Of all the trends reporters and firms who generate copy near the end of each year, Baum+Whiteman is oft overlooked. Yet where U.S. F&B trends are concerned, arguably the company’s principals have their collective thumb on the proper pulse of the nation most firmly. So when they say tech is king in 2015, you can take that to the bank.

Courtesy of Baum+Whiteman

Forget cronuts and Negronis. Forget quinoa and kale. Short of putting food into our mouths, technology is upending the way dining out works. Electronic wizardry once hummed quietly in the background ... but now we’re immersed in “front-facing technology” or “guest-facing technology”: all sorts of devices and programs that interface directly with the consumer. More restaurant companies experiment with tablets ... letting guests order food and drink from their tables; play games while they’re waiting; then pay with smartphones ... meeting a waiter when an order is delivered, or when it’s time for a refill from the bar, or for upselling desserts. Tables turn faster by eliminating downtime during which little happens and customers start fidgeting.

Consumers increasingly want to know what’s in their food, says Technomic. Can restaurants produce dishes that are both wholesome and delicious? A majority of diners apparently thinks so.

Today’s healthy food tells a story, and consumers want to hear it. Recent research by Chicago-based Technomic shows that most consumers want restaurants to be more transparent about menu-item ingredients. Further, two in five consumers cite a rising concern over food additives.

Because of this growing concern, health claims that convey wholesome, pure ingredients resonate strongly. For example, consumers say fresh, natural or unprocessed attributes help improve perceived taste and health. Similarly, ingredients that naturally boost the nutrition content of an item, such as fruits and vegetables, also enhance taste and health perceptions.

“Menu transparency is imperative and can help drive sales of healthy options,” says Sara Monnette, senior director of Consumer Insights & Innovation at Technomic Inc. “Telling an ingredient’s story—whether it’s farm-raised, local or GMO-free, for instance—can directly impact consumer decisions about what to order and where to dine.”

From molecular gastronomy to the growing demand for smaller-footprint, multipurpose devices, today’s foodservice students must be exposed to and proficient at utilizing modern cooking equipment while developing critical thinking skills to anticipate the advanced technologies of tomorrow.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

In education, we have a simple, but ultimately complicated, mandate: to prepare our students for the future they will inherit. In many foodservice operations, such thinking is trumped by the operational needs of running a foodservice business and the need to balance short-term profits and long-term fiscal health.

For us in the educational world of culinary arts, our focus is five to 10 years from now. Given the speed at which the foodservice industry changes, educators embrace an awesome responsibility. Our students trust that the education we offer will, indeed, point them toward success in the future. Thus, we look for the megatrends that will shape the future of foodservice without getting distracted by short-term trends or fads—which might get some mention in a quality culinary program, but will not earn star status by being incorporated into the curriculum.

When it comes to equipment, there are two distinct educational outcomes. The first is to simply familiarize students with equipment common to many professional kitchens. This actually goes beyond familiarization, as students need to know how to cook on this equipment and perform basic maintenance.

Cricket flour, cannabis, snack bars and sustainable packaging make the list.

Consumers will seek more from their food in 2015, whether stronger flavors, alternative sweeteners or snacks made with everything from plant-based meat to even marijuana. That’s according to predictions from the editors of Specialty Food News, the daily newsletter from the Specialty Food Association.

The $88.3 billion specialty-food industry is driven by innovation and small-batch production. Six out of 10 U.S. consumers purchase specialty food, and those numbers are expected to rise in 2015, according to association research.

“Food producers are tapping into the growing sophistication and buying power of today’s consumers,” says Denise Purcell, editor of Specialty Food News. “They are catering to new demands for better ingredients, sustainable packaging and more convenient ways to shop and eat.”

The Culinary Institute of America and Restaurant Associates announce a new partnership designed to accelerate innovation in contract-foodservice operations of the future.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and Restaurant Associates (RA) recently formed a strategic partnership geared toward fostering future creativity, innovation and “intrapreneurial” thinking in the contract-foodservice sector of the foodservice industry. In support of the CIA’s capital campaign, RA and Compass Group have also made a substantial commitment to provide financial assistance to students in pursuit of their professional degrees.

Along with increasing student scholarships, the nexus of the partnership will be the CIA’s new Student Commons, which is now under construction and scheduled to open in the summer of 2015. Located at the college’s flagship Hyde Park, N.Y., campus and designed under the direction of world-renowned Adam Tihany, the new facility will take the concept of student dining to a new level. The state-of-the-art facility will feature several cooking and dining venues, a high-volume production teaching kitchen, a fresh market complete with green walls growing herbs and vegetables, a teaching micro-brewery in partnership with Brooklyn Brewery, and a “black box restaurant” in which bachelor’s students studying intrapraneurshipwill develop and market-test new restaurant concepts.

The 2014 Economic Impact Report recently released by the Club Managers Association of America reveals that country, golf, athletic, city and other clubs spend billions on goods and services in their local communities. Additionally, they hire hundreds of thousands of personnel.

The Alexandria, Va.-based Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) recently released its 2014 Economic Impact Report in conjunction with Club Benchmarking. This biannual report details the economic impact of the more than 2,600 clubs managed by members of the CMAA.

The total direct economic impact for the club industry in 2013 was $21 billion, including all tax revenues generated as a result of club activities. Clubs are significant contributors to their local communities, with dense, highly local economic activity. The vast majority of cash flows resulting from purchases, employment, taxes, charitable giving and other economic activities are centered in the community in which the club operates.

Members of the American Culinary Federation are well aware of the quality and relevance of the organization’s official magazine, The National Culinary Review. The publication’s current success with readers and impact on the industry is due to its editor-in-chief for more than a decade, who recently received the highest recognition possible from her peers.

