General
Attention Restaurant Owners, Chefs, and Food Lovers Everywhere: There is a new taste in town and its name is umami. Officially deemed by scientists a core fifth taste in 2002, it is sister to the more familiar sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors. Not only is umami universally appealing, but it is all the rage in restaurant recipes for the New Year.
Drive-thru restaurants, a pure Americana tradition from the 1950s, have been making a comeback. Decades after reinvigorating the dining-out scene, the old-school paradigm is dominating once again. Only this time, rather than being the exclusive property of American fast-food joints, the take-out service has come to the fore as a champion of the foodservice industry overall. While the rise to fame over the past two years can be attributed to the pandemic, restaurant insiders claim that the drive-thru trend began long before – however, thanks to the pandemic, in the words of David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor “we’ve really just fast-forwarded years into the future in a very short period of time…” . Continue reading on drive-thru restaurants →
If you manage or own a restaurant, it’s time to update your menu with some immune-boosting ingredients. Today more than ever, diners are interested in their physical health and will pay top dollar for foods and beverages that help fight infection and strengthen their resistance to disease. Once these items are integrated into your menu, diners may not even realize the enormous benefits they will be getting from dining out in your restaurant.
If you work in foodservice, you have been impacted, for better or worse, by the coronavirus (COVID-19). Fortunately, some of you have managed to survive the pandemic and are operating or perhaps even thriving despite the restrictions on restaurant operations and social gatherings. However, one constant unites you all: Whether you are offering takeout for the first time, operating out of a pre-existing ghost kitchen, or have transformed your brick-and-mortar eatery into a remote restaurant, the name of the new game in the industry is: Safe food delivery.
Ghost kitchens are popping up around the world, a last-ditch effort by restaurants to stay afloat and serve customers while the coronavirus shuts businesses down. In cities that increasingly look like ghost towns, the all-delivery and take-out-service-only paradigm is gaining an almost natural foothold as the public has been commanded to remain ‘socially distant’ and take extreme measures to avoid close contact with other people.
As with many other businesses world-wide, the restaurant industry has been deeply impacted by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). In a global milieu where work from home, self-quarantine, traffic restrictions, and rampant business closures have become the norm, restaurants have been thrust into an unprecedented limelight.
From cakes, puddings, and parfaits to salads, entrées, and main courses, mason jar desserts and meals (aka food-in-a-jar) have become some of the hottest-selling items in the restaurant and catering service businesses. Taking the concept of canning jars to new and highly imaginative heights, professional chefs and bakers are jumping aboard the mason jar bandwagon, creating single-serving, portable, convenient, and highly Instagrammable servings of their customers’ favorite recipes.
Oatmeal, anyone?
The battle for breakfast is on, and if you work in foodservice, prepare to update your restaurant and catering service menus with the latest rising star in the food industry: Hot oatmeal. That’s right! Not only have all-day breakfast menus and brunch become a financial boon for eateries that rise to the occasion, but hot cereals, especially oats, are proliferating and claiming the unlikely top spot.
In this guide for foodservice professionals, you will get the full 411 on all things ‘champagne,’ including types of the world’s favorite bubbly, champagne styles, grapes, regions, sweetness levels, temperature, age, how to pour the perfect glass of champagne, the best champagne glassware, and more.
Continue reading about restaurant champagne and wine-pouring etiquette →
Every year, the food industry, along with myriads of other business entities, hungrily await the grand announcement from the trend-setters at the Pantone Color Institute: The Pantone Color of the Year. Setting the tone for and influencing product development, packaging, design, and purchasing decisions for a wide range of merchandise, the color experts have declared that Classic Blue will be the Pantone Color of the Year for 2020.