Meeting the special food needs and preferences of members and guests can give buffet and banquet menus a competitive edge.
Twenty-eight percent of adult Americans say they are cutting down on gluten or avoiding it completely, according to a recent report from the NPD research firm. And the incidence of consumers ordering food described on the menu as gluten-free or wheat-free is now more than double what it was four years ago.
“The numbers have remained around this mark since 2011, so I don’t think it’s a fad,” notes Bonnie Riggs, an NPD restaurant industry analyst.
SUMMING IT UP
|
Neither does Ryan Cavanaugh, Executive Chef at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. He has seen a great deal of interest in gluten-free options from among Carmel’s members, whether they are dining a la carte, choosing from a buffet or booking a banquet.
In response, Cavanaugh has successfully found ways to subtly tweak some of his recipes to still allow members and guests to enjoy the foods they like, without the gluten they do not want.
“For our members and guests who want to avoid gluten, we don’t use flour in our sauces,” he explains. “Instead, we use cornstarch—unless we’re making gumbo sauces or gravy—so we never have an issue. And we use rice flour for breading.”
Knowing that Carmel’s members have many other choices of places to dine, Cavanaugh recognizes the importance of taking steps like these to show that the club wants to support those with special dietary needs or preferences. “Even Del Frisco’s Steak House [now] offers gluten-free dishes and highlights them on the menu,” he notes.
The challenge for all occasions is to fully meet all guests’ expectations, whether or not they have special dietary needs or preferences, Cavanaugh says, so the same quality of food, experience and value can be delivered to all diners.
“If the charge for a buffet dinner is $23, for example, every person should expect to get proper value for the money,” he notes. “The same thing goes for weddings and other plated banquet selections.”
This can be particularly challenging, Cavanaugh acknowledges, when the team is not notified ahead of time of the need for special menu options. To be better prepared for these inevitable instances, he and his staff have put an emphasis on learning to become very adept at using the ingredients in the day’s mise en place, to always be able to create something that still suits the occasion while accommodating individual requests for exceptions.
More to Work With
Adam Gordon, Executive Chef of Maroon Creek Club in Aspen, Colo., has also put an emphasis on always being at the ready for gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan requests for buffets and banquets. This has been helped by the number of gluten-free ingredients, including a growing variety of pastas, that have become available on the market, he notes.
Beyond Gluten-FreeWhile gluten-free is one of the current trends that chefs are making an effort to incorporate into banquet menus, data from the NPD research firm shows that Americans are also looking for other healthful ingredients in their foods, both when ordering their own meals or eating at an event or buffet. In recent surveys, NPD reports, 52% of consumers have said they want to increase the amount of whole grains in their diet, and another 50% said they want to eat more protein.Further, notes Bonnie Riggs, an NPD restaurant industry analyst, “It’s not just the Millennials who are looking to eat better—it’s also the Baby Boomers who want to maintain good health as they age.”
Over 220 million diners ordered vegetarian main dishes in restaurants for the year ending April 2014, NPD data shows, and more than 258 million ordered veggie sandwiches or meatless burgers. “The numbers of health-conscious consumers is increasing, there’s no doubt about it,” Riggs notes. “[Dining outlets] need to be aware of who their customer base is and have options available to satisfy their special needs and wants.” |
“We serve the pasta hot with sauce or cold in salad,” Gordon says. “There are even gluten-free crackers to serve on a cheese display.”
Gordon also likes to use quinoa for hearty salads dressed with citrus or basil vinaigrettes, or to mix with kale to make a cake that’s much like a crab cake.
“People have become familiar with quinoa and they like it,” he notes. “Fortunately, it is a very versatile gluten-free grain.”
Gordon describes his signature style as having an “Asian flair,” so many of his dishes call for soy sauce, which usually contains gluten. But this has not been a problem since he discovered that tamari, a gluten-free soy sauce, works just as well.
