Food

Food trends and recipes to keep menus fresh

Food

Salad days

With a change in ownership in 2010, Daphne’s Greek Café became Daphne’s California Greek, a fresh, healthy Mediterranean-Californian concept.

Food

Cut costs with new cuts

If you’re balking at the wholesale price of 12-ounce center-cut steaks and extra-thick loin chops—and your customers are too—it’s time to rethink the protein portion of your menu. Meat is going to remain high through 2013, according to top economic indicators. “Wholesale prices are the same or up to 5 percent higher for beef and pork than last year,” says Bill Hahn, economist with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A restaurant that shakes up the flavor spectrum with Crisp Braised Pork Shank with Stone Fruit Kimchee and Buttermilk Dressing is not about to bore you with one-dimensional desserts. After celebrity chef and co-owner Stephanie Izard’s inventive small plates are cleared at this Chicago dining destination, pastry chef Matthew Rice takes the baton and sends out desserts with multiple surprises in every bite.

Local sourcing will be the dominant influence on restaurant menus next year, according to an NRA survey of chefs. See what other trends ranked highest.

Some restaurants are putting a unique spin on things by fusing traditional Mexican ingredients with classic American dishes. Here’s a sample of some tried-and-true menu items that incorporate these fresh flavors.

What will be the next big buzzword on restaurant menus? According to trend-spotting Chicago research firm Food Genius, it just might be “protein.”

Not only was branzino a new species for Bonefish, this was the first time the chain featured a whole fish.

More than 50 percent of the U.S. fruit, vegetable and nut supply comes from California, which could be bad news for some operators if the drought continues.

Plan Check specializes in modern takes on old favorites, from all-natural fried chicken and smoked milk gravy to sweet-potato waffle fries served with peach ketchup. And then there's the Ketchup Leather.

Listings intended to indulge chefs' moods at the moment, a Japanese tradition, are appearing in a broad range of restaurants.

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