Restaurateurs entice bored guests back with menu and flavor innovation
November 19, 2020
Sponsored by Ventura Foods
Bored with living on takeout, snacks and home cooking, consumers are once again craving the flavor fireworks they have come to expect from their restaurant dining experience. In response, operators are encouraging guests to return by stepping up menu innovation.
“About half of consumers say, 'Gosh, we want you restaurateurs to offer flavor that we cannot get elsewhere,'” said Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Company, in The State of the Plate 2020 virtual seminar for attendees of Restaurants Rise Powered by MUFSO. “What’s happening here is that your customer base is really giving you permission to explore.”
“[Consumers are saying] ‘I’ve had enough—my very last grilled cheese sandwich,’” said Datassential President and Haiku Master Jack Li in his Restaurants Rise keynote session. “And 79 percent say, ‘I'm now craving something new.'”
Here is a sample of the flavors, ingredients and trends in play on innovative menus today.
The Buffalo Sauce Stampede
The combination of piquancy and buttery richness has made buffalo chicken sauce an American food icon over the years. Now, during the pandemic, it has been getting “a second wind,” Kruse reported.
For pizza as well as wings, buffalo chicken is increasingly a go-to flavor. That is no coincidence, Kruse pointed out. “The two strongest categories over the last six months in terms of home delivery have been pizza and wings,” she said.
Examples include Buffalo Ranch Chicken Pizza topped with ranch and buffalo hot sauce, from Sarpino’s Pizzeria, in Lincolnshire, Illinois. The Buffalo Pizza at Manayunk Pizza in Philadelphia is topped with a mild sauce and blue cheese along with mozzarella and grilled chicken. In its version, Piu Bello Pizzeria in Atlanta features breaded buffalo chicken and garlic oil.
Buffalo sauce also pops up in salads and sandwiches. Casual-dining operator Chili’s Grill & Bar touts Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad with hot buffalo sauce, bacon and blue cheese crumbles. Charleys Philly Steaks, based in Columbus, Ohio, serves its Chicken Buffalo on a bun with onions, peppers, provolone and buffalo sauce.
From Cleansing to 'New-Mami'
Food products with clean labels have been on-trend for years. Looking ahead, expect menumakers to offer more ingredients perceived to cleanse the body and improve health, reports Technomic’s Take: What’s to Come in 2021, a Technomic newsletter. Examples include immunity boosters, new leafy greens, nondairy milks and plant-based proteins.
In addition, Technomic foresees a rise in what it calls “new-mami flavor exploration,” meaning “intense, mouthwatering fare” that stimulates umami, the so-called fifth taste. This will include nontraditional fruit vinegars, new kinds of mushrooms, protein swaps (such as fish or seafood meatballs), tomato jam, tamari sauce and “trendy umami components” in cocktails, such as seaweed and gochujang.
Global Affairs
Korean, Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisines will continue to inspire chefs and restaurateurs. Sweet Talk in Brooklyn, New York, offers Chicken Katsu, a buttermilk-fried chicken thigh with katsu dipping sauce. The restaurant also features Spicy Sweet Fried Chicken, with kimchi, quick pickles and truffle ranch. Toppers Pizza, in Whitewater, Wisconsin, offers the Korean BBQ Chicken Topper pizza, with Korean BBQ sauce, mozzarella, grilled chicken, onions and peppers. For good measure, Toppers offers any four Dippin’ Sauces—including chipotle ranch, Korean BBQ and parmesan garlic—for $1.99 with any order.
Schnitzel is an item with Middle Eastern influences “getting a really strong tailwind from Israeli-American chefs,” Kruse said. She cited the Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich at Gotts Roadside in California, served with harissa- and turmeric-spiced mayos on a toasted sesame brioche bun.
Another nod to Middle Eastern tradition is the zesty sumac-pomegranate syrup in Pretty in Pink, an alcohol-free cocktail offered at The Table at Crate in Oak Brook, Illinois. Technomic advises operators to keep some Italian, Mexican and Chinese dishes—“the top three perennial global favorites”—on the menu for families ordering food at home. “They are more likely than other international fare to survive the veto vote,” the research firm says.
Portfolio Power
These days, most operators have little time or budget for a full-scale menu overhaul. One solution is to partner with a manufacturer with expertise in flavors such as Ventura Foods. Their Sauce Craft line has a full portfolio of labor-saving, ready-to-use sauces with clean labels. Their products make it quick, easy and cost-effective to use as is and to devise plus-one combos of additional flavors for added menu variety and for LTOs. Ventura Foods ReRestaurant.com site was specifically designed to offer tips and solutions to operators navigating the COVID-19 world and who seek trusted brands of dressings, sauces, spreads and frying oils as they navigate the challenges ahead.
Two suggestions for flavor exploration:
Menu staples, such as Sauce Craft Buffalo Sauce, Garlic Parmesan Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce and Cayenne Pepper Sauce
New and exciting global flavors, such as Sauce Craft Korean Gochujang Pepper Sauce, Honey Sriracha Sauce and Sweet Chili Sauce
For more information about leveraging menu innovation, including flavor and ingredient trends, recipes and training videos, visit www.ReRestaurantwithVenturaFoods.com/.
In addition, Ventura Foods is partnering with Nation’s Restaurant News on #ReRestaurant Goes Social, sharing dynamic content and operator solutions for industry challenges. Visit the links below and don’t miss a thing:
https://www.facebook.com/RestaurantNews
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