Are you heading in the right direction FOR 2014?
These items will continue to gain momentum thus incorporate them into recipes, menus,marketing and align your food offering with your customers’ tastes and needs.
1. Tea infused in food recipes
2. Middle Eastern mediterrean,
3. Lemon in entree, apps, desserts, side dishes
4. Nut based milks
5. Year of the yolk-eggs
6. Retro foods-iceberg salads,
7. Flavors of farm to table
8. Crunch/texture appeal
9. Green Vegetables-kale, mustard greens,
10. Ethnic food offering
11. Tacos are back! Fish tacos rule!!! These are healthy items made with lower cost. Fish varieties coupled with lettuce, cabbage, and assorted vegetables and sauces.
12. Grilled cheese has gone upscale—Gourmet breads and cheeses like white cheddar & chutney, zucchini, fontina and pickles. Great opportunity to refresh the old standard, drive new sales.
13. Burger buns—white is out, wheat, grains, and niche breads are in-Turkish, Focaccia, Flat Breads, Ethnic
14. Prescriptive eating is growing—meal and menu choices to augment the weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and fat targets. Help your guests make these decisions easy.
15. Punch up your recipes:
Healthy dining-halo effect
Add spice not sugar, salt
Be playful
Merge flavoring
Focus on positive additions
Small plates
Tasty
Value priced
Instead of marketing foods as ‘low–‐sodium’ or ‘baked,’
Promote the flavor profile.
Have nutritional highlights available in fine print or verbally.”“
Market strengths, not weaknesses.”
Be aware of the wants and needs of your customer to set yourself up for success. If not sure, have tastings, culinary demonstrations to engage your customers, and interactive cooking workshops. It works and opens conversations as well as future loyalty(and revenue).
Passionately,
MARSHA DIAMOND 