Vegetables and Sides: Culinary Trend Mapping Report

Thanks to increased selection, tasty preparations, good nutrition and overall wholesomeness, vegetables are taking over a bigger portion of the dinner plate. Farmers are growing new, colorful varieties; creative chefs are whipping up flavorful vegetable dishes in restaurants and prepared food counters; and inviting magazine recipes are exploiting seasonal bounty. The end result has pushed vegetables and the side dishes they grace to the culinary forefront.

This explosion of delicious vegetable dishes bursting with good nutrition has raised American consumers’ vegetable IQs and influenced their lifestyles by encouraging them to add new veggie varieties to their diets. And not just as sides, but as green breakfast smoothies, meatless entrées and even veggie-centric desserts that extend vegetables into new dayparts. Many consumers can now identify several types of heirloom tomatoes which have opened the door for more exotic vegetables from watermelon radishes to kabocha squash to even sea vegetables. Unsurprisingly, many consumers are showing a renewed interest in learning how to grow their own produce and are either turning their yards into garden plots or are making a weekly trip to the farmers market their main shopping event.

Consequently, supermarkets are competing by retooling produce sections, expanding variety and square footage while also offering more convenience and value-added products, like prechopped mirepoix for soup making or peeled, cubed butternut squash for easy roasting or stir-frying.

Vegetables and Sides: Culinary Trend Mapping Report by Packaged Facts and the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) is designed to help participants in the food industry seize a leading position and give consumers a new perspective on vegetables via innovative products. The culinary trends profiled in this report reveal that vegetables are coming from the sea, are being baptized in the fryer and are being pressed into nutritious juices. Along with flavoring new styles of grain-based side dishes, vegetables are also being transformed into new snacks, like kale chips, and adding novel flavor to desserts. Vegetables and Sides: Culinary Trend Mapping Report will help industry players discover how to capitalize on this trend and spread the abundance even further.

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The Culinary Trend Mapping Report is an indispensable tool for those whose job it is to stay abreast of what's hot—and what will be—in the food world.

The reports leverage the Center for Culinary Development’s (CCD) signature Trend Mapping technique, a validated method for identifying which culinary trends are gaining traction and which are simply flashes in the pan.

Each 65+ page journal is packed with trends, data, strategies and insights on the food industry that simply aren't available anywhere else.

Each Issue of the Culinary Trends Mapping Report

• Identifies the maturity level of foods and ingredients according to CCD’s unique, proprietary 5-stage trend mapping process.
• Concentrates on a theme that is affecting the food industry, and then looks at the emerging and established trends along the Trend Map that are shaping this theme.
• Delves into these trends and what they mean for you and the manufacturing, retailing, and foodservice industries.
• Gives strategic insight into how consumers are thinking of and reacting to new foods and ingredients.
• Provides business know-how regarding opportunities, challenges, and ways to implement current trends into foodservice, retail, and packaged goods operations.
• Presents a feature interview with a member chef from CCD’s exclusive 80+ member Chefs’ Council who offers expert analysis and unique perspective on a specific trend.

Trend Mapping

Trend Mapping is guided by the premise that major food trends pass through five distinct stages on their way to the mainstream:

• Stage 1: The ingredient, dish and/or cooking technique appears at upscale dining establishments, ethnic and popular independent restaurants.
• Stage 2: The item is featured in specialty consumer-oriented food magazines such as Bon Appetit plus retail stores such as Sur La Table that target culinary professionals and serious home cooks.
• Stage 3: The item begins to appear in mainstream chain restaurants—Applebee's or Chili's—as well as retail stores such as Williams-Sonoma that target recreational cooks.
• Stage 4: Publications such as Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens pick up the buzz.
• Stage 5: Finally, the trend makes its way to quick service restaurant menus and either starts to appear or gains increased mainstream presence on grocery store shelves.

Availability

Published every other month, the Culinary Trend Mapping Report is available for purchase as a single issue or a six-issue subscription.