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consumers are now comfortable with the idea that great food can come from a wide variety of venues, including food trucks, pop-up shops, college dining, convenience stores and supermarket retail.”
However, Webster adds, in the vast majority of cases, trends that have real staying power start in foodservice and work their way into retail. This is true of most ingredi- ents (chipotle, kale, quinoa, etc.) as well as cuisines (Korean, Mediterranean, Nordic) and preparation techniques (tagine, etc.).
“When a trend starts in foodservice, it has time to percolate with consumers and slowly gain relevance and awareness. As a trend moves through foodservice, operators play with iterations and ways in which to offer these options in a way that’s approachable. This work then lays the groundwork for retail products,” notes Webster.
MENU ITEMS THAT MADE THE JUMP
There’s been a tremendous influx in retail of chefs from fine-dining and fast-casual restaurant arenas over the past decade, and especially so in the past three to four years, according to Steven Petusevsky, president of Steven Petusevsky Enterprises, in Fort Lauder- dale, FL, who created the foundational recipes for Whole Foods Market and more recently lent his produce-centric chef expertise to retail foodservice operations at Mariano’s, a 44-unit banner of Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets, and Foodland, a 32-store chain based in Honolulu. “This migration has raised the bar on food in supermarkets to a whole new level of elevation.”
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PHOTO COURTESY OF WEGMANS
"As a trend moves through foodservice, operators play with iterations and ways in which to offer these options in a way that's approachable. This work then lays the groundwork for retail products."
— Maeve Webster, Menu Matters
There are several good examples of dishes that were crafted by foodservice chefs that have transitioned from restaurants to retail.
Bowls. Restaurant chefs are fighting to ‘out bowl’ each other. Now, bowl food, or a delicious combination of ingredients served in an easy-to-eat-from bowl, has come to retail. This includes ready-to-eat bowls sold in the produce department and made-to- order bowls in prepared foods. For example, Heinen’s Global Grill at its downtown Cleve- land location offers customized bowls. These include a base of cooked rice topped
with red meat, poultry or vegetables, along with tailored toppings, sauces or dressings. At Foodland’s flagship store in Honolulu, customers can make their own Poke Bowl from a choice of 15 different poke selections, many of which abound with produce.
Salads: Classic salads such as Caesar, Waldorf, Chef and avocado-topped Cobb originated in restaurants, notes Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing for the Irvine, CA-based California Avocado Commission. These are frequently found today in grab- and-go cases, behind the glass of deli service counters and on salad bars.
“Any of the composed salads originally found in fine-dining and ‘farm-to-table’ restaurants that required large amounts of mise en place (prepared ingredients) are now de rigueur in grocery store deli and prepared food sections,” observes M. Jill Overdorf, director of business development for Naturipe Value Added Fresh, in Naples, FL.
Many of the dishes that emanated from foodservice to retail are globally influenced foods, according to Jackie Rodriguez, senior project manager for Datassential, a food industry market research firm, in Chicago. “Tabbouleh used to be limited to the menus of Middle-Eastern restaurants but is now a
PHOTO COURTESY OF CALIFORNIA AVOCADO COMMISSION