Physical structure and location are no longer as important as the ability to promote a good food product through both traditional and innovative means. Beyond pop-up restaurants, touch-screen ordering and food trucks, what’s next on the horizon?

By Douglas D. Stuchel, MAT, CHE

The restaurant business has traditionally relied on word-of-mouth advertising as a method of marketing and driving repeat business. Usually, this exchange has resulted directly from conversations between friends/acquaintances who have recently dined at a particular facility.

We are, however, rapidly becoming a society that uses such mobile applications as Urbanspoon, Foodspotting and OpenTable to guide us to restaurants based on the opinions and recommendations of people we do not know and, most likely, will never meet.

It used to be said that if you had a bad meal at a restaurant you would tell approximately 10 friends about the experience. Today, a bad online review can reach hundreds of potential customers in real time, influencing their dining decision and immediately impacting a restaurant’s bottom line.

Here are five trends and 10 accompanying flavor combinations (farro, blackberry and clove, anyone?) predicted to catalyze menu innovation this year.

Hunt Valley, Md.-based McCormick & Company recently revealed its McCormick® Flavor Forecast® 2013, now in its 13th year. The report is an annual spotlight on the emerging trends that will drive flavor innovation over the next several years.

Compiling insights from a team of McCormick chefs, sensory scientists, dietitians, trend trackers, marketing experts and food technologists in more than 100 countries over the course of a year, Flavor Forecast highlights distinctive food trends and flavors that have a common thread throughout the world.

For 2013, five trends and 10 accompanying flavor combinations are predicted to be the catalyst for menu innovations that are global and personal:

 Food-waste consciousness, “mini meals” and veganism top the list of consumer health trends that will dominate this year.

The growth of food waste consciousness, mini meals, gluten-free products and mainstream veganism top the health trends expected to make headlines in 2013, according to a second-annual forecast by a leading national research group studying health-related attitudes and behavior in America.

The Values Institute at DGWB,a social-science research entity based in Santa Ana, Calif., used observational studies to identify the top health and wellness trends that Americans are most likely to embrace in 2013. A collaboration with DGWB’s BalancedHealthy practice, serving clients in the health and wellness space, the annual list is an extension of the Institute’s work in values-based marketing and social entrepreneurialism and long-term partnership with the international research firm Iconoculture of Minneapolis.

The top five consumer health trends for 2013 will be:

This year, mixers will matter and whiskeys will wow. Also, hard ciders go up a notch, and expect the Americanized version of the German Biergarten to blossom.

Chicago-based trend-tracker Technomic tapped its analysts, consultants and experts to highlight the trends shaping the drinks business in 2013. Based on ongoing research into spirits, wine and beer volume and sales, as well as surveys, interviews and discussions involving brand marketers, on-premise and retail operators, bartenders and consumers, these insights are supported by Technomic’s extensive adult-beverage database including its Trends in Adult Beverage reports and other tools, such as MenuMonitor and the consumer-tracking Project CO-PILOT.

The major developments influencing adult-beverage choices in 2013 include:

According to Mintel research, turkey products report stronger growth than chicken, partly due to increasing interest in heritage breeds.

When it comes to poultry sales, chicken rules the roost, but according to new research from Mintel on the U.S. poultry market, sales of turkey, duck and other specialty birds grew a considerable 6.5% in just one year, reaching $7.1 billion (2011-12).

Growing from $6 billion in 2008, other poultry products, largely consisting of turkey, grew the most in this category. Moreover, more than eight in 10 (84%) Americans say they eat turkey; chicken is eaten by 94% and other poultry, such as duck, goose and hen, are consumed by 23% of the population.

Today, poultry in the United States is valued at $30 billion (2012), with chicken parts accounting for 58% of the total poultry market. Worth $17.3 billion in 2011, sales of chicken parts grew 4.5% year on year. Meanwhile, whole chickens weren’t chicken scratch, with sales of $5.5 billion in 2012, an increase of 0.6% over 2011.

Ris Lacoste, owner of RIS in Washington, D.C., got her big break while typing recipes at La Varenne Écôle de Cuisine in France. Today a chef celeb and successful restaurateur, she has a particular message for women in culinary: You can handle the job. Lacoste should know.

By Lynn Schwartz

Ris Lacoste has been a culinary shining star in Washington, D.C., for more than two decades. She arrived in the nation’s capital from New England in 1987 to help Chef Bob Kinkead open Twenty-One Federal and then Kinkead’s American Brasserie. Washingtonian magazine named them Restaurateurs of the Year in 1992. Lacoste then spent 10 years as executive chef of Georgetown’s 1789 Restaurant, where her innovative, regional fare earned numerous awards and national recognition.

Lacoste is also a writer and created “Cooking for Julia,” a PBS documentary celebrating Julia Child’s 90^th birthday. When Lacoste faced a big birthday of her own, 50, she knew it was now or never to open a restaurant, and RIS, situated in the heart of D.C.’s West End, was born. “I suppose opening a restaurant is really a young man’s job,” Lacoste says, “but I also know that RIS is successful because I’ve come with years of experience. I know what I want. I know how to get things done.”

Like it or not, for a growing number of our students, Facebook is the preferred means of communicating—with everyone. To help them use their Facebook sites effectively, we need to remind them of at least three important guidelines: audience, permanence and development.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

In December, we talked about e-mail and the e-mail pledge that represents a focus on communicating clearly and with respect using e-mail. This month, we will talk about Facebook.

Facebook as E-mail
A number of students and others use Facebook as a means of communication to others. Instead of just friending people, building a profile, posting pictures and jointly playing games and other activities, Facebook has become, for them, the preferred way of sending messages, following up on conversations and chatting. In fact, a number of my colleagues reported getting thank-you notes during this holiday season through Facebook and not via regular e-mail.

Chef Weiner argues there’s only one right answer.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

Paper or plastic? Shaken or stirred? Regular or decaf? Red or white? Recipes or technique? These are some of the great questions that plague culinary instructors on a daily basis. To start the New Year, I am going to open the debate (please post a comment on this website so we can really get the debate going) on whether we should focus our students on learning how to follow recipes or how to use their technical skills to create or duplicate dishes.

Recipes or technique is a question that drives culinary instructors crazy. When I focus on teaching recipes, a number of my friends (many of whom volunteer to teach the class and others who hire my students) tell me that I am doing a disservice, because when they go out into the real world there won’t be recipes. These chefs contend that when the students go out into restaurants they will be shown a dish once and then be expected to duplicate it.

Share your best ideas for innovation in teaching sustainability by April 1, 2013.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

The Kendall College School of Culinary Arts and CAFÉ are proud to announce that entries are being accepted for the 2013 CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award. The first national award dedicated to building the body of teaching knowledge for all sustainability educators, it recognizes innovative teaching and projects that could have applications for other culinary programs across the country.

All secondary and postsecondary culinary-arts and baking/pastry programs are eligible to enter. Entries will be judged based on the level of innovation; perceived impact on students’ understanding of sustainability practices and their importance; and the ease with which elements of the winning program can be implemented by other culinary programs nationwide.

Volume VII in the World Culinary Arts Series at ciaprochef.com, focusing on the cuisines of Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago.

Take your students on a virtual tour of the islands of the Caribbean, where leading chefs and food authorities explain and demonstrate their culinary techniques in step-by-step detail. The Culinary Institute of America, in association with Unilever Food Solutions, presents “Savoring the Best of World Flavors: The Caribbean,” the seventh edition of the World Culinary Arts Series. A first-of-its-kind video reference library documenting the “gold standards” of world cuisines, these HD video podcasts are packed with cooking demonstrations, in-depth interviews and recipes.