Culinary and marketing update 3 2016

CULINARY AND
MARKETING UPDATE MARCH 2016

CULINARY ROOT TO STEM MOVEMENT

Completed: Vegetables will still be center stage in restaurant dishes in 2016, often
● Applebee’s Culinary Summit taking center of the plate roles and pushing protein over to the side.
● Shoney’s Ideation Consumers’ preferences are changing. They are seeking more
antioxidants and fewer hormones, concern over rising beef prices, an
Upcoming: increasing supply of local produce and a growing number of people who
● Dave & Busters – 4/13 want meatless meals, even if they are not vegetarians, are pushing them
Dave & Busters White Paper towards vegetables.
Concepts
● A&W Restaurants – 4/20 Meatless Monday is not a new idea. During WWI, the US Food
Administration urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to aid
● TGIF (Early May) the war effort. “Food Will Win the War,” the government proclaimed
TGIFridays White Paper Concepts and “Meatless Monday” and “Wheatless Wednesday” were introduced to
● Red Lobster – 4/25 encourage Americans to do their part. Meatless Monday was revived in
Red Lobster Corn Ideation 2003 by former ad man turned health advocate Sid Lerner, in association
● Buffalo Wild Wings – 4/29 with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a
Livable Future. Since 2003, Meatless Monday has grown into a global
Dirt Candy-New York movement powered by a network of participating individuals, worksites
Brussels Sprout Tacos and especially restaurants around the world.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS ON A
SIZZLING STONE WITH Forces are driving vegetables to the center of the plate; in addition to
LETTUCE WRAPPERS AND vegetables’ seasonal nature, variations among the species make them
ACCOMPANIMENTS exciting for chefs and patrons alike. Vegetable-forward eating is shedding
its earthy-crunchy rap and associations with odd meat substitutes. Hearty
cauliflower or portobello steaks aren’t trying to be something they’re not.
They’re out and proud. For example, Chef Amanda Cohen at Dirt Candy
features Brussels sprout tacos served on a sizzling stone with a variety of
accompaniments. Chef Cohen embraces the new “root to stem”
movement, similar to the zero-waste, nose to tall or rooter to tooter
movements. Today produce prevails. One of my favorite simple recipes
featuring full vegetable utilization is a carrot dish featuring roasted
carrots, a pesto style sauce made from the tops, smoked Greek yogurt,
sultanas and Dukkah.

Elizabeth’s Gone Raw| Washington, DC
Cauliflower brochette |sun-dried tomato, marjoram, black olive tapenade

Vedge| Philadelphia, PA
Stuffed Avocado |pickled cauliflower, Romesco, “fried rice”, black salt

Natural Selection| Portland, OR
Quinoa with cauliflower & sultanas carrots, orange, olives, pepitas, yogurt
foam

THE GENERATION GAME

We have all reached saturation-point when hearing about what Millennials want and what motivates them, but let’s
not forget the other demographic groups. Gen Z is only aged 14-17, yet starting to make plenty of decisions that
affect our business and there are 74 million of them making up 23% of the population – we better make sure we
know what they want. This generation regards health with a holistic approach and they want to both look good and
feel good. They are already over-scheduled and feeling the associated stress – as a result they want control over the
areas they can affect, eating being one of them. They want fresh, healthy, clean foods with transparency throughout
the supply chain and they want to be able to customize those foods. They want offers that are personalized to them
and they grew up watching the Food Channel, so they know a lot about food.

Meanwhile in another age bracket, the Baby Boomers, that oft-forgotten but very important group, are even bigger
snackers than their younger counterparts. NPD says that Boomers are snacking 20% more than Millennials and while
the Boomers are a smaller group than Millennials, they have spending-power and the sheer amount of their snacking
makes them important. Total eating occasions of ready-to-eat snacks by Boomers is 90.4 billion against 83.1 billion
for Millennials. The motivations are different – Millennials grab a snack when they are hungry and in a hurry;
Boomers don’t want to prepare a big meal, possibly due to weight concerns, and they eat alone more often, which
often involves a snack. Interestingly the top three snacks are the same for Boomers and Millennials – fruit, candy
and potato chips. Further down the list the two groups diverge with Boomers opting for healthier options of nuts
and yoghurt and Millennials going for tortilla chips and cookies.

So let’s not forget the other age-groups in our rush to satisfy those in their twenties and thirties. For reference here
are the age-groups as defined by Technomic.

Generation Z (born 1993 or later) Age
Millennials (born 1977–1992) <23
Generation X (born 1966–1976) 24-39
Baby Boomers (born 1946–1965) 40-50
Matures (born 1945 or earlier) 51-70
>71

Account Tier Manager PresentaƟon
Red Robin 1 Lorin Forester 10/6
Whataburger 1 Danny Dehondt 10/9
Captain D’s 2 Deb Bednar 10/30
Wendy’s 2 Deb Bednar 11/14
Taco Bell breakfast 1 Lorin Forester 12/10
IHOP 1 Randy Ruff Rescheduling
TGI Fridays 3 Randy Ruff TBD
Red Lobster corn ideaƟon 1 Ryan Phillips Dec 2015
Burger King 1 Ray Spedding 1/26
Applebee’s Chef Summit 1 Randy Ruff 2/9
Dave and Busters 2 Randy Ruff 4/13
A&W 3 Ryan Phillips 4/20
Red Lobster 1 Ryan Phillips 4/25
Buffalo Wild Wings 2 Deb Bednar 4/29
TGI Fridays 3 Randy Ruff Early May
Shoney’s Culinary IdeaƟon 2 Ryan Phillips
Villa Pizza Sidewinder Concepts 3 Deb Bednar
Texas Dairy Queen Sidewinder Concepts 3 Deb Bednar
Pizza Hut 1 Ryan Phillips
Hooters 3 Ray Spedding