Recognition and check presentation for CORE  

New this year, Chef Gerry takes a fresh approach to sharing his trend insights, with three rapid-fire presentations made over the course of the conference general sessions. Each talk highlights different trend-based menu-building opportunities from his latest findings. Each day, Gerry will call out the trends featured in dishes that will be served throughout the day to give you the same tasting experience Gerry and his Culinary R&D Team do during their extensive live research of carefully targeted new restaurants in the major U.S. cities.

The pace of change in the restaurant business has never been faster, and new and evolving dynamics present both opportunities and challenges for operators and suppliers alike. Seismic shifts in technology, competition, sourcing, and consumer behavior makes navigating today’s landscape more difficult than ever. Technomic experts present the unique challenges that face the industry and provide the implications and outlook for the next several years.

It is the fastest growing “sin” market in North America and it’s a topic on everyone’s lips. Within a few years, it will be mainstay – and may be on the menu. JJ McKay founded The Fresh Toast. They have been called the most trusted voice in cannabis. Learn about the state of weed and the intersection of weed, alcohol, and food.

Feed your creativity and be inspired by the food age of ‘permissibility’ that includes hybrid developments in West African, Indian and Middle Eastern food, cuisines-led plant centric eating, fact-based health, curbing waste and much more. Based on research from overseas, Charles will share intriguing disruptors that are coming to the NAM foodservice scene. This session will provoke thought and inspire you to consider new potential opportunities within your business. How can you further delight your customers - authentic flavors, perfected packaging, meaningful nutrition-led health and wellness or tech-forward experiential dining?  Brought to you by Corporate Partner, Nestle Professional.

Chef Gerry returns to the stage to provide a deeper dive into the latest dishes and ingredients that can provide your menu with significant differentiation and first-to-market potential. He will again call out the many dishes in the day’s upcoming meals and sessions that are directly linked to the trends being highlighted. 

To ensure that all Flavor Experience attendees receive a full vision of industry trends, we are once again partnering with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits to bring you an in-depth overview of what is happening in beverage across the country; from New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in addition to the hip middle-America cities such as Kansas City and Dallas. Visiting hand-selected, trend-forward bars, restaurants, and clubs to check out drink innovations for multi-chain operator considerations.

Datassential shares the latest trends you need to know – from the next generation of health & wellness to emerging flavors and inspirations from around the world.  Take a look at what’s new and growing on restaurant menus, the coming “functional foods” revolution, and how artificial intelligence can help you create better menu items.

Over recent years, evolving health and wellness attitudes and generational appetites present great opportunities – and challenges – for the foodservice industry. With FDA menu labeling finally in place and aggressive public health policy and local mandates ever looming, it’s time for a candid and sobering look at business impact and implications. Trading behavior, change in frequency and the resulting effect on check and margin could impact purchase intent, brand loyalty and the bottom line faster than most can fathom. Learn the compelling market research and consumer insights on labeling calories, along with the progressive and protective strategies planned in play to dodge the bullet – and reduce risk — all while creating a profitable flavor-first experience. This session explores how to approach future construction of menu items from ideation and creation to implementation, and how to keep track of it all.

LTOs are part art, part science. In this presentation, learn what it takes to conceptualize, launch and market a successful LTO program. We'll break down the different types of LTOs, success metrics and goals, and some key LTO "do's" and "don'ts".

In this townhall-type general session, Flavor & The Menu’s Cathy Holley will lead a discussion on the future of hospitality. In a time of takeout and delivery, mobile ordering and mobile pay, not to mention robots, where does this leave Hospitality? We’ll discuss the role and “preservation” of hospitality, the founding principle of the foodservice industry, in the modern, mobile-friendly age.

From the increased role of produce and the introduction of lab-grown meats to instagrammability and the high-tech takeover, Millennial-driven trends have had a fundamental and sweeping impact on foodservice today. But where are these changes taking the industry, and what will the future of foodservice look like long-term? This general session will give you a sneak peek into the broader discussion featured in the longer breakout session into the opportunities, challenges, and potential future outcome of these significant and unavoidable trends. Forewarned is forearmed and understanding how these trends will both strengthen and challenge the foodservice industry's role in the everyday lives of future consumers will help manufacturers and operators better assess and prepare for the changes to come.

In his final presentation, Chef Gerry recaps the year’s findings and previews many of the dishes that will be served at the final day’s lunch. This is a session you won’t want to miss as we will also be distributing the much-anticipated flash drive that the Flavor Experience Team and Gordon Food Service provide attendees each year – containing nearly 200 selected plate presentations with complete descriptions and pricing, and over 150 pages of menus, all from Gerry’s most recent External Research trips.

You won’t want to miss this recap from live discussions at this conference. You may be surprised by some of the responses from your fellow foodservice executives.  

Starting this year, The Flavor Experience introduces this annual iconic award to be awarded to an innovator, leader, and all-around superstar in the industry of Flavor. Who will be the first to set the bar high?