20 hot trends
Today's hot flavor trends, and ideas to incorporate them into your menu.

by Dean Small and Danny Bendas

Foodservice customers today are looking for value, quality, and service, but most of all, flavor. High-flavored foods are driving new food trends, and different and cutting-edge ingredients proliferate to boost flavor and add interest. Within this demand for flavor, mainstream customers are also looking for familiarity. Here are 20 hot concepts that meet this demand for familiar foods with a flavorful twist. Incorporating these trends into your foodservice operation is sure to add value, excitement and flavor to your menu.

1) Artisan breads
Specialty breads have an immediate impact upon the guest, and offer a simple way to differentiate yourself from your competition. This is an excellent opportunity to "wow" your customers from the start, before the first course arrives. People tend to remember a restaurant's quality bread selections, and gravitate towards those that have good breads. The presentation and the display are also key: breads with different cuts, shapes, and flavors served in a basket, a terra cotta pot, or on a hot slate that maintains the bread's temperature. Accompaniments including high-flavored oils, tapenades, and applicable relishes further add to the bread service's distinctive quality.

focaccia with roasted garlic and herbs green chile and cheddar cheese roll flavored pretzel breads

 

2) Smoked foods: not just for the barbecue

Smoking is an ideal way of adding value to your dishes, and adding innovation to your menu. Also, as manufacturers recognize the labor shortages operators are dealing with, more value-added products are appearing, enabling operators to add flavor without the labor. Technology has also made smoking easier for the operator — now there is equipment that doesn't require the expertise once needed. Smoking offers a flexibility of flavor with the use of herbs and exotic woods to impart different flavor profiles. Smoked ingredients add value, innovation, versatility and great menu copy to your menu selections. For example, smoked roma tomatoes can become a flavorful part of a salad, pizza, pasta or salsa.

smoked campfire corn-on-the-cob smoked chicken and mushroom quesadillas hort-smoked shrimp bruschetta with warm salsa cruda

 

3) Sausage: the missing link
A high flavor profile, ethnicity and a wide product variety (lobster sausage, for example) are contributing factors to the continued appeal of sausages. Sausages are one of the few products where the combination of ingredients and methods make up the flavor profile: the type of sausage, the smoking process, the variety of seasonings used. Sausages are often finished in the restaurant, whether further smoked, grilled or braised. Chains like Jody Maroni's and World Links are dedicated to gourmet sausages, and both are in an expansion mode. Breakfast sausages are also on the rise, including non-meat varieties.

 

4) Sexy salsas

A couple hot features of today's salsas are that they provide a great way to romance the menu, and show off your culinary skills. Additionally, salsas give a very fresh and healthy perception, and they instantly denote high flavor. From fruit salsas to roasted vegetable salsas, they provide a good accompaniment and variety to standard proteins. Smoking or roasting salsa ingredients adds value here, too — smoking the tomatoes or peppers changes the flavor profile of traditional salsas. Salsas also easily take on different ethnicities — Hawaiian, Caribbean, etc. Look for the increased use of salsas in dessert applications as well.

smoked roma tomato salsa exotic wild mushroom salsa chocolate pave with pistachio and five-berry mint salsa

 

5) Fashionable sandwiches sell
The advent of specialty breads has elevated this category to a new level — one that brings in $8 to $9 for a sandwich. Today's sandwich offerings include a huge selection of toppings and condiments, but the bread is the real hero here. Focaccia breads, grilled panini sandwiches, flatbreads and ciabatta have all taken off. Upgraded proteins like hand-carved turkey breast and apple-smoked bacon have a strong appeal, and unique and flavorful condiments like roasted garlic aioli and sun-dried tomato pesto also make sandwiches sexy.

 

6) Asian accents
You don't have to look hard to find Asian influences on today's menus — Chili's offers a lettuce wrap, and even Jack in the Box has offered egg rolls. Almost every operator has at least a Chinese Chicken Salad. In fact, Asian restaurant traffic is up 85% from 1994. And look at how popular Asian ingredients and concepts have become — lemongrass, oyster sauce, the Mongolian barbecue — these were almost unheard of just a few years ago.

 

7) Pizzas with pizazz

Pizza represents 17% of all restaurant sales, making it a $30-billion a year industry. With pizza one of the best-selling menu items today, more and more non-pizza restaurants are featuring pizzas on their menus and even installing pizza ovens. While pizzas today feature an endless variety of toppings with unique and ethnic flavors, operators are also experimenting with the crusts, incorporating flavors like green chile and cheddar cheese; and using flatbreads and focaccia breads for a pizza base. The crust is also going beyond the pizza, and is being used as a sandwich vehicle, or a base for a salad, or even a salad bowl.

exotic woodland mushroom pizza szechuan vegetable stir-fry pizza zesty sicilian pizza with spicy olive relish

 

8) Empanadas and samosas

These fun, flavorful, hand-held meals give any menu item an ethnic spin. And there's no end to the variety of flavors, both in the fillings and by altering the dough or wrap. Empanadas and samosas make great appetizers or meal accompaniments.

curried beef samosas with mango-papaya chutney oven-baked guatemalan empanadas filled with smoked chicken, fire- roasted vegetables and served with banana-habañero ketchup

 

