What America’s Eating
By Lisa Readie Mayer
Barbecue is one of the hottest food trends around today. People love to eat it, talk about it, read about it, watch it on TV and – thankfully for manufacturers and retailers of barbecue grills and accessories – try to replicate it at home. For the past few years especially, the industry has reaped the benefits of consumers’ love affair with the flavors and techniques of barbecuing, smoking and grilling. Lucky for us, it shows no signs of being displaced by some newfangled food craze anytime soon.
That might be because interest in cooking over live fire is not a flash-in-the-pan fad like chocolate-covered bacon or pumpkin-spice lattes. Rather it is a long-lasting trend that ties into consumers’ broader interest in authentic and artisanal foods and cooking methods.
But, man – and woman, for that matter – does not live by barbecue alone. There are a host of other important current food trends that provide insight into how people are eating and cooking today.
Do these trends matter to barbecue retailers and manufacturers? Yes! They tell us what people will be cooking – or not cooking – on their grills and smokers, and what techniques might interest them. Perhaps most importantly, these trends could predict the type of barbecue grills and accessories people will want to buy in the coming years.
Hearth & Home has compiled information on emerging food trends from some of the nation’s top culinary experts, agencies and trend analysts. Here are the key food trends barbecue manufacturers and retailers should know, and some ideas to leverage these trends to grow sales.
Vegetables Are the New Meat!
Hale to Kale! Veggies are IN – The Food Network reports that “vegetables are the new meat” for 2014 and are moving to the center of the plate. According to a broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR), the number of once-a-week vegetarians is skyrocketing; 44 percent of Americans say they eat at least one vegetarian meal per week.
Cauliflower is the current “It” veggie, with restaurant menus featuring the likes of Buffalo cauliflower “wings,” plancha-grilled cauliflower with garlic-anchovy sauce, and grilled, spice-rubbed, crosscut cauliflower “steaks” (including one for $34 at a trendy restaurant in the hip Greenwich Village area of New York City).
NPR predicts grilled, barbecued and “charred” vegetables with smoky flavor notes will be big. And the Food Network says barbecued vegetables such as squash “ribs,” smoked carrots and planked zucchini will become regulars on restaurant menus.
Action Plan
Do you carry grill woks, onion, cabbage and potato grillers, corn baskets, griddle pans, cedar planks, Cookina grilling sheets? Do you sell cookbooks such as “The Gardener & the Grill,” by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig, “Grill It Vegetarian,” by Hillaire Waldon, and “Grilling Vegan Style,” by John Schlimm? Do you offer cooking classes and demos devoted to grilling and smoking vegetables? You should or you will miss out on sales!
You Can Taste Russia from Your Backyard!
Going Global – Americans’ food tastes are going global, says a report on 2014 food trends in Better Homes & Gardens. Experts say consumers will have particular interest in Mediterranean, Peruvian, Middle Eastern, Spanish and Latin cuisines.
Action Plan
Gear up with products that help customers replicate international barbecue techniques and flavors: Epicoa Brazilian-style rotisserie grills; plancha grills or griddle pans for Spanish and Korean-style barbecues; paella pans, sauces, marinades and rubs with multi-cultural flavors such as Steven Raichlen’s Best of Barbecue line.
Good-for-You-Grilling!
Healthy Eating is a Priority – A study by the USDA shows Americans are more health-conscious than ever, and are trying to eat healthier. More Americans are reading nutritional labels, reducing portion sizes and consuming fewer calories (118 fewer calories per day in 2010 vs. 2006). They are eating more fiber and less saturated fat and cholesterol.
Weber’s latest GrillWatch Survey bears this out. It shows 61 percent of grillers have changed their grilling habits in the past year, opting for healthier choices. True, hamburgers are still the food grilled most often, but 30 percent of grill owners say they are grilling more vegetables, 23 percent are choosing leaner cuts of meat and poultry when grilling, and 25 percent are grilling more often because they consider it a healthy way to cook. A survey by Blue Rhino indicates over one-third of grill owners believe food cooked on their grills is actually more healthful than food cooked in their ovens.
Action Plan
Promote in-store, on website, in newsletters, ads and social media that barbecuing and grilling fits in with a health-conscious diet because fat drips out and away through the grilling grid.
Remind customers how to add flavor with wood smoke without adding a single calorie or gram of fat. With many varieties of wood chips, pellets, planks and natural lump charcoal available, it’s easy to change up the flavor profile.
