creative in food

Food as Art: The Methods Behind Making Beautiful Food

At the best restaurants around the world, the food is not only mind-blowingly delicious, but it’s also exceedingly beautiful as if the chef is a master painter using the plate as a canvas to create their masterpiece. To make this kind of gorgeous food, it takes an incredible amount of creativity and ingenuity, artistic flair and years of experience honing one’s craft.

However, if one examines some of the most stunning plates of food on earth, it’s apparent that there are common patterns and methods that great chefs use to make their food look so good. By employing these methods, you can start to make your own food look more exquisite. Your plates may not look like a three Michelin star masterpiece right away, but they can certainly be given some extra artistic dazzle.

Below, some of these practices are explained so that you can channel your inner food artist and begin making your own beautiful food.

Use Different and Creative Plates

Custard served in an eggshell - food art

The first step in plating an amazing dish is selecting what you are going to plate it on. The plate is the blank canvas upon which you present all of your hard work. Think outside the box, not everything has to be served on a traditional white circular plate. You don’t need an exorbitant budget or a ton of fancy china to plate creative, elegant and sophisticated looking food.

Serving roasted vegetables or a cheese and crackers spread on a wooden cutting board gives the dish a warm and rustic elegance. Try serving smaller appetizers inside of a martini glass for a chicer, sexier look. Put a cream soup in an espresso cup for a dainty yet refined-looking hors d’oeuvre. Consider the color and shape of the serving dish, a black plate offers an appealing color contrast to reds and oranges while a rectangular plate can give food a free-flowing, whimsical appearance.

Another option is to ditch the plate altogether and get creative. Thai pineapple fried rice is traditionally served inside of a hollowed-out pineapple, shredded cheese and nuts can be toasted, pressed over a small bowl and molded to form a “bowl” that creates a fun and interesting vessel for a light salad. As is pictured above, serving a custard such as Flan or Crème Brûlée inside of an eggshell is a creative serving method that is sure to wow your guests.

Use Bold, Bright, Attractive Colors

For great chefs, the ingredients that they use are like a palette of paint, each one representing a different color that will bring something unique to the finished product. When you look at a plate of food, the thing your eyes are immediately drawn to is the colors. An old chef adage is: “you eat with your eyes first” and the best way to make your food pop and entice others to eat it is to incorporate vibrant colors.

Think about contrast, you never want a dish to be all one color, especially brown dishes. Serve darker grilled foods like charred cauliflower with bright green condiments like chimichurri to liven them up. Cut dishes with green bases with reds or purples to add playful variety. Use purees to add color, a bright orange puree of carrots and ginger perfectly contrasts the golden brown sear of a pan-fried dumpling.

Add little garnishes that give quick pops of color. Picked green herbs, slices of red chili, pieces of pickled vegetables and chunks of crumbled white cheese all can lend lively color variations. The photo above of asparagus soup is a great example of a bright, vivid green being contrasted superbly with purple chive blossoms and white goat cheese.

Utilize Plating Tools to your Advantage

Just like artists, chefs have a wide range of tools available to them to create picturesque pieces of work. Learning to use these tools properly can help you elevate the way you present your food. Using a squeeze bottle is one of the best ways to make your plates look interesting. Put sauces, purees and dressings inside of a squeeze bottle to create zig-zag lines, dots, circles or any shape you can imagine.

When it comes to sauces and purees, manipulate them to look more appealing on the plate. Taking a spoon and pushing a puree into a swoosh shape can generate a fun visual element while using a grill brush to literally “paint” a sauce onto a plate is commonly used fine-dining trick. Here, a squeeze bottle is used to create circular patterns to border the main dish.

Contrast Sizes and Shapes

Contrast is one of the keys to making food look wonderful, which definitely applies to the size and shape of the food. As with colors, nothing should be one-note and variety is important. Next time you go to a fancy restaurant, notice how many different components might be on one plate. While all of these elements should serve a useful purpose in the taste of the dish, part of the reason they’re there is so that your eyes have several different little things to notice when you first look at your meal.

When using vegetables, try experimenting with different shapes and sizes. Some vegetables, like potatoes or turnips work well when cut into cubes. Others, like radishes or onions, look good as circles while cabbage and green onions can be shredded and mounded to add height to a dish. Sometimes leaving ingredients in their natural shapes, such as a tip of asparagus or small cauliflower floret, makes for fascinating visual dynamics on the plate.

In fine dining, you may find whole mushrooms in a dish as their natural shape adds a fascinating element. Herbs like cilantro and parsley could be chopped up and scattered around the dish or sometimes whole leaves can be strategically placed around the dish.

In this simple yet stunning bowl of hot-sour soup notice how the long, cylindrical mushrooms play off the shorter, sharper green onions and the small, ovular toasted sesame seeds. A drizzle of sesame oil adds irregular droplets across the surface of the soup. This dish is a great example of ingredients coming together to create multiple contrasting shapes and sizes that add attention-grabbing visual appeal.

Be Asymmetrical

As counterintuitive as it may sound, symmetry is usually deliberately avoided when plating extravagant, high-end food. The issue with trying to plate things symmetrically is that you are human and it is near impossible to make one side of a plate look exactly like the other.

So, if you have a piece of fish that you’re garnishing with six slices of radish and you try to put three on each side of the fish, chances are you will not put them all in the exact same place on either side. Somebody may look at that dish and subconsciously notice that lack of symmetry and feel that something is off.

Instead, always plate with odd numbers, use seven slices of radish and spread them randomly across the plate. When you garnish, put your garnishes on one side or the other of the dish, creating contrast instead of sameness on each side.

In the photo of curried sweet potato soup, the sporadic placement of herbs and laying the apple-radish salad on one side of the bowl creates an appealing contrast.

Featured image : wavebrakemedia ; Images 1-5 : Jared Kent

40 food innovations you should know about

A list of food innovations, including examples of clever products, processes, services, and technologies, that will shape the way we eat., configuration.

What is food innovation, and why is it important? Food innovation is the development and commoditization of new food products, processes, and services. Right now, it’s happening rapidly. Food and beverage companies are looking for ways to make healthy, nutritious offerings that are not only enticing, accessible, exciting, and unique, but also sustainable.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best food innovations to have emerged recently. In it, you’ll notice developments in food packaging and processing, along with a host of exciting ingredients appearing in unexpected places. Personalization is a huge trend, with beverage and diet companies enabling individuals to customize their products. Fast-food restaurants are coming up with novel ways to make customers want to dine-in. And a number of brands are tailoring offerings to meet the unique needs of millennials, not to mention the fastest-growing demographic in the USA, the elderly.

Why should you care? Apart from the fact that you need food to live, this list of food innovations includes plenty of ideas you could borrow (using this tool ) for your own business, no matter which industry you’re in.

Profit model

Fast-fine eateries, like modern Greek restaurant Souvla in San Francisco, are offering chef-made meals at lower prices. How? By eliminating a few steps in the chain. For instance, customers at Souvla order at the counter, rather than via waitstaff. Or they take their food to go, which requires fewer employees. Judging by Souvla’s popularity, it seems many diners will happily forego full-service in favor of a smaller bill at the end of the night.

Consumers in the US spent more than $600bn on groceries in 2018, and with the market turning towards healthier, better-quality foods, the weekly shop doesn’t come cheap. Ecommerce store Brandless has found a way around that. Brandless uses data and analytics to uncover what customers are buying. The company uses this to develop its own – often healthy and eco-friendly – versions via its website. Brandless keeps prices low by saving on marketing, advertising, distribution, and packaging costs.

Portland-based company Brew Dr. has a circular, zero-waste business model. Brew Dr. sells tea, kombucha, and distilled spirits. And the company reduces costs by connecting the production of all three offerings. The tea is used to make Brew Dr. Kombucha

Competing restaurants in Xintiandi, a popular dining district in Shanghai, China, joined forces to reduce food waste and sell their unused ingredients. They combined leftover food and used it to make pizzas, called RePizzas. The pizzas come in over 200 flavors, with different options available to consumers every night.

Could these innovations work for you?

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Tony's Chocolonely

Dutch confectionary company Tony’s Chocolonely ‘s tagline is, “Crazy about chocolate, serious about people.” Capitalizing on this socially responsible brand purpose, Tony’s produces and sells chocolate using fair trade practices, while taking a stand against slavery, child labor, and exploitation by buying cocoa beans straight from farmers (and giving them a fair price) via partnerships with trading companies in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

EDWINS restaurant in Cleveland employs formerly incarcerated adults to staff its kitchen. The business gives its employees hospitality and culinary training through its leadership institute, which enables them to serve classic, high-quality French fare. The chain benefits the community by giving its team members a chance to get back on their feet and build a career.

Based in London, the Feedr platform connects corporate businesses looking for catered work lunches and functions with local food vendors. This is attractive because companies are quickly realizing the benefits of having staff eat healthily and, as a result, are wholly or partially subsidizing their food. Feedr can offer healthy catered meals for less than £5 per day, and companies like Etsy, Airbnb, DHL, and PwC chose Feedr over supplying food via canteens.

Farther Farms

Based in Rochester, New York, Farther Farms created a new technology that leverages supercritical carbon dioxide to naturally pasteurize food, eliminating the need for freezing, refrigeration, and artificial preservatives. This approach extends the shelf-life of fresh-cut produce and reduces the energy used in processing and distribution by 70%, which may have massive logistics and supply chain implications, not to mention that it could lead to superior food products. According to Dr. Syed Rizvi, professor of Food Process Engineering at Cornell University, “Such a breakthrough could be a major contributor to solving food system problems worldwide.”

Are you ready to have your pizzas prepared by robo-chefs? French startup Ekim hopes so. The company is building 24-hour automated fresh-pizza kiosks that are each equipped with a pizza-making robot called PAZZI that can prepare a single pizza in 30 seconds. An interesting idea for transit stations and locations where people need to eat on-the-go at all hours, Ekim is also looking to serve salads, drinks, and desserts.

Pizza Hut is building a pizza-delivery car and robo-chef built into one. The company aims to reduce costs and increase speed by having the human-driven vehicle prepare and cook pizza on the way to your door. Along with minimizing the time you need to wait, this innovation has the potential to reduce the risk of your pizza being cold.

With food delivery becoming increasingly popular, ghost restaurants that are designed solely for delivery are popping up everywhere. One of these ventures is Taster. The company has a chain of online-order-only restaurants that can prepare food in five minutes and have it deposited at your door via Deliveroo in just 20 minutes on average.

Gastrograph AI

AI and machine-learning platform Gastrograph AI compiles and analyzes data on the raw ingredients in the food we buy. The company uses this to help food and beverage producers predict which products customers in their target demographic will pay for. Manufacturers can see the flavors, scents, and textures consumers prefer, and develop products, optimize branding, and produce cognitive marketing campaigns accordingly.

Product performance

Love garlic but hate garlic breath? Garlidoux claims to have found a way around that. The award-winning company has removed this infamous flavor pain-point, producing a natural garlic paste that brings you the health benefits and great taste of garlic, without the nasty scent.

Startup Stixfresh has produced a sticker that is said to make fruit stay fresh 50% longer. The sticker works by creating a protective layer around the fruit. Its coating is made from beeswax and ingredients that feature a GRAS (generally considered as safe) status issued by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Drinkfinity

Consumers are increasingly interested in personalization, and PepsiCo took notice. Wanting to offer “greater choice and flexibility to consumers,” the company launched its Drinkfinity program, which enables customers to customize their own drinks by mixing pods of different flavors together with water. The pods contain dry or liquid ingredients and claim to offer different benefits. For instance, “Renew” pods contain electrolytes for hydration, and the “Charge” pods feature coffee extract.

Ceria Brewing Co.

Non-alcoholic beer sales are expected to grow substantially by 2024, with 20- and 30-somethings drinking less of the hard stuff. Catering to this market, Ceria Brewing Co. by Blue Moon offers an alcohol-free beer that provides a different kind of buzz – drinks are infused with an increasingly popular ingredient in the industry, the THC from cannabis. Heineken’s Northern California craft brewery Lagunitas is doing the same with its beer and cannabis blend, HiFiHops.

Allergy Amulet

The number of people with food allergies and intolerances is on the rise, so no doubt products like Allergy Amulet’s portable food allergen sensor will come in handy. The company has developed a disposable test strip which enables you to test whether the food you’re about to eat has a potential allergen in it.

