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.