S.A. Hospitality Careers

Some like it hot …

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:31:16 +0000

By François Ferreira

Chillies have long been regarded as a powerful aphrodisiac. They are also known as a pain reliever, a cure for the common cold and even a guardian against evil spirits. Chillies come in an array of vibrant colours, but beware, even though they might be pretty, they are really hot stuff and very addictive.

The chilli pepper has a dual culinary personality. Used fresh, it is a vegetable (or to be more precise, a fruit). In its dry form, it is a spice. As a member of the capsicum family, it is the fiery cousin of the sweet bell pepper and the relatively mild paprika pepper. It shares the same name as black pepper, but it is not, in fact, related.

The heat of the chilli is measured on the Scoville scale. William Scoville was a chemist who experimented with capsaicin, the heat source of the chilli. In Scoville heat units, a mild chilli measures about 1000, while a very hot variety like the African bird’s eye can measure up to 300 000 units.

There is also the simple 1 to 10 scale, 1 being mild and 10 being the hottest.

Heat scale of chillies

Thai Dragon – 8/10

Curved shape, starts out green and turns red

Cayenne – 8/10

Most commonly grown in South Africa, used for chilli powders

Jalapeno – 5/10

Plump chilli that starts off green, ripening into yellow/orange and then a deep red

Habanero – 10/10

Infamous for their heat, a bell-shaped, green fruit that ripens to red, orange or yellow

Serrano – 6/10

Dark green chilli that ripens to a vibrant red

Inferno – 6/10

Large lime green chillies which turn orange and red when ripe. Good size for chilli poppers

African Bird’s Eye – 10/10

A small fruit that starts out green and then turns bright red. Great for making peri-peri sauce

Bishop’s Crown – 3/10

Distinctive shape that starts out green and matures through a bright orange to a vibrant red.

Here as a few recipes, you might find interesting, do try them!

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Tomatoes – the love apple

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:30:40 +0000

By François Ferreira

The French call it pomme d’amour’ (love apple), the Italians pomodoro (golden apple), the Aztecs ‘tomatl’, but in English, it is simply tomato.

Botanically, the tomato is a fruit (actually a berry), but for all practical purposes, at least in North America and Europe, cooks use it as a vegetable. This red, sometimes golden-coloured “fruit” belongs to the nightshade family and was for a a long time believed to be poisonous. Although the leaves are indeed poisonous, the delicious tomato is versatile. It can be used in salads, in sauces, as a garnish, fried, grilled, pickled, dried, made to a paste, canned and used as a colouring for pastas. Many South Americans regard it as the most scrumptious of all fruits and eat it with a pinch of salt.

The wild tomato is indigenous to Peru and Ecuador, but the Aztecs and other Central American Indian nations were first to cultivate it. Several strains were developed and even today, researchers develop tomatoes with different characteristics. The most notable, a few years ago, was a strain that contained in its DNA a fish gene to make it more resistant to frost. Mercifully, it never caught on.

Mediterranean nations, Portuguese, Spaniards and Italians took to the tomato; in other countries, the plant enjoyed an ornamental status. This ignorance lasted for approximately two centuries, fuelled by the physicians of the time who were warning that tomatoes had no nutritional value and caused all kinds of diseases.

Surprisingly, although tomato is indigenous to South America, it reached North American via Europe, and was taken there by the pilgrims. It became popular in 1820 only after Colonel Robert Johnson ate a large quantity of tomatoes in front of thousands of spectators who believed he would die. Today, tomatoes are grown on all continents, and in different sizes. Cooks everywhere use it in one form or another, even in regions too cold to grow this sub-tropical and fragile plant.

North Americans love tomatoes and expect to find it on grocery shelves throughout the year, whereas in most other countries, it is consumed fresh in season. Out of season, people eat pickled tomatoes, sauce, or canned tomatoes prepared in one of many ways. Actually, around the Mediterranean, people rarely use canned foods. There is a natural resistance to canned food, but gradually this aversion seems to be changing, particularly with improved quality of cans that preserve the taste better than those used in the past.

The best sauce tomatoes grow just outside of Naples in San Marzano. In fact, pizza sauce was invented there. To an Italian, pizza is a thin dough laced with tomato sauce, onions, basil and mozzarella, and eaten as an appetizer. American-style, thick-crust doughy pizza has been imported to Italy, and seems to be popular with American tourists who flock there by the millions every year.