9) Fondues make a comeback

Face it — Americans have a love-affair with melted cheese. A fondue comeback was inevitable, and now with fun, interactive dining on the rise, fondue is finding a way onto today's menus. But expect to see more flavors in today's fondues, and be prepared for them to cross the gap from appetizers to main-dish items, like grilled lamb chops with leek fondue. Dessert fondues are also a fun, flavorful and friendly way to end a meal.

wood-oven baked spinach and mushroom fondue spinach, artichoke and smoked gouda cheese fondue grilled salmon with five-onion fondue

 

10) Unexpected condiments

The condiment category dovetails the salsa trend — offering flavor to enhance existing menu items, and a simple way to make the familiar more unique without scaring people away. Like salsas, specialty condiments give the perception of freshness, and showcase your cooking capabilities, plus they're a way to differentiate your menu from your competition. Many upscale operators and independents are creating a signature dish by preparing their own unique condiments. And we're not talking mayonnaise and tartar sauce, but tropical fruit chutneys, innovative gremolatas, fiery harissas and inferno-style hot sauces. Manufacturers are also offering more condiments with a twist, as well as teaming up with operators to develop signature products.

oven-baked chicken empanadas with apricots and harissa cream apple-smoked salmon with red-cherry ginger chutney smoked osso buco with parmesan gremolata

 

11) Dim sum and tapas: grazing for dollars
The key to the dim sum and tapas trend is flavor and fun. Operators can offer a selection of smaller portions for trial, and diners can sample different flavors without having to commit to an entire portion. Multiple items allow for sampling a broad range of flavors, textures and preparation methods on one plate. This is an excellent strategy for introducing new and different foods. These dishes lend themselves well to sharing, but could easily become an entire meal. There are no rules with this concept. It allows operators to offer a variety of protein or non-protein selections that are multi-ethnic and multi-flavored.

 

12) Get on the stick

Skewered dishes also allow an operator to feature different flavors, and protein and vegetable combinations within a meal. The skewer itself also adds interest and excitement to the menu; look for innovative skewers like sugar cane or chopsticks. Skewered dishes can easily be multi-ethnic, and are also a fun food. Red Lobster serves Shrimp on Harpoons — it certainly sounds fun!

grilled tandoori satay with minted yogurt glaze blackened tuna and mango satay argentinean stacked beef churrasco

 

13) Mushrooming opportunities
Five years ago, hardly anyone knew the portobello existed, now it's come fully mainstream. Today we're looking beyond the portobello to more exotic mushroom varieties and blends. Mushrooms are a product that most operators have on hand, and can enhance menu items quite easily. They offer rich, complex flavors that bring basic dishes upscale. Mushrooms are also very effective as a flavoring agent — dehydrated mushrooms and mushroom powders offer a high flavor profile.

 

14) Chops are tops
The perception here is that food tastes better on the bone, hence bone-in meats provide an added value to the guest. They offer great plate appearance and coverage, and fit well into the comfort foods category. Todd English features a turkey chop at Olive's; pork chops and bone-in New York and porterhouse steaks also rank high on today's menus.

 

15) Braised expectations

Along with the return to comfort foods came a return to braising. With rich, robust flavors and intense aromas, braising allows the chef to be creative. While the preparation can be time-intensive, it is generally completed in advance, and given a quick finish in the oven before serving. Braising allows flavor to transfer from the meat to the sauce and vice versa. The broth can also be flavored to take on an ethnic influence.

apple-smoked veal shanks with sun-dried tomato gremolata shaker pot roast with braised autumn vegetables kung pao lamb shanks with steamed asian vegetables

 

16) Topical crusting
Texture is important in a dish, so crusting a menu selection adds crunch, flavor, value, and an interesting visual element to a dish. This concept allows operators to cross-utilize menu items, like salmon prepared with a pepper crust, and a dijon crust. It also enhances a menu description. There is a varied list of products to use for crusting: peppercorns, herbs, horseradish, potato, nuts, seeds, grains. Manufacturers are also creating new seasoning blends for crusting.

 

17) Sensational salads
Today's salads are seeing a change of ingredients: the addition of fruits, toasted nuts, grilled vegetables, varied cheeses. Obviously greens are still important; exotic greens are more widely used. Stacked salads are also becoming more popular. For example, The Flying Fish in Orlando offers heirloom tomatoes stacked with grilled mozzarella, and drizzled with a balsamic dressing. A variety of vinaigrettes and flavored oils are replacing heavier dressings.

 

18) Healthy foods
Diners want innovative, healthy foods but don't want to give up on flavor. Also, with one million new vegetarians each year, today's menus had better include vegetarian offerings. The good news for operators is that healthy foods are generally a low-cost option. The bottom line here: foods must be flavorful, but perceived as healthy.

 

19) Sweet sophistication
Americans will always love desserts. Chocolate is still the king here, but berries, cobblers and crisps are on the rise. Simple, yet stylish and flavorful desserts are popular, as are those that are not too overly sweet. Sharable, comfort-style desserts are also big.

 

20) Wine recommendations welcome
Today's customers are more sophisticated, more interested and more experimental about wines. And diners are looking for you to point them in the right direction to safely match flavors. Feature recommended wines alongside menu items to give your customers the options they're looking for. For unfinished wines, offer a cheese course so your guests have something to accompany their last sip.