Hungry for… ideas for your venue including gourmet fast food

Hungry for...

Meaty burgers, communal eating and iconic dishes are leading the food revolution

posh fast food

James Birch, Development Chef at Unilever Food Solutions, explains some of the new food trends he is seeing for pubs and restaurants:

“We’re seeing restaurant chefs try out new fast food concepts, both as a creative outlet and because it makes business sense. This could be as a pop-up at a local food festival or a scaleddown menu at quieter times of the day or week.

“There are two key trends in the fast food area:

Gourmet

“Using more high-end, sophisticated ingredients, such as better-quality or local meat in burgers, handmade pizza dough with buffalo mozzarella topping or hot dogs with creative topping such as crispy fried ham, roasted peanuts or hoisin sauce with freshly grated ginger.

Fusion

“This is all about unlikely food pairings – Indian breads stuffed with Mediterranean chicken and tzatziki or Mexican tacos filled with Korean ingredients.

“These styles are popular with a foodie crowd who are looking for quick meals that have interesting flavours and goodquality ingredients.”

Food halls

Food halls that showcase multiple food vendors under one roof have popped up in London, Leeds and Doncaster, as well as many towns. “Food halls suit large groups who want different food types or diets,” says James Ashurst, Client Director at CGA. “They’re ideal incubators for hospitality entrepreneurs and new concepts too, with low start-up costs and overheads.” If you want to expand your business why not open a pop-up or ‘best of’ concept in a food hall? Usually, you only need one member of staff and can rent for short periods of time. You’ll access younger demographics and can test out new dishes with instant feedback. Meat consumption out of home is on the rise, as 29% of consumers only eat meat dishes in restaurants and takeaways — up 11% since January 2020. This suggests that meat is increasingly being seen as a treat when eating out (The Food People, March 2022).

Keep strong meat options on your menu that appeal to consumers’ sense of occasion: try family-style dishes such as a whole roast chicken for the table or T-bone steak to share.