Once tomato became popular, hybridizers and plant researchers set out to ”improve” it by breeding variations in colour, size, texture, and cold resistance. Today there are thousands of varieties, but only a few have commercial value; the rest go under the collective title of heirloom tomatoes.

Tomatoes are by far the healthiest of the fruits and vegetables with the power to ward off some of the worst known diseases. One of the best-known tomato-eating benefits is its lycopene content. Lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that helps in the fight against cancerous cell formation as well as other kinds of health complications and diseases.

New research is beginning to indicate that tomatoes may also be used to help prevent lung cancer. Two powerful compounds found in tomatoes – coumaric acid and chlorogenic acid – are thought to block the effects of nitrosamines. These are compounds that not only are formed naturally in the body, but also are the strongest carcinogen in tobacco smoke. By blocking the effects of these nitrosamines, the chances of lung cancer are reduced significantly.

The largest producer of tomatoes in South Africa is ZZ2. ZZ2 is a farming conglomerate operating in Mooketsi, Politsi, Polokwane and Musina in the Limpopo Province, Ceres and Riebeek West in the Western Cape and Langkloof in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

ZZ2 produces tomatoes, onions, avocados, apples, pears and cattle. Tomatoes are the main crop with in the region of 160 000 tonnes being produced annually. ZZ2 is a world leader in tomato production and large-scale biological farming practices. Natuurboerdery® is the name given by ZZ2 to this agricultural approach.

Tomato varietals produced by ZZ2:

Long Shelf Life (LSL) tomatoes which are the normal round tomatoes used for salads and cooking. These sweet tomatoes with a hint of acidity are the tomatoes that are the staple food of the nation.
Roma tomatoes, also known as saladette or jam tomatoes, are great for sauces, being a little bit fleshier than the LSL tomatoes. ZZ2 has branded these tomatoes their “Italian Roma tomatoes”.
Cocktails – ZZ2’s flagship here is the Romanita. It is a sweet, crunchy mini plum tomato with an incredible shelf life. ZZ2 also grows Santé type tomatoes which are smaller than the Romanita and have been called ZZ2’s “Spanish Santé”.

Resources:

Portrait of the Tomato – Catherine Quévremont

www.zz2.co.za

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Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Celebrating the Art of the Table

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:29:43 +0000

By François Ferreira

The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is a global association whose focus is brotherhood, friendship, camaraderie and sharing a passion for the culinary arts, and the only gastronomic association which welcomes both non-professional and professional members. The non-professional members are cherished of course, as they eat out at the professional members’ hotels and restaurants! Membership status of la Chaîne is recognised internationally and is transferable worldwide.

The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs was created under the 1901 French law regarding associations, with its International Headquarters based in Paris. At its head is a President with a Secretary General and a Board of Directors. The day to day running is organized by National, Provincial and Local Bailliages. A National Bailliage is managed by its Bailli Délégué (National President), assisted by a Council. Members are inducted into the Chaîne at Grand Chapitre gala events: three-day social and educational events that culminate in the induction of new members. Members wear ribbons at such events which denote their level of membership, whether professional or non-professional. These designations are standard in all Bailliages worldwide. Professionals in the kitchen have orange ribbons, front of house – orange and purple; non- professionals – purple trimmed with blue.

The South African National Bailliage was established in 1981 in Johannesburg. Thereafter the Bailliage du Cap was established in 1982. Today the Bailliage National d’Afrique du Sud boasts six Bailliage (regions), namely Du Cap, Outeniqua, KwaZulu Natal, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Lowveld. Each region is managed by a Bailli and a committee.

The Chaîne Oath

I shall always honour the art of cuisine and the culture of the table, and I shall always fulfil my obligations of brotherhood and of respect for my fellow members.