Tufts' food sensor

In 2018, Tufts University announced its researchers had developed a tooth-mounted sensor which could detect or measure your alcohol, sugar, or salt intake. The 2mm x 2mm sensor could be useful for medical purposes, and to enable people on specific diets to monitor and track what they’re eating.

Based in Tel Aviv, Nutrino collects physiological data from users via its platform, and with the help of machine learning and AI, recommends customized diet programs. Acquired by Medtronic in 2018, the medical device giant intends to use the service’s insights to help diabetes patients.

Though nutrigenomics – using a person’s genetics to recommend an eating plan – is still in its infancy, companies like 23andMe, DNAFit, Nutrigenomix, and Habit are all offering customized diets based on a sample of DNA. Some even offer to supply you with pre-prepped meals based on your needs. However, researchers are still investigating how much a person’s genetic makeup actually impacts their dietary needs. But some links have been drawn – certain people absorb specific nutrients better than others, for instance.

In 2020, Gatorade is set to release a sweat-sensitive skin patch that lets you know when your hydration and electrolyte levels are low by changing color. If users send a pic of the patch to the affiliated app, the app will recommend one of many Gatorade pods accordingly.

Platejoy gives users tailored meal plans based on their cooking habits and specific dietary needs, such as food allergies or intolerances. It also uses their nutritional data and information from IoTs or wearables to measure their unique energy requirements.

Digitization and robotization are impacting the diet world. FoodMarble built a device, called a “personal digestive tracker,” that can test your breath to measure hydrogen levels (which increase when food doesn’t digest properly). Via a corresponding app, it can tell you what you should and shouldn’t be eating based on how your body responds after consuming certain foods.

A major player in the at-home-testing-kit diet customization game is Viome. The company reviews each customer’s microbes via various samples to detect whether they require more of a specific supplement (because they struggle to digest it).

Remedy Organics

Beverages are becoming functional. No longer is simply serving the taste buds enough – drinks need to improve the health of customers, too. For instance, Remedy Organics infuses its handcrafted, small-batch made, organic beverages with natural ingredients that boast prophylactic properties. Ingredients like MCT oil, cannabis, mushrooms, and pre/probiotics will continue to inspire new drinks, so expect to see them on shelves near you.

Designed for convenience, French startup Feed. serves complete ‘meals in a bottle.’ The ingredients in its drinks and bars are designed to appeal to health-conscious millennials. The products are gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, and lactose-free. And they include protein, fiber, and fats to ensure each serving delivers the same nutrients as a complete meal.

Paris-based food technology company Algama is finding ways to turn microalgae into a tasty, sustainable, protein-rich food source for daily consumption. Algama has already released SPRINGWAVE, a naturally blue spirulina-based drink that’s loaded with vitamins, and we look forward to discovering what the brand releases next.

Speaking of algae, Indonesia-based startup Evoware is putting the eco-friendly raw material forward as a plastics replacement for food packaging. Its production doesn’t require fertilizer, and it actually absorbs CO2 during growth. Evoware’s innovative edible packaging (that contains fiber, vitamins, and minerals) is used by Belgian fine waffles manufacturer Bruxelwaffle.

Having already found success (with millennials) via his plant-based food company Beyond Meat, co-founder Brent Taylor turned his sights to the fastest-growing demographic, adults over 50. Noticing the frustration felt by the age group at having been left behind by the plant-based trend, Taylor launched Perennial – a non-dairy beverage designed with older consumers’ bone, gut, and brain health in mind.

Another company turning its sights on food innovation for elderly consumers is CERELAB. This R&D center specializing in wheat-flour bread developed a protein and energy enriched brioche bun. The product has been shown to improve the health of malnourished residents in nursing homes better than the typical combination of breakfast and supplements.

French supermarket chain Super U has come up with an innovative way to engage consumers who are concerned about whether the produce they’re buying is sustainable or not. Shoppers can scan QR codes on food labels via Snapchat Stories to instantly receive information about where it came from and whether it was ethically caught, farmed, or grown.

US fast-food chain Taco Bell offers convenient drive-thru service, but like many in the industry, the company is encouraging consumers to eat in-house. Taco Bell is opening its Cantinas across the US, with each location customized according to the location. They offer exclusive menus and even enable consumers to change the music. Additionally, as with McDonalds and Wendy’s, consumers have the choice of going to the counter or ordering via easy self-service kiosks.

Another chain that’s working on ambiance in order to encourage diners to eat-in (well, drink-in) is Starbucks. The Starbucks Reserve New York Roastery is a high-end 23,000 square foot space that entices customers to stick around with a full-service bar, mixology stations, an on-site coffee roasting plant, terrarium, and delightful décor.

Project Nourished

A study by Cornell University suggests that VR can be used to enhance taste, which is exactly what Project Nourished aims to do. The company develops VR and AR gadgets and combines them with meals to give users “gastronomical virtual reality experiences.” The aim is to trick the senses by mimicking, changing, or enhancing the texture, sound, taste, and experience of eating certain foods. This tech could be used for weight management, sustainability, or to deliver weird and wonderful dining experiences.

Tree by Naked

Speaking of which, virtual reality restaurant Tree by Naked in Tokyo guides guests through meals that are meant to illustrate chapters in the journey of life. Diners are led through the experience by a narrator, with the help of a soundtrack, light show, and wind machine. And they’ll dine alongside farm animals in fine clothing – via their headsets, that is.

The Eatwith app is giving consumers unique experiences, enabling those traveling the world to not only sample the local cuisine but cook it. Via their smartphones, travelers can peruse a number of authentic cooking experiences in the region they’re visiting. Think learning to make lasagna with an Italian or fries with a Belgian.

Too Good To Go

Food waste is an issue that consumers and retailers are increasingly paying attention to. Copenhagen-based food sharing app Too Good To Go is bringing like-minded foodies and businesses together. The innovative service connects customers with restaurants who are offering up their unsold, surplus food rather than see it go to waste.

Customer engagement

Club söda nyc.

Millennials are drinking less alcohol than older generations, and companies are catering to this trend. Not only are innovative non-alcoholic spirits (such as Seedlip) and beers flooding the market, but events designed to replace the booze-buzz with an exhilarating experience and opportunity for connection are emerging. One of these businesses is Club SÖDA NYC (Sober Or Debating Abstinence) – a location designed to bring together people who enjoy being high on life, and nothing more.

The Avocado Show

Feel the peel.

You know the pulp and rind that you throw away after making orange juice? Well, Italian design studio Carlo Ratti Associati is putting it to use via its Feel the Peel automated juice bar. After the juice is served, the rind is separated into a clear drum, heated, and mixed with polylactic acid to make a bioplastic which is then fed into a 3D printer. What does it make? The recyclable cups customers sip the juice from, of course.

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Creativity in Food Product Development

By: Alex Pierce-Feldmeyer

I have food anxiety. It isn’t debilitating but I often experience internal battles when I discover new food products. I am not jealous per say, (Aw man, I had that idea last Saturday!) I think I mostly have trouble with patience…

The creativity bar in new food product development is constantly being raised. I understand this is fantastic! But it is also extremely frustrating when you have yet to contribute. Obviously, the industry needs to move product and adapt at a ridiculous pace to maintain relevance. But as a student still in school sometimes I feel left out (I know it’s my choice, but roll with it).

Source giphy.com

Let’s turn our attention to the cracker game. There used to be crackers. Now there are tomato basil crackers, wasabi crackers, gluten free crackers, peanut butter and jelly crackers, rosemary and olive oil crackers, extruded & puffed crackers, black bean and sea salt crackers, savory crackers, sweet crackers…you get the point. So what the heck kind of crackers are we going to get to be a part of developing? I know I am not the only student feeling the burgeoning urge to call each of these company CEO’s ASAP to let them know I HAVE THE NEXT BEST IDEA.

HAVE NO FEAR fellow pre-industry celebrities. There might be less opportunity in the cracker aisles (for now), but think of how many other aisles there are… In fact it might serve our future selves well to redistribute our anxious energy towards keeping track of ever-changing trends (while keeping up with school, of course).

Let me share some of my most recent trend analyses and then we can get to the best part-the SCIENCE. For example, I’ve noticed that we are not merely drinking value-added beverages anymore. Yes, we can drink a chai latte, but now we can eat a chai latte too! Confused? Just glance around your local marketplace. If you haven’t already noticed, several foods have taken on the flavors of the current beverage craze. To name but a few:

The reverse is true as well, but perhaps much more familiar. This has been going on for quite a while but new ideas can always be introduced!

The lines of food and beverage are blending – what a novel idea! Beverage flavors were for drinking, food for eating, and now who really knows what to expect?

And now for the how! How is it possible that we can generate these seemingly absurd products? Firstly, I believe the trend support has come from the fact that regional food themes are beginning to blend due to the ease of global connections among different cultures. Flavors and ingredients that were typical of one region are appearing elsewhere, and with greater reach than previously possible. For example, Asian influences are reaching the western cultures rapidly and changing our flavor trends. We have wasabi flavored snacks and thai themed products filling up the grocery shelves. But how do we ‘bottle’ these flavors? What makes them reproducible and so reminiscent of the original wasabi or cappuccino?

Blue cheese has many strong aroma compounds. Source igroumet.com

Many flavors can be dissected. That is, flavors can be broken down into their components—think of these as ingredients except on a smaller scale. The other important aspect and perhaps the trickier portion of the recipe is determining the ratios these flavor compounds are present in-which makes a world of difference in the end product. For example, some repulsive compounds in high concentrations would send people out of a room, but canactually be present in many products to simply ‘warm’ up a flavor or add the essence that is undetectable to the average consumer –but that without it wouldn’t be the defined flavor they were looking for. With flavors it’s all about a beautiful balance. This is often the case with many cheeses. There are some off-putting aromas associated with some cheeses, but without them the cheese just would not be right .

Rows and rows of bottle food flavourings which have picked unique compounds from the food.

Often with the help of analytics, and flavorists, scientists can come up with formulas that activate olfactory (smell) and taste receptors in the correct patterns that make flavors associated with the original product be recognizable, but in another matrix! This is how the pumpkin spice latte works, as well as many other outstanding flavored products! There are key components to flavors that help summarize what is intrinsically complex in nature. Inherently strawberry, for example, is incredibly complicated. However, using several key components that are present in high concentrations in nature the strawberry flavor becomes recognizable because our brain can fill in the missing pieces. That’s why strawberry easily crops up in yogurts, ice-cream etc. It is similar to the brain’s mechanism that combats the human eye’s blind spot—it fills in the blanks.

Just when you think all that can be created has been- think again! The world is constantly evolving, the present is becoming the past. The science is always being updated! There is newness every second and creativity does not end! Think deep, innovate and create because your idea might just be the next best thing!

Science Meets Food

The IFT Student Association (IFTSA) is a forward-looking, student-governed community of IFT members. Through competitions, scholarships, networking, and leadership opportunities, you’ll set yourself apart from your classmates (unless they’re members too).

Promoting Awara consumption in Nigeria to combat food insecurity

Savory Seitan

My Experience as a Quality Assurance Intern

I’m pretty sure food companies have bugged every food science department in the US. I can’t count how many times a PD team has played with an idea and then seen it on the market a 6 months later!

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10 Must Try Marketing Strategies for Food Industry

These marketing strategies are proven winners in the food industry.

The Right Team for The Right Job

As a marketing leader in the food and beverage industry, you already know that success isn't as simple as serving up a delicious dish. To stand out in the food game, you need a powerful marketing strategy.

But food marketing isn't just about coming up with an eye-catching logo or ad campaign. It's about understanding the psychology behind what makes people crave a particular food and developing a plan to reach those people. It's about understanding the latest trends in the food industry and leveraging them to your advantage. And it's about staying ahead of the competition by being innovative and creative in your marketing tactics.

With the right marketing strategy , you can take your brand to the next level and create a lasting impression in the food and beverage industry. Creatives On Call can help by matching you with a talented team with expertise in food and beverage marketing. Read on to learn more about food marketing and the benefits of implementing an industry-specific marketing strategy.

What Is Food Marketing?

Food marketing refers to the strategic processes that food and beverage companies use to communicate with potential customers, generate interest in their products, and increase sales.