Hold “Healthy Grilling” classes with emphasis on lean meats, poultry and fish. Offer tips on preventing low-fat cuts from sticking to the grilling grid, how to add flavor and moisture to low-fat proteins through spice rubs, marinades and sauces, and even how to grill and smoke meat alternatives such as tofu, tempeh and seitan.
Carry accessory products such as non-stick-coated grill toppers, smoker boxes and marinade injectors that make grilling lean cuts easier and tastier. Offer sugar-free spice rubs, marinades and sauces. Spotlight these accessories by displaying them together under a “Good-for-you-Grilling” banner, or flag them on the shelf or hanging rack with a “Good-for-You-Grilling” sticker.
Perfect Pub-Grub
Gastro-Pub Food – This trend, according to Better Homes & Gardens, puts a gourmet spin on pub-grub basics such as burgers and fries. The beef burger might be swapped with grilled turkey, lamb, pork sausage or even fish burgers, and likely topped with artisanal cheese and in place of ho-hum ketchup, will be slathered with a special sauce such as chipotle mayo or red pepper coulis. The “fries” might be sweet potato, butternut squash or zucchini wedges, seasoned and grill-roasted (not fried!) with a unique dipping sauce.
Action Plan
Tie into this trend during National Burger Month in May by creating a Pub Grub primer with creative ideas for gourmet grilled burgers and fries; hand it out in the store, post it on your website and Facebook pages. Tweet a “Gastro-Pub Burger-of-the-Day.”
Create a Gastro-Pub accessories display during National Burger Month complete with gear such as burger presses, stuffed burger makers, burger grill baskets, slider baskets, griddles for making fries and interesting sauces for dipping.
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Porterhouse!
Quality Over Quantity – People are looking for food experiences that emphasize high quality over quantity, according to the International Association of Cooking Professionals. That means, although consumers might be eating less steak, when they do indulge, they want it to be an amazing, dry-aged, well-marbled porterhouse, or a melt-in-your-mouth beef tenderloin.
Action Plan
Since people will pay a lot for these exceptional steaks and other quality cuts, they need to know how to cook them properly. If there’s anything worse than an overcooked piece of meat, it’s an overcooked $100 piece of meat. Consider teaming with a local butcher on a cooking class that educates customers about selecting and grilling premium meats.
Promote the virtues of high-heat infrared searing burners or infrared sear stations, to help create restaurant-quality steaks at home.
Stock and group accessories essential to grilling a great steak, such as meat thermometers, steak buttons, branding irons, steak rubs and GrillGrate grilling grid toppers.
Midwestern Meals: Simple & Hearty
The Heartland is Haute – The Food Network predicts the number-one food trend for 2014 will be Midwestern cuisine. In fact, “Heartland Table” is one of the network’s most popular new shows. Look for simple, hearty foods such as cheese, meat, casseroles and root vegetables to be hot on restaurant menus. “American charcuterie,” including bacon, smoked pork chops, bratwurst and other sausages, is popular, sometimes with an international twist (e.g. bratwurst with salsa verde). Also trendy: smoked Midwestern lake fish such as trout, pike, walleye and perch.
Action Plan
Brats have always been iconic at barbecues. For a new approach to old favorites, consider tying in with a local microbrewery to create craft beer pairings with different types of grilled sausages and host a “Beers and Brats” event in your store.
Make sure salespeople can explain how to smoke both sausage and fish.
Eat Like a Caveman!
The Paleo Diet – Move over Atkins, Southbeach and Zone diets, the latest diet craze to sweep the nation is the Paleo Diet, which encourages eating like our hunter-gatherer caveman ancestors. That means a diet heavy in meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Processed foods – essentially, anything with a bar code – are excluded. Perhaps indicative of this trend, a Blue Rhino survey shows that, over the last 12 months, 40 percent of grill owners have cooked a beef or pork roast on the grill, and 24 percent have cooked a whole chicken.
Action Plan
Host Paleo Diet grilling classes, and offer recipes on your website and through social media.
Display meat-centric accessories such as thermometers, rotisserie kits, vertical poultry roasters, “grilling claws,” and marinade injectors under a “Perfect-for-Paleo-Diets” banner.
Smoked Nuts, Smoked Cheese
Self-Preservation – Consumers are experimenting with home-canning, pickling, jam-making and smoking, according to the 2014 Shoppers Food Trends Forecast.
Action Plan
Promote smoking! Educate customers through demos and cooking classes. Sample smoked nuts and cheeses and other smoked foods in-store.
Create prominent displays of smoker grills, pellet grills, kamados, wood chips and chunks, as well as smoker boxes, smoker tubes and other devices that can facilitate smoking on a gas grill.
