Future of foodservice

When was the last time you checked your restaurant’s business plan? Have you got one? You shouldn’t feel guilty if you’re scrabbling around for answers to those questions; being a restaurateur is hard work.

You’ve got a team to run, new menu to develop and tables to fill, therefore it stands to reason that finding time to sit down and review your strategy is incredibly difficult.

The following list may force you to make time, though, because we’ve got 6 key trends heading your restaurant’s way.

Go on, take ten minutes out and grab a pen and paper!

1. Data and personalisation

With personalised promotional methods such as email marketing becoming more widely used, personalisation in the kitchen will become just as important. Chefs will need the ability to quickly turn to the internet to meet the specific dietary requirements of guests.

2. The internet of food

Major appliances are now being delivered to kitchens fully internet-ready. Think it sounds daft for a fridge to be connected to the web? Think again; new sensor technology is making intelligent kitchen appliances a reality.

3. Robotics

Don’t worry, your kitchen isn’t going to start resembling a scene from The Terminator, but advances in mechanics are enabling certain tasks to be undertaken without human intervention. Burger cooking-robots can already be found in restaurants throughout the US.

4. Home delivery

Food deliveries have created a new meal occasion and consumers are rapidly changing their perception of restaurants as a result. Aside from the usual suspects, takeaway food is making its way into the strategies of the most unlikely establishments. And, if your potential customers don’t have time to cook or travel, who says you shouldn’t mobilise your menu?

5. Personalised diets

While not immediately around the corner, experts believe that new research into human microbiome and the microorganisms in our bodies will pave the way for personalised diets based on individual bacterial systems.

Don’t go changing your menu just yet, but it looks like we’re due a future where your diners will expect to have their nutritional needs accurately catered for.

6. Smartphone sensors

By next year, there will be smartphones entering the market that contain sensors enabling users to scan food in order to get the nutritional information. In the kitchen, chefs will be able to use similar sensors to tell when fruit is ripe and winemakers will be able to pinpoint the sugar content of their grapes.

Welcome to the future!

Summary

Ok, time to put away that business plan again. The purpose of the list above is to get you thinking. In reality, nothing will change tomorrow, next week or even by Christmas, but the next 5 years, clearly, are going to see some seismic changes in foodservice.

Keep reading and researching. That’s what we’ll be doing!

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