Successful food and beverage marketing plans should clearly convey a brand’s message using a variety of tactics, including:

For food and beverage businesses to stand out among so much competition, they must implement an effective marketing strategy that considers all corners of the industry and a broad range of brands, including:

Why Is Food Marketing Important?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, food accounted for 12.4% of a typical household’s total spending in 2021, second only to housing and transportation spending. This report shows that consumers are willing to spend significantly on food and beverages, and food marketing is essential for reaching these potential buyers.

Food marketing helps target your audience, create customer loyalty, and increase sales. It also educates customers about nutrition, sustainability, and health benefits. An effective food marketing campaign starts with identifying your target audience and what motivates their buying patterns.

Understanding consumer demographics and shopping habits enables your marketing team to craft a strategy that speaks directly to your target audience. For example, if your target market consists of young adults looking for convenience, then your food marketing might focus on how easy it is to purchase and eat your products on the go.

Businesses should also consider the most effective mediums for reaching their target audience. For example, if Gen Z is your target market, social media channels can help generate brand awareness, while traditional marketing tactics like print advertising or radio ads might be less effective. By understanding the target audience and cultivating a targeted marketing approach, businesses can ensure they reach their target audience in the most effective way possible.

Read on to learn more about 10 effective food marketing strategies sure to help you reach a broader consumer base. Interested in adding these marketing strategies to your branding efforts? Let Creatives On Call pair you with an experienced marketing and creative associate specializing in food and beverage marketing.

10 Highly Effective Food Marketing Strategies

Brand positioning.

It's essential for food and beverage marketing to have clear brand positioning. This means developing a unique identity for your food company that will set you apart from the competition. Your brand positioning should reflect the values and personality of your company, and it should be communicated clearly and consistently across all marketing materials.

For example, suppose your company is focused on plant-based foods for better health. In that case, your brand positioning should target health-conscious customers and focus on the benefits of healthy eating habits. Your brand positioning should be reflected in every aspect of your branding, from advertising to the foods you sell.

Product Packaging

Packaging is what sells a product, so it needs to be appealing. Remember that product packaging refers to more than the physical wrapper that holds the foods your company sells–it also includes your company’s broader branding, including:

Brand colors

Quality packaging and branding are critical components of effective food and beverage marketing, and having a marketer who knows this industry can help streamline your team's marketing efforts.

Revamping Your Brand Image

Has it been a while since you updated your logo or website? If so, it might be time to revamp your brand image to give your products a fresh look and draw in new customers. While you don’t want to change your brand’s look too often, a little freshening up is a great way to stay current and stand out from competitors.

Email Marketing

Don’t listen to the naysayers who say email marketing is outdated. Sending a company newsletter or information about new products and promotions is a great way to keep your loyal customers up to date on the latest news about your brand. Remember that quality always matters over quantity in any email marketing campaign.

Social Media Marketing

Let your social media marketing work smarter with hashtags that allow your customers to search posts containing that hashtag. This is also a great way to promote new products and conduct giveaways and contests to draw consumer interest. Searching your competitors’ hashtags also gives your marketing team insight into their social media campaigns, which provides a springboard for ideas for future marketing efforts.

Search engine optimization (SEO) blog posts are essential for driving organic search traffic to your brand’s website and social media accounts. An active, optimized company blog also positions your brand well for partnerships with food bloggers and influencers to increase brand visibility and sales to new customers online.

Setting Up Your Google Maps Profile

Make it as easy as possible for potential customers to find your products or restaurant by setting up a Google Maps profile. This way, customers receive important information when they search for your brand, including:

You can also add your company to online platforms like Foodpanda or Zomato to give your brand even more visibility, especially to new customers who might not be familiar with your company.

Partnering with Other Brands

Partnering with a complementary brand for a promotion or social media campaign is an excellent food and beverage marketing option. If you run a café, you could partner with a local baker to supply pastries, or if you sell vegan foods and beverages, reach out to a local animal sanctuary for a partnership. This is mutually beneficial and instantly draws in new potential customers!

Creating Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

Amp up your food marketing strategies by identifying what sets your brand apart. Brainstorm ideas with your team, and be as specific as possible! If your chocolate chip cookies took first place in a contest, talk about your award-winning recipe. If your restaurant gives back to the local community, highlight this in your marketing content. Make your USP creative, and keep it specific.

Hosting Events

If you have a restaurant or bar, hosting events like happy hours or food festivals are great ways to generate revenue and increase brand awareness in your community. For food and beverage brands, try reaching out to local food trucks or entertainment venues to see if they would like to feature your products at their next event.

Let Creatives On Call Cater Your Food Marketing Content

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11 Creative Restaurant Ideas to Come Out of COVID-19

Getting creative

The restaurant sector is synonymous with experimentation. New trends and innovations in the food industry are a constant, and the pandemic only hastened this ideation process.

Sure, obstacles like dining room closures posed a monumental challenge. But when push came to shove, the industry showed a willingness to drive innovation in order to survive. Here are 11 creative ideas to come out of the crisis, with solutions that have crossed the technology, marketing, and menu spaces.

Shipping Container Brick-and-Mortars

In the pre-pandemic era, seeing a shipping container in a parking lot may have been a jarring sight. But throughout the year, shipping containers became a solution for restaurants trying to make the most of their available real estate.

This shift to shipping box containers has helped brands utilize otherwise empty parking lots to complete orders that abide by ever-changing guidelines. For Michigan-based coffee brand Biggby Coffee, modular drive-thru containers provided drive-thru units that could function within 48 hours. Other brands, like soda concept Swig, have value-engineered more intricate set-ups consisting of multiple shipping containers welded together to become an actual building.

Swig president Chase Wardrop says shipping containers have even opened doors for potential partnerships with grocery brands such as Kroger, where draw from shipping containers in a parking lot could bring in more revenue for both parties.

Online Events

2020 put a pause countless graduations, weddings, and other milestone events. But when these celebrations couldn’t take place in person, the digital space offered a safe space for people to gather. In the case of fast food chain Jack in The Box, the virtual space allowed them to execute a virtual prom for one group of Californian high school seniors.

The #PromInTheBox event featured music by DJs Dillon Francis and Diplo and amassed more than 6,000 views. The event’s engagement a 355 percent increase in views from the brand’s previous Instagram Live campaign.

The success of Jack in the Box’s virtual prom is an example of the way brands and reach their audience, albeit virtually. With live streaming platform Twitch reaching record numbers of engagement in 2020, the possibilities of brands in the virtual spaces has steam going into 2021

Even fine-dining icon Commander’s Palace hosted a 1,000-plus virtual party known as “The Zoom That Saved Wednesday” that ballooned into a national event .

The restaurant began to shipping packages across the country for $179 , which included three bottles of wine, two cheese selections, a charcuterie selection from Cochon|Butcher in New Orleans, crackers, and preserves.

New and Improved Vending Machines

Vending machines have been a longtime office staple, but inventive twists on the classic have gained popularity. Healthy concept Saladworks provided one such example with its vending machine concept, Sally the Robot . The concept was already in the works at the end of 2019, but now the brand is seeing a surge of interest from places like hospitals, where sanitized environments is imperative.

DIY Meal Kits

Brands went about their own ways of defining what the off-premises experience entails, with some deciding to give consumers an active role in making their food— namely, through the DIY kit.

Blaze Pizza is one brand that has utilized this strategy, with kits that allow customers to pick up the pizza ingredients from their local Blaze store, then assemble the pies in their own kitchens. Dunkin’ has also hopped on the trend with donut decoration kits.

The cost-effective option also requires minimal labor, so the trend is a win-win for brands and consumers stuck at home. While the complexity of these kits vary from brand to brand, some have also included a social media component to further drive engagement.

Health Assurance Technology

Ensuring labor safety has become a no-brainer this year. But obliging masks for both guests and employees only scratches the surface to these adjustments. Creations like Squadle’s Sense Thermal Scanner, a 2020 QSR Applied Technology Awards winner , reflect efforts by companies trying to further innovate in the space.

The scanner’s ability to integrate with Squadle’s self-check apps and Checklists safety platform have shown the technological possibilities in the health space. And when health maintenance for employees and guests, comes top of the list for operators, having ways to guarantee safety are a must.

Drop-off Sites

Drive-thru was the name of the game this year, and success was all but certain for brands that had their own car-friendly system. But this posed a big problem for fast casual Chicken Salad Chick, as over half of its locations don’t have drive-thru capabilities.

From this pain point, Kathleen and Ron Ram came up with the idea to start community drop-off sites. This twist on the pop-up location involved developing an ordering system where customers pre-ordered their meals and picked it up at predetermined locations.

Ron says as many as 60–70 cars showed up at these drop-off spots, even in communities they had never visited before. The solution did more than just save the store, but placed them within the top five Chicken Salad Chicks for sales during the height of COVID-19.

Virtual Discovery Days

One of the pains of growing through a pandemic has been figuring out how to bring on new franchisees onboard despite the inability to meet with them in person. This year heralded the virtual discovery day as an alternate to the in-person discovery day process.

For chicken fast casual Dave’s Hot Chicken, franchisees could discuss their business plans through email and use real time video capabilities through technology services like Zoom, giving franchisees immediate feedback.

The one-on-one attention of a video meeting can be attractive for franchisees, as well as attract those who previously didn’t have the capabilities to attend an in-person discovery day. Though experiencing a restaurant’s physical presence is crucial before a franchisee invests, the trend may still have a place post-pandemic for its cost effectiveness.

Hashtag Movements

Driving sales during the pandemic was crucial during lowest point of the pandemic. Especially as restaurants were adjusting to the first inklings of dining room closures, the industry’s more than 15 million Americans were affected.

On March 24, a coalition of restaurants that included Panera Bread, Noodles & Company, Veggie Grill, El Torito, Jason’s Deli, The Habit Burger Grill, Lemonade, Modern Market, Pieology, Potbelly, and Chevys Fresh Mex asked people to order a delivery or pick-up meal in a unified effort called The Great American Takeout.

The Great American Takeout also asked participants to share their efforts on social media, and was so successful that a sequel followed the week after the initial . As the likes of #TakeoutTuesday have now penetrated the virtual space, the event reflected social media’s ability to create industry-wide change.

Menu Slimming

Slimmed-down menus were a key operators made this year in order to function on a leaner scale, and have allowed for flexibility for pandemic adaption.

As a result, brands have turned to using a slimmed-down menu as rebranding opportunities. For Marijuana-themed Cheba Hut, paring down its menu to the “Dank Dozen” allowed the brand to minimize ingredients when sales predictions were uncertain. Texas-based Torchy’s Tacos also got rid of its poorest-selling menu items, but brings back old flavors through its limited-time “Taco of the Month”.

Virtual Brands

The virtual brand trend has exploded since off-premises demand has driven the popularity of ghost kitchens and third-party delivery services. With the arrival of virtual brands, companies who had brick-and-mortar spaces could now carry out new products to drive sales.

Smokey Bones CEO James O’Reilly first caught on the trend last year when it launched virtual brand The Wing Experience out of Smokey Bones’ brick-and-mortar kitchens. Since COVID-19, O’Reilly says, the company leaned into our off-premises capabilities faster and more aggressively than in the past.

Operating brands in the virtual space has is franchisee potential, too. Barbecue brand Dickey’s started offering virtual kitchens in August for franchisees, and has seen success as 95 percent franchisee-operated brand. Looking into the future, this trend could mean new possibilities for brands to reach consumers off-premises.

Fast casual restaurant leader donates free food to hospital workers.

Hospital Hospitality

COVID-19 affected the healthcare sector deeply, but a silver lining to the coronavirus has been the move for the restaurant industry to help those in need. Against the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic, restaurants have supported health workers in their own ways.

Some have utilized off-premises platforms to bring food to hospitals , while others have donated food to healthcare workers . No matter the form of assistance, restaurants have used their creativity to help those on the frontline weather the storm.

25 Restaurant Marketing Ideas You’ll Love

What specific steps are you taking to grow your Restaurant?

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’re confident that your restaurant is one of the best in your city or town. At some point, your customers have even praised you for making such a delicious meal.

You felt on top of the world.

But, you’re still stuck. Not knowing what to do to get more customers . You reasoned that too many restaurants are spring up in your city. And competition will grow even stronger.

