2013 Food Trends -- Survey says!

Survey Says -- 2013 Food Trends

Each year the National Restaurant Association, the world's largest foodservice trade surveys the more than 1,800 professional chefs, members of the American Culinary Federation and members of the United States Bartenders Guild asks "What's Hot?" The results forecast the menu trends for the coming year.

What were the results? In a word -- Local. Locally grown. Locally sourced. Locally produced. And even a term called Hyper-local sourcing.   Locally grown refers to fruits and vegetables. Locally sourced refers to meat. Locally produced refers to beer, wine and spirits. Hyper-local sourcing refers to the roof top gardens on top of restaurants.

How does Pittsburgh stack up with the trends? A quick web search shows many choices for all including local farms, markets, bistros and brew pubs. Even roof top gardens can be found in places like the David Lawrence Convention Center and Six Penn Kitchen.

Seat Belts -- A trend that saves lives!

Seat belt use climbed to an all time high in 2012.  Nine out of 10 people are choosing to buckle up according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration climbing from 15% in 1984 to 86% in 2012. AAA states that even in today's era of active safety systems and crumple zones seat belts remain the single most effective safety device for preventing death and injury.  

Websites to discover --

Brownielocks and the Three Bears (www.brownielocks.com) is a website that has been around for more than 10 years but I only bookmarked it a little more than year ago or so when my friend, Becky, talked about it at a meeting. If you are an event planner, school teacher or anyone looking for a theme for an event or school project then Brownielocks is the place to go. Pick a month -- any month -- and there are listings for holidays, weeks of or month of celebrations and awareness. For example: Did you know there was a National Hot Dog Day? (July 17th) or that May is Go Fetch! Food Drive for Homeless Animals Month.

The creator of  Brownielocks said she did it as a fun way for older children to learn.   Which means to me that listings on the site are actual days, that the illustrations are cute without being silly and the content is "G" rated.

For people like me who like to plan ahead, the listings are for all months and not just one at a time. While the current month is the centerpiece, you can still access previous months or go click to choose future months. If a day or month has a link, they are also posted.

A great website to discover.