He’s a “meat and potatoes” man. That’s a description often heard on the Prairies, where it refers in part to a culture as well as a preferred diet.
International food consultants Baum+Whiteman, based in Brooklyn, New York, say meat and potatoes don’t figure much in new consumer desires. Those two meal staples aren’t on the firm’s recently released list of the 11 hottest food and beverage dining trends.
The list is worthy of attention for its potential to foretell what foods and ingredients farmers and ranchers will want to produce — or not produce — to meet future demands.
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Durum growers take note: B+W says pasta sales are dropping in many countries, including Italy, where they are down 25 percent from five years ago. In Europe, pasta sales were down 13 percent over the same period, and Australians bought eight percent less than they did five years ago.
There is good news for chicken producers in the trends list. Fried chicken in sandwiches is popular and many places have some version on their menus. In Kansas City, one can even find fried chicken mixed with macaroni and cheese served on a hoagie bun. It’s called Chick-A-Roni, and it sounds pretty good.
There also appear to be sunny days ahead for cauliflower, broccoli and carrot growers, among others, as consumers opt for “root to stem dining” and “dirt candy,” more commonly known as “vegetables.”
As an example, one Brooklyn restaurant serves spuds with “turmeric-fermented bok choy and morels stuffed with ramp bread pudding.” A New York Times writer told readers they could be “browsing extensively upon stems, tubers, rhizomes, seeds and other plant parts” at that establishment.
It sounds remarkably like feeding time at the ranch.
Other trends? Resurging popularity of bagels (good news for wheat growers), snacks instead of actual meals, and delivery of food by drone. Farmers with drones take note. You could use them to get meals delivered more speedily from the house to the field during harvest.
Missing from the list is any trend indicating more interest in meat, whether beef, pork or lamb. That might indicate an opportunity in those sectors to develop dishes or foods to match consumer desires for speed of preparation, convenience, healthfulness and flavour.
Meat and potatoes in a meal kit, complete with seasonings? Why not? We could call it Range Root Candy. Two helpings, please.
