Hospitality Insight

The annual National Restaurant Association survey of American Culinary Federation member chefs is one of the industry’s leading culinary forecasts. More than 1,500 professional chefs gave their professional opinion of whether 226 culinary items will be a “hot trend,” “yesterday’s news,” or “perennial favorite” on restaurant menus in 2011. The survey reveals that local and hyper-local sourcing, healthy children’s meals, sustainable seafood, and gluten-free cuisine will be among the hottest trends on restaurant menus in 2011.

The chefs were also asked about the top operational trends. Thirty percent of the chefs said that mobile food trucks and pop-up restaurants will be the hottest operational trend in 2011; 18 percent said restaurants with gardens will be the top trend, and 17 percent said social media marketing. In addition, 55 percent of the chefs said they are currently using social media for professional purposes, and another 16 percent said they plan to start using such channels.

For the complete results, view the full survey.

In response to consumer demand, many restaurants are adding nutritional beverages to their menu. The Lemonicity (pictured at right), created by Red Mango, contains green tea, black tea, hibiscus tea, pure cane sugar, natural flavors and probiotic strains. Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse serves a drink with fennel bulb, agave nectar, acai spirits, elderflower spirits and lime juice.

A recent article by Chain Leader provides addtional examples of healthy drink options being offered at restaurants. Members of the Cornell community have access to current and past articles of Chain Leader, both in print in the Nestlé Library and electronically.

Well-written menus are excellent sales tools.

Consumers’ decision-making processes can sometime be complex and unpredictable. Well-designed menus can play a crucial role in ensuring a pleasurable experience for restaurant customers.

Brian Wansink, the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell, has published award-winning academic research on food psychology and consumer behavior. According to Professor Wansink, consumer patterns can be predicted when it comes to reading menus. A person’s eye will move in a Z-shaped pattern beginning in a menu’s upper left corner and moving to the upper right, down through the center, to the lower left and, finally, exiting at the lower right-hand corner.

A recent article in the October edition of Restaurants and Institutions explains many of the psychographic characteristics of menu design. Included in the article is the research conducted by Hotel School doctoral student Sybil Yang on the importance of price presentation in menu choices.

Pictured at left is an image of the commemorative menu from Delmonico’s Resturant in New York City from November 26, 1883. The menu was part of the restaurant’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of British troops leaving New York City following the Revolutionary War.

Cornell University Library is home to collection of more than 10,000 restaurant and banquet menus, providing researchers with a rich source of information on the manners and food habits of earlier times.

The core of Cornell’s menu collection was assembled by Oscar Tschirky (1866-1943), known throughout the world as Oscar of the Waldorf. As maitre d’hotel of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City from 1893 to 1943, Oscar began a lifelong hobby of collecting menus, some of which were for functions he himself arranged, but most of which he gathered for their historical, gastronomic, or artistic interest. Upon his death, his menu collection, papers, and personal memorabilia were donated to Cornell University.

Subsequent menu donations and purchases have added to Oscar’s original collection. The collection now spans from the 1850s to the present day and totals more than 35 cubic feet.

The Nestlé Library web site provides a searchable database of the Cornell menu collection.