Networking possibilities are numerous especially for a member who travels frequently. Members have access to:

Nearly 18 000 non-professional members who are passionate about culinary arts and fine wine

Nearly 7 000 prestigious professionals encompassing all disciplines of culinary arts

More than 200 international conferences, facilities, service companies and catering services specialists

More than 200 prestigious universities, hotel and cookery schools

More than 250 vineyards in some of the most beautiful winemaking regions and wine wholesalers

Nearly 90 cruise lines and airline companies

Head chefs, young chefs of the future and sommeliers in more than 2 200 restaurants around the world, including famous names in the culinary world (2- and 3-stars Michelin, master craftsmen, Meilleurs Ouvriers de France)

General Managers of some 3 000high-end establishments on five continents

Nearly 180 private clubs

The Chaîne invests in the youth of the hospitality sector by organising the Jeunes Chef Rôtisseurs Competition (Young Chef Competition) as well as the Jeunes Sommelier Competition on regional, national, and international levels.

Being a member of la Chaîne means you are part of a worldwide community in which you can network and build relationships – professional or social.

For more information, go to www.chainedesrotisseurs.com or www.chaine.co.za

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South African Brandy – Liquid Gold

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:28:27 +0000

“We have been taught from childhood to regard a good brandy as the best and most perfect product of the vine, and therefore as the crowning achievement of the wine farmer.” – C Louis Leipoldt, South African poet, medical doctor, botanist and amateur chef, 1880 – 1947″

“Claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero, must drink brandy.” – Samuel Johnson, English poet, critic and writer, 1709 – 1784″

Brandy has been made in our country for more than three and a half centuries, and today South Africa is the fifth largest producer of brandy in the world.

According to the history books, the first brandy distillation took place in the Cape in 1672 when an assistant cook on board a Dutch ship, De Pijl, at anchor in Table Bay, distilled about 1000 litres of Cape wine into 130 litres of brandy. It seems that the cook did a roaring trade selling his brandy to bars whose owners apparently accepted even items of clothing as payment from patrons desperate for a tot.

From these humble beginnings, South African brandy producers went from strength to strength. Today the majority of brandy is consumed locally, but as more and more foreign visitors are exposed to our brandies, the demand for export has grown.

The extremely exacting production regulations and quality standards of the South African industry make the South African brandies very attractive to connoisseurs worldwide and the rising number of international awards for excellence shows just how well they are rated. In the last 16 years of the International Wine and Spirit Competition, South African brandies have won the Trophy for Worldwide Brandy no fewer than 14 times.

Made entirely from South African grapes, these brandies are crafted in a range of styles to suit a variety of palates. From herbs and hay which are distinctive in younger brandies, to traces of dried peaches, figs, apples, citrus, Christmas cake, oak and cigar box in those matured up to 20 years.

The word “brandy” comes from the Dutch word brandewijn, literally meaning “burnt” or “distilled” wine. Brandy is the only alcoholic drink made from another alcoholic drink, namely wine. Brandy is the distillate of the fermented juice of grapes. It contains no other spirit product.

There are two ways of distilling, namely potstill or column still. Potstill is a batch process and column still is a continuous distillation. In South Africa the spirit must, by law, be aged in French oak for a minimum of three years. Lastly, it is blended according to the brandy master’s special recipe and bottled for resale.

There are three styles of brandy:

Blended standard brandy: This style is not as flavoured as a potstill brandy and can be served cold with mixers – which makes it very popular in South Africa. A blended brandy is a blend made of 30% potstilled brandy, aged for a minimum of three years, and 70% unmatured wine spirit produced in a column still. It is bottled at 43% ABV (alcohol by volume) for the South African market and 40% ABV for export.

Vintage brandy: This brandy has a distinctive wood maturation character when compared with potstill and blended brandy. It contains a minimum of 30% potstilled brandy, matured for at least eight years, a maximum of 60% column still spirit, matured for at least eight years, and a maximum of 10% unmatured wine spirits. It is generally served neat, over ice or with a dash of water. It is bottled at 38% ABV. The age listed on the label of the bottle will refer to the vintage of the youngest component in the vintage blend, which is generally the largest portion.

Potstill brandy: ThisIs the richest and most layered brandy of the three types. Its complexity comes from the rich, fruity aromas concentrated during the potstill distillation and the spicy, vanilla and woody bouquet obtained during wood maturation. Potstill brandy is generally enjoyed neat, with a dash of mineral water or with a block of ice. It must contain a minimum of 90% potstilled brandy, matured for at least three years, and no more than 10% unmatured wine spirits and is bottled at 38% ABV.

