C&U crowd craves food with a kick

When planning your menus, take note: college and university students think spicy is hot.

Fifty-seven percent of consumers age 18-34 find spicy flavors, “extremely appealing,” according to Technomic. And almost 50% of college students surveyed said they would like their schools to offer more ethnic foods and beverages, states a recent Technomic College & University Consumer Trend Report. Translation: they like their food kicked up a notch!

More Options than Ever

“Students of today are all about flavor,” says Steve Mangan, director of dining for University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “Whether hot, robust or traditional spices, bland doesn’t work for us,” he says.

Mangan points out that foodservice directors today have an “explosion of access” to spices from places such as Asia, Africa and India. “We have an international audience now, from all over the world, and we have to create dishes that have an authentic connection to what they experienced before coming to the States,” he says. 

His produce supplier offers not one, but hundreds of varieties of peppers with different flavor profiles from which to choose, says Mangan.

At Michigan’s farm to table restaurant, Fields, the fish wrap is served with jalapeno aioli rather than ordinary tartar sauce. And students love “any kind of hot you can put on chicken wings,” adds Mangan.

Forget old-school bottled sauces; Michigan’s condiment tables are stocked with salsas and sauces with varied levels of heat to enhance any flavor profile.

International Flair

Student diners at University of Massachusetts in Amherst also crave bold and authentic flavors, says executive director Ken Toong, whose program ranked No. 1 on Princeton Review’s 2016 list of the best campus dining.

Toong offers a grilled chicken marinade featuring annatto puree, orange juice, ancho, chipotle and jalapeño, plus cinnamon and other spices, for a South American flair. “What was once the domain of jalapeno or habanero has been replaced with a myriad of spicy peppers and recipes that complement rather than feature them,” says Toong.

At U Mass, “the Korean food is hot!” says Toong. He serves a spicy noodle dish called Bibim-Naengmyeon, made with cold buckwheat noodles, gochujang (the fermented spicy chili sauce), apple, cucumber and egg. Spicy Korean condiments are finding their way into popular classics, such as a kimchi mushroom blend burger, adds Toong. 

Traditional Indian dishes such as biryani (a rice dish seasoned with cardamom, coriander, garlic and ginger, served with various meats) and dal (a spiced lentil porridge) are often “searingly hot,” says Toong, but students love them served with “wonderfully complex curries,” he adds.

Leading the Industry

At Michigan, says Mangan, they support regional startup businesses by purchasing locally sourced products such as salsas, spices, chutneys and barbecue rubs. And, he adds, it’s not just University of Michigan; colleges and universities all over the country are engaged in similar initiatives.

Students love spice and heat, says Mangan, and are more willing today than years ago to try new, unfamiliar foods. “The C&U segment is reinforcing that [experimentation] in a big way, exposing students to foods from around the world,” he says. “We’re doing the influencing on America.”