Discover new menu trends, innovative alcoholic beverages and much more
The U.S. restaurant industry sales reached $683.4 billion in 2014, making the U.S. market the place to discover new trends, exciting technologies and breakthrough innovations. The American National Restaurant Association surveyed nearly 1,300 professional chefs – members of the American Culinary Federation (ACF) – to find which foods, cuisines, beverages and culinary themes will be hot trends on restaurant menus in 2015.
“As consumers today increasingly incorporate restaurants into their daily lives, they want to be able to follow their personal preferences and philosophies no matter where or how they choose to dine,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association. “So, it’s only natural that culinary themes like local sourcing, sustainability and nutrition top our list of menu trends for 2015. Those concepts are wider lifestyle choices for many Americans in other aspects of their lives that also translate into the food space.”
Based on analysis of its annual What's Hot culinary forecast over time, the National Restaurant Association has identified the following as trends to watch on menus in 2015:
Waste Not, Want Not: Environmental sustainability remains among the hottest menu trends. As with most maturing trends, sub-trends emerge over time; in 2015, food waste reduction and management is at the forefront of restaurant operations. Composting, recycling and donating are all tactics of food waste strategies tying into both sustainability and social responsibility. In addition, food costs are once again on the rise and back on operators’ list of top challenges, spurring restaurants to take a closer look at minimizing waste and surplus as a cost-management tool.
Our House: As the local sourcing trend continues at full speed in 2015, so does the hyper-local sub-trend. Beyond restaurant gardens, hyper-local is extending more fully into house-made, farm-branded and artisan items. From ice cream to cheese, pickles to bacon, lemonade to beer, restaurants are producing their own signature menu items from scratch.
In a Pickle: Common preparation methods for millennia, pickling and fermenting are making a comeback big time – but with a modern twist. Restaurants are exploring house-made pickles, ethnic flavors and specialty vinegars, small-batch producers with less traditional vegetable varieties, and fermented flavor profiles in a variety of dishes.
Going (More) Global: An evolving trend for the past decades, ethnic cuisine continues its inroads into mainstream menus. As American palates become more sophisticated and adventurous, so do restaurant offerings. Micro-trending in this category is fusion cuisines, as well as authentic and regional, underscoring the breadth and depth of flavors being explored. Also, ethnic ingredients, including cheeses, flour and condiments, are increasingly finding their way into non-ethnic dishes. Specific dishes, such as ramen, ethnic street-food and kids’ entrees are also gaining momentum.
Mini Gourmet: Children’s menus are drawing more attention from chefs and restaurant operators. Gone are the days when kids’ menus were nothing but hot dogs and things shaped like cartoon characters and dinosaurs. This is the era of gourmet kids’ dishes adapted from adult menu items with more adventurous flavor profiles than traditional children’s options. Growing in parallel are healthy versions of those gourmet kids’ items, featuring whole grains, vegetables, oven-baked items and entrée salads.
Shooting Menu Stars: As some items heat up in the menu trends environment, others are losing steam. The meteoric rise of hybrid desserts (looking at you, croissant-donut) is beginning to take a downward trajectory. And while still among the top trends, the momentum of gluten-free cuisine is slowing down. Similarly, the trendiness of Greek yogurt is decelerating. Only time will tell if these items will become perennial favorites or yesterday’s news.
Items that gained most in trendiness since last year in the annual survey included underutilized ingredients such as fish, doughnuts, ethnic condiments, grass-fed beef, brown/wild rice, and grilled vegetables. Items with the largest drop in “hot trend” rating included bruschetta, kale salads, nose-to-tail cooking, hybrid dessertss, and house-made soft drinks.
When asked which current food trend will be the hottest menu trends 10 years from now, environmental sustainability topped the list, followed by local sourcing, nutrition and ethnic cuisines and flavors.
In addition, the What’s Hot in 2015 survey found that the top five alcohol and cocktail trends will be micro-distilled/artisan spirits, locally produced beer/wine/spirits, onsite barrel-aged drinks, regional signature cocktails, and culinary cocktails.
The chefs were also asked how they feel about customers taking photos of their food and posting on social media during their meals. Nearly three in five chefs said it's free advertising and should be encouraged, and about a third said it's fine as long as they're discrete. Only one in 10 chefs said it's disruptive and should be discouraged.
The trends above and the trendsetters that created them will all meet in one single place in May, at the NRA Show 2015, where you will be able to test and buy their products and solutions and meet them face-to-face. NRA Show will be held on 16-19 May at Chicago’s McCormick Place and it is the largest single gathering of restaurant, foodservice and lodging professionals. The event attracts 60,000+ attendees and visitors from more than 100 countries, and showcases the latest products, services, innovative ideas, up-to-the-minute information about trends and issues and other growth opportunities than any other industry event. For more information, visit the Show Web site at Restaurant.org/Show.
Learn about the hottest food and menu trends for 2015 and get the full results at the webpage for NRA’s What’s Hot Culinary Forecast.
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National Restaurant Association
Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which is comprised of 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a work force of nearly 13 million employees. Together with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, the Association works to lead America’s restaurant industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence, and participation, enhancing the quality of life for all we serve. For more information, visit our Website at www.restaurant.org.
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