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MenuMasters: Trend-setting dishes for autumn

Apples, chicken thighs and gussied up grilled cheese sandwiches are poised for success this fall

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

September 17, 2021

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Contrary to popular complaints, pumpkin spice season isn’t the same every year, and not just because it now starts in mid-August. Restaurants across the country continue to innovate with variations on the theme using different fall flavors such as oatmeal cookie and cinnamon roll. This year the fall flavor of choice seems to be apple, as seen in the latest seasonal offer from the creator of the autumn spice trend, Starbucks.

This also seems to be the autumn of grilled cheese, as toasted sandwiches with melted dairy sprout up as seasonal limited-time offers.

Chicken wings continue to fly out of restaurant kitchens at increasing speed, driving up prices and motivating operators to find new parts of the bird to sell. Chicken thighs can be problematic because they are not produced in the consistent shapes and sizes that breasts and wings are, but Wingstop has seen enough success with its virtual concept Thighstop that it has brought the product onto its regular menu.

Fried chicken is by no means just an American favorite. Japanese karaage — a term for anything dusted in flour and fried, but it’s usually chicken — is a longstanding custom and one that we’re seeing more of in the United States. Jinya Ramen Bar now serves it as an accompaniment to one of its noodle soups.

Related:Wendy’s, Smokey Bones, Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar win MenuMasters awards for culinary innovation during the pandemic

Fall is also grape harvest season, a fact that Carrabba’s Italian Grill is capitalizing on by offering side-by-side pours of Californian and Italian wines, providing the opportunity for customer engagement, education and upselling.

Fine-dining chefs are becoming increasingly comfortable combining the flavors and techniques of multiple cuisines, and with a finesse that often was missing in the fusion cuisine of the turn of the century. A great example is the Kumiai oyster at Entre Sueños in Chicago.

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@informa.com 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.

Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications. 

He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities, and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: bret.thorn@informa.com

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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