Brandy is not a cognac, as the term cognac is reserved exclusively for brandies produced in the Cognac region of south-west France. As with South African potstill brandies, cognacs are produced using a double distillation in copper pot stills and are aged for at least 30 months, although more often between five and 20 years at the time of bottling.

In The Devil’s Dictionary Ambrose Pierce describes brandy as follows:

A cordial composed of:

one part thunder-and-lightning,
one part remorse,
two parts bloody murder,
one part death-hell-and-the-grave, and
four parts … clarified … Satan.

If that is so, then a large portion of South Africans must be sinners!

Sources:

Fire Water – by South African Brandy Foundation; ISBN 978-0-9802651-1-8

www.sabrandy.co.za

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Chef’s Pick: Tomatoes

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:27:19 +0000

The French call it pomme d’amour’ (love apple), the Italians pomodoro (golden apple), the Aztecs ‘tomatl’, but in English, it is simply tomato.

Botanically, the tomato is a fruit (actually a berry), but for all practical purposes, at least in North America and Europe, cooks use it as a vegetable. This red, sometimes golden-coloured “fruit” belongs to the nightshade family and was for a a long time believed to be poisonous. Although the leaves are indeed poisonous, the delicious tomato is versatile. It can be used in salads, in sauces, as a garnish, fried, grilled, pickled, dried, made to a paste, canned and used as a colouring for pastas. Many South Americans regard it as the most scrumptious of all fruits and eat it with a pinch of salt.

The wild tomato is indigenous to Peru and Ecuador, but the Aztecs and other Central American Indian nations were first to cultivate it. Several strains were developed and even today, researchers develop tomatoes with different characteristics. The most notable, a few years ago, was a strain that contained in its DNA a fish gene to make it more resistant to frost. Mercifully, it never caught on.

When Spanish conquistadors first encountered tomatoes in the beginning of the 16th century (1520s), they found both the taste and textural characteristics of tomato intriguing enough to take the seeds back to Spain. By 1544, southern Italians are said to have been enjoying tomatoes without salt and pepper, and called it ‘pomodoro’. At that time, pepper was a precious commodity, and Italians might have thought the tomato not worth it!

Mediterranean nations, Portuguese, Spaniards and Italians took to the tomato; in other countries, the plant enjoyed an ornamental status. This ignorance lasted for approximately two centuries, fuelled by the physicians of the time who were warning that tomatoes had no nutritional value and caused all kinds of diseases.

Surprisingly, although tomato is indigenous to South America, it reached North American via Europe, and was taken there by the pilgrims. It became popular in 1820 only after Colonel Robert Johnson ate a large quantity of tomatoes in front of thousands of spectators who believed he would die. Today, tomatoes are grown on all continents, and in different sizes. Cooks everywhere use it in one form or another, even in regions too cold to grow this sub-tropical and fragile plant.

Tomato varietals produced by ZZ2:

Long Shelf Life (LSL) tomatoes which are the normal round tomatoes used for salads and cooking. These sweet tomatoes with a hint of acidity are the tomatoes that are the staple food of the nation.
Roma tomatoes, also known as saladette or jam tomatoes, are great for sauces, being a little bit fleshier than the LSL tomatoes. ZZ2 has branded these tomatoes their “Italian Roma tomatoes”.
Cocktails – ZZ2’s flagship here is the Romanita. It is a sweet, crunchy mini plum tomato with an incredible shelf life. ZZ2 also grows Santé type tomatoes which are smaller than the Romanita and have been called ZZ2’s “Spanish Santé”.

Recources:

Portrait of the Tomato – Catherine Quévremont www.zz2.co.za

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Heritage cooks: Acknowledged and remembered

fuxjaeger — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:23:47 +0000

By François Ferreira

These days celebrity chefs are the order of the day. We have TV channels devoted to food and the chefs have a following worldwide. Before the advent of TV in 1976, South Africans had the printed media and the radio to get information about life in the rest of the world. During these years – 70s, 80s and early 90s – there were cooks who changed the perception of food in South Africa and introduced South Africans to a whole new world of tastes in their own country.

