Women Chefs & Restaurateurs’ 2011 Educator of the Year acknowledges that any chef can serve virtually anything any time of year. But what have we sacrificed? Today’s culinary student is caught in the middle.

By JoAnne E. Cloughly

Some people say the Farm to Table movement is past tense. On the contrary, it is running full swing. When you think about what Farm to Table means, logic tells us that it means bringing fresh food from the farm to the dining table. It means supporting our local producers—the small family farm, the beekeeper, the rancher, the vineyards and much more. The results are keeping these businesses “in business” and, in exchange, being the recipient of the freshest products possible.

Mintel predicts five foodservice trends that will shape restaurant menus in 2012.

Competition in the foodservice industry is always fierce, and restaurant chains are constantly jockeying for business, money and attention in an overcrowded marketplace. In 2012, however, five trends outlined by Mintel Menu Insights will shape how operators appeal to their customers with regional and imported menu options, double-sided menus, customization and time-intensive preparation methods.

Eric Giandelone, foodservice director at Mintel, notes the following: “Our trends are designed to give both restaurant operators and food suppliers a thorough understanding of what’s coming in the foodservice industry. Our trends are based on original consumer research, developments among restaurants and trends observed in other industries. Our goal with these trend predictions isn’t merely to identify what’s going to happen, but to deliver a roadmap on how to take advantage of these trends.”

Despite little change over 20 years in the healthfulness of the foods we consume, more Americans rank their diets worse. Are we more receptive today to dietary guidance?

The obesity trend is significantly influenced by socioeconomic factors, such as income level and race/ethnicity that create complex questions for the food industry. There remains a clear relationship between household financial resources and diet perception: People who rate their diets as “excellent” tend to come from households with greater financial resources than those who rate their diets as “poor.”

Technomic finds ample growth opportunities for restaurants serving the first daypart.

While breakfast sales have grown steadily for restaurants, retailers and suppliers over the past few years, consumer data shows that the market is not yet saturated and there are still plenty of opportunities within this category. Technomic estimates the breakfast segment accounts for 12% of the total restaurant industry, generating around $42 billion in annual sales.

Breakfast patronage is up at foodservice locations, particularly fast-food restaurants, where 46% of 1,500 consumers surveyed now occasionally purchase weekday breakfasts compared to just 33% in 2009.

Cindy Hutson helped start the Caribbean wave that began its sweep of the nation nearly 20 years ago. But then as now, she was about so much more. Today, she’s proving it.

By Brent T. Frei

Cindy Hutson, who was born in New Jersey, thinks she might have been Jamaican in a past life.

She says that tongue in cheek. (Her ex-husband is Jamaican.) But for someone not from the islands, Hutson stumbled upon stardom virtually overnight as one of a small cadre of chefs in South Florida in the 1990s who showcased the region’s bounty on menus. In Hutson’s case, her approach had a decidedly Jamaican bent.

“All I did was really common, local food that you would find in Jamaica,” Hutson says. “But I did it a little differently. I didn’t Americanize it—I fine-tuned it on the plate so that it would work in a fine-dining restaurant.”

The best advantage of field trips is the range of learning that students acquire. Here are tips for maximizing their benefits.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

Last month, we discussed Evaluating Student Papers in Case Studies, the third in a series of Mayo’s Clinics on Case Studies (#23, Using Case Studies in Teaching; #24, Types of Case Studies and #25, Evaluating Student Papers in Case Studies). This month, we will discuss types of field trips, involving guest speakers in field trips, building on #19, Using Field Trips and Site Visits Effectively. One way to think about types of field trips is to consider four options—group field trips, individual field trips, planned field trips and serendipitous field trips.

Your students will want to reach for the tongs, spatula or spoon. Don’t let them. These six steps in class will effectively remove students’ fear—and enhance their thrill—of sautéing.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

For the last several articles I have addressed teaching business skills of our industry and teaching techniques. Now it is time to return to the teaching of specific cooking subjects. A cooking technique that both thrills and terrifies students is sautéing. To alleviate the fear, minimize the mess and cut back on food costs try the following six steps:

1. Teach What Is Sautéing. Sautéing basically means “to jump” in French. Tell your students that the different ingredients are cut into uniform size, and are added to the pan in the order of what takes the longest to cook going in first. The food is jumped, not stirred. In other words, the cook keeps flipping the food over in the pan so all sides of the food cook uniformly. Usually sautéing is done with a small amount of fat (generally oil or butter) in the pan.

An overview of soy oil and its role in foodservice applications.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC. Courtesy of QUALISOY

Soy has a long and important history as one of the world’s most important crops. Every year, 44.07 million metric tons of soybeans are produced globally. In the United States, in 2009, we grew an estimated 3,359 million bushels of soybeans, and from these soybeans we produced 19 billion pounds of soybean oil. Of all the different edible oils produced in the United States, about 80% is made from soybeans.

How much more are consumers willing to pay for sustainable cuisine?

Consumers want and need to eat out, and the foodservice industry has a huge carbon footprint. Getting industry operators and consumers on the “green” bandwagon is necessary to minimize the impact that restaurants have on the environment in the future. But how willing are patrons to embrace this change?

According to a recent Mintel report, just more than half (57%) of respondents are willing to pay more for local and sustainable fare; however, the majority of those are only willing to pay a mere 1% to 5% more.

“Green and sustainable attributes pale in comparison to the leading restaurant decision drivers of menu selection, prices and convenient location,” says Eric Giandelone, foodservice director at Mintel. “However, these initiatives support the leading attributes to help a restaurant stand apart and will become more important as the green movement continues to progress.”

The Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education (CAFÉ) is pleased to award its Endorsement Program seal to the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) Foodservice Toolkit, a comprehensive teaching resource.

With the Idaho Potato Commission Foodservice Toolkit, foodservice educators and their students can explore how Idaho® potatoes win culinary accolades for performance and consistency and why leading chefs across the country insist on the “Grown in Idaho®” brand. Contents include Idaho potato history and propagation; scientific distinctions and specification/purchasing basics; potato-cooking chemistry and problem solving; preparation how-to and typical cooking yields; “Potato 101” knife and cutting skills; and a cost-per-serving calculator.