In a previous oldie-but-goodie Back Burner post I talked about menu engineering – how to put together a menu that effectively markets your dishes and makes customers want to spend more and buy high margin menu items. One thing that post did not touch upon, however, was how to price …
Read More »Does The Rise of the Spanish Mean the Death Of French Cuisine?
French food has always been the gold standard in fine dining. Over the years the fusion of French cuisine with flavors from around the world has bred a culture of ingenuity and dynamism that helped perpetuate French style cooking as the center for culinary excellence. But recently some trends have …
Read More »Menu Trends: Restaurants Are Introducing A South American Super Crop
This is a story about how an Incan super crop is starting to take over health food stores and trendy restaurants in the U.S. The rest of the world is already on board with this mysterious super plant; we’re just now catching up. What’s so great about this plant? Well, …
Read More »Move Over Beer: Craft Cocktails The Latest Trend
Move over beer, craft cocktails are the latest trend. For generations Americans have had a fairly straightforward approach to cocktails – gin and tonic, highball, rum and coke – without ever giving a second thought to the possibilities a true bartender genius is capable of when given the space. Back …
Read More »Menu Trends: Ruby Red Hibiscus Flavors
Hibiscus, the beautiful tropical flower, is now making its way into cocktails, teas, and desserts in some of the trendiest urban restaurants. The taste is described as both fruity and floral, with a tartness not unlike lemon. From the perspective of presentation, hibiscus flavored drinks and desserts turn an appealing …
Read More »Healthy Menu? Don’t Tell Your Customers
Ask anyone sitting on their couch around dinnertime if they want a healthy pizza, and you’ll probably get a lukewarm response. Not that people don’t want to eat healthier. Study after study has shown that consumers, when asked when they aren’t actively ordering food at a restaurant, want healthy menu …
Read More »How Sub Culture Is Pirating Fine Dining In San Francisco
What if you were told about a restaurant that had no fixed location or menu and kept this information a secret until just a few hours before you leave for dinner? The Dissident Chef of San Francisco does just this to his patrons on a regular basis. They purchase tickets …
Read More »Want Your Fast Food Fancy?
A website called Fancy Fast Food has taken all the mass produced food that makes Americans fat, but that we love to eat, and turned it into top quality fine cuisine, complete with garnish. The results are actually very stunning, even after viewing the before picture. Some examples include: Nathan’s …
Read More »Healthy Menus: Are Customers Saying One Thing Then Doing Another?
Healthy this. Healthy that. We want nutrition information. We want healthy menu choices. The drumbeat coming from consumers and consumer groups over the last five years has steadily increased, demanding healthier options from restaurants in all segments of the food service industry. Heavyweights like McDonald’s have bent under the pressure, …
Read More »Italian Grandmas Run Staten Island Restaurant
The Enoteca Maria restaurant of Staten Island, NY serves truly authentic Italian style home cooking every evening. They can make such a bold claim, because anyone who ventures into the kitchen in this small 35-seat restaurant will find an actual Italian Grandma bent over the stove conjuring up classic recipes …
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