Renata Coetzee, nutritionist, researcher, lecturer, opened a whole new world of tastes in her book Funa – food from Africa and South African culinary tradition. Renata recorded the food habits and practices of the indigenous cultures of Southern Africa. Through her arduous research and sensitive understanding of a food culture so unlike her own, she succeeded in offering readers and students of culinary art a personal glimpse into the indigenous home and hearth. The recipes were adapted to modern cooking methods, inspiring chefs to include dishes such as Umngqusho, Umfino and Isjingi on their menus, with their own twist, of course. Renata is not with us any more but she leaves a great legacy.

Cass Abrahams is well known for her informative presentations on Cape Malay cuisine and culture. Her book, Cass Abrahams cooks Cape Malay (first published in 1995) gave all hobby cooks and chefs an insight into the history of Cape Malay cuisine. Quite deservedly described as “a cook with a velvet touch for good food”, she has a never-ending urge to share her knowledge with all who care to partake of the sensuous tastes of Cape Malay cuisine, which she calls “food for Africa”.

Lannice Snyman got all and sundry excited about South African cuisine in her book, Rainbow Cuisine, first published in 1998, with Andrzej Sawa taking breath-taking photographs of every province in South Africa. She first impressed all with her pragmatic approach to food as the Food Editor of the Sunday Times. She got her readers to use everyday ingredients in an exciting new way. In Rainbow Cuisine she took this attitude to ingredients further and taught all to turn everyday food into restaurant style cuisine. Lannice left us too soon.

Peter Veldsman’s book, Kos van die Eeu, gave a retrospective look at the development of South African cuisine over the last century. This book showed the cross pollination of cultures in South Africa: Nguni, Sotho, British, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, township, Malay and Indian. By showing the reader that South Africa has a cuisine heritage to be proud of, Veldsman makes sure that the foundation of our cuisine is strong and can only grow from here.

There are many other cooks and chefs who have contributed and still contribute to our cuisine. These four cooks, don’t you dare calling them chefs, have changed the thinking of more than one generation. By doing this, they have ensured that we stay excited about our colourful culinary heritage as well as innovative in creating new tastes derived from our rich past.

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Choosing a Learning Institution for Vocational Studies

fuxjaeger — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 07:28:52 +0000

By June Steenekamp

From a young age school goers are guided by their parents, teachers, and career counselors to make career choices. A huge amount of time is spent on researching careers and careers paths. Even with so much information and assistance available, it is still very difficult to make those choices. Often, once students have started their studies, they realise that their initial career choice is not what they actually want to do. To decide what career to follow is one of the hardest choices in life a person has to make.

As a Training and Development Consultant I often receive emails or calls from parents and friends whose children want to follow a career in Culinary Arts or Hospitality Studies and they ask for my advice. The questions are usually: “What institution do you recommend?” “What school is the best school to study?”

My standard answer is simple – I cannot recommend a college or institution. The parents/sponsor and student must research and visit various institutions to find out what is the best suited for the student and the career he or she wants to follow. It is not so hard to make a choice on where one should study, providing that one has done thorough research.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a learning institution, such as location, fees, accommodation, traveling, parking costs, extra mural activities offered etc.

Further to the above considerations, I have provided a list with tips to follow when choosing a Learning Institution:

Is the institution accredited by the local regulators or do they have endorsements from foreign awarding bodies, and do they have affiliations with other institutions or associations? When contacting Training Providers (Learning Institutions) ask them for their Training Provider Accreditation or Centre Approval numbers or certificates. Visit the Regulatory Authorities or Awarding Bodies’ websites or call them to make sure that the Training Providers are legitimate organisations.

Ensure the qualification you are undertaking is registered on a regulatory framework, for example, National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in South Africa, or for example, if the qualification is a UK qualification that it is registered on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF). If a qualification is on a regulated framework, it means that it can be evaluated by regulators in different countries.

Culinary and Hospitality qualifications are occupational qualifications, which means that the programs should be focused on practical skills. If you are, for example, doing a cook, chefs or another culinary qualification, the majority of your time should be learning the practical application of cookery. Ask the institution how many days a week, and for how long every day, you will be spending on practical cookery. If the school spends more time on theory than practical cookery, a red flag should go up. The same principle applies for Food and Beverage qualifications, or Accommodation Service qualifications – the focus should be on the practical application.

What qualifications and experience do the trainers/lecturers have? Is last year’s best student this year’s trainer; this should raise another red flag! Ask the trainers what work experience they have, how long they have been training, and how long they have been training at the particular institution.