Standing Options
In response to member requests, it has now become standard for Illini Country Club in Springfield, Ill., to have at least one gluten-free option as well as several vegetarian options on its buffet and banquet menus, reports Executive Chef Mark Andrews.
“It’s not unusual that we do two or three of these special items at functions,” he adds.
Andrews relies on corn-based ingredients and products to create first-class gluten-free dishes. Grits are a favorite ingredient, and one particularly popular dish is grits, grilled shrimp and roasted tomatoes.
Illini CC gets more vegan than gluten-free requests, Andrews notes, and to honor them, he constantly comes up with inventive, entrée-worthy salads.
One such dish is a chopped salad made with broccoli and tomatoes. Noting that kale is a “huge and trending” food, he says that one of his members’ favorite salads combines the baby variety, tossed with strawberries, grapes and pecans.
“That kale salad has become so popular, it’s hard to take it off the menu,” he reports.
One of Andrews’ most successful vegan entrees is stuffed eggplant with julienned vegetables on a light roasted red pepper sauce. It can be served with pasta and mozzarella cheese, or with spinach and crispy fried basil for a vegan version. Andrews also uses a variety of grilled vegetables to make Napoleons for vegetarian and vegan guests.
“The old days of throwing six or seven vegetables and/or pasta on a plate and calling it a vegetarian or vegan entrée are gone,” he notes. “There has to be some thought and effort put into these dishes.”
Even if he does not get advance notice of a special request, Andrews makes sure there are always vegetables on the line that can be grilled to create something that will be on par with the other dishes that are being offered.
“We don’t want to make these people feel self-conscious because they have a certain need or request,” he says. “We want them to feel that we’ve taken the time and attention to make something special just for them that looks and tastes as good as anything else that is being served.”
Seeing the Light
And it is not just vegetarians and vegans who are now looking for veggie-based entrees, club chefs report. On prime rib buffet nights at Maroon Creek, Gordon says, women often look for lighter fare. He accommodates them with a variety of vegetable-based dishes such as a baby shiitake mushroom salad with bias-cut asparagus, shaved radish and a dressing of sesame oil, ginger and tamari.
“It can easily be a main dish or, if they want something more substantial, they can put a piece of grilled salmon on top,” he notes.
Both male and female members and guests are also increasingly open to trying dishes that have more healthful ingredients and preparations, even at buffets and banquets. A few summers ago, Gordon introduced a blackened tuna, seared rare, with diced cucumbers and mango that has become a regular item on Maroon Creek’s banquet menu, with persimmon substituting for the mango in winter.
For his buffets, Cavanaugh has created a salmon dish with a hash of sun chokes, fingerling potatoes, Kalamata olives and cipollini onions, all with “the clean-eating movement” in mind.
“The salmon is lean and a good source of protein, the sun choke hash is filling yet light and fresh, and kale is the most popular green these days,” he notes. “It works from an operational perspective, too, because the Romesco sauce holds up very well on the buffet.”
Andrews likes to take traditional recipes and lighten them up to help expand his menus’ versatility and appeal. For example, he will make chicken and dumplings with a chicken puree instead of a flour-based sauce. And, instead of a cream sauce for his pesto chicken, he will marinate the chicken, use a light broth, and serve it with an artichoke and sun-dried tomato salad.
He also likes to sauce chicken and seafood “Vera Cruz style,” using a fresh spicy sauce made with onions, tomato, poblano peppers, garlic, white wine, lime juice and fresh herbs such as cilantro, basil and oregano, instead of relying on butter and heavier sauces for flavor.
“The herbs really lift the flavor of the dish,” he notes. “And it’s a great sauce for vegan dishes.”
With people now speaking up more about their special dietary needs and preferences, it makes it more important that everyone on the restaurant staff—on both sides of the house—knows how menus have been, and can, be expanded to accommodate the “exceptions” that are now becoming much more of the rule, Cavanaugh says. “During our line-ups, we make sure everyone knows which items are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan and more healthful,” he notes.
Recipe for Kale and Quinoa Cake
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.