Here’s the solution: You need to stand out in through effective marketing.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running this awesome “spot” for few years, you can’t do without marketing.

You may not attract angel investors, but at whatever level you operate right now, you can boost your sales – in the same manner Pinocchio’s Italian Eatery increased their sales by 16.7%.

Focus on achieving consistent daily sales. Because that’ll determine your weekly average, then monthly, and more.

Having said that, here are the 25 simple and creative restaurant marketing ideas that will work for you:

1. Engage local food bloggers

You can’t successfully promote your restaurant all by yourself. You need the help, audience, and expertise of other food bloggers.

These influential online entrepreneurs can promote your restaurant on social media networks and niche-specific discussion boards.

You may have heard stories about succeeding as a single body. It’s not entirely true. The local food bloggers of this internet-driven age understand what you’re trying to do, so they’ll go all out to help you.

Business is about relationships and team building rather than going solo. The overall victory seen on the outside can be broken down to individual input of a larger crowd.

So how do you engage local food bloggers?

Well, you can invite them to share their cooking tips with your website audience. You may even host an event and invite a handful local food bloggers as keynote speakers.

Most of these local food bloggers have built up a strong following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They can help amplify your marketing efforts – and drive more customers to your restaurant.

2. Grow your email database

Are you building your email list ?

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

In case you’re not aware, it’s a fact that if you’re not capturing your website visitor’s personal information (e.g., email address, phone numbers, address), you’re not truly in business.

Sooner or later, you’re going to hit a deadend in your business.

As a restaurant owner/marketer, don’t be left out of this. Email marketing is not only for digital marketers, local businesses can take advantage of it, too.

However, when you pay attention and study your market, you can actually add more email and phone subscribers to your list – from those who are interested in foods and restaurant.

Building targeted list will produce better results for your restaurant business. Here are proven means to get it done effectively:

i). Collect phone: Often times, you would have people call-in to make reservations, ask questions about your menu, cuisines, services etc.

You may not be the one at the receiving end, but your restaurant staff or team member taking the calls should get the caller’s mobile phone number, or/and email.

ii). At the point of purchase: You can give a voucher or discount coupon to your customers who come to dine at your restaurant, on the condition they give their mobile phone/email.

Putting up a good creative show can equally help you add more targeted customers to your list. In this case, even timers to your restaurant will drop their mobile phone number/email, once they have derived a value from your event.

You can find out the opinion of the majority of your customers before moving on with your messaging.

With your targeted list, you can either use a bulk SMS or email autoresponder to send your customers special bonuses/freebies, especially during occasions of their birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.

3. Build a tribe with your landing page

A tribe is simply a loyal group of customers who believe, trust, and will do anything to buy from you. Building a tribe takes time, and it’s better done with a landing page.

Restaurant owners are becoming aware of the need to build new landing page for their campaigns.

A landing page is your web page with a single purpose. When potential customers visit this page, it’s a good opportunity to get their opinions, feedbacks, emails, phone numbers, etc.

Getting it done the right way is the only way to get the right results. So, here are a few suggestions:

i). Let your landing page load within 2 seconds: The human attention span is 8 seconds. Consequently, you need to build landing pages that are insanely fast, on both desktop and mobile devices that your audience uses to access it.

ii). Set the tone you desire on your landing page: Make it clear what the landing page is for. If you’re giving early access to a new recipe or food club, then your page must be about nothing else.

4. Get active on social networks

Are you actively promoting your restaurant website and center on social media networks?

Michael Lukianoff, Fishbowl’s chief analytics officer told CNBC in an interview that “social media gives smaller, independent, and regional [brands] a level playing ground to get their message/voice out.”

In other words, you can’t compete successfully with other restaurants without a strong presence on social media.

There are so many social media platforms, (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+), but you’re not required to use all of them.

Through years of experience with restaurant businesses, I can boldly say that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest and the best – you should focus on them.

On the flip side, you don’t have to take my word for it. You need to find the social networks that suits your brand and stick to them.

This you can find out by clearly getting to know the kind of audience your brand serves, your industry, the social marketing technique that works best for you.

Above all, only share relevant information on these social channels. That’s the only way to differentiate your restaurant from others.

Your relevance can be looked at, from the quality of the content you share on those channels.

Use the resources available to you, to create beautiful content you so desire, in the forms of mobile apps , and source for useful information online.

Sharing useful and relevant information is important, but you share it matters, too.

For example, take a look at what Grubhub is doing. Among other things, they make you want to eat the food – just by the way the presented it on their website.

5. Have a functional, and professional website

You need a functional website to stay above the fold.

For you to be seen as an authority by your industry, your website must be designed to be practical and useful and professional.

Gladly, a Phoenix-based restaurant increased customer conversion by 70% after they designed a simple, but good-looking website.

In fact, when Gladly added a Notification Bar for Restaurant Week, to further engage the customers, it generated additional 374 clicks.

Your website doesn’t have to be sophisticated before it can attract local customers to your restaurant.

In marketing, being “relevant and clear” is alway better than trying to be clever and miss the essence.

On of the best ways to keep your restaurant website relevant and your value proposition clear is by producing helpful content.

To avoid messing around with html, CSS or PHP codes associated with dynamic websites, it’s advisable to start a WordPress blog on your restaurant website.

Let’s look at it briefly…

6. Start blogging about food

Blogging is a powerful sales driver. When you start blogging, you generate leads. And leads become customers when you nurture them.

In fact, blogging frequently can increase your leads generation by 89%.

If you want your food related content to be read, shared, and aid customers in making purchase decisions, you need to study your market – and understand the restaurant trends.

Making the decision to blog consistently isn’t easy. Here are few tips to supercharge your food blog:

a). Be original: Your audience will love you if your blog posts, articles, videos, and other multimedia content are unique.

b). User friendly design: Your blog design should make visitors want to stay. There shouldn’t be any difficulty with navigating on your blog.

Additionally, people should find it easy to comment, follow you on social networks directly from your restaurant blog, and share your content.

c). Go beyond publishing: It’s no longer enough to just write article and expect people to read it. When you publish your helpful content, promote it actively on social media networks.

d). Keep your blog open: Yes, don’t do it all by yourself. Get other food bloggers to write content for your blog – and share their expertise with your audience.

7. Engage in local SEO practice

Local SEO (search engine optimization) is basically the process of optimizing your local business (restaurant) website and blog posts rank highly in Google for keywords that your audience inputs into Google search.

In local search optimization, you want Google to rank your web pages primarily for keywords that have your city, town, or state. E.g., where to eat in Boston, top restaurants in Los Angeles.

You can make use of this checklist from Smallbiztrends . The simple step by step approach involves the following:

i). Keyword research: Find the keywords that your audience is inputting into Google search. You can use the Google Keywords Planner or Keywordtool.io .

You may also ask your customers, friends, and family members what they usually type into Google search whenever they’re looking for a particular restaurant or meal plan.

Since you operate a real business, you also need to check your title tags, meta descriptions, and Name, address, and phone number (NAP) information.

As shown by the image below. The first ring of purple, is the title tag, and the second which is in black, the meta description.

ii). Optimize your website images: The way search engines see images is quite different from the way we do. In order to get your site images search friendly, you need to pay attention to your file name, title text, alt-text, and size.

You can use JPEGmini to optimize your images and convert into JPEG extenstion.

iii). Claim your restaurant in Google Places: It’s free. All you’ve to do is sign up at Google My Business .

iv). Improve your page authority: Before Google can confidently rank your content pages in their top results, you need to build links to those pages where you’ve published helpful content.

8. Integrate loyalty programs into foodie apps

Foodie apps are used on mobile phones. Examples are Tender, Off The Menu, Kitchenbowl, etc.

Considering the increased use of mobile devices, mobile phone users can now make some food decisions on the go now. Isn’t it awesome?

Sadly, if mobile users can’t access your restaurant or order a meal online, you can’t really get along with the competition.

However, for these foodie apps to truly bring your restaurant success, you need to incorporate loyalty programs.

Loyalty programs are special programs that restaurants and businesses use to build deeper connection with their customers.

You need an understanding of your customers, and what motivates them to visit a particular restaurant over another.

Use foodie apps to collect user behavior data from your potential restaurant customers. It’s expected that at the click of a button, your new and existing customers should be able to get the latest information about your restaurant, meal plans, recipes, and other benefits.

Using mobile apps to further engage your customers is a powerful marketing idea that’s proven to work. As an example, Jaspare’s Pizza generated over $117,000 with their restaurant app.

9. Make an irresistible ‘’special’’ offer to social fans

It’s high time you get creative with your offers.

Don’t just make “offers” that your competitors can flip over.

Make it special.

Special offer can be a discount , a coupon, or just sending food over to your customers who may have participated in your contest either on facebook, or other social media channels.

Here’s an example of a special offer from 56 North Bar & Restaurant.

Not only is it going to make more people/customers order from your restaurant, it’d also create a buzz that would make your audience wait for your next announced contest.

10. Collect and sort customer behavior data

Putting customer behavior data and sorting them is essential if you must increase daily orders. It helps you make better decisions – and ensures that your restaurant offers aligns with customer’s expectations.

What specific information should you focus on?

a). Personal info: This includes the customer’s full name, sex, age, location, and earnings. Of course, you can collect this information by studying a customer’s order history.

b). Personal disposition: This involves their attitude/behavior while they were using your restaurant’s product/service, as well as when they visit your restaurant.

It also involves the reason they would choose yours over another, what they hope to get from using your restaurant, etc.

When you’re armed with these vital data about your customers, you’ll most assuredly serve them well.

11. Gamify customer experience with mobile

Gamification is a popular marketing approach that works, especially for restaurant businesses.

Gamification is the concept of using game design elements in non-game applications, to make them more fun and engaging.

For one, there is an increase in gaming in the US and other parts of the world.

The high demand by customers for quality service has made running a restaurant a daunting task. Because, there are hundreds of new restaurants springing up around your locality, as I write this.

Since the introduction of mobile app which makes it easy to access a product or service from anywhere at any given time. It has become difficult for marketers to increase sales, by solely depending on offline marketing strategies.

Mobile searcher are the most targeted group of customers you can ever get. According to KISSMetrics, 78% searches for local business search made on a mobile device resulted in a purchase.

In order to increase and retain your customers, you need to optimize your marketing tactics – using gamification tactic.

And considering that almost 155 million Americans are regularly playing game, if you can approach these people in this gaming language that they understand, you’ll definitely acquire more customers to your restaurant website.

Adding a little fun to your restaurant business; through mobile apps, or online reservations will dazzle your audience and help you achieve your goal.

To get started, create simple games that will be launched on mobile apps. You can use Buildfire app builder , which comes with a lot of templates related to food, healthy living, fitness, and so on.

Remember that when people use this game, they are more likely to order from the restaurant.

With the use of innovative ideas, your game should definitely stand out from the rest.

Be creative. Add more features to make the game more fun for your users. For example:

12. Use Facebook retargeting ads regularly

Most people will not order from your restaurant at first visit.

It’s estimated that only about 5-8% of your website visitors will convert on your page. Question is, “how do you recover 95% of leads who ignored your offer the first time?”

That’s where retargeting (also known as remarketing) comes into play.

Unlike popup ads, people actually like retargeted ads .

Retargeting can be executed on several platforms, but Facebook seems to the best for most marketers.

I’ve personally better conversion rate for retargeted ads using Facebook than Google AdWords.

Facebook retargeting is a powerful marketing technique that you can use to serve ads to people who visited your restaurant website initially and left without placing order, or participating in your contest.

This is how it works:

Retargeting ads effectively can help you build your customer base, and increase revenue.

For example, Nissan , a Japanese car manufacturer sold over 160 cars through leads generated from facebook ads.

Postano, a company that works with brands on social media strategy, through retargeting, saw a 278% conversion rate lift in 60 days.

When a potential customer visits your restaurant website or landing page, a cookie is added to the visitor’s browser.

That way, when you retarget ads, such as will be triggered by the user, the moment they visit any of the publisher networks through their browner.

As often as these people see your ads, they urge to place order will grow. This is why you see TV commercials for a particular product.

Retargeting basically drives potential leads back to your website, by targeting the users who have previously visited your website.

13. Leverage Yelp reviews to inspire customers

In the world of marketing, word of mouth has been confirmed to have a great positive impact in lead conversion. Customers are more confident when they read reviews on a product.