What is the trainer to student ratio? Find out how many students are in a theory class and how many in a practical class. Practical skills training requires smaller classes than theory classes.

Examine the facilities – are they safe, in a clean and good condition? Are the training rooms well equipped? Ask how many learners have access to a stove/oven/equipment? You definitely do not want to share one stove with five other students!

Ask for a list of names of alumni who you can contact to get references.

Ask the institution what are included in the fees i.e., uniforms, knife sets, learning material, examination fees, stationery, excursions, competitions etc.

Does the institution assist learners financially i.e., do they assist with bursaries, scholarships, providing letters for student bank loans, do they have payment plans?

Does the institution provide a workplace experience if it is not prescribed in the qualification requirement? How much time is spent at the institution, and how much is spent in industry? What type of workplace will they be sending you for work experience? Will the Training Provider be monitoring learners while in the workplace?

Does the institution assist the student with finding a job after graduating? What support does the training provider give the learner to finding employment?

Visit the training institutions to get a firsthand feel of the establishment and ask as many questions as possible when contacting the prospective training institutions.

Remember; the more research effort you put in before choosing, the more likely you won’t regret your choice later.

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TRENDS AND EMERGING CHALLENGES IN THE FOODSERVICE SECTOR OF THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

fuxjaeger — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 14:28:39 +0000

Susina Jooste

When considering the development in the food production and foodservice sectors of the hospitality industry, it is evident that some trends follow a life-time cycle while others re-appear after a few years. Trends usually have a longer than ten-year lifespan which show upward or downward tendencies, as they are affected by broad external factors that influence specific industries. This discussion focuses on some of the prominent trends in various upward growth stages and indicates how it aligns with emerging challenges and the development of innovative technology for the foodservice sector.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution for the foodservice sector

The ‘Fourth’ Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 is not just about technology, but more about an emerging and disruptive interdependence of supply-driven technological innovations and demand-driven businesses. According to Fahnle (2019), the Fourth Industrial Revolution will even change the way in how we understand to be human and state that “our perceptions of humanity will shift as intelligence is increasingly augmented, personality is present in machines, tissue is being regrown and renewed, muscle and skeletal systems are improved, and brains are retrained to respond to compensatory artificial stimuli”.

There is however reason for concern when observing that the foodservice sector might be falling behind and not yet fully acknowledging the impact that Industry 4.0will have on individual businesses and their customers. People, process, product and technology should develop in parallel to create an environment in which Industry 4.0 practices are applied for sustainable success. The growth and popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT), supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI), will have major impacts on food production systems, -supply chains, -storage, -processing, -safety and -service. Innovative technology that makes use of big data analytics to better understand customer behaviours or connected devices to improve food safety are becoming common use in the foodservice industry. A few current examples of innovative technology include:

Counter systems that can track when, where and which food is served to specific customers, and which can identify their unique preferences, personal and demographic information.
Intelligent refrigerated storage which can help managing the purchasing process as it not only keeps track of the exact amount of stock at hand, but also of each item’s expiry date.
Technology to monitor a product’s lifecycle, including food rescue Apps, which contribute to maintaining food safety practises and assist in the management of food waste.
Intelligent labelling which integrates wireless labelling, software applications and cloud platforms to enable consumers to scan product labels with their smart phones to obtain detailed product information, while also providing data to the manufacturer about the consumer’s location, preferences, buying patterns and demography.
A new type of Pasteurisation which make perishable food shelf-stable for up to three months, such as ‘fresh’ potato fries, which were usually sold frozen.
Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), a vacuum packaging system that improves safety and extend the shelf-life of perishable food products by reducing the oxygen levels inside the packaged food. According to Sizer and Whitney (2020:457), “the food is packaged in a gas-impermeable container from which air is removed or to which an oxygen-free gas mixture, such as carbon-dioxide and nitrogen, is added to deprive microbes of oxygen”. Typically, these food items include soft fresh pasta or gnocchi that are available on supermarket shelfs in plastic pouches. Reduced oxygen levels inhibit the growth of micro-organisms that depend on oxygen for survival, prevents the discoloration of vegetables and fruit, slows ripening of fruit, slows enzyme-induces vitamin breakdown and prevents fats from becoming rancid.
More and more foodservice operations are moving away from presenting hard copy menus to customers and digital or touchless menus are becoming the norm. Customers use their mobile phones to scan a Quick Response (QR) code that is displayed in the restaurant or on the table to instantly access detailed information about the menu and the organisation. One of the biggest advantages of presenting the menu by means of a QR code is that the organisation can easily change and update all menus to ensure accuracy of information, while specific menu items can also be visually emphasised to promote sales.

