Monday, August 6
Flavor Experience Registration Patio Room
- Meet CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees), official charity of The Flavor Experience
- Meet ProStart – Helping to build future leaders for our industry!
- Meet Round It Up – a new restaurant program to help feed those in need
The BEST in Beverages and a Bite of the 2012 Flavor Trends
Free Evening
Tuesday, August 7
Registration and Attendee Services Plaza Arbor
RIDING THE WAVE OF FLAVOR BREAKFAST Plaza Arbor
WELCOME & Conference Overview Plaza Ballroom
Sharyn Iler President BSI Conferences, Inc. and The Flavor ExperienceWHAT AMERICA EATS
Dr. Elizabeth Sloan President/Owner Sloan Trends, Inc.EMERGING GLOBAL FLAVOR TRENDS: Ready for Prime Time on Your Menu!
Darren Tristano Executive Vice President TechnomicHEADS or TAILS
Brief Networking Break
A PERSONAL GLOBAL FLAVOR EXPERIENCE; Tour the sights, sounds, smells, tastes & traditions of international dining, with relevance to the US!
Recognition of Pro-Start
LIVE: Think Outside the Drink Beverage Innovators Discussion
Donna Hood Crecca Senior Director, Beverage TechnomicFOCUS ON FLAVOR Tasting Luncheon Plaza Arbor
FLAVOR EXPERIENCE TOOLBOX SESSION #1 – Please select 1 from 4 choices
Sips & Snacks Networking Break Pacific Patio and Snacks at M.O.E.
FLAVOR EXPERIENCE TOOLBOX SESSION #2 – Please select 1 from 4 choices
Inter-Mezzo
PINNACLE PARTNERS’ CHEFS’ SHOWCASE
GIMME “MOE”
Wednesday, August 8
Registration & Attendee Services Open Plaza Arbor
BREAKFAST…From Berries to Burritos Plaza Atrium
KEYNOTE: GETTING STRAIGHT TO THE HEART OF IT…Nutritional Menu Messaging on the 10 Best Foods for Heart Health and your Menu
James E. Painter, PhD, RD Eastern Illinois University, Chair, School of Family/Consumer SciencesHEADS or TAILS 2
BREAK
LIVE: Cutting Edge Food & Flavor Innovators
Cathy Holley Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Flavor & The Menu MagazineAn AHA Moment
Flavor Surfing USA – Catch the Waves of Flavor Across the Country
Chef Gerry Ludwig Gordon Food ServiceNotes
FLAVOR FANTASTICS LUNCHEON Plaza Arbor
FLAVOR EXPERIENCE TOOLBOX SESSION #3 – Please select 1 from 4 choices
P.M. Networking Break Patio Deck
FLAVOR EXPERIENCE TOOLBOX SESSION #4 – Please select 1 from 4 choices
Ultimate Flavor Festival #8 – SURFIN SAFARI OF FLAVOR
Interactive Toolbox Sessions
At this time (May 15, 2012), all Toolbox Sessions are not yet complete. Here is our list to date. Look for final updates coming shortly. Select Toolboxes will run 2X (TBA)
Top Trends to Swim With, New Spawning Grounds, and Red Herrings to Avoid: The Flirty Future for Food, Flavor & BeverageTrends
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Industry players must understand the issues influencing food, flavor and beverage trends to successfully navigate them and uncover white space not yet explored. Influencers including consumer trends, travel and beverage trends, and economic forces will be discussed as they pertain to the shaping of marketplace trends and how they impact the creation of new products and menu items. Participants will be able to better recognize and predict the opportunities and pathways for making food and beverage products and menu items successful in their marketplace. Equally important is the ability to recognize and adapt to upcoming changes in trend direction as the recovery unfolds, and to differentiate between long and short lived trends.
The Umami Payoff; a Flavor strategy guaranteed to create buzz about your menu while building your business and your bottom line
DEMO & TASTING
Chef Jet is Asian but he’ll be the first to tell you that Umami is not exclusive to Asian food. The umami flavor applies to a full complement of cuisines in all types of culinary environments and is likely in many of your current offerings. So what do you do to capitalize this little secret as a menu differentiator? Join Jet in an open forum discussion on the the idea of umami as menu development and business building strategies. Attendees will see for themselves the difference umami can make in guest satisfaction by tasting and discussing “without umami” and “with umami” samples of a same menu items. Combine your senses to see, hear, talk, and taste the difference Umami will bring to your business.
Acres of Diamonds: a Treasure Trove of Cocktail Ingredients at your fingertips
TASTING
Do you keep searching all over for a “diamond” that will make your signature cocktails stand out among all others? You don’t always need to explore odd places or products to satisfy your quest. What you want or need may already exist right at your bar, in your kitchen, or your walk-in. You just need to know how to put it together in just the right way to end up with a flavor profile winner. David shows the audience what some of these gems may be and where to find them, then how to combine them into money-making, on-trend, easy to create and make signature cocktails that guests will talk about and come back to have more.
Will My Real Customers Please Stand Up; Understanding Today’s Customer Segmentation and Insights
INTERACTIVE GROUP PARTICIPATION
Our chosen tastes, buying habits and decision-making processes now change at warp speed. So…do you still really know your target customer as well as you think you do? Fortunately, we still fall into 5 universal segments and psychographic groups, even if their scope changes more quickly, and these groups have specific values and perceptions that trigger their decision-making. In this session, attendees explore each of the 5 groups, then test themselves into their correct group as a lead-in to an open discussion on how restaurants can influence these groups’ behaviors on expectations and usage of brands. Attendees walk away with a renewed understanding of their customers vs. their perception of their customers, and how this impacts everything from marketing to menu development and site selection.