Data from the Search Engine Land 2013 Report, “85% of consumers say the read online reviews for local businesses, up from 76% last year.”

One of the reasons why Amazon grew to become one of the largest online store, is the priority they place on customer reviews. They even append customer reviews to specific products to persuade new customers.

You can actually use this to your own benefit, too.

Yelp is the best way to find local businesses. Rankings are based on positive reviews from each local business.

If you want your local business to be accessible on Yelp, you need to become active on social media networks where your Fans and Twitter followers can amplify your reach by leaving positive reviews about your customer service, recipes, snacks, and restaurant.

14. Connect and build relationship with local food bloggers

The high inflow of professional chefs have made the restaurant business more competitive than ever, coupled with high customers demand for better service.

If you want to get more sales in this business model, start building relationship with local food bloggers. In case you don’t know, the top rated organizational goal of B2B content marketing is brand awareness .

You can build a strong brand by connecting and building relationship with other bloggers in your industry.

According to a post by Sethlui, you can get instant exposure just by engaging the two most famous food bloggers in Singapore, Ladyironchef or Ieatishootipost. With them you can get up to 300,000 visitors a month to your restaurant website.

Are you concerned about reaching out to a large number of people? Blogging is a great way to do that and probably gain customers. The chart below shows the impact of blogging on customer acquisition.

Local food bloggers can contribute to the success or downfall of your local business. To be on the winning side, connect with them.

15. Setup your Google+ account

If you’re already active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, what about Google’s own Google+?

Google+ is a social network like no other.

Although, having a Google+ account doesn’t mean that your local business website will rank in the #1 position.

But when you grow your connection and add more people to your circles, this can bring more people to your restaurant – whether online or offline. With over 25 million users – you benefit from Google+

How Google+ can boost your restaurant business:

16. Use geo-targeted keywords in your ads

Do you know that using geo-targeted keywords in your ads can help you acquire the right customers? Geo-targeting is important every local business, not just restaurants.

Why waste waste money on Google AdWords, when you can make more money through effective targeting.

For instance if your restaurant is located in US, there is no need targeting Canadians. Trust me, this is where most restaurant marketers miss it.

Facebook encourages geo-targeting as well – where you’re given the chance to select country or state to aim your ad. Take a look:

Using geo-targeted keywords, you get to focus more on people that are likely to come to your restaurant.

In a nutshell, if your restaurant is located in Los Angeles, then you need to aim your ads to local consumers in that location, since you’re closer to them.

17. Send out promotional email newsletters

“Email newsletter is the best way to maintain customer relationship on the internet.”

Jakob Nielsen

As a restaurant owner/marketer, you’ve got to understand that sending email newsletter, can help you reach a targeted audience. According to Adobe, if you invest $1 in email marketing, you can derive up to $40 ROI .

For your newsletter to be effective, and convert subscribers into customers, you need to send relevant offers coupled with educational content.

Recent study shows that 70% of emails are opened in search of a deal or discount.

Focusing on sales promotion alone will discourage email recipients. Better yet, offer a discount or deal that recipients can’t resist.

18. Use dedicated solo ads to run a campaign

What are solo ads ?

I thought you should know this by now. Anyways, solo advertising is the processes of sending educational and promotional emails to a third-party email subscribers.

When you’re doing solo advertising, your leveraging other restaurant’s email or phone list.

If you want to achieve better results, don’t try to sell your products to strangers. Because, obviously, your first email to subscribers who don’t know you will sound strange.

Use that opportunity to offer something for free.

Ideally, use solo ads to build up your own list. When you’re marketing your restaurant online, you can’t get ahead with a targeted list of hungry customers.

To get started, look for food bloggers, online restaurant marketers, and fitness experts with loyal subscriber list. Then, strike a deal with them, and use their list to grow your restaurant.

19. Offer a deal in the local paper

Why not take advantage of local newspapers to bring in new customers to your restaurant?

Offering a deal in the local paper can equally improve your reputation, and up your brand. If you’re just starting out, creating massive brand awareness is critical to your success.

Since the cost of advertising on local newspaper is not that expensive, you can use it to offer discounts and deals. Just like free things, people see it as an opportunity to spend less and save more.

Overall, you’ll see increased orders when you offer discounts on your dishes. More so, people hate to lose. Consequently, they’ll take action on your offers.

20. Focus on promoting your Restaurant’s brand

The most important thing about your restaurant business is your brand.

Don’t be too engrossed on the profit. Work hard and smart to get your brand name on every of your customer’s mind and lip.

And there are so many ways to build a brand in your locality. Let’s briefly consider a few of them:

i). Sponsor a local sports team: Taking the bold step to sponsor a local sports team can help your brand in a tremendous way.

You could provide them with new branded jerseys. Since they have lots of viewers both live and on TV., you’ll enhance your brand identity – and impact your community.

iii). Donating food in a community events: Volunteer to feed people during special events organized in the community. It gives people the opportunity to know your restaurant and feel obliged to visit often.

iv). Donating money at community fund raising events: Either donating anonymously or publicly, the community will appreciate your effort.

And definitely want to patronize you, since they know you’ll contribute to their fund raising in the nearest future.

21. Build relationship with delivery service

If you wish to take online orders from around the world, you need to start building a relationship with delivery services like UPS, DHL, and the like.

These delivery services can help you get your products to customers around the world. Distance is no longer a barrier. If you want to focus on delivery within your locality or environs, you can use the services of Bitesquad.com.

Often times, customers are too busy to come over to your restaurant, or maybe a celebrity who wouldn’t want to be spotted at your restaurant.

But if you can deliver delicious meals where they are, they’ll quite appreciate it and order more.

22. Use guest blogging to create more attention

Guest blogging is another way to grow your business online. As a restaurant owner, you are probably equipped with lots of experiences.

GrooveHq , a customer service company used guest blogging to grow from $0 to $100,000 in monthly revenue.

Use your experience and knowledge as a restaurant and food professional to build your business. Picking topics that you can write like:

Contributing useful articles to other blogs that have lots of visitors is the quickest way to build your own audience , and redirect customers to your restaurant.

23. Offer coupons and discounts

Are you offering coupons and discounts?

If you’re not taking advantage of it, you’ll struggle to get more customers to your restaurant website or eatery.

For one, coupons are powerful engagement drivers. Socially Stacked stated that 42% of customers prefer a coupon code when ordering a product. But that’s not all. Take a look at this infographic :

Make no mistakes about it, customers will always look for free gifts, or coupon codes. In this competitive marketing era, you need to provide more than “good” service to your customers.

Treat them with honor. Appreciate them. And always look out for ways to build interest in them – concerning your product.

24. Start a food truck: take your business out there

Instead of waiting for your customers to come, go all out for them.

After all, they deserve all the best treatment and appreciation from you. Just like offering a coupon code gets them excited, a food truck will equally build in them the desire to purchase from you.

With a food truck , your restaurant is mobile and versatile. Maybe you’re in a location with a fierce competition. This is the only way to move beyond restrictions.

Here’s the harsh truth: Majority of the customers you will sell food to may never come to your restaurant.

But with a food truck, you can reach them. This will also advertise your restaurant and strengthen your brand to the customers.

Most important, the relationship could be very strong someday, such that if you didn’t go looking for them, they will come looking for you. Isn’t that awesome?

Don’t sit back in your restaurant, blaming the economy. Stand up and reach out. They are waiting out there.

25. Use online reservation Restaurant tool

Online reservation restaurant tool is a software that allows you to manage your orders. It’s not easy managing a restaurant, but with this tool, it’s fun.

Statistics found that more than 16,000 restaurants are using online reservation tool to take orders from their customers, especially in the US.

With this tool, a guest can book a place to eat. The tool also manages traffic, rewards customers, create brand awareness of the restaurant and motivates people to write reviews.

It gives you ample time to attend to other things while business goes on.

It may interest you to know that 73% of restaurants have seen the need of this tool, and want to upgrade their operation this year. You’ve to see the need to use this software. It will save a lot of stress.

This online reservation tool carries all the necessary information needed by customers to make informed buying decisions. All in all, it can boost your restaurant’s revenue.

When you make life easy and simple for customers, they’ll buy more.

For example, the ease of staying in the office or home and ordering a favorite meal, and receiving it within 10 minutes could help you win lifelong customers to your brand. With this tool, you will always be busy delivering orders from your online opentable.

Your restaurant is calling out for you.

With these 25 marketing ideas, nothing can stop you from dominating your market. One important thing you have to do is build a marketing funnel for your restaurant website and landing page .

This funnel will give you the opportunity to cater to every customer as soon as they visit your website – regardless of the stage they’re in the customer buying cycle.

From the early stage of awareness, down to the bottom of the funnel where they eventually orders from your restaurant or visits in person, you need to understand, educate, and inspire them with useful content.

Which of these restaurant marketing ideas have you executed? Share your opinion.

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16 of the most creative packaging designs in food and beverage

We’ve compiled 16 stand-out examples of brilliantly creative packaging designs across a range of F&B categories, from snacks to takeaway food.

Creative packaging designs for rice and pasta

Creative packaging design is not always associated with the food and beverage (F&B) industry – packaging for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) can be a little, well, perfunctory.

But when brands do take the time to do things a bit differently, their products can really stand out from the crowd. That’s what we wanted to showcase in this article – how creative packaging design can elevate a product and make even everyday foodstuffs extraordinary. Not to mention, directly correlate to increased sales and brand buzz.

We’ve compiled 16 stand-out examples of brilliantly creative F&B packaging design across a range of categories, from snacks to takeaway food. We hope they provide you with inspiration for your next food product development and packaging design project, and encourage you to be bolder with how you present your own products – don’t forget that you can minimise the risk of making bold design decisions by testing packaging designs with consumers before they hit the shelves (download the free guide below).

Guide to packaging design testing

Packaging design testing can help you make more sales and save you from costly mistakes. Learn how to do it in this free guide.

When Backbone Branding was asked by a small distributor to create a design for two types of rice, they wanted to explore the interesting journey the grain goes through before it arrives on our plates. In particular, they wanted to pay tribute to the anonymous humans in charge of the hard work in rice fields.

They chose sustainable sackcloth fabric to contain the rice, and a carton lid in the form of a traditional conic hat, which doubles up as a rice measurement cup. The faces on the bags display a range of facial expressions, so that the rice farmers appear to be conversing with one another when on the shelf.

Moscow-based designer Nikita Konkin dreamed up this creative packaging design for pasta that makes the pasta inside look like ladies’ hair. The pasta range includes fettuccine (the wavy one), spaghettoni (the straight one) and cavatappi (the curly one).

The designs are only mock-ups, but it shows how the design of the outer packaging can be combined with the product inside the box to create a two-dimensional, multi-textural image. By focusing the design on hair, it also challenges the idea that only food-based imagery can be used for food packaging design.

The egg box is a design staple that hasn’t been updated in… well, forever. Latin American design agency Creamos decided to change that by remodelling the carton in the image of a hen itself. The shapely carton is topped with a hen’s head handle.

The agency says it wanted to emulate the way eggs slip from the shell into the frying pan with its new “liquid” branding for Clara y Ema. This is even echoed in the free-form typography use on-pack.

Iranian Studio Metis wanted to create packaging that better reflected the name of fresh meat brand Gentleman. Gentleman is one of the best livestock producers in the region and the idea was to show the quality of the produce by depicting the animals in ‘quality’ clothes.

The traditional style portraiture – usually reserved for aristocrats- is both eye-catching and amusing. At the same time it successfully conveys an air of prestige.

No, they’re not beach huts – they’re cans of seltzer water! Created by Studio Blackthorns , these cans are inspired by real beach huts at Brighton Beach in Melbourne, Australia. Each of them has its own hut number and flavour (banana, spirulina mint, juicy pear, blackcurrant, violet & ginger).

They used the 1921 Brighton Life Saving Club logo to give the brand a more vintage look as well as a hand stencilled-style typography for the numbers and the flavours. Just looking at these cans transports you straight to the seaside, don’t you agree?

Spanish design agency Norte Branding undertook a rebranding against racism project in which they gave famous brands a chromatic makeover. Here we see Coca-Cola’s iconic red can re-done in black and white, demonstrating that the branding loses none of its power.

