Food

Imagine if every third customer to your restaurant ordered a meal, looked at the plate, then immediately threw it away.

That's pretty much what's happening. A whopping 25 to 40 percent of food that is grown, processed and transported in the United States will never be eaten. Around 80 billion pounds of food ended up in landfills last year, the Food Waste Reduction Alliance estimates, and 43 percent of that waste comes from restaurants and institutions.

Foodservice industry groups are working to reduce barriers to food recycling and donation efforts. But there's also a lot that individual restaurant companies can do. Here are six ideas for restaurant food waste management.

Freshëns was fast casual before fast casual was cool.

Founded in 1985 as a frozen-yogurt store, Freshëns found its niche serving health-conscious students on college campuses. Now, it's the largest yogurt and smoothie company in the nation. Hamilton Beach Commercial is proud to support its growth by providing high-performance blenders, drink mixers and more.  

How has Freshëns continued to capture the 18-24-year-old niche while staying true to its brand? We talked to Joe Sardina, Vice President of Operations, to find out.

Stewed tomatoes. Macaroni. Stir-fried cabbage.

Haute cuisine it's not; but in the hands of Chef Amory James and his army of volunteers in hairnets, home-style recipes like these change lives. Every day, FeedMore's Community Kitchen in Richmond, Virginia, dishes out more than 3,000 healthy meals for the region's needy children, elderly and homebound clients. We asked Chef James for a few pro tips and took a look behind the scenes of this innovative nonprofit.

The chefs spoke. And we listened.

Chefs in kitchens around the world told us they needed an advanced culinary blender at their side. They needed a blender that was versatile enough to allow them precise control, but had enough power to handle all the fresh ingredients that are the mainstay of modern kitchens. Most importantly, they needed a blender that could unleash their creativity and help them to put their signature of flavor in every dish, no matter what the style of cuisine. We took note of everything they said — and we delivered.

We're not quite ready to trade our morning mug of coffee for a hot cup of bone broth, or our blueberry muffin for a gluten-free scone. But your customers might be.

The paleo diet has grown to become "one of the most influential dietary trends in the country, with as many as three million followers and a disproportionate cultural influence," reports Salon. And as many as one in five Americans include gluten-free foods in their diets, Gallup found.

Considering altering your menu so you can join the ranks of paleo restaurants or gluten-free restaurants? Here's a look at the dos and don'ts for restaurateurs.

The days of plain roller dogs and two pots of coffee are over. In the realm of food and beverages, convenience stores can no longer stick to the tried and true.

For millennials, especially, it's all about customization, says Joe Chiovera, principal at XS Foodservice & Marketing Solutions and a 19-year c-store veteran: "It's not only in the ingredients, it's when I want it and how I want it." Toasted, pressed, cold, in a bowl, in a burrito or bunless? Young customers are accustomed to having options.

Here's what convenience store companies need to know about adding customized beverage and food offerings. 

Fried chicken. Meatball sandwiches. Country-fried steak.

Those are just a few of the hospital food offerings the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) found in a 2011 study. Dietitians surveyed more than 110 hospitals and found an abundance of fast-food outlets as well as cafeteria and patient menus "dominated by foods high in fat, cholesterol, calories, sugar, and sodium."

The findings didn't surprise Susan Levin, PCRM's director of nutrition education, but she believes hospitals have a duty to do better. Most people are hospitalized because of a chronic illness brought on by poor diet or lifestyle choices, she points out, so why not take the opportunity to teach them how to eat right?

We spoke with two innovators in healthcare foodservice who won awards for doing just that. Drew Patterson is culinary director of Ohio State University’s 1400-bed Wexner Medical Center, which won Best Wellness Concept from Food Management in 2015 for its Michael D. Bloch Café. Dan Henroid is director of Nutrition & Food Services at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSFMC), which won Best in Show. Here are some of their best practices for hospital foodservice.

It's fresh. It's made to order. And it's everywhere. From 2010 to 2015, according to Technomic, the number of fast-casual restaurants in the United States has grown 41 percent to nearly 23,000. Traditional fast-food locations grew just 5 percent in the same period, although they vastly outnumber fast casual spots.

The Oxford English Dictionary even added "fast-casual" to its online edition in 2015, along with dozens of other slang words, which means the term is widely used in the English language. But we probably won't be saying "awesomesauce" in five years; will we still be eating at fast-casual restaurants? Here's a peek at restaurant trends that experts say will shape the future of fast casual. 

When you call famed Pasadena diner Pie 'N Burger, owner Michael Osborn answers the phone. "I've been here pretty much in the front of the house for over 42 years," he says.

Founded in 1963, Pie 'N Burger is a tiny spot — five tables, 25 counter seats and an open kitchen — on East California Boulevard. Osborn began working for the restaurant in 1972, when he was a pre-dental major at the University of Southern California. "I knew I didn't want to be a dentist," he says. "Beyond that, I didn't know what I wanted to do." The answer, he discovered, was running Pie 'N Burger. Over the years, he gradually took over the business from its original owners and eventually purchased it outright.

The restaurant has thrived since then. Instead of remaining just a quaint local institution, Pie 'N Burger has become nationally known through an appearance on The Travel Channel’s "Burger Land." It's Zagat-rated and consistently wins awards for its food.

(Photo Credit: Pie 'N Burger- For 35 years, Pie 'N Burger's burgers have been made using an old family recipe and prime, freshly ground beef from the same small butcher shop.)

Chefs (and everyone else) have long known that the aroma and appearance of a dish profoundly influence how it will taste. But now the new science of neurogastronomy indicates that the sounds in the spaces where food is served also influence taste.