Sponsored by: Knouse Foodservice
Savvy restaurant operators know that the secret to catapulting a dish to best-seller status or making a whole menu craveable isn’t about reworking the entire menu to accommodate the latest trends. Instead, it’s knowing what the most current flavor trends are and then successfully incorporating them into existing offerings.
With today’s consumer increasingly driven to experiment with foods and beverages offering unique flavor profiles, sprinkling a few on-trend flavors across a menu can add interest — ensuring that customers don’t get bored with the same old menu — and ultimately lead to increased sales.
Here are six on-trend flavors to consider adding to your menu now:
- Horseradish. This root vegetable-based condiment is trending as a top 2019 flavor and is appearing on nearly 14 percent of the top 1,000 menus. When made into a sauce and used on a sandwich, horseradish earned a consumer sentiment rating of 90.4, up from 88.5 the prior year.
- Dijon mustard. France may be the home of Dijon mustard, but Americans love it too. Fifty-two percent of U.S. consumers say they adore Dijon mustard, and that love keeps growing. Consumer sentiment for the condiment increased 2.1 points to 87.4 over the past year.
- Sriracha. The fastest-growing topping for burgers and chicken-based menu items, this spicy North African chili sauce rose 8 percent in consumer consumption year over year in away-from-home occasions.
- Habanero. Move over jalapeño; the sizzling habanero pepper is now the most popular pepper in restaurant dishes, with an increase of 21 percent in menu inclusion year over year.
- Asian. Soy, ginger and fresh herbs like Thai basil and cilantro are among the ingredients helping to drive the boom in Asian flavors. Asian-flavor-based menu item additions at fast-casual restaurants are up nearly 30 percent year over year. Millennials in particular have increased menu consumption of Asian flavor-based dishes by more than 12 percent year over year.
- Salted caramel. Pastry chefs increased their usage of this salty-meets-sweet ingredient in desserts by 18 percent year over year. In addition, salted caramel ranks as a top three flavor in highest operator sentiment rating for dessert toppings.
Sources: Foodable Research Labs 2019; Datassential Sauces and Condiment Keynote 2019
Creating more flavor
Below are some tips for easily incorporating these trendy flavors into your menu, as well as serving suggestions to inspire creativity:
- Add a new flavor to a sauce or a condiment. Imparting fresh flavor via a sauce or condiment can add interest — or totally transform — a sandwich or entrée. Plus, adding a squirt or a spread of sauce or condiment to a dish is an approachable way for consumers to try new flavors.
- Serving suggestions: Simply spread some sriracha mayo on a burger or serve a horseradish-apple-butter-marinated steak on a lettuce wrap. For more timid customers, offer the new sauce on the side.
- Infuse flavor into an appetizer, a dip or spread. Trying new flavors is a low-risk proposition when shared among friends in an appetizer, dip or spread.
- Serving suggestions: Let soy sauce and sesame seeds turn a classic sour cream dip into an Asian-style veggie dipping delight, or add a touch of sriracha guacamole and serve with wonton chips.
- Pair unfamiliar flavors with something familiar. Twenty-two percent of U.S. diners said they would be motivated to try an unfamiliar flavor if it is paired with a familiar format, according to the latest research from Mintel.
- Serving suggestions: Transform a well-known sandwich — perhaps a Brie and prosciutto panini — with the less-familiar combo of Dijon mustard apple butter, or top a classic carrot cake with an apple-butter salted-caramel sauce.
- Make dessert less sweet. Driven by consumers' desire to enjoy both a healthful and indulgent dining experience, more desserts are being paired with savory flavors to temper overall sweetness.
- Serving suggestions: Try adding a drizzle of mango-habanero-apple-butter sauce to cheesecake, or add fresh Thai basil leaves to strawberry shortcake.
If this sounds like added labor and complications, don’t worry. These fashionable flavor additions can be made without starting from scratch, which can be costly and time-consuming for operators whose concepts need to serve high-quality food fast.
Instead, do as an increasing number of chefs are doing by employing versatile, squeeze-and-go products to quickly and easily add on-trend flavors to all types of menu items. In general, fruit fusions in chef menus increased nearly 10 percent year over year, according to Foodable Labs.
The new Fusions line includes Mango Habanero, Dijon Mustard, Asian, Creamy Horseradish, Sriracha and Salted Caramel. In addition to offering these on-trend flavors, Musselman's new line of Apple Butter Fusions answers the consumer's growing demand for clean-label products, and contains no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.
How will you infuse these six on-trend flavors into your menu?
The new Fusions line includes Mango Habanero, Dijon Mustard, Asian Creamy Horseradish, Sriracha and Salted Caramel. In addition to offering these on-trend flavors, Musselman's new line of Apple Butter Fusions answer the consumer's growing demand for clean-label products, and contain no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.
How will you infuse these six on-trend flavors into your menu?