Meherwan Irani is co-founder and chef of the Chai Pani Restaurant Group based in Asheville, N.C., and has been helping to change the perception of Indian food in the United States with his restaurants Chai Pani in Asheville, N.C., and Decatur, Ga., Botiwalla in West Asheville, Atlanta, and Charlotte, N.C., and his spice brand Spicewalla, with locations in Asheville and Atlanta.

He got his start working at his parents’ and grandmother’s bed-and-breakfast in India, where he learned to adapt Indian food to the tastes of Western tourists without dumbing down the flavors.

Irani used that knowledge at Chai Pani location, the first location of which he opened with his wife and business partner Molly in Asheville in 2009, when he changed careers from sales and marketing to hospitality.

That restaurant won the 2022 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award for Outstanding Restaurant. Time magazine named him one of “31 People Changing the South” in 2018, and in 2023 he was named a Food & Wine magazine “Game Changer.”

In 2018 started a quarterly collaborative dinner series called “Brown in the South,” in which he and other Indian chefs in the South cooked and shared ideas of identity and belonging. That year Southern Living magazine named the group “Southerners of the Year.”

The Iranis have also created Chai Pani University, providing training in leadership and management to employees. They also launched an initiative in 2018 to send eight employees to India for cultural immersion and volunteer work.

This fast-casual chain has been on a roll, both before and after going public last June, and that includes culinary innovation thanks to the team headed up by Owen Klein, vice-president of menu innovation, who joined CAVA early last year. That includes the introduction of the meatless Market Spice Bowl, made with spicy falafel and broccoli plus tomato & cucumber salad, roasted corn, pickled onions, hummus, tzatziki, romaine lettuce, and rice, topped with garlic dressing and the trending spicy and herbaceous Yemeni-Israeli condiment skhug.

Birria, spiced stewed meat usually served with the broth it was stewed in, is probably the trendiest thing going in Mexican food. Ramen, the Japanese noodle soup, in one of the trendiest things in noodles. It’s possible that some independent restaurants thought to combine the two trends, but so did Del Taco, which took the beef consommé normally associated with birria and put custom-made ramen noodles in it, topping it with birria-style beef, diced onions, cilantro, and a lime wedge.

It was developed by the team headed by senior director of culinary research & development Jeremias Aguayo, who spent more than four months developing the consommé recipe. After 16 revisions he nailed the broth that’s spiced with cloves, cumin, bay leaves, oregano, and pasilla and guajillo chiles.

The world’s largest burger chain has reworked its core product: Its hamburger. Rolled out gradually last year and made available nationwide at the end of January, the burgers now come on softer buns with more buttery and yeasty aromas, but the other changes are operational. McDonald’s made tweaks to the cooking process, cooking six burgers at a time instead of eight to result in faster production, since the griddle cools down less. The result is fresher, hotter burgers for customers.

The kitchens also moved diced onions from the prep table to the griddle, adding them as the beef patties cook so they get that caramelization that so many people love.

All told, the company said more than 50 changes have been made, resulting in subtle but noticeable product changes.

This Brazilian churrascaria has long been known for its succulent roasted meats served in unlimited quantities, including Brazilian cuts such as the picanha sirloin cap.

But the chain took its offerings a step further last fall with the introduction of pork belly as part of its “Full Churrasco Experience.” The “Torresmo” (Portuguese for pork cracklings), was offered in November and December of last year and was simply seasoned with rock salt, slowly roasted until tender, and served with malagueta honey.

There are five places in the world called “blue zones” where an unusually high percentage of the population lives to be more than 100 years old: The islands of Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, and Icaria in Greece, plus Nicoya in Costa Rica and Loma Linda, Calif. The people there tend to have diets high in plants and low in processed food, and a Blue Zone Diet has been developed based on that.

Tender Greens took that ball and ran with it, first with the Longevity Bowl introduced early in 2023 and then a modified version that’s now available called the Blue Zone Bowl. It’s made with slow-cooked black lentils, fennel, dried pears, roasted rainbow cauliflower, which were also in the original bowl, plus purple potatoes, arugula salad with pecorino cheese, and labneh with smoked paprika. It’s topped with a choice of roasted maitake mushrooms or grilled salmon. The result is a hearty, tasty, and satisfying item that is also extremely nutritious.

Samuel Zien, better known as Sam the Cooking Guy, has inspired countless people to be curious about new food, and has used his digital platform to teach them how to cook.

As he says on his web site, “I’m just a regular guy, using regular words showing how to cook easy, great food … food that’s ‘big in taste but small in effort.’ A handful of ingredients and a few steps — that’s it.”

He also is involved in several restaurants in San Diego: Samburgers, Not Not Tacos, a charcuterie and flatbread concept called Graze, and Coo Coo’s Nest with a menu based on fried chicken.

After leaving a career in biotech, Zien started doing two-minute cooking segments on a San Diego TV station which blossomed into a regular half-hour show that won 15 Emmy awards and then became a national series on Discovery’s Health Channel. He went on to write six cookbooks, the latest of which, Sam the Cooking Guy and The Holy Grill: Easy & Delicious Recipes for Outdoor Grilling & Smoking, is slated to be published on March 12. His YouTube channel is approaching 4 million subscribers