Offbeat menu items of 2016

Lizzy Freier is a managing editor at Technomic, a Winsight Company, with a focus on menu trends. Lizzy covers trending flavors, ingredients, dishes and preparations for food and beverage at independent restaurants, emerging chains and top chain restaurant brands. She has also analyzed global trends. She has presented at numerous conferences in the U.S. and Canada on menu trend development for restaurant operators, manufacturers and distributors.

Lizzy studied English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently resides in Chicago.

Pat plans and executes the menu sections of Restaurant Business and FoodService Director, covering food and beverage trends, Menu R&D, profiles of chefs and restaurateurs and Technomic research. She also contributes to the digital content of both RB and FSD and is editor of two weekly e-newsletters, Recipe Report and On the Menu. Pat’s weekly podcast, MenuFeed, covers a wide range of menu topics through interviews with chefs and operators.

Pat came to Winsight from Hearst, where she was an executive editor. She is the co-author of the Mompreneurs series of books as well as two cookbooks. She graduated from Cornell University and earned a Masters in Journalism from Boston University. She is active in several professional organizations, including Les Dames d’Escoffier and the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC), and serves as a judge for the James Beard Media Awards.