Health, vegetarianism and plant-based foods

One of the most consistent trends in the foodservice industry is the ever-increasing demand for and prominence of healthy food. The growing awareness of the nutritional value of food items is not only visible in the expansion of specialist health food shops, but also on restaurant menus and in everyday eating patterns in most households. The current consumer is nutritionally conscious and informed, and they continuously consider the nutritional content of the food they eat and its long-term effect on their health. Some fast-food franchises are specialising in healthy food and offering an increasing number of vegetarian options. The multinational fast-food franchise, McDonald’s, has recently diversified its menus to include items with lower fat, salt, or sugar content. Vegetarianism is no longer considered as the exception to the rule and more people are changing to a vegetarian lifestyle, not only because of the health benefits of reduced fat and cholesterol, but also for economic reasons since non-meat products are, on average, less expensive and more sustainable. Vegetables are no longer considered as a side-dish but presented as the main component in many meals. Upmarket restaurants are trending by introducing new ways to include items such as kale, spinach, chickpeas, lentils, and wider options of indigenous and traditional plant-based foods on their menus.

Traceability and food safety

According to the definition of the European Union, (EU, 2007), traceability refers to “the ability to track any food, food-producing animal, or any substance that will be used for consumption, through all the stages of production, processing, and distribution”. Consumers are not only concerned about the nutritional value and safety of their food, but also about its origin and how it was grown and cultivated. Tracing food through the production and distribution chain is important to identify and address risks to protect public health since traceability is in essence a risk-management system which allows authorities to withdraw or recall products that might have been identified as unsafe. Traceability forms the cornerstone of food safety policies worldwide.

Local communities and hyper-local food

The awareness to support local producers in the sourcing of food has increased further during the COVID-19 pandemic. This preference for locally sourced food items can be linked to health value and freshness, the reduced carbon emissions associated with transportation of fresh food, and the growing effort to support the smaller producers in specific communities. Home-grown or organically grown produce are sought after and prominent on supermarkets shelves and at community- and farmers markets. Many large franchises – such as McDonald’s and Burger King – already advertise that their beef is locally sourced. Restaurateurs and chefs are increasingly indicating on their menus if the food items were sourced locally by referring to its origin on their menus, for example Karoo lamb or Weskus snoek. Foodservice professionals are conscious about supporting local producers and prefer to buy the local dairy’s cheese instead of buying imported Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy, for example. There is also a trend towards replacing iconic international items, such as Norwegian Salmon, on the menus of upmarket restaurants with seafood items from local and environmentally friendly aquaculture production units, such as Franschhoek trout.

Hyperlocal foods mean that most of the ingredients used on the menus of a specific establishment were grown, raised, or cultivated by the foodservice organisation itself. This include anything from herbs, salads, vegetables, or fruit grown on the premises, the use of eggs that was laid by free-range poultry on the estate, rearing of own cattle or pigs and the production of wines, the brewing of craft beers or the making of cheese on the same site.

The food waste emergency

It is estimated that billions of tonnes of food are thrown away by foodservice organisations each year. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an estimated one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food loss typically happens during the food value chain (production, storage, processing or distribution) while Food waste refers to food that is of good quality and fit for consumption but are discarded because was left to spoil.

Foodservice organisations are further generally considered as some of the largest abusers of energy and producers of waste and are now forced to respond to the pressure of becoming more environmentally friendly while remaining financially sustainable. Movements such as ‘soil to stomach’, ‘farm-to-fork’, ‘nose-to-tail’, ‘root to shoot’ are important to create awareness to control waste, limit the distance that products are transported and motivate chefs to utilise the whole food item. Chefs are creating new menu items to incorporate every edible part of the food commodity and re-focussing on making less-popular parts of an animal or plants more appealing to customers.