The message? Exterior colour doesn’t matter, what matters is on the inside. The agency also re-worked the packaging for Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

When it comes to milk, competition is high and it’s hard to stand out on the shelf. Depot branding agency decided to get shoppers’ attention with a playful cat design that turns the packaging into a toy.

The blue cat illustration is broken down into parts, travelling across all four sides of the Milgrad milk carton, and there are several different designs. You can use the packaging like building blocks to create different pictures, making it irresistibly interactive.

mousegraphics of Greece also succeeded in differentiating a dairy brand in a visually overloaded market, but they did it in the opposite way – by stripping away design elements .

They were inspired by the brand’s name smör (which is the Swedish name for ‘butter’), creating a logo that transcribes the initial S to a visual reference to the rolling spires made by a knife on the butter surface. The packaging itself imitates a block of butter with a knob cut off.

Creative packaging designs for fast food

This colourful branding is bold by any standards but when you consider it was designed for the very traditional Egyptian market, it’s even more radical. The work is by Shiekh Branding for Egyptian restaurant Super Foul.

The aim was to attract a young generation by making a distinct departure from the traditional colours, packaging and art direction people are used to. This is why English wording was also chosen. Although the artwork feels like something entirely new, it’s reminiscent of the American 90s aesthetic, which is also making a comeback elsewhere .

24-hour restaurant 7 West in Toronto, Canada needed to solve a problem – how to promote out-of-hours pizza orders to regular-hours customers? Man Wai Wong showed how creative package design could solve just such a problem.

The design agency created 12 boxes – one for every hour, which would be used at the corresponding time. On the inside flap of each box were humorous reasons why that particular hour – at both PM and AM – was a good time to order a pizza (for example, 1am because you’re 5-hours into a Netflix series).

This is a student project by Shreya Pujari , re-imaging the packaging for Kellogg’s cereal 25g multipack. In India, the cereal is packaged in six plastic pouches contained in a plastic net and Pujari wanted to make it both more sustainable and more fun for kids.

She created six colourful card boxes shaped like slices of cake, held together by a card strip – all made from recycled materials. A disc at the top adds a spin-the-wheel feature to decide which cereal to eat. Each individual pack also has activities and fun facts to make it more interactive.

Creative packaging designs for take away food

Food-on-the-go can get messy. Things move about in the bag, squashing and spilling their contents. Behance designer Denise Lau set out to solve this problem with her design for stackable meal boxes.

Multiple boxes can be easily and securely transported thanks to a carrying strap, which can be threaded through the sides of each box. Not only is it a better way to transport prepared food, but it’s also more sustainable, dispensing with the need for a carrier bag.

How’s this for creative food packaging? This machine squeezes fresh orange juice and uses the leftover orange peel to create a cup to drink it from. Created by Italian studio Carlo Ratti Associati , the prototype machine aims to bring circular design into everyday life.

Orange rinds are dried and milled to make “orange dust”, which is mixed with polylactic acid (PLA) to form a bioplastic material. This is then 3D-printed into a cup – a process that customers can watch.The cup can be recycled after use, with the material continually broken down and remade into further cups. How clever is that!

This certainly tops it when it comes to unusual packaging design – the bottles for Dogma Black Sea Aged Wines are submerged in the Bulgarian ocean for five months. Various sea creatures and organisms take up residence, resulting in a unique look for every bottle.

Design agency The Labelmaker enhanced the aged image with a premium embossed pewter label featuring a brushed patina effect. Meanwhile, the cork is covered in gold or silver wax all adding to the impression that the wine has been recovered from an old shipwreck.

Food packaging really excels when form and function combine, like they do in this nuts packaging design. ÖLOBOX, created by Olkas Voron , is an innovative package with an integrated pocket for shells.

Allowing people to eat natural snacks anywhere, the husks section opens after the pack is opened. When you finish eating, it’s very easy to close the pack with the shells inside and store it until you can throw it away.

Creative packaging designs for dried fruit

Looking for more nuts packaging ideas? Look no further. Synthesis creative lab has shown how natural foods can be packaged in completely natural packaging. These beautiful cylinders are made from lagenaria, a plant from the gourd family.

Each one has a unique pattern and size making them visually appealing and different from other types of packaging. But more than this, the packaging is sustainable (it decomposes in one year) and practical (it’s waterproof, lightproof and rigid).

We hope you loved these packaging design ideas and are now raring to go with new concepts for your brand? You can get started right away by digging into consumers’ preferences for packaging. And once you’ve got prototype designs, you can use consumer feedback to help you develop and refine your ideas. It’s a simple process, and you can learn how to do it step-by-step in our Guide to Packaging Design Testing.

Senior Content Writer

Bel has a background in newspaper and magazine journalism but loves to geek-out with Attest consumer data to write in-depth reports. Inherently nosy, she's endlessly excited to pose questions to Attest's audience of 125 million global consumers. She also likes cake.

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20 Foods That Will Improve Your Creativity

Creativity has been described as “a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created.” A story, a joke, an idea, a concept, a masterpiece – they all stem from creativity.

Even something as simple as experimenting with a new recipe or building a fort with the kids requires bursts of creativity. But sometimes it can feel that our creativity is decidedly lacking. Our brains may even feel somewhat…sluggish.

It may be that your diet is affecting your creative talents. Excessive salt, sugar or trans-fat intake or a diet high in processed foods can leave our brains as lethargic as our bodies.

Fortunately, there are measures we can take to boost our brain power. The following list of foods is not only delicious, but has been proven to increase brain function and ultimately, creativity.

Carbohydrates are essential to keep your brain running at optimal levels. Nutritionists recommend eating a variety of whole grain foods, because they provide a steady supply of fuel over a longer period of time. This, in turn, ensures sustained creativity (no afternoon slumps):

Essential fatty acids play a vital role in productive brain function, helping your brain to build new (creative!) pathways:

As well as stocking up on complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids and antioxidants, the following foods have been found to boost brain creativity.

A balanced diet, rich in ‘brain food’ is one of the best ways to improve our creativity. Remember, our body is fuelled by the food we eat, and that includes our brain.

A good source of complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids and protective antioxidants (not to mention some rich, dark chocolate!) will all contribute to boosting our creative ability and overall cognitive function.

Posted by: Igor

Igor is a SEO specialist, designer, and freelance writer. He believes that knowledge can change the world and be used to inspire and empower young people to build the life of their dreams. When he is not writing in his favorite coffee shop, Igor spends most of his time reading, traveling, producing house music, and capturing light with his camera. He is a sucker for good coffee, Indian food, and video games.

Fierce Competition and Lychee Martinis at an Underground Mahjong Club

For the Chinatown architectural firm Food New York, the fast-paced tile game offers a chance to find more seats at more tables for the city’s creative scene.

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By Jason Chen

May 19, 2023

The idea for an office mahjong league came unexpectedly to Bella Janssens, the director of the architectural design firm Food New York , which has collaborated with Virgil Abloh, Axel Vervoordt and Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art. During a flight from Amsterdam in 2021, as post-pandemic travel resumed, she felt inspired while watching “The Joy Luck Club,” the 1993 film adaptation of Amy Tan’s 1989 novel, wherein the intermingling stories of four Chinese women and their daughters unfold over rounds of the four-player, tile-based game.

Though it originated in China in the 19th century, mahjong has long been popular throughout Southeast Asia, Japan and America; it was brought stateside by a Standard Oil company representative returning from Shanghai in the 1920s. Janssens, who’s from the Netherlands but grew up between the United Kingdom and Singapore, decided she and her colleagues should start playing after meetings or during lunch in Food’s Chinatown office; eventually, those pickup games grew into an amateur-friendly mahjong tournament that the firm’s founding director, Dong-Ping Wong, 43, and Janssens, 34, have organized twice a year since late 2021. Wong, who was born and raised in San Diego, had a typical second-generation immigrant’s relationship to mahjong. (His parents are from Hong Kong.) “I played it once, probably with my grandparents and great-aunts, and my memory was that I won that game,” he says, “and only 30 years later did I realize they were probably just [messing] with me.”

Bella Janssens (right) and, next to her, Dong-Ping Wong with friends and colleagues during the recent Food Mahjong Club tournament hosted by Wong’s architecture and design firm, Food New York.

The first Food Mahjong Club, in December 2021, was a scrappy affair. Wong and Janssens didn’t prepare much besides buying some mahjong sets, designing a logo and sending out invitations to friends and collaborators in the design, fashion and art worlds. By the third iteration, last September, the ad hoc gathering had become a ticketed event at a defunct dim sum parlor within the 88 East Broadway Mall that benefited the community-building nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown and drew some 150 people. “A lot of our work is trying to engage the public in some way,” says Wong, noting that “a dream project for the office would be to build out a community center in Chinatown.”

Here’s how the most recent tournament came together one weeknight in March, as a few dozen people gathered at Food’s headquarters to learn the game, compete, then socialize — and eat dim sum — once most of them had inevitably lost.

The hosts: Wong and Janssens have worked together for more than five years at Food New York, where Janssens handles operations and Wong leads design. After shepherding the game’s novices toward beginner tables and introducing acquaintances to one another, Wong served as the tournament’s M.C., counting down rounds (“Twenty seconds to choose a winner!”) and guiding those who advanced to their designated tables. Wong’s punctiliousness was a lesson learned from lingerers at the first Food Mahjong Club, when games went long over schedule. “Now I’m yelling at people to ‘get up!’ and ‘move over there!’ and ‘finish your game!’” he says with a laugh.

The rules: This tournament began with 32 players. After a quarter- and semifinal round, the remaining four players (the creative strategist Brendan Chareoncharutkun, the producer Wei-Li Wang, the casting director Najia Li Saad and — completely coincidentally — this writer), played for a prize of a new mahjong set, which ultimately went to Wang. Food Mahjong Club plays a Cantonese version of the game, in which players begin with 13 tiles and win by completing a 14-tile hand of four three-tile sets (called melds, similar to hands in poker) and one pair called eyes. Cantonese style is regarded as the easiest for beginners, as opposed to, say, Taiwanese style, which requires winning with a 16-tile hand and has more complicated scoring conventions. For nonspeakers, Wong and Janssens also designed cards that translated the Chinese symbols for numerical characters and necessary vocabulary: pong when a player nabs three of a kind, or tingpai when they’re one tile away from victory (the Mandarin equivalent of “uno”).

The venue: The game took place at Food’s headquarters off Chatham Square, a ninth-floor studio that fits only six square tables, with just enough space to cram in extra stools for spectators, a buffet for food and drink and some standing room for those more focused on industry gossip. Wong and Janssens set the mood with red lights that evoked a Wong Kar-wai film (or an “underground parlor,” as Wong says), though the exact shade took trial and error. “The lights were sort of orangy and blue before we switched to red and pink, which helped it look coherent,” Janssens says. “You couldn’t tell there was a messy architectural office behind you.”

The food and drink: The caterer Jamie Cheung of Edible Affairs organized a spread based on Hong Kong-style street food, with smaller bites and nongreasy finger fare (the better to eat while drawing tiles), including har gow shrimp dumplings, curry fish balls and tea eggs. The centerpiece was a croquembouche made not of profiteroles but of shoutao (longevity peach buns filled with lotus paste, typically eaten during birthday celebrations for elders). In keeping with the evening’s lychee martinis — the club’s signature drink — Cheung also served lychee-filled goji berry and chrysanthemum agar-agar jellies in the shape of mahjong tiles.

The music: Wong created a Spotify playlist inspired by the Hong Kong pop singer Sammi Cheng’s 1995 song “Du Jiang Shi Chang” (“獨家試唱”), which became the club’s anthem after Wong and Janssens were listening to a track list that the Chinatown community organizer Rochelle Kwan curated for the streaming radio station NTS. Wong’s playlist’s mostly mid-tempo tracks — Cantopop hits from the 1990s and 2000s by Gigi Leung, Faye Wong and Ekin Cheung — struck the mainly 30- and 40-something attendees with a wave of Chinese-inflected nostalgia. “A few told us they felt almost emotional,” Janssens says.

