Category: Trending

Ingredients for Making the Perfect Pizza

The art of making the perfect pizza.
Stand on a random corner in New York City and open your favorite food-delivery app. You can probably find more than a dozen places to order pizza from. But, it wasn’t always like that. Legend has it that Italian immigrant, Gennaro Lombardi, opened the first pizzeria in the United States in 1905. Back then, pizza in America was a niche product, catering mostly to Italian-American immigrants craving the flavors of the old country. Today, just over a century later, the pizza industry is a massive $45 billion dollar business. It is estimated that Americans consume 350 gooey, saucy, cheesy pizza slices every second.

There’s no doubt that pizza is a lucrative, sought after, and growing industry. If you are a restaurateur looking to add a classic New York-style slice or a Neapolitian personal pie to your menu, it’s not difficult to get started. All you need is dough, sauce, toppings, and an oven optimized for baking crispy pizza to perfection. Here’s how to achieve that ideal symphony of flavors, ingredients, and baking techniques that your customers will love. Continue reading Ingredients for Making the Perfect Pizza

Tropical Island Fruits Can Add a Tangy Twist to Your Menu

Island flavors and tropical fruits are popular, exotic, and tasty.
As the weather gets sunnier and warmer every day and the days get longer, it gets harder and harder to keep up with the 9-5. June, July, August: These months are associated with vacations, beaches, sun, clear blue water, waving palm trees. Maybe not everyone can escape their job for the tropical islands – but, it is possible to get a small “taste” of island life by serving up popular island fruits and cuisine at your catered events, cafes, restaurants or home bashes. These sizzling, exotic, and tropical fruits can get your guests in the mood for a little sun and surf!

Island Cuisine – A Bit of History

There are a number of reasons why island fruits and island cuisine are so healthy and popular. Island inhabitants were often isolated from mainland cultures. This gave them the freedom to develop their own completely unique flavor profiles, recipes, and cooking techniques found nowhere else. For example, Pacific Islanders have long relied on Fe’i bananas, which grow in bright oranges and reds, and are cooked before being eaten. Fe’i bananas had ceremonial significance in some island cultures.
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Millet – An Ancient Grain That is a Nutritious and Delicious Superfood

Millet is a trending gluten-free superfood.

Bread is often referred to as the staff of life. This isn’t an exaggeration. Nearly every culture on every continent has built itself on a specific type of bread. However, not all of these breads are made from the “run of the mill” (pun intended) wheat flour that we are so used to consuming. Grains, also called cereal crops, are harvested grass seeds and fruits. These cereals make up nearly 50% of global food consumption, but there are a wide variety of grains, and each culture and region has its own preferred or traditional grain. The Americas, for example, built their civilizations on the maize and corn that their ancestors domesticated. Injera, a gluten-free spongy flatbread made from the teff grass, is a staple of Ethiopian cuisine. And, of course, many parts of Asia are nearly synonymous with rice.

In the increasingly globalized world, consumers enjoy “going against the grain” by experimenting with new, exciting, and different grains, many of which come with nutritional or agricultural benefits. A few years ago, quinoa (actually a pseudo-grain, since it comes from a flowering plant and not a grass) made its pop-culture debut as an exotic grain substitute that was also high in protein. This year brings another “exotic” superfood grain crop to center stage. The United Nations declared 2023 the year of the millet. The millet is a grain family that is nutritious and gluten-free and may also hold the solution to feeding a growing world. Here’s the scoop on millet, and why you should integrate it into your dishes.

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Seven Trending Condiments and How to Make Them

Seven trending condiments, from hot honey to ranch dressing, will tempt your palate.

For the past fifty years, Heinz’s well-known bottle of ketchup has dominated the condiments market and America’s tables. It’s likely to continue to dominate in the coming decades. But, in addition to enjoying their ketchup, young Americans are seeking other condiment flavors to add a little zing to their plates. Some are brand new sauces, 21st century culinary inventions; others are old condiments that are now gaining popularity in the United States. A modern palate requires a modern condiment and these are the condiments that the modern paletes seem to crave most.

Hot Honey

A quick Google search for hot honey makes this condiment out to be an extremely versatile one. The first search results show recipes for pizza, wings, pineapple toast, baked cheese, cocktails, and even cobbler – all featuring hot honey. But, what is hot honey and why do young diners seem to be putting it on absolutely everything?

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7 Ways to Set up an Eco-Friendly Green Kitchen

: There are a few small changes that home chefs can do to set up an eco-friendly green kitchen.

