Tag Archives: trends

Talking with Walter Scheib

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Pavone Food

Walter Scheib, “The American Chef”
White House Chef (1994-2005), speaker, culinary consultant and product developer

Q:  What are your primary responsibilities?  What does your average day look like?

A:  I’m speaking, cooking, marrying cooking with entertainment, hosting culinary tours of exotic and unusual destinations including Russia, Sicily, Sri Lanka and Trinidad.  I’m also consulting on food and beverage product development as well as restaurant concepts.

Q:  What are you most proud of, professionally?

A:  I’m proud that I was able to bring contemporary American cuisine to the White House during my eleven years there.  Before 1994, French cuisine was the norm. I’m also proud that I’ve come to the understanding that the food and beverage business is about making people happy—whether you’re talking about a hot dog cart or a 3 Michelin Star restaurant.  It’s about making great memories and repeat business.

Q:  What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen lately?

A: Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  The executive chef and owner, Dan Barber, really walks the walk when so many others are just talking about it.  I love what he’s doing!  He’s built a spectacular operation and is really doing it right.   He’s even educating in the process.  The place is self-sustaining; they raise their own ingredients, from poultry to livestock to produce.  Read more...

Posted in Expert Opinions, General | Tagged culinary, food, trends, Walter Scheib, White House Chef | 2 Comments

Snack Strategy

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Pavone Food

If you pick up the late fall issue of Natural Food magazine you’ll glean insight and perspective from natural and organic buyers from across the United States.  You’ll gain an understanding of their priorities, values and processes.  You’ll see some new, health-focused specialty products that are appealing to this audience.  You’ll probably even notice the “Snack Strategy” article on page 25, contributed by Pavone.  Of course, snacking is a $90 billion eating occasion, so it’s one that every food and beverage company should be considering, whether or not their products fall into the natural and organic category.  Check out the article and let us know what you think!

Posted in General | Tagged beverages, food, healthy, snack, trends | 2 Comments

What’s Wrong with “Healthy”?

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Pavone Food

If you’ve seen our current Food Trends Report, you know that we point out that consumers are striving to be healthier and are making healthier choices in their diets, but they’re not necessarily eating food classified as healthy in the truest sense.  Although our Food Trends Report addresses many examples of and several reasons for the trend, another piece of puzzle has been revealed in a recent report released by Catalina Marketing and the Food Marketing Institute, which addresses several grocery-specific barriers to healthy eating.

First, the good news:  consumers know that healthy food is readily available at their local grocery store.  72% of survey participants agreed that the store they go to “stocks a wide variety of healthful food and beverages.”

When asked about their purchasing habits, 77% of Catalina’s respondents reported shying away from healthy foods because they believe they cost more.  Obviously, this isn’t necessarily the case and consumers have an exaggerated sense of the price differentials that do exist.  Read more...

Posted in General | Tagged food, grocery, healthy, Research, retail, trends | 1 Comment

Danger in the Disconnect

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Pavone Food

A recent Supermarket News study found that the food industry is somewhat disconnected from consumer perceptions and is underestimating the scope of trends that are important to them.

The results showed that 52% of consumers indicated that having local food available at their primary store is “very important”—but only 38% of industry participants believe availability of local food is a priority for consumers.  On another subject, 96% of consumers consider themselves to be more health conscious now than they were a year ago.  The industry again, underestimated, guessing that 84% of consumers would view themselves as more health conscious than last year.  The study also found that 20% of consumers say they regularly modify recipes to make them healthier, but only 8.2% of food industry participants thought that was the case.

While each of the subject areas specifically identified by the study are interesting and deserves to be looked at more closely, the real value of the results go far beyond the scope of this research.  Hopefully, these findings are a reality check for retailers, manufacturers and marketers alike.  We need to make sure we truly understand consumers and be able to quickly identify shifts in priorities, values, behaviors and spending. Consumers get smarter and more savvy by the hour; marketers who don’t keep up with that will be left behind.  Underestimating consumer preference is sure to result in a delayed or inappropriate retail response as well as a missed opportunity.

Posted in General | Tagged food, grocery, healthy, local, priorities, retail, shopping, trends | 1 Comment

Old Is New – Part Two

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Pavone Food

The Culinary Institute of America is teaching it, and the hottest chefs are putting their own spin on it.  Consumers are responding and attempting to replicate the techniques at home.  We’re not talking about molecular gastronomy here; we’re talking about smoking — the back-to-basics preparation that 82% of professional chefs are really excited about.

Smoking is hot—with chefs, mixologists and now consumers.  In addition to the things you might expect, the pros are using both hot and cold techniques to smoke rutabagas, oysters, venison, figs, eggs, butter, chocolate, cheesecake, even whiskey and cola syrup for use in specialty cocktails.  They’re smoking with alder wood,  olive wood, hibiscus flowers, teas and the usual assortment of cherry, apple, hickory and mesquite woods.

Culinary innovations have made smoking more accessible to both the professional chef and the home cook.  Tools such as the “Smoking Gun,” a handheld food smoker, are becoming mainstream, as evidenced by their presence on the shelves of Williams-Sonoma and a price point under $100.

What’s old is truly new again, thanks, in part, to trendsetting chefs.  Keep an eye on what they’re doing; their preferences and practices will almost certainly affect those of your consumers in some way.  Check out our food trend influencer chart to see how these trends trickle down and where you can be of influence.

Posted in General | Tagged chefs, culinary, smoking, trends | 3 Comments