Frappuccinos were only the beginning. Colorful cereal (Froot Loops, for example) is found in shakes and even garnished onto hot dogs; cake batter and cookie dough prevail (a cookie dough truck called Dough Dough just hit the streets of Minneapolis, Dō is open in Greenwich Village), Snicker’s pancakes and even Centerplate’s Smoothie King Stadium King Cake burger in NOLA celebrate over the top food fun.
The King Cake burger from Centerplate