Did you know that by simply cutting your meat consumption in half, you can save approximately two trees per year? By carrying a reusable spork with you to school or work, you could save nearly 500 single use plastic utensils from the landfill per year. And that’s nothing compared to how much plastic waste you can prevent by using only reusable dishes in your home kitchen.

Those who love to cook (and to eat) have so many reasons to be grateful to Mother Earth. Our vegetables, fruits, grains, and even meat depends on air, water, and dirt. Unfortunately, producing these items has become a major driver of climate change, pollution, and deforestation. The Amazon and other forests are under threat due to land being cleared for agriculture or to pasture animals. Single use plastics, that don’t degrade in landfills, end up in the ocean. And, unfortunately, a lot of edible food ends up rotting away in landfills as well.

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Nostalgic Foods Set to Make a Comeback in 2023

Nostalgic foods, like Dunkaroos and other childhood favorites is a predicted 2023 trend.

In 2018, celebrity and influencer Kim Kardashian tweeted out to her tens of million followers, “Obsessed with Dunkaroos. Please come back!” Apparently her followers agreed, because the tweet garnered 55 thousand likes. The story of the Dunkaroos resurgence over the next few years following that tweet showcases the power of nostalgia and foreshadows 2023’s predicted trends.

Dunkaroos Make a Comeback

If you are a 90’s kid, you probably remember the taste and experience of Dunkaroos. Maybe you even feel the same way as Kim Kardashian about this nostalgic, sweet snack. The original Dunkaroos hit the market in 1988. Michael Bierbach, the associate marketing manager at General Mills explained the product’s popularity as an “excuse to eat frosting straight….” Dunkaroos were sold in a small plastic tub which had kangaroo shaped cookies on one side, and sweet, decadent frosting on the other side. In the 90’s and early 2000’s they flew off the shelves of grocery stores, and elementary school cafeterias were rife with undercover dealings in dunkaroos. They were basically what the cool kids had.

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Rediscovering Indigenous Foods and Their Health Benefits

Indigenous foodWhat do you think the most popular suppers are in America? A survey a few years back revealed the six most popular dinner dishes were:

  • Chicken, rice, and salad
  • Potatoes, cheese, and beans
  • Bread, egg, and bell peppers
  • Fries, beef, and tomatoes
  • Quinoa, turkey, and broccoli
  • Couscous, pork, and spinach

Now, imagine traveling back in time to North America 600 years ago. What were the most common suppers in the year 1422?

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Essential Kitchen Tools For Serious Home Chefs

Essential kitchen tools for commercial kitchensWhat are the common elements found in a dinner party with friends, Thanksgiving dinner, and Sunday brunch with the family?

Bonding and camaraderie feature in all of the above situations, as does food. Long before people coined the phrase breaking bread, food was synonymous with companionship. Turns out that humans are not only social creatures, they are also social eaters.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the next level of the food-friendship paradigm. Families under lockdown found themselves with more time on their hands – plenty of extra time to explore a new hobby. And, many fell in love with cooking with their kids, spouses, partners, friends, or even on their own. In fact, a survey by Premier Foods, showed that 73% of British people enjoyed the opportunity to invest time in home cooking and 91% hope to continue to hone their home cooking skills.
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How French Cuisine Has Permeated More Than Our Palates

French cuisine favorites boost restaurant revenues

From à la carte and à la mode to au gratin, crème brûlée, café au lait, soupe du jour, maître d, bon appétit, cuisine, and more, did you ever notice how many French culinary terms proliferate the American lexicon? Likewise, some of the world’s favorite restaurant dishes include recipes for French crepes, soufflés, baguettes, croissants, petit fours, vinaigrette, quiche, and more.

So why is it that professional chefs ‘sauté’ rather than cook in oil, ‘purée’ rather than blend, and compete so that customers choose their catering services to host the next grand ‘soirée’? Furthermore, given the widespread popularity of French haute cuisine, what secret tricks of the trade can help your restaurant’s chefs and bakers create mouth-watering, traffic-attracting pièces de résistance?

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Winning Ways to Update Your Restaurant’s Fall Menu

 

With summer over and the back-to-school season fading, restaurants fall menus have kicked into high gear. Once again, the autumn presents foodservice providers with a host of fruits, vegetables, and spices that are the hallmark of this pre-Winter period. Whether you are a caterer, restaurateur, run a coffee shop, pizza store, or even a smoothie stand, now is the time to cash in on the bounty and indulge your customers with seasonal favorites and new fall-inspired recipes.

Fall Produce Flourishing

The abundance of fresh produce available at affordable prices is reason enough for chefs to get excited as they conjure up their next Instagram-worthy pièce de résistance to attract consumers and entice the masses to sample their wares.

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