Courtesy of the International Foodservice Editorial Council

No one in the audience at The Betty award lunch on Nov. 4, 2014, during the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) annual conference in Dallas seemed surprised when the much-anticipated announcement came—except the awardee herself. (See photo.)

Kay Orde, editor-in-chief of the American Culinary Federation’s The National Culinary Review, was so focused on getting her camera ready to shoot the winner that it took her a moment to realize it was her name that was called.

A member of IFEC since 2003, Orde has served the organization in many capacities, including secretary of the board of directors, Chef Showcase co-chair (two years in a row) and member of the Professional Development Awards and Mentoring/New Member Orientation committees.

The Betty Bastion Outstanding Service Award, a.k.a. The Betty, is presented annually to celebrate one IFEC member who has provided extraordinary service to IFEC and the foodservice communications field and stands out as a knowledgeable and generous professional. Named for Betty Bastion Varese, who retired as IFEC’s first executive director in 1991, the award was inaugurated that year.

In nominating Orde for the 2014 award, Katie Ayoub, managing editor of Flavor & The Menu magazine and one of several IFEC members proposing Orde, said, “I have worked with her as both a writer, pitching article ideas, and as a publicist, pitching magazine placement. She has always been receptive, attentive and professional in those exchanges. Kay gives her heart and mind to IFEC, and I can think of no one more deserving of The Betty.”

IFEC member Mary Petersen, founder and president of CAFÉ, also nominated Orde. “I always appreciate Kay’s prompt and supportive feedback, as well as her keen editing skills,” Petersen wrote. “Kay is a kind professional with a willingness to help others in the IFEC community.”

Before becoming editor-in-chief of The National Culinary Review, Orde worked incommunications for the ACF in St. Augustine, Fla., producing the membership newsletter Center of the Plate. Her background includes: staff writer, The Chapel Hill News, Chapel Hill, N.C.; technical writer, Research and Evaluation Associates, Chapel Hill; staff writer/editor, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, N.C.; freelance writer, Durham Morning Herald, Durham, N.C.; and several area magazines. Prior to joining the ACF, she taught English at Flagler College in St. Augustine.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and honors in creative writing, Orde earned a master’s degree in English and environmental studies at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. She lives in St. Augustine with her husband, celebrated novelist Lewis Orde. The couple has two married daughters and three grandchildren.

According to IFEC, the 2014 presentation was especially exciting, opening with a video celebrating past recipients (24 in all) leading up to 2013 Betty honoree John Scroggins of Noble Communications +, Springfield, Mo., announcing Orde. The original Betty (Bastion Varese) and 15 previous Betty winners were on hand to help congratulate Orde.

Is there ever enough time in class to do everything you wish? You’re already employing one out-of-classroom model to extend instruction, but, says Dr. Mayo, three that you might not have considered can help you become even more effective at teaching. Though not necessarily easy at first, these models’ merits make them worth a try.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

This past fall, we reviewed a number of issues and strategies for assessment. This spring, we will focus on learning activities for students, starting with a discussion of the value of developing and using out-of-class activities. My next “Mayo’s Clinic” will focus on using interviews as a learning activity. This month the column will explore several models of out-of-class activities.

Reasons for Out-of-Classroom Activities
There are many reasons to use out-of-class activities. Because there is never enough classroom time to do all that we want to do, out-of-class activities keep the learning going during the days between class meetings, offer an opportunity to maximize the benefits of in-class time, and provide a chance for students to become independent learners doing their own thing, within certain boundaries.

For years, we have been assigning out-of-class activities—the primary one being reading material in the textbook and coming to class prepared to discuss or use the information—but we don’t often think of them as such. In our experience, that was homework! We also assign the task of researching recipes or developing a mise en place list for the laboratory session, among many other assignments.

Having culinary students keep professional journals is beneficial to their learning—and eventual employment. But if that task is too daunting to your younger students, Chef Weiner proposes a simple, less-intimidating way for them to track their progress in class.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

For years I got feedback from chefs, kitchen managers and human-resources people that my students often stumbled in interviews when asked the obvious (and apparently simple) question: “So, what have you made in class?” I was told that the student being interviewed magically morphed into a deer in the headlights. For years I struggled with how to prevent this from happening.

In June 2014 my friend and colleague, Dr. Fred Mayo, wrote in his column in CAFÉ’s “Gold Medal Classroom” about the importance of students maintaining professional journals during and after their culinary educations. I concur. Unfortunately, for many vocational-level students, and for high-school students, the idea of doing this is intimidating. They need a bit more structure and guidance in order to accomplish this task.

I came up with a simple chart. (See a sample chart that follows and the downloadable MS Word attachment below.) Every day the student has to spend her or his last minute in class filling in the form. Of course, you can have your students do it less frequently if that works better for them and you. I tell the students to bring these forms to interviews. They can, if necessary, show them to the interviewer.

What can we learn from Detroit automakers, BlackBerry and Blockbuster? Technology and other factors are gradually changing how we cook, what we cook, how it is served and to which audience it appeals. Culinary programs need to begin planning today to meet the future needs and demands of an evolving marketplace.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

It might seem odd to be thinking about an educational model 10 years from now, yet most successful businesses build strategies based on what they know and what they don’t know about the future. As deans and directors, are you asking the right questions? Are you spending enough time thinking about tomorrow while still dealing with the challenges of today?

Who should be involved in these discussions? Thoughts about tomorrow should (must) include all stakeholders in the educational process, and even those businesses and individuals who may offer insight through totally different disciplines. The stakeholders would certainly include faculty, employers, students and leaders from other institutions of higher learning, but should not be limited to this cadre of people who are directly impacted by your planning.