Too tired to go out? Not interested in splurging on takeout? Why not reach for your Blue Apron subscription box that comes right to your doorstep and cook your own Korean-style tofu brown rice bowl with kimchi and marinated carrots, using the ingredients and recipe inside. Blue Apron, a service that delivers ready-to-cook dinners to subscribers, is a popular player in the rapidly expanding field of food subscription and delivery boxes — a field that includes everything from monthly gourmet baby food shipments, to a box loaded with a variety of pickles, and everything in between.
Imagine the weirdest food combination you can, the strangest cake decoration scheme, or the oddest cooking method, and chances are there’s already a restaurant out there profiting from this oddity. Many chefs are naturally creative, and chaos cooking, an exciting, new culinary trend, gives these cooks a chance to express the full spectrum of their imagination.
2022 was a milestone year for mankind. By November 2022 the United Nations estimated the global population had reached an astounding eight billion. With more people on Earth than ever before in history, ensuring equitable global access to resources, food, water, and housing has become more important than ever before.
New Year — New you. As the world prepares to ring in 2023, the food community predicts that the upcoming year will be loaded with more sustainable, healthier, and more wholesome foods. That’s good news for those who crafted New Year’s resolutions related to eating healthier, and reducing their carbon footprints.
Science isn’t just for the lab; It has a place in the kitchen as well. Food-tech, the nexus of food and technology, is making headlines for new ways to plant and develop agriculture; new ways to order and deliver food; and even the creation of brand-new foods (like lab grown meat). These are just a handful of the ways that the high-tech community contributes to feeding the world. In addition to improving the quantity of food, food tech researchers are working on delivering higher quality and healthier meals.
Every era has its own iconic food that typifies that generation. For example, a decade ago, avocado toast made news headlines as the millennial dish. Today’s younger generation also has its own food favorites, and a unique way of engaging with food. Are you clued into Gen Z food trends? How many of these dishes have you heard of? Give yourself a point for each dish you are familiar with:
I stepped into my neighborhood Dunkin Donuts a few weeks ago. Seemingly overnight, the store had undergone an autumn transformation. Employees had overlain the windows with tantalizing photos of fall foods and pumpkin spiced lattes, apple themed donuts, and slogans like “Trick Out Your Treats.” The counters were lined with fall decor, including orange crepe paper and plastic leaves, and a well-placed sign informed me of the seasonal “Donut Decorating Workshop” for kids next week.
In the summer of 2019, the average cost of a nationwide flight in the United States was about $345. In the summer of 2020, the average cost of a domestic ticket dropped to $245. By the summer of 2022, it had shot all the way back up to $ 330.
These price fluctuations reveal the rapid fire changes that the coronavirus pandemic ushered in.
Now, thankfully, the country is opening back up. But opening up doesn’t mean going back to “normal” — normal being the pre-COVID state of affairs. In fact, quite the opposite.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an extra-spicy beef gyro with lettuce and tomato, wrapped in fresh, warm pita bread with hot sauce and a can of Pepsi on the side. And it’s catching a ride from the restaurant to the customer’s home in the basket of a food delivery drone.
These winged waiters are the futuristic delivery method emerging on the horizon. Literally. In some restaurants, drones are taking the place of food couriers. In other places, they are inside the restaurant itself, carefully carrying the food from the kitchen to the dining room. Proponents of drone food delivery hope to redefine the food industry, claiming that drones are more efficient, reliable, and even more affordable than in-person service. Others in the industry are more cautious, and think the trend will take several years to “get off the ground.”
Drinks are often the items with the highest profit margin in any food business, and when it comes to alcoholic drinks, the profits are even higher. As the pandemic taught us, alcohol sales rose significantly over the past two years, as did the numerous methods of getting liquor out to the masses. Whether it was with online deliveries, curbside pick up or QR code pick up, people the world over made it clear that they needed or wanted alcoholic drinks to help get them through the crisis.
With high profit margins, and almost guaranteed success, bars are making a quick comeback post-covid as people flock to socialize with friends once again. To help ensure the success of your bar, make sure that it is well-equipped with essential bar tools and equipment that can be used to create a diverse array of drinks to satisfy everyone from classic beer and whiskey lovers, to craft cocktail connoisseurs.