Podcast

Hot Restaurant Menu Trends in 2019 - Russian & Scandinavian Cuisine

Host and QSRweb Editor Shelly Whitehead talks with Culinary Tides President Suzy Badarraco about the menu trends that have run their courses and those about to hit restaurants everywhere.

November 30, 2018

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Transcript

Q&A

Shelly: Allow me to introduce Suzy Badaracco, President of Culinary Tides. Hello, Suzy. Welcome. You always bring such weird and wonderful ideas up from all over the planet around the food topics, so thank you for being here and I would like to start with the restaurant year that was, if you don't mind, can you tell us the trends so that restaurant operators might just want to leave on the table at the end of this year as far as menu offerings that have run their courses.

Suzy: So we have been in an emotional stall in this country. So which means it's not a recession because it's not economically driven, but emotional stall resembles a recession behaviorally this past year and coming up. Consumers are not grounded. They are not feeling confident. There's a lot of fear for a number of reasons. So what happens is last year, and then going into this year, they revert back towards comfort food, partially not all the way back like recession, but partially the retreat. So what they do is, and this year what we saw is they retreat back to historical or regional specific cuisines. Hybrids kind of came back like, you know, kind of cousins of the cronut where you're taking to familiar things, putting them together, comfort with a twist. I actually hate that phrase, but you get the picture, so not completely back to comfort food which would be seen in a recession, but this kind of combination, so last year and going forward to what it would be smart to continue to do to just simply move laterally. Keep the base of the food, whether it's the burger, whether it's pizza, whatever the dishes, keep the base of the food.

Approachable, familiar, grounded. So the consumer kind of knows, Oh, this is a burger, maybe it's a veggie burger, but it's still a burger, right? It's a pizza. Okay, maybe have something crazy on it, but it's still pizza. Then what you do is you get to move laterally by adding some intrigue, either by the seasonings you're using, the prep. That's how you get to add the fun piece of it to keep them coming back. So that's what we saw last year and that's what a fortunately or unfortunately is going to continue into this next year.

Shelly: That's fascinating. The psyche of the country is dictating this as well. So then if we have that stable base what are going to be the add-ins? The trends that will sweep the country in the year ahead.

Suzy: So there's a lot of directions you can go. Okay. So due to the stall, we're going to remain swirling around Peruvian food, regional, Italian, Russian for sure. A regional, Mexican, Nordic, more general Asian. So more with Asian, more country, not specific regions of a country. We're not that sophisticated with our knowledge of country. So like we might know Thai but we would not know regional Thai food at this point. Then definitely southern USA is still going to be rolling around this year. The rule of thumb right now is if it's a cuisine that we're fairly familiar with, let's say Mexican cuisine, what you want to do is you want to go regional. If it's one we're not familiar with, let's say Russian foods, you just want to stick with the global comfort foods of that country. You don't want to go regional quite yet because it would be too unfamiliar.

So the trends that are going to continue for southern cuisine get very specific, like low country Gullah, a cajun creole, and then southern is traveling up the east coast, so Ozark Appalachian, Pennsylvania Dutch. Beyond this, you can go further into island territories around the southern US. So Cuban cuisine, definitely Puerto Rican cuisine. All of that is going to come in. If the stall continues, I would be looking at upper midwest, Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago for ideas. So instead of Chicago Pizza, try Detroit pizza. Nordic cuisine is quite approachable, especially in the bakery. And so that's where you can get into breads. So pizza can get into that as the base, a breads also burgers can do that too with the bakery, and of Scandinavian foods. And then if you aren't going to do Chicago, you don't just do Chicago Pizza, you do some of the other Italian specialties that come out of that region. So see, the more, the more you know, the region and more familiar it is kind of the more avant garde you can be, the more sub specialty you can be with that. So nationally you're also gonna see like regional barbecue, so very regional barbecue, right? Specific state, specific cities. Even coming into barbecue. Again, regional, Mexican, I'm Italian. You could go regional, Spanish, you could start going regional

That's why you in a restaurant for consumers, you don't want to go regional unless it's already, it's already a flavor that's familiar, like Mexican or Italian. Those you can then go regional, but right now a consumer's need is they need to feel grounded and, and in control and safe. So whatever you're doing, if you're doing something regional, you want to call it out. So you're kind of educating them on the menu, right? Either in what you're calling the dish or in the description of the dish. That's how you keep it approachable. If you just, if you start pulling regions that are super unfamiliar or you start putting combinations together that you know are very fusion it, it's going to scare them and they're not gonna want to partake. They're just going to choose something else on the menu.

Shelly: Yeah, that does. That does intimidate you as a customer.

Suzy: Yeah, exactly. And right now's not the time to intimidate anyone. So the formula is again, part of the dish has to be approachable and then you get to have fun. So like if you're looking at Caribbean, something you want to put on the menu, think varietals, citrus, think pepper sauces, thing jerk coming from Jamaica. If it South America, you know, some dish or some, you know, twist on South America for like pizza or burger. Then you're thinking like Chimichurri. You know, if it's eastern bloc EU, then you're going sweet and sour.