Wellbeing of people and place

The impact of food production, food processing, foodservice operations, buying systems and consumer patterns on the natural environment is a major concern in most countries. Foodservice organisations are taking actions to lower their environmental footprint and is switching to recyclable packaging or buying more environmentally friendly items – such as oil and cleaning supplies. Restaurants and fast-foods outlets are increasingly supporting the principles of environmentally friendliness, ethical farming and buying, and the sourcing of organic and preservative-free ingredients. Movements such as Fair Trade and Slow Food are contributing to create awareness and support the wellbeing of employees and local traditions.

Value for money fast-foods, convenience and food deliveries

According to Thomas (2019), the income of most households across the world has shrunk in recent years. The Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) observed that consumer demands for affordable fast-food has contributed to the expansion of fast-food brands and with emphasis on ‘value-for-money’ product offerings, such as a standard burger at bargain price or a happy hour two-for-the-price-of-one pizza offer (Murray, 2016). Restaurants and Fast-Food outlets which offer more affordable options are doing exceptionally good business in southern Africa, specifically since these menu items cater for a broader range of demographics. Rapid urbanisation is increasingly changing the eating patterns and lifestyles of people in South Africa as rural-to-urban migrants tend to shift from eating traditional food to eating more convenient and fast- foods. According to StatsSA (2021), the demand for convenient and safe access to fast-food and food deliveries has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as people are scared to go out, and because of increased financial pressure on individuals and households. The global food delivery market is estimated to be worth over $100 billion and it is predicted that it will double between 2020 and 2023 (Lawrence, 2020). This boom in the delivery market is giving way to another emerging trend of Ghost Kitchens.

Ghost Kitchens and effective use of smaller spaces

Foodservice organisations are moving away from producing and serving meals in a traditional restaurant set-up in a prime location and with amazing décor and the finest cutlery and crockery to impress guests. Rising costs of prime locations are reconsidered, and investments are made in off-site kitchens for basic food preparation. With no customers on the premises, extra care can also be taken to ensure that food is prepared safely and hygienically. These ‘Ghost Kitchens’ will not be visited by the guest, but only by the staff (and robots) who are processing the food and the delivery people who are driving through to do the picking up. Conventional restaurant kitchens are evolving and with ever-increasing lease payments for rented space, smaller and more effective spaces for the preparation and storage are becoming the norm. The key is to select equipment that is uniform in size, movable and adaptable for more than one use. Existing spaces are also being adapted to be used for more than one purpose during different times of the day or week.

Superfoods, exotic foods and future foods

Although there does not exist a single superfood item, the term generally refers to plant-based food items that are nutrient rich and have a supposedly positive affect on health, with ‘natural’ quality attributes, associations with ‘exotic’ places of origin and a history of traditional or indigenous use. Superfoods is a term that is often misused for marketing purposes to influence food trends and sell products from prominent health-food brands. Grains, pulses, leavy greens, berries, nuts and seeds are all considered superfoods.

Future Foods are based on high nutritional value, low environmental impact, availability, and affordability. It is predicted that the world’s population will grow to approximately 9 billion by 2050 and therefore securing food for everyone will become more challenging. Most of the world population will be living in cities, with increasing demands for processed foods and protein. Lab-grown and plant-based meat are becoming a reality as current cattle farming methods may not remain sustainable, even if many people are reducing their meat intake. Lab-grown meat is considered future meat as it requires less farmland, less energy, and less water to produce. Many insects including mealworms, crickets or flies are protein rich and contain healthy fats and essential minerals. They also reproduce fast and without major effects on the environment. Although some people may have an aversion to the idea of eating insects, the demand for protein-rich food will keep growing and energy bars, spreads, ice-creams, snacks and other products enriched with edible insects are already available in local markets.

The trends and emerging challenges discussed in the preceding paragraphs might provide some direction for hospitality management graduates when they are planning their future careers and for training institutions, food production and -service organisations when they are doing strategic planning and forecasting. While some aspects of the foodservice industry are timeless, there will always be new trends as well as new challenges that impacts the success and sustainability of the foodservice industry.

NOTE 1: This article is based on information from the new textbook: Jooste, SM., Engelbrecht, WH. Eds. 2021. Foodservice Management -an African Perspective. Van Schaik.

NOTE 2: Our next discussion will focus on future careers for hospitality and culinary graduates.

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