Food

Purple cauliflower. Congee. Skhug sauce. Cajeta. Chermoula.

Are you scratching your head? Don’t worry: Restaurateurs across the country are doing the same. These five foods are among dozens, if not hundreds, predicted to be the flavor trends of 2017. (And in case you, like us, need a cheat sheet: congee = rice porridge, skhug = Yemeni/Israeli hot sauce, cajeta = a sweet, caramelized goat’s milk sauce and chermoula = a green Moroccan marinade made with lemon and herbs). 

But how popular will these, or any other, fashionable flavors really be with your diners? Here are a few tips for identifying food trends worth following.

Two years after Panera announced its commitment to "clean" eating, the mega-chain announced in January 2017 that it had reached the finish line. Panera systematically eliminated the 96 ingredients on its No No List, ingredients as varied (and common) as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein and FD&C colors. “Panera is the first national restaurant company to make such a comprehensive commitment and, more importantly, to meet it,” the company proclaimed.

It won’t be the last, however. Many of the nation’s largest restaurant chains are working to clear their menus of ingredients that health-conscious consumers find objectionable, and 2017 may be the year that “clean eating” truly goes mainstream in the foodservice industry. Is it worth making the switch? Here’s a closer look at what the big brands are doing.

Menus are going to look a little different on May 5, 2017. That’s the deadline set by the Food and Drug Administration for restaurants with 20-plus locations to provide nutrition information to their customers. Calorie counts must be featured prominently on menus, and detailed nutrition information must be made available in restaurants. Do you operate one of the estimated 278,600 restaurant locations affected by the menu-labeling law? We’ve answered six questions many operators are asking.

As if losing David Bowie and Prince weren’t bad enough, 2016 was also a gloomy year for the restaurant industry. In terms of sales, it was the worst year since the end of the recession, reports The Restaurant Industry Snapshot from TDn2K, which tracks weekly sales from nearly 26,000 restaurant units and more than 130 brands.

“Traffic growth year-to-date has been -3.0 percent, a very troubling scenario compared with the -0.8 percent reported for all of 2015,” Victor Fernandez, Executive Director of Insights and Knowledge for TDn2K, said in an October 2016 release.

If the slowdown continues, what can operators do about it? Here’s a rundown on the causes of the restaurant recession, plus some ideas for boosting business.

Diners want better, healthier, cleaner food — faster. They want it this second, actually.

That’s why delivery-focused restaurants are taking off. Look at Chicago’s Eat Purely, which promises chef-made organic meals delivered in 20 minutes. Sales have doubled each month since Eat Purely opened in March 2016. Millennials especially love when people bring them food; about 20 percent of the restaurant meals they eat are delivered.

The rise in delivery demand promises good things for restaurants: higher order volume, increased sales during off-peak hours, and lower front-of-house costs. It also presents some problems, including quality control challenges and high commissions for delivery partners. We take a closer look at the future of restaurant delivery.

Continuing with our recap series, here are the top blog posts from the Food blog for 2016. This was our most popular content!

Read on...and if you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Soups. Shakes. Sauces. Smoothies. Most chefs rely on their blenders to make a few, standard menu items. But a high-performance blender, like the EXPEDITOR Culinary Blender series from Hamilton Beach Commercial, can lend its talents in a few unexpected ways. We found seven recipes for blenders that might surprise you, from pizza crust to lemonade. Why not give them a whirl?

Customer loyalty programs aren’t just for big business. Any size company, from a small café to a regional chain, can employ a cost-effective digital loyalty program to encourage customers to keep coming back. A repeat customer spends 67 percent more on a single purchase than a new customer does, a Manta and BIA/Kelsey report found; and, as Entrepreneur notes, “they should be rewarded for this action, as retaining customers is less costly than acquiring new ones.”

But how can a company ensure its loyalty program investment will pay off? Hamilton Beach Commercial spoke with Jenny Beightol, Director of Words & Reputations for Belly. With more than 12,000 clients and 6 million members, Chicago-based Belly is the leading digital loyalty solution for businesses. Here are six strategies for making your digital loyalty program a success.

We take great pride in our partnerships with leading foodservice equipment and supply dealers. To that end, Hamilton Beach® Commercial products were recently showcased by Hillphoenix, a pioneer in designing environmentally sustainable refrigeration systems and refrigerated display cases, in their presentation to grocery stores about creating Destination Centers to draw in more customers to the fresh perimeter areas of their stores. This piece was originally published on their Fresh Thinking blog on July 5, 2016. Read on to learn more about their strategy and recommendations for boosting business.              

In April 2016, Tampa Bay Times food critic Laura Reiley rocked the culinary world with an investigation into restaurants’ local sourcing claims. In the piece, titled “Farm to Fable,” Reiley found that dozens of local restaurants — many of which she had lavishly praised in past reviews — were misleading customers about the provenance of food. “Florida quail” was from Wyoming. “Florida shrimp” came from India. Local Zellwood corn… wasn’t.  

It’s not that every restaurateur was actively practicing deception. Many said they had neglected to update the menu, or that they simply couldn’t source everything locally all the time. Seasons change, prices go up, farms go out of business, and it gets complicated.

Does everything really have to be local? And how can restaurants can prioritize farm-to-table sourcing while also managing costs?