Article

Why fast casuals should take the lead on salvaging local tastes

Embracing local flavors can help fast casuals steal market share from full-service brands.

March 24, 2014

By Daniel Campbell,
Food IQ

In a world connected by shipping, media, Internet and an eye on global influences, historically local influences seem to be overlooked. We can grow food in our gardens from seeds that originated somewhere else, or we can harvest meat from animals that were domesticated somewhere else, but what about the things that were here before us? Fruits, vegetables, and animals that good ole' Mother Nature thought to place here for our benefit. Regional influences penetrate the menu on a global scale, what can we do to ensure our local flavors also make it on the menu?

The Slow Food Foundation has a bountiful virtual catalog called "The Ark of Taste;" this tool identifies food that is at risk of extinction, as well as food and its native place of origin (http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/ark). The Ark of Taste, "travels the world collecting small-scale quality productions that belong to the cultures, history and traditions of the entire planet: an extraordinary heritage of fruits, vegetables, animal breeds, cheeses, breads, sweets and cured meats..." When viewing the site, it becomes clear that as a result of globalization and modernism, communities are losing the food that makes them unique. For example, when Spain is clicked, there are currently 114 products that have been entered into this ark to keep their knowledge alive; breeds, fruits, oils, vegetables. This got me thinking about our home country; I've lived here all my life, surely I've heard of most of the things in this ark? On a list of 160 items, I was surprised at how many of these items I haven't been influenced by. Alaskan birch syrup? Gallberry Honey? Hinkelhatz? Shrub? How many of these items have made it onto chef's menus across the US?

In the past, chef's menus have been influenced by what the masses want, and by large, this is still true. However, more restaurants appeal to lesser, more dynamic, more specifically minded groups of people. Chefs grow their own gardens, from vegetables and fruits, to herbs; they have their own farms with specialty pigs, fowl and cows; they can, cure and preserve their harvests to help build a menu for the year around menu. In an article on NPR, chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant serves polenta made from Eight Row Flint, a type of high protein corn that's been nearly bread out of existence. He was introduced to it from a farmer and he now grows it on his farm next to the restaurant. "What I've come to learn from this experience is that if you are pursuing great flavor," he says, "you are pursuing great nutrition. It's one and the same." One chef has taken something that only handful of farms were growing and turned it into a great tasting dish on his menu? What other items are out there just waiting for a chef to try and create a one-of-a-kind treat only available in certain markets?

Although a restaurant like Blue Hill isn't a Fast Casual and it may be hard for a chain to offer foods that are not widely commercially available, we know it can be done. Food as we know it today wasn't the only food that was ever available. Production and demand has created the goods that we see commercially available, and yet there are foods like the Eight Row Flint that could be made available if the demand and knowledge was there. Yields play a huge role in what we have available for purchase today. Using the Eight Row Flint for example, it doesn't produce many cobs. So why grow a field of Eight Row Flint when you can grow a field of familiar yellow sweet corn and produce triple the yield? Smaller, one or two shop restaurants have the ability to currently offer unique and dying breeds of food we've never heard of, if only they utilize these resources. We as a people and as an industry need to step forward and ask for breeds like this to be grown. The premium costs come with a premium flavor, and there will always be people willing to pay a premium for food that are not only delicious, but food that is different than what their neighbor restaurant offers.

Utilizing a site like the Ark of Taste and learning about unique and essentially dying breeds of produce and meat could, and should, start a new trend in restaurants. With the speed of service and proliferation of Fast Casual restaurants, why can't it be us that leads the way and steals the thunder from the other restaurant segments?

Chefs and business owners are always looking for new and exciting offerings that nobody else can do, and here it is! It lies in our history and needs some help to remain in our future. In an ideal world, every restaurant chain would run at this opportunity to open our palettes, markets, and industry to these amazing flavors and sometimes nutrient filled produce. Knowing that this is probably a niche market will only allow a handful of these restaurants the opportunity to offer their communities these foods. It's just a start, but it is worthwhile.

Daniel Campbell is a culinary innovator on the Food IQ culinary team. 

Photo: Courtesy of Natalie Maynor on Flickr