Food

Ask any catering professional what they love about their job, and many will say the flexibility. In the morning you’re serving an elegant brunch for 30, and in the evening you’re dishing out barbecue to 200 guests at a country-style wedding. You have the freedom to create new dishes, collaborate on custom menus, and think up new ways to surprise and delight your customers.

There’s a downside to flexibility, however. Caterers constantly have to adapt to rising food costs, changing headcounts, and shifting menu trends. Here are some of the top challenges caterers face, plus a few ways having the right kitchen equipment can help.

Many small shops in the catering business got their start in the home, or in a shared commissary kitchen. First jobs were small parties for friends… and then the small jobs turned into bigger and bigger ones.

At a certain point in every catering company’s growth, it’s time to reassess your catering equipment. We’re not talking about chafing dishes and induction cooktops, but rather the commercial kitchen appliances that do the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

If you’re looking for ways to make your operations more efficient by increasing batch sizes, speeding prep time, and cutting food waste, Hamilton Beach Commercial equipment can make it happen.

Most menu optimization advice focuses on paring down your offerings to what’s most popular and most profitable. For example, a TURF (Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency) analysis can identify the core essentials: that is, the shortest possible list of items needed to satisfy the vast majority of customers.

But you shouldn’t neglect the second step: expanding the menu to include innovative new dishes. These creative approaches can help you start thinking about how to shake things up — successfully — in the year to come.

Are you ready for the most wonderful time of the year? The holiday season accounts for 20% of restaurants’ annual sales on average, according to data from SpotOn. Restaurants and hotels often add staff, develop seasonal menus, and increase their hours to take full advantage of the season before the doldrums of January.

Here are a few more ideas for boosting your bottom line during the holidays by bringing in more customers and trimming waste.

When Michelin-starred chef Bruno Tison took over the foodservice program at Northwell Health, he encountered some unwelcome surprises.

At one of Northwell’s 21 New York City-area hospitals, he found packages of food that had expired 5 years previously. “Cases and cases and cases,” he told The Washington Post. Equipment was broken. Food waste approached 40%. And patients noticed: Emails and surveys described the food as “hardly edible” and “maybe the worst hospital food I’ve ever had.”

Here’s how Tison turned things around.

“We’ve created a somewhat unrealistic dining culture in senior dining,” Jonathan Pinsker, Regional Director of Culinary and Nutritional Services for Acts Retirement-Life Communities, told the Senior Dining Association. “We found at one community that 70% of residents were eating a 4-course meal — soup, salad, main course, and dessert — every night, which isn’t what you normally do at home.”  

Today's 55+ community residents crave more modern dining options. Here’s a look at the trends we’re seeing. 

Overworked staff. Competing commitments to sustainability and convenience. Complex dietary needs and restrictions. And very long lines of hungry students.

These are just a few of the challenges faced by college foodservice directors… and here are the campus dining trends that are arising in response.

Drive-thrus have become more and more popular, as customers seek convenience and speed.

But the increasing popularity of drive-thru service, paired with persistent labor shortages, has caused wait times to increase.

Call it the eternal paradox of the drive-thru: The more successful it is, the harder it becomes to be successful. Let’s look at how some top quick-service brands are increasing their speed of service and keeping guests satisfied.

At the close of every year, we look forward to food trend predictions for the future. It’s fascinating to see the experts’ forecasts for what consumers will be eating (and avoiding) in the year to come.

One big question many restaurant operators ask: Do food trends matter? We think they do. No one’s saying that operators should dramatically revamp their menus every year to incorporate the latest craze: Mushrooms! Ube! Baked Alaska! But awareness of global dining patterns helps keep offerings fresh and interesting. 

Here’s a look at some predicted 2023 food trends.

The stacks of plastic and foam containers. The piles of plastic forks and knives. The wads of plastic bags.

The environmental cost of food packaging has become abundantly clear worldwide, as people rely more on takeout and delivery meals. As a result, sustainability is once again a high priority for restaurant consumers… but what does that look like when people still want their food to go?