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The 9 culinary trends that shaped our pandemic year

Make it comfort food, but portable…and also plant-based? Customers want the warm hug of fresh-baked bread…until they want to lose the ‘quarantine 15.’ The frenetic food mood swings have taken food service pros on a roller coaster ride, and it’s enough to make anyone queasy. But there have been some defining, decidedly delicious moments worth dwelling on and moving forward with.

Tara Fitzpatrick, Senior Editor

March 17, 2021

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A typical onsite chef pre-pandemic may have found themselves in the middle of all the action day to day: hosting a live demo in the dining hall, visiting with patients to hear what they think of the new menu, heading into the classroom to show kids that radishes are rad…it all seems so far away now.

When the pandemic shut down and limited dining, those same chefs were tasked with the same question that somehow felt very different: What’s for lunch? And new questions too: How do I keep my team and my customers safe? Will those nachos travel well in a pizza box? Should we dust off the food truck?

Through resilience and creativity, the culinary community has answered that question in many different ways. We’ve seen portable food, Mediterranean food, comfort food and more making the difference and building things back up throughout the year. Here are the key signposts that marked culinary rollercoaster from one year ago until this very minute.

Contact Tara at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter @Tara_Fitzie

About the Author

Tara Fitzpatrick

Senior Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group

Tara Fitzpatrick is Food Management’s senior editor and a contributor to Restaurant Hospitality and Nation’s Restaurant News, creating editorial content for digital, print and events. Tara holds a bachelor of science degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kent State University. Before joining Food Management in 2008, Tara was associate editor at National Association of College Stores in Oberlin, Ohio. Prior to that, Tara worked as a newspaper reporter in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, where she lives now. Tara is a fan of food history, legends, lore, ghost stories, urban farming and old cookbooks. 

Tara Fitzpatrick’s areas of expertise include the onsite foodservice industry (K-12 schools, colleges and universities, healthcare and B&I), menu trends, sustainability in foodservice, senior dining, farm-to-table and innovation.

Tara Fitzpatrick is a frequent webinar and podcast host and has served on the board of directors for IFEC (International Food Editors Consortium).

Tara Fitzpatrick’s experience:

Senior Editor, Food Management (Feb 2008-present)

Associate Editor, National Association of College Stores (2005-2008)

Reporter, The Morning Journal (2002-2005)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-fitzpatrick-4a08451/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tara_Fitzie

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/tarafitzie/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tara.y.fitzpatrick

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