Mathew Mandeltort's Blog (19)

It’s a stone cold lead pipe lock: Korean food will be the next big thing. No, I really mean it this time. Now I admit there have been some false starts in the past:

• 2006 – Slashfood posted an article about Korean royal cuisine (surasan,) which appeared in The Korea Times leading some bloggers to hail Korean cuisine as the next big thing.
• 2007 -…

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“Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good?” Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (1971)

Loathe as I am to prognosticate on such matters, (I prefer to leave such things to the experts like Nostradamus and Miss Cleo – besides if I really was good at it, I would be picking winning lottery numbers), I believe I have foreseen the next micro trend in food service. Call it “Culinary Intuition”. Its so cutting edge, so micro, a search of… Continue

Veni Vidi Vici

“I came. I Saw. I Conquered”

Julius Caesar

Veni Vidi Vendi

“I came. I Saw. I purchased snacks from a machine” John Q. Public

Automated merchandising (aka vending) of food and beverages, seen by some as the red headed step child of the foodservice industry, (seen or heard any celebrity chefs lending their cachet to vending machine products lately?) actually has a…

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On the TWELFTH appetizer, my waitress brought to me… 12 Quesadilla, 11 Breaded hot wings, 10 Spicy Nachos, 9 Crispy cheese sticks, 8 Battered mushrooms, 7 Chips with salsa, 6 Mini eggrolls, 5 ONION RINGS! 4 garlic sticks, 3 French fries, 2 cups of soups, and some BREAD TOPPED WITH PARMESAN CHEESE!

Sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Original by…

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Jerry:"The guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the ordering procedure. He's secretly referred to as the Soup Nazi."

Elaine:"Why? What happens if you don't order right?"

Jerry:"He yells and you don't get your soup." The Jerry Seinfeld Show – Episode 116

In March 2009, Technomic, Inc. conducted an online consumer survey with a nationally representative sample of more than 1,500 American… Continue

The name derives from the old German word “bacho” meaning buttock. The USDA defines it as "the cured belly of a swine carcass" (other reason not to let the government craft your menu descriptions). “It” is, of course, bacon. Once consigned to nestle next to breakfast eggs (when bacon is served, eggs are present 71% of the time), sit crumbled atop baked potatoes and be the “B” in BLT’s, today bacon is literally and figuratively everywhere in the food universe:

• U.S.…

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Recently, a story entitled “Burgernomics” appeared on ABC’s Nightline. The title was meant convey the connection between America’s growing consumption of hamburgers and the current economic recession. Josh Ozersky, the Restaurants Editor for Citysearch remarked “the burger is omnipotent…it is the single most powerful force in the food universe”. As it turns out burgers may also be the most powerful force in the international currency universe as well.



“Burgernomics” is the economy… Continue

American’s love their burgers. Now, more than ever it seems. Recent NPD findings show that incremental sales of burgers are up 20% over last year:





It is estimated that the Hamburger menu segment accounts for more than 33% Limited Service… Continue

For decades, “Southern Cuisine” was firmly ensconced below the Mason Dixon line. Back in the day, if you wanted grits, sweet tea, or a Krispy Crème Donut, you had to jump in the Rambler and drive deep into Georgia or Mississippi or South Carolina to find it. Oh sure, you could always find… Continue

There is no question that energy drinks have not only enervated people but the beverage market as well. Sales of energy boosting beverages have grown from $1.2 billion in 2002 to $6.6 billion in 2007. The market research firm Packaged Facts projects that the market will reach $9.3 billion by 2011. Even in India, the… Continue

Restaurant operators don’t need to be told that the restaurant industry is more competitive than…

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Though American street food may not have attained… Continue

It is not hard to imagine the idea of food on-a-stick popped into the head of early humans seconds after discovering fire not only cooked their food, but the hand that held the food as well. Eager to place distance between themselves and fire, they used the power of cognitive thinking to put distance between… Continue

Let me be the first to say that, despite consumers’ healthy diet protests to the contrary, the death of fried foods is greatly exaggerated. One need only look to any annual State Fair to comprehend the power that deep fried food has over us. Though any state fair offers a plethora of deep fried delicacies, the State Fair of Texas (aka the "Fried Food Capital of Texas" - their words, not mine) may well be the Shangri-La of all that is deep fried. Below is just a sampling of the fried foods… Continue

The Oxford English dictionary defines a portmanteau word as “a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, e.g. brunch from breakfast and lunch.” It was Lewis Carroll, in Through the Looking Glass, who coined the word portmanteau to describe them. In the book Humpty Dumpty explains that: "Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy'…. You see, it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed into one word." Foodservice is replete with portmanteau words including… Continue

According to a Stockholm International Water Institute study roughly 30% of food in the United States goes to waste, costing some $48 billion annually. In January of this year, Technomic, Inc. asked a number of operators what tactics they were employing to combat rising food costs. Almost 3 out of 4 responded they were focusing on reducing waste/spoilage:





% Operators Employing to Address Higher Food Costs…

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As operators struggle to navigate the murky waters of the current economy, many wonder what they can do to generate traffic. Dave Thomas, the late founder of Wendy’s once said. “It all comes back to the basics. Serve customers the best-tasting food at a good value in a clean, comfortable restaurant, and they'll keep coming back.” Turns out Dave was right but what is interesting how the relative importance of those attributes shift depending upon if one is talking about full-service, fast casual… Continue

Old enough to remember when there were only 3 television channels to choose from? Today the average household has access to 104 channels. Do your recall as a child being overwhelmed having to choose from amongst the 31 flavors offered by Baskin Robbins? Today, foodservice operators offer customers a staggering array of choices with every dining occasion:



• Buffalo Wild Wings – 14 varieties of wing sauce

• Dunkin Donuts – 52 varieties of donuts

• Chipotle – 65,000+ taco,… Continue

Foodservice, like physics, seems to have its own immutable laws and principles that govern the behavior of entities and individuals with the foodservice universe. For example, just as Newton's Third Law of Motion exemplified that for every action in the physical universe there is an equal and opposite reaction, the Third Law of Menu's states that for every portion sizing action there is an equal and opposite portion sizing reaction. In a foodservice environment emphasizing value, customer… Continue