Author: Flavor & The Menu Staff

PHOTO CREDIT: Flavor & The Menu Staff Just a few months after opening one of the four SuViche locations in Florida, the pressure was on. “In a packed restaurant, and still being rookies, we had a line of tickets coming in—they were all ceviches,” says Jaime Pesaque, Executive Chef. “As we scrambled to prep these quickly in a tiny kitchen, one of the cooks poured the wrong sauce on one of the ceviches. I noticed the mistake and set the dish aside as we continued to push out food as quickly as we could. When it finally slowed down,...

PHOTO CREDIT: Flavor & The Menu Staff Breakfast skillets are the original bowl builds, really, using potatoes as a base and often crowning the dish with decadent, melty cheese. At Hacienda Colorado, the Brunch Skillet modernizes the build, starting with a foundation of crispy hash browns in a spicy queso blanco, then layering on scrambled eggs and chorizo. The skillet is topped with fresh avocado, red bell pepper, poblano pepper and cilantro, and a bit of limón crema. With such a small, but strategic switch, fresh and seasonal cues are the first things the diner sees in the Brunch...

PHOTO CREDIT: Flavor & The Menu Staff Breakfast is booming as a daypart, with clever tweaks appealing to today’s diners. So when First Watch introduced its Italian Benedict as an alternative to the classic Eggs Benedict, the reception was enthusiastic. The “daytime café” began subbing ciabatta in place of English muffins in their LTOs. That was successful, so it moved forward. “This dish starts with double-toasted ciabatta as the base, then we layer scrambled cage-free eggs, house-roasted Roma tomatoes and Parmesan cream sauce,” says Shane Schaibly, Corporate Chef. “This is all topped off with paper-thin prosciutto and fresh parsley...

PHOTO CREDIT: Flavor & The Menu Staff Sometimes the Next Big Thing is right under your nose. “The katsu is kind of a sleeper hit,” says Stephen Gerike, Director of Foodservice Marketing and Innovation for the National Pork Board. “People are discovering ramen, and katsu is usually right there on the same menu.” Hailing from Japan, the original dish is tonkatsu, a breaded and fried pork cutlet typically served with short-grain rice, finely shaved cabbage, Kewpie mayonnaise and katsu sauce—a fruit-forward, savory-sweet barbecue sauce with undertones of dates. “The Katsu Sando is an iteration of tonkatsu,” says Gerike. In...