The equipment: While some Chinese Americans are lucky enough to play with vintage resin mahjong sets inherited from their parents (which are actually similar to versions you can find on Amazon), Wong and Janssens had to get creative, given the number of tiles required. They borrowed sets from friends and family; Wong, asking his parents to lend him theirs, discovered an oversize set his grandparents owned decades earlier in Hong Kong (but they didn’t send it from San Diego). The co-hosts also bought new sets from Walmart and Yellow Mountain Imports: glittery champagne versions and emerald ones that resemble pandan jellies. Slightly controversial to the purists were the American sets, which have numerals printed on tiles featuring Chinese characters, so non-Chinese speakers don’t have to guess, for instance, whether a character means five or six.

The architectural touch: Wong says that although some mahjong players forgo them, pushers — the ruler-like sticks used not just to organize the tiles into straight lines but also to count them — are essential. Depending on the style of mahjong, the pushers are the length of 13 or 16 tiles lined up side by side; because preferences differ, the implements often need to be purchased separately. Instead, some employees at Food New York crafted their own out of balsa wood, the lightweight material used for design maquettes. “We make a lot of models in the office,” Wong says, “so that was easy.”

Video: Director of photography: Timothy Mulcare. Editor: Luke Northrop. Music: Andrew Fox

25 Food Crafts for Kids (Edible Crafts and Activities)

Inspire your kids to get creative in the kitchen with these 25 easy and fun food crafts and activities . From edible artistic creations like fruit flowers to healthy lunchbox treats, your family will love making mealtime more enjoyable with these ideas. Bake up some delicious cupcakes that look like a surprise inside or create an ice cream sundae bar for after-dinner parties. No matter what you decide, there’s sure to be something here that’ll make everyone smile! Get ready for hours of laughter, learning and yummy eats when you try out one (or two) of these terrific food crafts for kids!

From edible crafts to food activities , there are plenty of fun and exciting ways to engage kids using food. If you’re looking for activities to keep your preschoolers, toddlers or even kindergarten and elementary students occupied, food crafts are a great way to spark creativity while having fun.

You can explore fun eatable crafts , food-based art projects or even create a science experiment out of food. Try some inspiring ideas such as ice cube painting and use it as an opportunity to introduce STEM concepts like mixing colors and melting points. With all the possibilities of food crafting, discovering something new is only limited by your imagination!

25 Food Crafts for Kids (Edible Crafts and Activities)

Fun Food Crafts for Kids (Edible Crafts and Activities)

Food crafts are a fun and interactive way to get kids of all ages engaged and excited about cooking. With food, anything is possible! From edible food crafts for preschoolers, to fun food activities for toddlers, and kindergarteners, there’s something that every kid will love. From cookie house designs to egg carton caterpillars; pasta necklaces to pizza box cars; edible wood ornaments to fishy fruit skewers; the possibilities are endless when it comes to planning food-centric crafts and activities.

Furthermore, parents can rest easy knowing that these crafts are nutritious and providing real skills they will use in the future. With over 25 amazing food crafts ready to explore with your kiddos – get creative in the kitchen today!

1. Hidden Vegetable Cream Cheese Bagels

Hidden Vegetable Cream Cheese Bagels For Kids

A DIY hidden vegetable cream cheese bagels are a fantastic and easy way to ensure kids eat their vegetables. This fun and healthy bagel recipe are simple to make, with easy-to-collect ingredients like baby carrots, celery, cream cheese, raisins and strawberries.

Once you spread the cream cheese over the bagel halves and sprinkle on the chopped veggies and raisins, it’s time to turn this delicious treat into a true DIY meal! Top with slices of strawberry and pretend pretzel sticks for a tasty snack that looks just as appealing as it is good for you.

Whether serving up DIY hidden vegetable cream cheese bagels as an after-school treat or for busy weeknight dinners, it’s a great way to please hungry taste buds without sacrificing nutrition. inspiration

2. DIY Rainbow Cauliflower Crust Pizza

This DIY rainbow cauliflower crust pizza is the perfect way to satisfy your pizza cravings while packing some veggies! In just 40 minutes and with a few simple steps, you can have a delicious, awe-inspiring pizza that’s pleasing to the eye and perfect for kids and adults.

It’s packed with crunchy vegetables inside and out, including cauliflower, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, diced bell peppers of any color combination desired, broccoli florets, red onions and tomatoes. And if you like an extra burst of sweetness from corn kernels – include them too!

DIY rainbow cauliflower crust pizza will make it easy to make, no matter your dietary preferences or skill level. gimmedelicious

3. Easy Turkey Cookies for Thanksgiving

Making easy turkey cookies is the perfect way to add enthusiasm and vibrance to your next family dinner. Not only are these cookies incredibly delicious, but they also look pretty impressive on the table.

For those aiming for something a bit cuter, try using turkey-shaped cookies for thanksgiving–these can be made with just cookie dough, royal icing, brown food coloring and a 2-inch circle cutter as well as one disposable decorating bag, a coupler, size ‘4’ tip, rubber band and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds.

This DIY project is both simple and rewarding at the same time! decoratedcookie

4. Marshmallow Love Bugs Crafts for Preschoolers

These marshmallow love bugs are an easy and fun way to create candy treats for valentine’s day. With just a few simple ingredients, like marshmallows, lollipop sticks, pink sprinkles, mini heart cookie cutters, mini gumdrops and large gumdrops, it’s possible to make the most adorable little marshmallow love bugs.

You can also use heart confetti sprinkles, black edible marker pens, and spaghetti to add more personality to your DIY creation. To finish off your DIY marshmallow love bugs, grab some wax paper, a rolling pin, sugar, shortening, a knife and a toothpick, light corn syrup, and a styrofoam block to assemble your finished product. decoratedcookie

5. Mice Krispy Treats for Valentine’s Day

Looking for a creative, festive and delicious Valentine’s Day treat? Make Rice Krispies Treats Mice in just 25 minutes! With 6 cups of rice cereal, 4 cups of mini marshmallows, 3 tablespoons unsalted butter and red/purple dye, make these cute snacks for your sweetheart. Using a medium saucepan and 9×13 inch pan with heart cookie cutter wrap the treats in wax paper & decorate with nonpareils & conversation hearts. Delight your loved one this V-Day with this fun DIY treat! kidfriendly

6. Lion Pancakes Crafts for Toddlers

Celebrate the upcoming live-action Lion King movie with this easy and fun DIY breakfast treat – Lion Pancakes! All you need is some basic pantry items like flour, salt, sugar, eggs, milk, butter and baking powder. Then top off your pancakes with whipped topping, clementines, strawberries, licorice strips, chocolate chips/raisins & mini chocolate chips to make a roaring lion face! Perfect for jungle lovers of all ages. countrycottage

7. Unicorn Popcorn Recipe for Elementary Students

A DIY unicorn popcorn is a perfect way to get creative in the kitchen with the kids! This sweet and fun recipe is super simple, taking just minutes to create a delicious treat.

With just a few ingredients like air-popped popcorn, candy melts, coconut oil and sprinkles, you can easily transform a regular snack into something magical.

It’s perfect for any celebration – big or small – as a fun substitute for cake and cupcakes, plus bright and beautiful colors that will help make your party stand out. With DIY unicorn popcorn, it’s easy to get your little ones involved, making it a great activity option for any occasion! livinglife

8. Creative Bakers Tray Food Activities

Encourage your kids to create colorful, engaging trays of food-inspired craft with this fun DIY baker tray activity! You’ll find all the materials you need like play dough, clay or salt dough, muffin papers and paper cups, crayons and small beads easily available in the market. It’s perfect for food-themed parties or community helper theme activities. With adult supervision it can help develop their artistic creativity and organizational skills. While strengthening fine motor skills through hands-on practice. Get creative with plastic trays or a sturdy board plus crayon sharpener, shaving foam, colored glue and flour paste – great SEO optimized content to make memorable occasions! firstpalette

9. Fun and Easy DIY Circles Lollipop

Making DIY circles lollipops is a fun and easy craft anyone can make at home. All you need are some plastic trays or any sturdy board, play dough, clay, or salt dough, muffin paper or paper cup, crayons, a crayon sharpener, small beads, shaving foam, colored glue (or color your own) and colored flour paste. To start making your DIY lollipop project:

In no time, you’ll have a circle lollipop that’s perfect for decorating any special occasion! firstpalette

10. Valentine Candy House Arts and Crafts

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to get your family together and have some fun with a DIY Valentine’s Candy House. All you need are graham crackers, powdered sugar, eggs, water (sometimes lemon juice or cream of tartar) for royal icing glue & plenty of candy & sweets. Assemble it all and you’ll have a unique & adorable house that your family can admire as they take it apart piece by piece! joyinwork

11. Strawberry Heart Man Kid Snack Crafts

The DIY strawberry heart man kid snack is a fun and creative way to liven up any class party or valentine’s day gathering for kids. This delicious and slightly healthy snack will surely provide an element of surprise with every bite and a sense of satisfaction when the little ones put it together all by themselves!

Using ingredients such as strawberries, toothpicks, wilton candy eyes, pretzel sticks, mini marshmallows, and conversation hearts, this DIY strawberry heart man kid snack is almost too cute not to make. Let the kids bask in their love-filled snack creation and have a blast! craftingchicks

12. Rice Krispie Treat Monsters for Kindergarten

Make your kid’s first birthday special with these fun, easy-to-make DIY Rice Krispie Treat Monsters! With just a few simple ingredients like candy melts, candy eyes, and cooking oil to go along with pre-made rice Krispie treats, you can create eye-catching monsters that will liven up any event. Customize them however you want: add more candy eyes and colorful candy melts to bring the monsters alive! littleproject

13. Adorable Polar Bear Cookies Crafts

Making DIY polar bear cookies are the perfect christmas baking activity for kids! Not only will they love eating them, but they will also be proud of creating their own adorable polar bear face. With a free printable instruction guide, it is easy to DIY this festive cookie at home.

There are only a few simple ingredients to prepare – cut-out sugar cookie dough, white frosting and m&m candy for decorations. You can use a circle cookie cutter or a glass cup to make your circular cookies, then use the decoration guide to personalize it with the candies and create an adorable polar bear face. Enjoy these sweet edible creations—you won’t be able to resist DIY easy polar bear cookies! designrepeat

14. Edible DIY Halloween Pumpkin Cookie Cake

DIY-ers rejoice! This DIY Halloween pumpkin cookie cake is the perfect festive treat for a spooky holiday season. This special project is super affordable and budget-friendly – with the ingredients costing only around $10 – and it’s also easy to make. The instructions for making this edible DIY masterpiece are simple and require minimal baking skills.

All you need is cookie dough, frosting, food coloring, and some m&m’s, reeses pieces, or chocolate chips as decorations to create the perfect cutest Halloween jack-o-lantern cookie cake. With just a few simple and easy steps, you can have homemade halloween pumpkin cookie cake in no time! designrepeat

15. Eatable Silly Monster Halloween Cupcakes Crafts

These silly monster halloween cupcakes are the perfect treat for kids of all ages. Not too spooky, these cupcakes will surely be a hit at your halloween party.

Making DIY monster cupcakes is fun and customizable – you need cupcake liners, food coloring, a dozen cupcakes, some frosting and piping bags, striped straws, white wilton candy melts and mini chocolate chips and large sprinkles in different colors to add the monster features.

When finished, you’ll have an adorable batch of silly monster cupcakes that are as delicious as they are cute! This is the perfect DIY project for spending quality time with your loved ones over the holiday season. pizzazzerie

16. DIY Monster Marshmallows for Babies

DIY monster marshmallows are a fun and creative way to have your kids enjoy the kitchen. All you need is candy-melting chocolate, eyeballs, lolly pop sticks, and sprinkles.

Your kids will love putting together the parts to create their adorable monsters – from decorating them with delicious candy to dipping the marshmallow in the sprinkles. DIY monster marshmallows not only provide a fantastic activity for all ages, but it’s sure to create some wonderful family memories too. madeamomma

17. Cute and Simple Halloween Cookies

Making this cute & simple Halloween cookie is the perfect Halloween treat at home with the kids. They taste amazing and are so easy to make. Decorate your sugar cookies with sprinkles, googly eyes and fun stencils! It will creating a delicious treat that both kids and adults will love.

Making halloween cookies is fun to create memories and traditions while bonding with your family. Plus, they make a great addition to any halloween party!

