Gone are the days of quiet dining rooms. Noise is in, and restaurants are pumping up their sound systems, embracing sound-reflecting hard surfaces and enlarging their bars. As food critic Adam Platt writes, "ask any weary gastronaut about the single most disruptive restaurant trend over the past decade or so... they’ll give you a succinct, one-sentence answer. It’s the noise, stupid.”
Topics: Dining environment, Atmosphere, Noise, Restaurant management, Featured, Food, feat
Healthier, more creative children's menus are no longer just a trend — they're becoming a must-have. The National Restaurant Association placed both "healthful kids' meals" and "children's nutrition" in its top 10 culinary trends for 2014. Parents want dining options that are flavorful, organic, original and kid-approved. Creating menu items that kids will like and parents will purchase is a tall order, so here are some ways to get started.
Topics: Children's Menus, Kids' Menus, Healthy eating, Featured, Branding, Food
Consumers concerned about eating well are no longer a minority—they’re the majority. In a recent survey by the National Restaurant Association, more than 70 percent of adults said they were trying to eat more healthfully at restaurants than they did in the past. But what does “eating healthfully” mean today?
The clamor for fat-free foods has faded, thanks in part to studies showing both the health benefits of “good” fats and the potential downsides of diets high in sugar and carbohydrates. Today customers are much more likely to be concerned about gluten, and so it’s not surprising that Datassential reports a 72.5 percent increase the appearance of the term “gluten-free” on American menus from 2011 to 2012.
Topics: Trends, Coconut oil, Healthy eating, Cooking oils, Featured, Food
For some, it's a fad. For others, it's a necessity. Whatever the reason, eating gluten-free is big.
About 30 percent of American adults are trying to reduce or eliminate gluten from their diets, research firm NPD found in 2013. And they're searching for gluten-free items on restaurant menus, the same study found: the frequency of customers ordering gluten-free food had doubled since 2009. Offering a gluten-free menu in your restaurant can be a lucrative decision, but also challenging to execute.
Topics: Gluten-free, Trends, Vegan, Feature, Food, Menu, amaretto
When it comes to produce, the farmer's market is good — but the backyard is better. Local sourcing was the top culinary trend in 2014, according to chefs polled by the National Restaurant Association. The next step for chefs, especially those who can't always find the ultra-fresh produce they want, is growing it themselves.
Topics: Trends, Locavores, Local sourcing, Produce-infused cocktails, Featured, Food, Vegetables, Restaurants
Happier employees are more productive employees. It's not just a truism—it's science. A team of researchers recently found that the happy participants in a study completed 10 to 12 percent more math problems correctly than those who were stressed and unhappy.
Topics: Waitstaff, Tips, Servers, Restaurant management, Featured, Food, Customer Service
Coffee Flour is newest and most inventive use of java to come along in at least a decade. A former director of technical services at Starbucks, Dan Belliveau saw the tremendous waste involved in coffee processing and invented a way to turn the coffee cherry pulp cast off in the harvesting process into a nutritious flour.
Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum, so the waste from discarded coffee cherry pulp causes both financial and environmental burdens for the countries that grow coffee, which tend to be among the world’s poorest.
Topics: Gluten-free, Starbucks, Coffee, Inventions, Featured, Food
"Stay close to home, eat your veggies and then you may have ice cream." Sounds like Mom, right? Actually that’s a pithy summary of this year’s food trends, nearly all of which are focused on comfort, good health, and the possibility of enjoying both.
Topics: Gluten-free, Trends, Children's Menus, Tea, Ice cream, Local sourcing, Midwestern Food, Healthy eating, Ancient grains, Food
