Menu Talk

Anna Castellani launched her first food hall in the basement of a building in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., when the neighborhood was essentially a food desert. Today, the underground space is the thriving DeKalb Market, home to more than 25 local vendors offering a range of cuisines that celebrate Brooklyn’s diverse culture. “I like to transform unloved spaces into vibrant eating and drinking venues,”...

 “Cinco de Mayo is like Super Bowl and New Year’s packed into one,” said Jared Galbut, founder and CEO of Bodega Taqueria y Tequila. As celebrants flock to Mexican restaurants and bars on Friday, he expects record crowds, with a number of revelers partying until 5 a.m.—closing time for some of the seven locations. Jared Galbut The newest Bodega is actually opening on May 5 in Chicago’s West Loop n...

Menu innovation is key to differentiating a concept in the crowded and competitive chain restaurant environment. During Winsight’s annual Restaurant Leadership Conference, which took place this week in Phoenix, Ariz., we caught up with three top execs to find out what innovation looks like at their operations. Donna Josephson, CMO of Shipley Do-Nuts; Andre Vener, co-founder of Dog Haus; and Frank...

Katy Velazquez, executive chef at Qdoba Mexican Eats, claims that she got her Ph. D in regional Mexican cooking while working with chef Rick Bayless in his celebrated restaurants, on TV shows and throughout his travels in Mexico. Those experiences influence her menu R&D for 735-unit Qdoba, but she balances that authenticity with a good dose of fast-casual fun. Although Velazquez has innovated...

After graduating from culinary school, Aaron Taylor criss-crossed the country, earning his cred at a number of top resorts and restaurants. But his ultimate ambition was to become a corporate chef for a restaurant group—a goal he reached with The ONE Group, operators of STK and other global concepts.  Now, Taylor is corporate chef-partner for Atlas Restaurant Group in Baltimore, overseeing 27 rest...

The devastation of 9/11 prompted Andrew Pudalov to leave his finance career behind in New York City, move to Boulder, Colorado and launch a healthy bowl concept. That was almost 20 years ago and Rush Bowls has since grown from a single location at the University of Colorado to a 40-unit chain in 21 states. Although the healthy bowl category is now a crowded one, Pudalov sees Rush Bowls as a differ...

“If you’re a broccoli or watermelon, stay away from Planta,” warns Steven Salm, founder and CEO of the veggie-centric restaurant concept. “We can do serious damage.” Indeed, what Salm calls a “plant-powered” menu offers indulgent, chef-driven items like Bang Bang Broccoli, ahi watermelon sushi and noodles with truffle mushroom cream, all served in a polished-casual setting with a full bar pouring...

Adenah Bayoh, an IHOP franchisee and passionate entrepreneur, co-founded fast casual Cornbread Farm to Soul to put a spotlight on soul food favorites. Along with the restaurant’s signature cornbread, its menu features chef-partner Elzadie Smith’s scratch-made fried chicken, catfish, yams, baked mac and cheese, collard greens and peach cobbler. Three locations are currently open in the New York-New...

As executive chef of Parcelle Wine Bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Ron Yan has created a menu that balances playfulness with skilled technique. During the pandemic, Yan partnered with seasoned restaurateur and wine retailer Grant Reynolds to launch a popup. The success of that venture evolved into the current brick-and-mortar restaurant, opened in 2022. Listen as Yan describes his culinar...

When Jimmy Wang started at Panda Express in 2014, the now executive director of culinary innovation already had many years of experience in top hotel kitchens and operating his own restaurant. At Panda Express, Wang and his team look to create dishes that tell a story. They apply the chain’s menu mantra—“Chinese Flavors with American Tastes”—to every item they develop, and recent successes include...

​Located on the ground floor of New York City’s landmark Empire State Building, STATE Grill & Bar must appeal to two demographics: tourists visiting the iconic skyscraper and office workers and locals looking for a chef-inspired lunch or dinner. Executive Chef Morgan Jarrett bridges the two by balancing seasonal dishes geared to adventurous tastes with more familiar steaks, pastas and desserts...

Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen has been instrumental in turning Minneapolis into a dining destination, moving back to his hometown after advancing his career in Daniel Boulud’s New York City restaurants. Eight years ago, he opened Spoon and Stable and has since added three new restaurants to the collection—Demi, Mara and Socca—along with several locations of Bellecour, a French-inspired bakery an...