The Culinary Bridge; Cravable Drivers from Concept to Consumer
TASTING
Chef Charlie Baggs always has a great idea up his sleeve. This year he takes the audience through a product development process, from the concept to the consumer’s plate, a completely guest driven process. The process uses a global perspective to create memorable flavor profiles that are cravable for the consumer. Using the Culinary Bridge, Chef Charlie demonstrates how this process can be streamlined from manufacturer, to operator, to the guest, in the most practical way. It’s an exiting adventure. Pull up a seat at the table to join Chef Charlie, a couple of participating operators, and the innovative team at Charlie Baggs, Inc.
Center of the Plate is now Center of Menu Attention in all Market Segments
Nearly all of today’s food trends have a direct effect on protein on the menu. From farm-to-fork movements and supply-chain stewardship to small plates and bar menus to the exploding interest in globally inspired menu items and regional American specialties, the center of the plate is being remodeled and reinterpreted to keep pace with the trends making headlines and the market conditions. Tune into the latest research on leading trends within the protein category and hear from an innovative operator panel from different segments about how these trends are being represented on cutting-edge menus at a variety of price points, as well as translate their potential to multi-unit, mainstream operators.
Panelists TBA
The Changing of the Culinary Guard; Moving from Boomers to Millennials
Millennials are individualistic, optimistic and thrive on technology. When it comes to food, “real and authentic” is a must, as long as it fits into the flexibility and freedom they seek. They continue to demand real, unique experiences from their foodservice choices. So, what is driving Millennials’ eating habits and why should you be paying attention? In this session, Mindy, who is dialed in on all things Millennial, shares all you need to know through an open dialogue session about Millennials, including your own experience in having them as restaurant guests, employees and family members. Mindi has the scoop on Millennials’ flavor cues and shares a glimpse at a “day in the life” (very insightful). The takeaways will be some research on the changed life trajectory, vs. what it was for Boomers and the flavors that will most appeal to this group, followed by an interactive discussion among attendees.
Crafting The Menu; How to Appeal to Foodies and Mainstream Customers using the same menu
TASTING
As an operator, or a supplier partner trying to support them in developing menu concepts that appeal to both “foodies” and mainstream customers, you’ll find spot-on insights gleaned from real consumers who have been identified as “foodies” or “mainstream” customers over time by the Culinary Visions Panel®. On an on-going basis these consumers choose menu descriptors that best fit them when dining out. Foodies always or usually try new dishes and flavors. Mainstreamers stick to their favorites and stray to new flavors only once in a while. See and taste an understanding of these foodies vs. mainstream consumers in terms of behaviors and preferences as they relate to crafting successful menus that transcend pure demographics. You’ll leave with a better understanding of menu concepts and flavors that captivate these groups. The tasting is a live example of of this inspiration, taking a classic menu item that is delicious alone and then VOILA, easily turn it into a “foodie” please with a simple, contemporary twist.
Moderator: Rachel Tracy, Olson Communications. Operator Panelists TBD
He Says Beer…She Says Wine; an Impassioned Food & Beverage Pairings Debate
TASTING
Knowing what to drink with what we eat is in constant evolution these days. So what really goes with what? He says it’s beer. She says its wine. Who’s right…or are they both right? Let’s see for ourselves. Ryan Johnson, the smart & popular Trade Brewmaster for MillerCoors, pairs with a noted Sommelier (soon to be announced) to explore this concept through comparative tastings of food & beverage pairings and interactive discussions with the audience. Everyone walks away smarter about beer, smarter about wine, smarter about the principles of pairing all types of foods with wines and beers regardless of your menu (well, most menus). The session will be moderated by a chef and a beverage director.
(more details available soon)
Toolboxes Under Construction
Gluten-free Goes Mainstream; Modify your Menu
Moderator, Jim Painter, PhD, RD with a chain operator panel
Alcohol-free Beverage Programs & Ideas – Kim Haasarud, Owner/Mixologist, Liquid Architecture TASTING
How & Why a Final Product Becomes Greater than the Sum of its Parts (working title) TASTING
Chef John Csukor, President/CEO, KOR Food Innovation and fellow panelists of sensory experts and chefs
The Eyes Have It: Presentation = Profit
Pinnacle Partners
Pinnacle Partners
- Almond Board of California
- Dole Foodservice, LLC
- Monin Gourmet Flavorings
- Nestlé Professional
- Pilgrim’s
Platinum Sponsors
- Bunge Oils
- California Raisin Marketing Board
- Commer Beverage
- Haliburton International Foods
- MarkeTeam
- Markon Cooperative, Inc.
- Nestlé Professional Vitality
Gold Sponsors
- Azar Nut Co.
- Barilla Pasta
- Beam, Inc.
- Boston Beer Co.
- Bush’s Best Beans
- California Avocado Commission
- Cheesecake Factory Bakery
- Chef Works, Inc.
- Constellation Wines US
- DFV Wines
- E. & J. Gallo
- Farmland Foods
- Fishbowl Marketing
- Gordon Food Service
- High Liner Foods
- Johnsonville Sausage
- Kerry Ingredients and Flavours
- Land O’ Lakes
- Luxco Spirited Brands
- MillerCoors
- National Mango Board
- Natural Brands
- Nestlé Dreyer’s Foodservice
- Proximo Spirits, Inc.
- Red Bull
- T.W. Garner Co.
- Technomic, Inc.
- Torani
- Tree Top, Inc.
- Wixon