What do you think the most popular suppers are in America? A survey a few years back revealed the six most popular dinner dishes were:
Now, imagine traveling back in time to North America 600 years ago. What were the most common suppers in the year 1422?
Continue reading Rediscovering Indigenous Foods and Their Health Benefits
In Roman times, people used the nickname “white gold” to refer to salt. The commodity could not only make food more palatable, but it also kept meat fresh in the days long before refrigeration. In fact, salt was so valuable that some Roman soldiers received “white gold” in lieu of money. Linguists think the word “salary” comes from the Roman word for salt.
Salt continues to be influential in our modern world, with chefs, home cooks, and food manufacturers using more and more of it, for the same reasons that our ancestors did. It makes food taste good, and it keeps it fresh for longer. The average can of soup contains up to 1,800 milligrams of sodium. For reference, the FDA recommends that adults eat no more than 2,300 milligrams in total in a day!
Continue reading How to Prepare Low-Sodium Food Without Skimping on Taste
What 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.
Continue reading Essential Kitchen Tools For Serious Home Chefs
Part II: Slow Cooker Soups and Desserts
If you work in foodservice and are looking for decadent recipes for one-pot slow cooker dishes such as casseroles, stews, soups, and even desserts, you have come to the right place! Guaranteed to please your customers’ palates, you can create a winning restaurant menu with easy-to-make recipes where all the ingredients are simply combined in a single pot, pan, skillet, or slow cooker. Not only do these all-in-one dishes and desserts require few utensils and cleanup, but they take minimal time to prepare, include ingredients that are on hand and easy to substitute, are often large enough to feed large groups, and can be kept for use as leftovers or stored in the freezer.
For one-pot cooking tips and tricks using a slow cooker, and to learn how your chefs can maximize the wonders of a slow cooker or crock-pot, be sure to read Part I: Slow Cookers and Crock Pots.
Continue reading One-Pot Cooking: Exotic Dishes and Desserts Ring in the New Year
If you’re looking for a business forecast for the 2022 restaurant industry, the recipe to success may lie in one-pot cooking. As restaurateurs and caterers struggle to get back on their feet in the aftermath of COVID-19, many are turning to the food and beverages that became best-sellers during the corona crisis and which have remained popular among consumers ever since.
Front-and-center on restaurant menus for the New Year, expect to see wholesome one-pot dishes where all the ingredients cook together in a single pot, skillet, or cooker. These one-dish meals tend to contain all the elements of a healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner – and then some. Combine your choice of protein, starch, vegetables, sauces, syrups, salt and pepper, then add herbs and spices, for a dish that takes the taste buds over the top. While these recipes were once geared primarily for family dining, single-serving one-pot creations for individual diners are now also rising in the rankings.
Continue reading One-Pot Cooking and Meals Reign in Restaurants in 2022
Attention lemon lovers around the world: If lemon is your favorite flavor, you have come to the right place! Similarly, if you are a seasoned chef, professional baker, budding culinary student, or restaurant owner, this Comprehensive Guide to Cooking and Baking with Lemons is the perfect recipe for success to keep your customers coming back for more.
So pucker up and prepare to learn all about lemons, one of Mother Nature’s most underestimated flavorful ingredients…
Lemons are best known for their slightly sour or tart taste. Typically used to enhance the flavor of other foods (rather than be consumed alone), their pungent quality becomes citrusy, light, and refreshing when added to sweet and savory recipes alike. During the cooking or baking process, all parts of a lemon can be used: the juice, the pulp, and the peel/rind. Note: In recipes, grated lemon rind is often referred to as ‘lemon zest’. Continue reading Shining the Limelight on Lemons
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?
Continue reading How French Cuisine Has Permeated More Than Our Palates
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.
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.
Continue reading Winning Ways to Update Your Restaurant’s Fall Menu
Summer soup season is here, and the cold soup selections are (ironically) selling like hot cakes. Leading the pack, however, is gazpacho, the quintessential tomato-based chilled soup, appearing on restaurant menus everywhere. Featuring the aromas, flavors, and colors of the season’s top produce, fresh, cold gazpacho is a customer favorite.
With its origins in Spain, there is a famous Spanish saying: “De gazpacho no hay empacho” — there’s never too much gazpacho. If you work in foodservice and want to boost business this summer, it’s time to learn more about what has kept this dish so popular and what’s new in gazpacho recipes today.
Continue reading Gazpacho Takes the Lead on Summer Soup Menus
It was only a few years ago that the beverage industry witnessed the unprecedented rise of oat milk. Since then, there has been a proliferation of non-dairy milk alternatives. While cow milk is by no means obsolete, today’s expanded offerings include picks such as soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, rice milk, coconut milk, buckwheat milk, macadamia milk, and many more.
Once available solely in stores selling all-natural products and relegated to the realm of health food enthusiasts, today’s dairy-free options are sold at local grocery stores across the globe and are being consumed by many. Also in the spotlight are other dairy substitutes, including plant-based yogurts, butters, cheeses, creamers, and ice creams.
Continue reading Get the Latest on Milk Alternatives for Restaurants in 2021