It’s the New Year, and with it comes a new wave of prognostications that seek to give direction to operators and chefs looking for “the next big thing.” What can we look forward to?

Courtesy of Sysco Shape

Industry oracles see the continuation of such mega-trends as healthful dining, local sourcing and the ratcheting up of flavor profiles. In addition, sweet and spicy mashups, the blending of mushrooms with ground meat, increased menu transparency and the rise of Generation Z will help to drive innovation as we progress into the year. Here are 10 trends to watch in 2015.

A Matter of Taste
Middle-of-the-road flavor profiles are out; robust flavors are in. Once noted for their unadventurous palates, Americans now just can’t seem to get enough spicy fare at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our former “fear of flavor,” which once largely dominated domestic eating habits, is being supplanted by a bold, global attitude that embraces multiple culinary experiences—particularly those ethnic foods that pack a punch. Authentic Mexican and Latin concepts are among the most popular influences, together with other ethnic-inspired cuisines like Southeast Asian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. And white-hot ingredients like Sriracha can be found in virtually every professional kitchen today.

Premium Blend
A collaborative effort by The Culinary Institute of America, the University of California at Davis and the Mushroom Council found that both health and flavor concerns can be addressed by the blending of chopped mushrooms together with ground meat. Not only does this mashup yield a food product that is tastier, juicier and more nutritious than traditional ground-meat items like hamburgers, meat balls and meatloaf, but it adds volume as well, proponents say. At the same time, blending helps to reduce the amount of sodium, fat and calories in a menu item. Today, an increasing number of commercial and noncommercial operators are embracing the blending process, with many more expected to join the ranks this year. 

The deadline to submit your entry in the 7th-annual CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award program is April 1.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

The Kendall College School of Culinary Arts and the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education (CAFÉ) are accepting applications for the 2015 CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award.

Sustainability, once dubbed the “wave of the future” for the foodservice industry, is the reality today.

The CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award, which since its inception has been sponsored by Kendall College, is the first national award to recognize high-school and professional culinary-arts and baking/pastry programs for their commitment to practicing ecological sustainability on campus and/or integrating innovative teaching of sustainability in the curriculum.

Kendall has dedicated itself to sustainability in its classrooms and operations since 2005, and even more gratifying than the value we’ve reaped on our own campus has been the privilege of sharing our knowledge with other educators and learning from them. That is the impetus behind the CAFÉ/Kendall College Green Award.

Assigning an interview as an out-of-class activity will help your students practice networking, making connections with industry professionals and interacting in a professional manner.

By Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT

My past two “Mayo’s Clinics” have focused on out-of-classroom activities because they are an important part of a student’s education and one that we often do not have a chance to discuss or think about. In this column, we will discuss the challenges and values of using interviews as an out-of-class learning activity.

Reasons for Using Interviews
There are a number of benefits that derive from using interviews. If you give your students an assignment to interview a specific person or persons in certain positions—chef de cuisine, pastry chef, maître d’hôtel or restaurant manager—they will have to do some research on the person and prepare a list of questions to use in the interview.

If you do not make the arrangements ahead of time with persons who are willing to be interviewed or provide students with access to specific individuals, the assignment gives them experience in reaching out and contacting industry professionals, requesting an appointment and making all the appropriate arrangements for an interview. Learning this range of skills contributes dramatically to students’ professional development at an early point in their careers. Hopefully, it also helps them build some confidence in their networking skills.

Why does measuring weight, volume and temperature require training? Because each measuring instrument is only as good as the person who uses it. To that end, Chef Weiner offers a primer on measuring to share with your students.

By Adam Weiner, CFSE

I have been asked to give a presentation at the June 2015 Leadership Conference in Niagara Falls on the topic of how to teach basic culinary skills in 50 minutes. Before students can braise, sauté, simmer, bake, roast, poach, etc., however, they need to know the basics of knives and they need to know how to measure.

CAFÉ’s “Gold Medal Classroom” published my four-part series, “How to Buy Knives,” in October 2010, November 2010, December 2010and January 2011. This article on measuring is written as an instruction manual for your students. Please feel free to print it out and hand it to them directly.

New cooks need to learn how to measure. Although there will be many times when you will use technique and feel in cooking, you have to understand the basics of measuring and following recipes, as well. The three most common types are measurement of liquids, measurement of solids and measurement of temperature.

Everyone benefits from a well-branded program—from faculty and staff who take pride in their institution to employers who are able to hire well-prepared graduates to donors who line up to be on a winning team.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

Jeff Bezos, CEO of amazon.com, once said: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.”

What is most important about this statement is that brand, when built and executed properly, is bigger than your college’s marketing campaign, more significant than what is printed in your collateral pieces or what appears on your website. Brand is what people believe you to be. Belief involves trust and loyalty, two components of success that carry any business, in this case a college culinary program, to a level of success that is measured in decades of exceeding expectations.

Gavin Pierce, a student at Baker College of Port Huron’s Culinary Institute of Michigan (CIM), was highlighted in the Fall 2014 edition of Life with Teens, a magazine published quarterly by TeenLife Media for parents.

The article highlighted reasons to consider careers in trade professions and featured teens who have chosen to do just that. Pierce, a rising young chef, is a prime example. He is earning an associate degree in culinary arts at the CIM Port Huron and recently won a silver medal at a regional cooking competition.

“Gavin is an outstanding young chef, and displays a great amount of passion for the profession,” said Thomas Recinella, CEC, ACE, AAC, CIM Port Huron program director and COURSES Restaurant executive chef. “He enjoys engaging all five senses and blending his artistic work into the equation. That type of passion is unique, and I know that an impressive future lies ahead for him.”

For the third straight year, the winner of the culinary competition at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Academic Cultural Technology & Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) will be enrolling at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Frehdee Gatewood of Houston, Texas, was the gold-medal winner at a cook-off held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas last summer. By winning the event, Gatewood earned a half-tuition scholarship to the CIA. She enrolls at the Hyde Park, N.Y., campus this month, majoring in culinary arts.

Last year’s gold-medal winner, Darrell Crawford of Chicago, is beginning his CIA studies in January 2015, as well. Karina Yepez, who won in 2012, is currently a sophomore.

Juleps Catering at Sullivan University in Louisville, Ky., is pleased to announce the addition of chefs Laurent Vals and Jacquelyn Thompson-Lee to its culinary team.

Vals joined Juleps in October 2014. Previously, he worked in restaurants in Paris and New York City before opening his own hand-crafted chocolate company in Rhode Island. In 2014, he won the Dessert Cup competition and took fifth place for Chocolatier of the Year at the annual Pastry Live convention. Born in Paris, Vals received his culinary degree from l’Ecole Hoteliere du Moulin a Vent in 1986 and his pastry-chef degree in 1989. In his new position at Juleps, Vals oversees the day-to-day kitchen operations; coaches, mentors and guides catering interns; and develops new menu ideas while managing seasonal menus.

Ground beef and hamburgers are two of America’s most beloved meat products, yet also among the most misunderstood when it comes to how they’re made. With that in mind, American Meat Institute (AMI) has developed a new video as part of its “Glass Walls” series featuring a tour of a processing plant that produces ground beef for several major restaurant chains. The tour is led by Birchwood Foods/Kenosha Beef president and CEO Dennis Vignieri, whose family has been in the beef business for nearly 80 years.

The video highlights the entire process of making ground beef and hamburgers and shows how beef trimmings are analyzed and ground into a specific lean-to-fat ratio that consumers enjoy and finally formed into patties that are packaged and sent to restaurants and grocery stores. More than half of the beef consumed in the United States is ground beef.

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.