Mackenzie Gibson traded in her blazer for a chef’s coat when she was promoted to VP of Culinary and Menu Innovation at Sonic Drive-in. Previously in marketing, she now integrates that expertise into developing the menu, prioritizing Sonic as a consumer-driven brand. She and her team keep the R&D pipeline constantly flowing with new items, balancing indulgence with comfort and innovation. Liste...

After Popeyes off-the-charts success with its fried chicken sandwich, Amy Alarcon and her culinary team spent four years perfecting the cooking technique and flavor profile of the just-launched Blackened Chicken Sandwich. In between, she developed a new and improved chicken nugget and a number of seasonal LTOs. Throughout the R&D process, Alarcon taps into New Orleans as her inspiration point....

Customers can order pancakes and eggs all day long at IHOP, but VP of Culinary Scott Randolph is making sure there are plenty of innovative but traditional lunch and dinner options, too. In his four years as head chef, he has worked to expand IHOP’s positioning from the breakfast leader to the all-day leader, adding signature burritos, bowls, melts and more. But he’s also busy elevating breakfast—...

Rick Petralia led menu innovation at Fazoli’s for many years before moving over to Wichita, Kan.-based Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers earlier this year, applying his deep culinary experience to a new platform. Burgers and frozen custard are very different from pasta, he admits, but menu development relies on the same principles. Petralia analyzes consumer research, focuses on seasonali...

Joe Isidori is chef-owner of Arthur & Sons, an old-school Italian restaurant he opened in New York City this past summer. Isidori comes from a three-generation restaurant family and grew up in his father’s red sauce joint, standing on milk crates to clean shrimp and plate pasta when he was just five. He went on to hone his skills in culinary school, head up Michelin-starred restaurants and cre...

Climate change is top of mind right now, with recent heat waves, droughts and wildfires directly affecting food production and the environment. Michael P. Hoffmann, professor emeritus at Cornell University and co-author of the book “Our Changing Menu,” relays how all this directly affects what foodservice operators can put on the menu. Some favorite foods and beverages, like sushi, salads, coffee...

Cristina Suarez is a self-taught “bargirl”—a name she is proud to call herself even as a skilled hospitality professional in her 30s. At 18, Suarez began her journey behind the bar at Hooters, moving on to several Miami hotels where she polished her cocktail-making expertise and learned valuable management, training and operational techniques. Listen as Suarez describes how she taps her Cuban-Amer...

Caribou Coffee is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and menu innovation has shifted from hot drinks to cold in the years since. Gretchen Hashemi-Rad, beverage category manager for the 400-plus chain, says sales of cold coffee and other icy beverages outpace hot coffees and teas—especially among younger consumers and even in the winter. Listen as she talks about how Caribou is changing up...

Sabin Lomac and Jim Tselikis, actual cousins from Maine who founded Cousins Maine Lobster, started with one truck, a simple menu and a commitment to source the best-tasting, best-quality Maine lobster for their lobster rolls. That caught the attention of Barbara Corcoran when the pair pitched the concept on Shark Tank. She invested and mentored the partners, and 10 years later, Cousins Maine Lobst...

Marc Forgione was born into a restaurant family, but he wasn’t trained from birth to be a chef, he says. He worked at An American Place, the restaurant founded by his father Larry Forgione, from the age of 16, but it wasn’t until he cooked big dinners for his college friends that he changed his career path from psychiatry to hospitality. Next steps included backpacking in Europe, stints in France’...

Sam Polk, founder and CEO of Everytable, launched the social enterprise grab-and-go concept in Los Angeles in 2015. His goal was to provide healthy, affordable meals in neighborhoods that are often classified as food deserts. The chef-inspired food is prepared at a central commissary to keep pricing low and is delivered to Everytable store locations, refrigerated vending machines and directly to c...

Steve Sturm is senior VP of food and beverage and executive chef of the 55-unit Firebirds Wood-Fired Grill. The namesake wood-fired grill is the focal point of the menu at the polished casual chain, not only for items like shrimp, salmon, beef tenderloin, chicken, blistered vegetables and tuna, but for cocktails that feature charred pineapple and chilies. Chef Sturm is currently working on revampi...

Menu analyst Lizzy Freier, director of menu research & insights at Technomic, keeps a close watch on food and drink trends at the Top 500 restaurant chains. During her recent presentation at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, she recapped the novel trends that are shaping menus as we move into the second half of 2022. Based on Technomic data, four Ps define the current state...