In today’s fast-paced food service industry, it’s key to stay ahead by constantly innovating and adapting to emerging trends. So, let’s dive in and discover the exciting ways that we see restaurants and others looking at their operations and satisfying the evolving preferences of their patrons in the coming year!
1. Unique Flavors
It’s always about the next new, trendy flavors. So, what’s up for 2025? For the Midwest, we’re hearing more and more talk about two things for sure lately: Flavor Fusion and Fermenting & Pickling. For Flavor Fusion, remember those Global Flavors we talked about in 2024? Let’s take them to the next level this year by combining ingredients and recipes from different regions! For Fermenting & Pickling, some examples of fermented foods you might add include kimchi, sauerkraut and miso…and just add “pickled” to an ingredient and you’ll have patrons talking (we’re talking pickled onions, pickled peppers and pickled jalapeños just to name a few)!
2. Creative Drinks
From upscale coffee drinks to smoothies and bubble teas to unique cocktails and mocktails and local brews, drinks keep getting more and more creative! Plus, it seems that more and more customers and willing to pay more and more for them! So, if you haven’t experimented with adding at least a couple specialty drinks to your menu, now might be just the right time!
3. Upcycled Ingredients
We’re seeing more posts on social media lately about ways to use “imperfect produce” and the leftovers we have after we’ve made our dishes. We can still find value out of products we don’t consider good enough for our featured menu items and make a profit from them instead of just tossing them out! For example, we can make croutons or bread pudding out of day-old bread, salsa from our bruised tomatoes and soup stock from our onion skins and celery ends and pieces. Stay tuned for more ideas as we dive into this topic this year!
4. Robotics & Automation
The National Restaurant Association reports that 70% of restaurant operators plan to invest in automation technology within the next five years. This surge in popularity is driven by several factors, including labor shortages, need for improved efficiency and ways to reduce costs in the long run. Whether it’s automating your ordering or adding a serving and busing robot to your lineup or something else altogether, we’ll help you find something you can do this year to jump on this trend!
5. Employee Hiring & Retention
Employee retention has always been a challenge in food service, but it has definitely gotten worse since COVID with no signs of getting much better than it is right now. So, how do you hire the right employees and keep them? This year, we’ll look at the food service hiring process and how to keep employees happy working in food service.
Looking for more trend info? Here are some great links!