Shelly: Quick Service seems especially a challenge to me to implement these things because some of these brands are so unwieldy. How do you implement these types of setting changes regularly into a quick service menu?

If it was quick service and it was big, I would definitely introduce them as LTO's first off. Mcdonald's is famous for doing LTO's, right? You just do a limited time offering. You see if it sticks or you know, if it doesn't. But in quick service you have to just stay even a little bit calmer in whatever the prep is or whatever the add-in is with that the seasoning. So you don't want to go as extreme as you would, let's say even in fast casual with the spice combination coming from the Middle East, you'd want to take one step back and you want to go more kind of global national dish or a global national set of seasoning something that's very familiar in that other country or a different US region because you want it because people are not going to QSR's to be hyper experimental.They like something new definitely, but they're not going there to be completely hyper experimental, especially if they might be bringing little kids with them.You have to back off a little bit on how extreme you're going to go from whatever the regions are.

Shelly: I think earlier this year when I talked to you, I was excited about this. You had mentioned some interest in native American cuisine. Is that still a possibility?

Suzy: Yeah. Native American cuisine is fabulous, but it's a tiny bit of a hot mess. Because what you see and the reason it's not taking off like it should is because it hits every single button that consumers want. It's regional cuisine. It's historical cuisine. It's sustainably items. It's a live fire cooking. It's communal dining. It hits every single button you could possibly wanting in a food trend. The problem with it is, and we've talked to, we've called 32 tribes. Only 16 of them would actually talk to us once they found out we were Europeans. They don't want Europeans, which are Americans. They don't want Europeans to know what their food traditions are, so the only Native American chefs out there who have restaurants you can see they're not backed by the tribe. They're out there by themselves in the restaurant and that's why that's what the problem is.

The Native American tribes themselves do not want it as a food and flavor trend for the country. That's the problem with it. That's the Achille's Heel and the only way you could open or launch anything with Native American cuisine is have a Native American in the mix, telling you what the food is. What the tribes told us is that they would rather have their food traditions die with them in the tribe than to share it with Europeans, which are us Americans or other Americans, not natives. So it's very closely guarded and that's why it's not taking off because it's the single chefs that are coming out and doing this amazing food, but they don't have the backing of the tribe. So it's fabulous. It absolutely hits everything, but it's hard to actually get to the core of what the food is. Plus, the other tricky thing about Native American cuisine, it's different in every single region and every single state, right? Because the Native Americans eat what's in front of them. Off the land is the ultimate in sustainability, right? So if you're a California tribe, you may be eating seafood, but if you're a tribe in Minnesota, maybe you're eating lake fish, but you are eating a whole different spectrum of foods and grains and fruits and vegetables. So it changes depending on what state that tribe is in.

Shelly: Just one more question and then we'll wrap it up. I wish I could go on talking with you all day. It's so fascinating. If you had one piece of advice to give limited service restaurant tours, those within fast casual alone, QSR, what would it be for the year ahead as far approaching the menu and what your LTO is for the year.

Suzy: So of course I don't have just one, but I'll be quick. I would be focused right now on the settings and experiences. It sets the tone of the trend settings. Like some of the QSR's who are going into more of a cafe format for example. It changes what the consumer expects from them and it can open the doors to being a little more experimental or being a little more friendlier. Testing some waters because the setting has changed. It changes what your experiences, which can be fabulous. Also pay attention to the preps. The preps are, is as important as the food, the preps in the attitudes. So right now, dry techniques or in frying air, frying, deep frying, grilling, roasting, profiting, brick pressed items, you know, cast iron cooking.

If it's handmade, a more indulgent, like roasted, more smoked, charred, something that's Instagram worthy. That's what they need to be focusing on for the preps. And then the add ins, of course, they, they also have to watch what those trends are. Smoke. Is it flavored heat, sweet heat. Is it global fruits that are going onto the burgers? What are the single grains that are in vogue? Can they do nitrous coffee? You know, if they're serving coffee, can they play with florals, some like some of the spices like Sumac, rosemary, coffee rubs, all of that could be done, but again, it's what's the prep. I would also tell them honestly to keep your eye on convenience stores. Convenience stores are now directly in line with competing with QSR's, especially for the younger generations. I would also tell them to form an emotional alliance with consumers. It will go a long way to gaining their allegiance and their trust for whatever the brand is and remember that you, that the QSR or the pizza company, whoever you are, you are not the hero in the consumer story. They are. You are the guide allowing them to be the hero in their own life, but you are not the hero. They don't need another hero and also spend more time following the trajectory of a trend than worrying about what your competitors are doing. Because after all they may be idiots.

Shelly: Well, so much fun and I knew it would be. You know, you just bring a wealth of information and I just thank you so much for being here, given it's your reads on the trends and eccentricities heading our way. I would love to have dinner at your house sometime.

Suzy: Thank you so much.

Shelly: You're welcome. Thank you so much.