By Piet Jones When it comes to pizza toppings, pepperoni is king. Yet, despite there being many options for pepperoni and it being a classic, it sometimes can be viewed as not very inventive. Today’s diners are looking for new adventures to tantalize their taste buds and pique interest in... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Winter menus are filled with deeply flavored braises, heart stews and chilis, and rich roasts that are perfect for the cold months. But as winter begins to wind down, they’re beginning to taste a bit too heavy and cloying. Spring is coming and taste buds are crying... Continue reading

By Kendra Bailey Morris Why wait until summer for your guests to enjoy fresh-tasting, creative recipes featuring vine-ripened tomatoes when there’s a secret weapon you might already have in your kitchen—canned tomatoes. When winter is at its peak, fresh picked tomatoes are not only difficult to find, but are often... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Seasonal menus have been the rage for a while now, and for good reason. Not only do they allow you to make the most of seasonally available ingredients, but they also let you match your offerings to how diner’s tastes change over the course of the year.... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Look at almost any menu and there’s likely to be at least one or two soups featured. Soup is a well-loved option and, besides being a comfort food, can be an endlessly fun exercise in different flavors and ingredients. With a little planning, soups can delight your... Continue reading

By Piet Jones With the holidays upon us, it’s time for chefs to dust off their old holiday menus as they begin to tweak and update their recipes for the coming season. Dinner specials, private party and catering menus, or special holiday luncheons, all are vehicles for you to serve... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Cheese sales have been on the uptick for the last 10 years, and changing palates, especially among the millennials, has shifted tastes away from processed cheeses and toward more natural offerings. This trend is evident on the menus everywhere from fast food giants to your corner dive... Continue reading

By Piet Jones If you have pizza on your menu, then chances are you offer pepperoni as one of your toppings. It’s an American classic, ubiquitous enough for the name to be nearly generic. The problem is that pepperoni is hardly uniform and can vary widely from one brand to... Continue reading

By Piet Jones If only every night could be Friday or Saturday filled with reservations, people willing to wait to grab a table, and strong check averages. Sadly, you’ve got Tuesday every week with empty tables and your well-functioning staff stuck in low gear looking for something to do. In... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Restaurants have probably never had such a wonderful advertising medium as Instagram. Not only can you put your dishes out for all to see (for free!) but your customers are taking word of mouth buzz to a whole new level by snapping pics and sharing them with... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Experts say the best way to raise a child to be an adventurous eater is to serve them the same food as the parents are eating. That’s a great rule at home but it can be a real problem when you go out to eat and see... Continue reading

By Piet Jones If you ask the experts, they say the perfect pizza crust should only have four ingredients: 00 flour, salt, yeast, and water. That is all you need to make the dough for Neapolitan pizza which, fresh out of the right type of oven, makes a gorgeous crust.... Continue reading

By Piet Jones It’s the end of another busy day. The last customers are gone. Kitchen is clean. Servers are all checked out and headed towards the door. Finally, a chance to take the weight off your feet, think about something other than food, maybe peruse a little social media.... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Typically, we look at our food as only belonging to one of two groups: plant or animal. But there is a third group that we regularly consume, one that belongs to a separate branch on the tree of life and is, oddly, closer to animals than to... Continue reading

By Piet Jones Nothing brings a kitchen to a screeching halt faster than a special order. Even slight changes can disrupt the finely-tuned rhythm of the line and, if the dish has to be touched by more than one chef, the odds of an unintentional fumble increase exponentially. Then there’s... Continue reading

In America, we typically only use a few condiments. For burgers and sandwiches it’s ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. Add relishes for hot dogs and then cocktail and tartar sauces for seafood. But there’s a certain sameness to all those and, in the competitive world of dining, you need to stand out. Fortunately, there’s a way to make condiments that will help you separate from your competition. Continue reading

January can be a rough month for restauranteurs. After the excess of the holiday season, people can be stretched a little thin and less likely to go out for a nice meal. Then you take a closer look at those who are coming out and you’re likely to find a bit of a surprise - lower check averages. Continue reading

Over the years, fruitcake has caught a bad reputation. The decline can be attributed to the negativity brought by mass-produced mail-order fruitcakes, making it both a “loved and loathed loaf,” as described by Smithsonian Magazine. This season, try bringing back this holiday staple by incorporating it into your holiday menu. For many, the fruitcake has embodied true Christmas memories. With consumers having an urge to relive their nostalgic past, try a festive twist with this timeless treat. Make it modern for your millennial guests while also paying homage to older generations. Continue reading

By Emily Caldwell Fall is here! But even though the weather is getting cooler, the kitchen is heating up! It's the start of the holiday season and people are beginning to come home to celebrate the festivities with family, friends, and loved ones. But as your customers gather around your... Continue reading

Whether you are preparing a specialty holiday dish or want to warm up your customers on a frigid fall night, winter squash provide a variety of flavors that will draw clients to the comfort of your establishment. Continue reading

Take your customers on a trip down memory lane by incorporating flavors in your menu that can be found in their childhood favorite meals and experiences. Give them a twist on Mom’s brown-bag classics to reminisce over lunch. Remind them of dinners at Grandma’s filled with smiles and Sloppy Joe’s. People tend to associate food with sentiments from their past — foods that taste good can make us feel good too. Continue reading

By Piet E. Jones Your customers are having drinks at the bar and need a little something to snack on, so offer up some old time bar snacks. Something salty and crunchy that is bursting with flavor and easy to eat. Include dishes that not only complement your bar beverages,... Continue reading

The five mother sauces - Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Sauce Tomat, Hollandaise. The basis for French cooking that has influenced international cuisine for generations. Learn these, as nearly every chef does very early in their career, and you have a skill that will allow you to imitate or pioneer most any dish. Once the base was made, one could modify or enhance any of them to fit the dish they were intended for - be it a thyme infused Béchamel for the perfect mac-n-cheese or spicing up your eggs with a Sriracha Hollandaise. These were the sauces that set apart the truly great dishes from the might have beens. Or at least they used to be. Continue reading

Culinary trends are constantly on the move. Some pop big with lots of buzz and perhaps a bit overuse, like sous vide, before settling into becoming a somewhat commonplace technique used effectively for some dishes. Others, like foams, devolve into culinary punchlines. Spiralized vegetables, or zoodles, looks like it might be on track to have some staying power. Typically made from zucchini, hence the Z, zoodles have crossed the boundary from restaurant to home kitchens cementing their popularity. Part of that is driven by the gluten free and reduced carb trends; the rest is that they are both tasty and versatile. Continue reading

There’s a hot new ingredient in town. Nope, it’s not some rare plant with an odd sounding name that’s only available on alternate full moons. Nor is it some high end heritage meat with a genetic line that exists only on some remote mountain farm. The hot new ingredient is actually one of the oldest ingredients of all - the egg. Now, it’s not an unusual egg that’s hot. Quail, goose, duck, even ostrich eggs can be found on menus all over but that’s not what the buzz is about. No, it’s your garden variety chicken egg that’s showing up on the hottest dishes in town. Continue reading