While menus are offering more herbs, natural sweeteners and fats, authenticity is at the forefront of many consumers’ minds.
Fennel, celery and butter may be trending on menus, but the biggest opportunity for restaurant operators and food manufacturers today is not an ingredient or flavor, Food Business News reported.
“I’ve been tracking menus for over two decades, and I don’t think I’ve seen anything come on as quickly and with as much underpinning of consumer support as the notion of transparency,” said Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Co., Atlanta told Monica Watrousu of Food Business News. Kruse and Donna Hood Crecca, senior director of Technomic, Inc., Chicago, discussed menu trends and opportunities during a presentation for restaurant operators attending Technomic’s Restaurants Trends & Directions Conference on June 24 in Chicago.
“(Whether it’s) free from steroids, antibiotics, hormones, artificial preservatives, colors, sweeteners, G.M.O.s. This is huge,” Kruse said.
Consumers also seek authenticity, though the concept may be difficult to define.
“It’s one of those things consumers think they know it when they see it,” Kruse tells Food Business News. “The good news is that there are so many opportunities to deliver on authenticity.”
Seasonal ingredients, in-house preparations and local sourcing may convey the attribute to a consumer. Beyond transparency, trending preparations on food and beverage menus include carbonation, barrel-aged and charring.
“Charring is the prep technique of the moment,” Kruse said. “It’s working across food categories. We see it in vegetables, charred fruits, charred meats. It’s kind of the next generation of smoking. It’s the result of two converging trends: Consumer interest in real foods and the growth of new Nordic cuisine.”
Kruse and Hood Crecca identified six trending flavors and ingredients on the plate and in the glass. The key to capitalizing on opportunities in culinary development is balance, Hood Crecca shared with Food Business News.
“Balance in terms of flavor profiles, whether it’s in glass or on the plate, but also balance in terms of your menu,” she said. “Customers want healthy and indulgent, they want sweet and spicy, they want light but also rich and complex.”
1. Ethnic herbs
Herbs are having a moment on menus.
“The drivers, I suspect, are very straightforward,” Kruse said. “(It’s) flavor without the bad stuff—salt, fat sugar.” Herbs also lend authenticity to an ethnic dish and signal freshness to consumers. “Green reads as fresh, and fresh reads as healthful.”
The herb of the year, she said, is cilantro, whose popularity has soared as a staple in the trendy banh mi sandwich. Herbs also have a home behind the bar. Cilantro has become a centerpiece in margaritas and fresh-pressed juices.
“The whole idea of garden to glass is going strong on the beverage side right now,” Hood Crecca said. “Herbs in a glass give us not only the flavor but also aromatics.” The use of herbs in beverages also conveys craftsmanship, she added. “Going beyond mint, we’re seeing sturdier herbs coming in, such as sage and thyme.”
2. Indulging on vegetables 2.0
Celery is the star of such unexpected dishes as a celery-root bundt cake served at Milk Bar in New York and Bloody Mary cocktails in bars across the country.
“Celery and celery root are the culinary hot tickets of the moment,” Kruse said. “Celery is absolutely easy to procure, well understood by customers, and it has been underutilized.”
Beets are getting a boost on beverage menus, adding a pop of color and nutrient punch to gin-based cocktails. “‘Drink your veggies’ is such a great concept,” Hood Crecca said. “On the greens front, of course kale is coming in; juice bars are adding kale to their menus, and a lot of them are offsetting it with other fruits to give it a little bit of balance and sweetness.”
“If we were to speculate on Veggies 3.0, it has to be legumes—beans and chickpeas, lentils as well,” Kruse said. “They are easy to procure, underutilized and very nutritious.”
3. Natural sweeteners
Make way for maple syrup, agave and pure cane sugar.
“Refined white sugar has become dietary demon du jour, no question,” Kruse said. “We’ve seen lots of searching rather aggressively for better-for-you alternatives.”
“Keep a look out on the horizon for a possible revival of brown sugar, like the old-fashioned brown sugar because it’s not white and can be used in sweet and savory kitchen applications,” Kruse said.
In beverages, pure cane sugar has become a standout sweetener. “As strange as it may seem, pure cane sugar has become almost a health food in the minds of lots of consumers,” Kruse said.
“Also hot right now is Mexican cola, which is made with pure cane sugar,” Hood Crecca said. “That has a cult following in independent restaurants that are bringing it in and making a big deal about it.”
4. Sweet on bitter
“The American palate is strongly predisposed towards sweetness,” Kruse said. “(Operators) have been very smart in using sweetness to counterbalance and to facilitate the introduction of new flavors—sweet plus spicy, sweet plus smoky, sweet plus sour….”
The latest flavor combination, she added, is sweet and bitter. “Going forward, we’re going to see a great deal more play around bitter,” Kruse said. “Things like bitter greens…coffee as ingredient specifically for its bitter properties, and things like dark chocolate with bitter notes.”
“In beverages, it’s almost like bitter is the new black…and it comes on the heels of a trend toward very sweet beverages, whether you’re talking about sweet flavored vodkas or some of the sweet nonalcoholic drinks being offered. So we’re seeing the pendulum shift in beverages back towards bitter,” Hood Crecca said.
5. Creating a dynamic tension
The unexpected juxtaposition of sweet and savory flavors has become a go-to culinary strategy for many restaurant operators, Kruse said.
“While this is a traditional concept… it can really be an unexpected treat,” Hood Crecca said. “It really gets back to balance, and balance is so important in beverages, especially when you’re going to these next-level flavors that are really pushing envelope, and you want that wow factor.”
6. Fats and oils are back
Butter is back. Americans have embraced traditional fats and oils, which are perceived as natural and, therefore, healthy.
“From a consumer point of view, there is a growing demand for real food, for more transparency and clean foods with ingredients that they understand,” Kruse said. “From the regulatory side, of course, the government has moved to officially outlaw trans fats. Put both of those together, and you’re seeing the revival of long-overlooked, perhaps underutilized sources of fat like butter.”
Consumption of butter has increased 25% over the past seven years, she said.
“As we look forward, I think we’re going to see more of a comeback of underutilized sources of fats…. If butter has come back, lard has come back even more strongly. It’s clean, it’s understandable, it’s promotable. It may be a niche opportunity for some of you.”
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