What's the newest Trends in Foodservice? Number One is Ethnic Cuisine, Foodies are craving foreign flavors and spices and will pay top dollar too! Try an appetizer of something Exotic or perhaps highlight something on your Specials and see how it goes before adding it as a permanent dish.
Ever hear of an "Ugly" fruit or vegetable? Ugly fruit and vegetables were all the rage in France last summer? Well, they’re here in America. They’ve actually been here this whole time — just not on most people’s plates, nor in supermarket aisles. A new Oakland-based startup called Imperfect is out to change that. Its founders, three veteran food-waste entrepreneurs, are on a mission to bring ugly produce (they prefer the term “cosmetically challenged”) to, quite literally, your doorstep. “Our bold vision is for consumers across America to have the option of having a box of Imperfect produce delivered to them weekly, for 30 to 50 percent cheaper than what they’ll find in grocery stores,” said Ben Simon, Imperfect’s cofounder.
Seasonal Sour items such as the Lemon and Key Lime are making a Summer splash and not just in Desserts. Try making a Chicken or Fish dish with Lime instead of Lemon with some fresh herbs!
Local Sourcing is still a big Trend in 2015. Chef's are sourcing ingredients from local farms and highlighting on their Menus. Consumers are enjoying knowing where their food comes from and selecting Menu items that state local sourcing. China and Flatware are also reflecting a new Rustic feel and image.
Allergens and Cross-contamination are still a big concern for Foodservice. Gluten-free, Peanut and Fish allergies are on the radar for Food Prep and Service.
Adventurous Restaurant Customers aren’t settling for plain
grilled cheese or the same old Swiss on a sandwich, Chefs say. Foodies and
their ever-more sophisticated palates are in search of new flavors, and
eateries are answering the call with innovative dishes that meld flavors from
around the world.
Rob and Karen Lawlor left Restaurant careers when they bought Denver-based The Truffle Cheese
Shop eight years ago and, in addition to selling retail and teaching
cheesemaking classes, the shop sells its cheese to a long and growing list of local
eateries. In recent years, Denver’s restaurants have gotten more innovative
with their menus
to feed the increasingly sophisticated palates of their guests, Karen Lawlor
said.
“The restaurants in Denver are more sophisticated than they were even five
years ago, and they’re looking for European products as well as local,” she
said, “Right now it’s a lot of fresh cheeses,
mozzarella, ricotta, fresca. Those are seasonal for us, the fresh milk cheese
because animals eat grass and when the grass is in season and fresh, that’s
when they are most likely to have fresh milk.”
Cheesemonger Michel Lemmerling, from the Brick Farm Market in Hopewell, NJ has earned the honor of Chevalier du Taste Fromage, routinely scours the neighborhood and US for the best-quality cheese. Michel can also help you arrange for a beautiful cheese plate to match any entertaining occasion or is happy to use your own serving ware so that you may simply take it from their market to your table! The Brick Farm Market also has monthly Cheese Classes.
Andrea Frizzi, chef and owner of Il Posto in Denver is a Truffle Cheese Shop customer.
Frizzi grew up in Milan, the son of a sommelier who learned the culinary trade,
first in school and then in a series of restaurant gigs that brought him to
Washington, D.C. and eventually Denver. He worked as a consultant on the
openings of scores of eateries before opening Il Posto in 2007.
He’s all for local sourcing when it makes sense, but the Italian menu at his
upscale restaurant requires imported Italian cheeses. “I’ve got to use
Parmigiano Reggiano, I can’t use a cheese from Wisconsin or California.”
The menu at Il Posto reflects the more sophisticated tastes, with dishes
including Bufala mozzarella Affumicata made with imported burrata, and ricotta
gnocchi with imported Grana Padano. “In Italy, there are a lot of small
producers doing a lot of stuff that’s really cool. My job is to take whatever
we have and be an ambassador for these beautiful cheeses,” he said. Frizzi says he loves dairy cheese too much to ever give it up. Increasingly,
though, guests who eschew dairy cheeses for health or ethical reasons have increasingly tasty
plant-based options.
The menu at Veganized Foods in New Brunswick, N.J., includes 14 items
that have some type of house-made, cashew-based vegan cheese, said General Manager El Rachmani.
The menu at Veganized includes a raw beet ravioli with herbed nut cheese and
saffron cream, a tempeh reuben with cashew cheese and a vanilla cheesecake, all
made with different versions of the cultured cashew cheese he said.
“We’ve pretty much been using the same recipe since day one,” he said. “My
brother, the chef, has been making this kind of food for a very long time. We
started in Brooklyn, were the more advanced vegan chefs have been doing it all
over the city.”
So we better keep up with our knowledge of Cheese!