With just a few ingredients, including sugar cookies (homemade or store-bought), sprinkles, frosting, halloween stencils and edible googly eyes, you’ll have delicious DIY cookies to enjoy in no time! littleprojects

18. Witchy Caramel Apple Food Themed Crafts

These witchy caramel apples are a perfect fall treat that everyone can enjoy! They are made with granny smith apples, sugar cones, chocolate chips, caramels, lollipop sticks and halloween-themed sprinkles to garnish.

With few ingredients and simple instructions, it’s easy and fun making these treats for Halloween! Just melt the caramels with shortening in a double boiler or the microwave. Then dip each apple into the melted caramel, insert a lollipop stick into its core and top each one with a sugar cone dipped in melted chocolate.

Decorate them with sprinkles if desired, place them in muffin liners and voila! Witchy caramel apples are ready to devour! bitzngiggles

19. Kid-friendly Halloween Monster Donuts Crafts

DIY halloween monster donuts make fun and kid-friendly craft treats while celebrating the holiday season. Create this spooky and delicious treat by glazing your donut and topping it off with white frosting, plastic vampire fangs, candy eyeballs, jimmies sprinkles, sugar sprinkles and licorice pastels.

These DIY monster donuts make for a sweet and sassy treat for any party or gathering this halloween. Get creative with monster donuts for festive memories to enjoy every year. aperspective

20. DIY Halloween Pizza Ideas

This DIY halloween pizza is perfect for getting into the halloween spirit without breaking the bank. With only four ingredients, you can make a delicious and ghoulish meal or snack for your family in no time.

Making mummy pizzas with your kids is a great way to spend quality time together while creating an easy yet spooky halloween-themed dinner for the whole family.

All you need are one can of biscuits, one jar of pizza sauce, sixteen sliced black olives and eight mozzarella sticks – it’s that simple! DIY halloween pizza is ideal for those looking for a fun and budget-friendly Halloween dinner idea. mommyusings

21. Melted Witch Cookies With Food Coloring

Making melted witch cookies is a fun and easy food idea this halloween season! In just one hour, you can make a batch of these simple cookies with chocolate cut-out cookie dough, royal icing, electric green food coloring, a disposable decorating bag, a coupler and a size four decorating tip.

To finish off your DIY melted witch cookies, add oreos, hershey’s kisses, pretzel sticks and chow mein noodles. This DIY makes the perfect treat for enjoying at home with family or passing out to classmates as Halloween gifts. Try creating DIY witch cookies today for an easy halloween treat everyone will love! decoratedcookie

22. Witch Hat Surprise Cookies Crafts

Make Halloween even more fun with these DIY Witch-Hat Surprise Cookies! Easy to make and delicious, they look like mini witch hats when baked. All you need is Oreo ice cream cones, Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, green frosting, chocolate chips & butterscotch chips plus small candies to fill the cones up with. Bake for a yummy treat your guests will love – take a bite and pour out more surprises! alwaysautumn

23. Easy DIY Valentines Day Cookies for kids

These DIY easy valentine’s Day cookies are a great way to surprise your kids as they come home from school! They are simple, perfectly suited for any family’s traditional holiday celebration, and require less prep time than other treats.

All you need is unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, salt, vanilla and pink gel food coloring; all ingredients are easy to find and inexpensive to purchase. The rewards of making DIY cookies for kids with your family can’t be beaten! They will enjoy every sweet bite and every part of the special bonding it creates. playground

24. Cute Felt Food Crafts for Beginners

DIY projects can be a creative and fun way to spend a summer day. Making DIY fruit plush tutorials is an excellent DIY project for those feeling crafty. These super easy tutorials make use of felt to create delightful plushies. With simple tips and tricks, even beginner DIYers can have their own set of delicious-looking felt food in no time.

It’s great for beginners because it’s easy and fun. There are many online tutorials with additional ideas on making this DIY project unique with colors and shapes! All in all, DIY fruit plush tutorials are sure to add something special to any home atmosphere.

25. Fake Bake Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Want something special & festive for your loved ones this season? Give DIY Pumpkin Pie Cookies a try! This easy tutorial gives you step-by-step instructions to recreate these delicious & creative snacks. No need to be intimidated – Pumpkin Pie Cookies are simple, cute treats that will charm any gathering.

Related Crafts for Kids:

Bring out your child’s creativity with fun and easy crafts for kids. Get inspiration, ideas and supplies for all types of kid-friendly projects to make at home.

Conclusion:

Food crafts and activities for kids are a great way to encourage creativity, have fun in the kitchen, foster healthy eating habits, and promote safety. With 25 edible food craft options on the table – from making sushi rolls to creating vegetable art – it is possible to engage even the most finicky eaters in the kitchen. Kids will love making their own snacks, and experimenting with different tastes and textures all while having fun!

The fun food crafts and ideas range from sweet treats and savory snacks to full meals that children can help create. Best of all, since these recipes involve foods that are safe to eat raw or cooked without adult supervision (with just a few exceptions), parents can feel assured that their children’s culinary adventures can take place safely at home.

Food activities also lay an excellent foundation for teaching kids about nutrition while enjoying themselves; what better way than food crafts? So, get creative food crafts with your little ones today!

More DIY Crafts

30 Easy Winter Crafts for Kids - Art and Craft Activities for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Kindergarten students.

How to Plate Food: Top 10 Artistic Food Presentation Ideas

What tempts a customer to try a dish? The answer is “how amazingly you present the dish.” Maybe you got your answer but you have to gather more knowledge about food presentation ideas or food presentation techniques. Let’s explore how to plate food in a creative way.

You can find a lot of creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery. But it’s critical to consider which region you are serving the food in. Suppose you are serving the food service in the Asian region or USA.

What is Food Plating?

Food plating is a food presentation idea or food presentation technique that creates an aesthetic appeal to the diners. In this case, the visual presentation is inevitable including decorating, arranging, and presenting the food.

Do you know that the taste of the food increases 29% if you serve the food in an artistic way?

Yes, it’s proven. While conducting the research, a group of people is served with the same food that is prepared with the same ingredients.

Once they tasted the food from the well-decorated plate, and another time with the same food normally.

The most interesting part of the test is the result. Can you realize what the result will be?

Although all foods are made with the same ingredients, the people found the decorated food tastier than the normally served item.

The report published that the well-decorated food is 3 times tastier to the served people. Plating food techniques are significant to know as a chef. So go through the article and know How do you present a dish to make it more appealing.

Creative Presentation Techniques for Vegetable Cookery

Do you know the Philippines is one of the Asian countries in which food draws inspiration from several influences? Filipino foods have striking similarities with international cuisine. Filipino dishes reflect the Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Western, and Pacific Islander flavors.

It’s true that we eat with our senses. Yes, what we eat we can see, smell and feel that. A study revealed that the dishes’ presentation makes the food items taste better. So why not? You should know plating techniques and here you’ll get the tips for food presentation.

What are the Components of a Creative Food Presentation?

It’s essential to know the components of creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.

What are the elements of good food presentation? In this part of the article, you can acquire sufficient knowledge of plating food techniques. Know how to plate food perfectly.

The components of food presentation include-

Present the Culinary Preparation

The plate structures and the colors are important to reveal your culinary preparation. In this case, the size of the plate and food volume greatly depends.

Center of Attention

The food plate you serve your customers should be well organized and the focal point of the food plate should be considered.

Suppose, you highlight the highest point of the decorated plate most attractively. But you should consider the placement of the focal point. It’s critical to place the lower items on the food plate so as not to hide the lower items.

Color Psychology

The colors of a dish make something different to the appeal of the customers. Choose color wisely and every food item has its own color. You have to make a color and contrast balance on a dish.

Typically, the Green color represents coolness whereas Red stands for excitement. Besides, Blue is not an appropriate color for the food as it suppresses the appetizing.

On the other hand, Black is a sign of elegance. Although the vegetables are colorful and you have to understand their contrasts of colors and shapes.

Flavor of the Food

The food flavors are the most important component. The flavors complement each other and they are close. You have to consider the desired flavor that makes a sense of the smell of the diner.

Visual Interest with Texture

The texture is the most important component of a food presentation. The texture of your food items on the plate gives pleasure to eating.

The textures grow the visual interest and the combination of the textures of a food plate can be soft, smooth, and rigid.

Textures can be different because of the preparation method. Suppose a crunchy texture builds happily on a creamy and smooth cushion.

The decoration of a food plate is significant. You may serve different items of food. In this case, you should consider the fruit platter presentation ideas, Sandwich platter presentation ideas, Fine dining plating ideas, Seafood plating ideas, Steak plating techniques, Meat plating ideas, Salad plating presentation, etc.

The food presentation techniques must have two distinctive factors. One is edibility and another one is flavor. The decorating components can be herbs, spices, or ingredients.

In this case, you have to plate food like a chef.

Garnish the Food Plate

Well, before tasting the food, the garnishing impacts the level of taste and the effectiveness of the food presentation.

It enhances the flavor and texture of a dish. Garnishing should follow two culinary art rules. The food plate ought to present an outstanding way that considers the food’s appearance and the balanced dish.

The garnish of a food plate helps to shut the mouth of your customers while serving them on the table. Because their eyes will be caught on your decorated plate. It’s like the eyes eat the plate.

How to plate food in a creative way? The above components are required in plating food techniques. Besides, the food plate presentation ideas help the chefs to understand the standard level of food plating.

However, these are the basic elements of plating and principles of food presentation techniques. Those dish presentation techniques help to create a framework, balance your dish, keep the food plate smile, highlight the key ingredients and get the right portion of ingredients.

What are the Food Plating Techniques?

The food plating techniques are highly required for the foodservice business. Especially for the restaurants that provide a setting space to take food for the customers.

In the Philippines, restaurants always focus on modern plating techniques. The food presentation ideas help the restaurateurs to think once again about how to present food on a plate.

The food plating techniques master you to make your plate a perfect and presentable dish to your customers. It’s like an art where the food plate is your canvas and the food is your medium.

What are the essential factors of food presentation? Let’s see the important factors that you must consider in plating food techniques. Fruit platter presentation ideas are also important to know. The food platter is also popular worldwide.

You have to be an artist while designing your food plate. Let’s explore the best food plating techniques in the below section.

Plating Techniques

The plating techniques suggest you shape your plate perfectly. Likewise, you have to choose a paper to art on it. You should consider some factors while choosing the right plate for serving food.

Size of the Plate

The plate size is a considerable matter because it brings the ingredients you want to serve to your customers. In this case, the plate size should be big enough to represent it in a balanced way.

Choose the Plate Color

The color of your plate is also important. You can choose the light color or dark color plate. Most of the restaurants use white color plates. Because it gives you a neutral background for brightly colored foods.

On the other hand, you can choose the dark color plate if your food items are light in color. Besides, you can use the color of your dish matching with the interior design of your restaurants like table, chair, and couch colors.

Moreover, the color of your plates can vary from item to item. Suppose, you are offering an appetizer, in this case, you should choose red color plates and the blue plate expresses the royalty.

Style of the Restaurant

The classical style plates always suit fine dining restaurants. In this case, china dinnerware is appropriate for the traditional plating styles.

Besides the plating style should be up to date in time which allows you to create maximum plating creativity.

Food Plating Design Techniques

The appropriate food plating design or arrangement of the food plate helps to determine the structural integrity, aesthetic tone of the meal, and flavor dispersion. Perfect dish presentation highly depends on the food plating techniques you follow.

Just take a look at the most popular and effective food arrangement techniques.

Rule of Thirds

Food presentation is creativity. You have to explore your ideas to make the food plate more unique and captivated.

The rule of thirds should be followed to place the food on the food plate. In this case, the focal point must be maintained. Which food items are appropriate on the right side and which are suitable for the left side rather than the center.

Clock Style Food Plating

The food plate presentation can be unique if you just focus on some unique styles. In this case, the clock style is popular and worthy.

The food plate should carry the ingredients in a systematic way and the alignment of the food items is important.

Think of your plate as a clock and place the protein item between 3 and 9, the starch or carbohydrate item between 9 to 12, and vegetable items from 12 to 3.

Keep Your Plate Simple and Clean

Simple food plating is obvious and it attracts customers. You have to keep your plate simple and the focal point of your food plate should be expressed.

Never make your food plate overcrowded with different items. It negatively affects the impression of the customers.

Focus on Textures

The texture of the food creates an aesthetic value of the food plate. An appealing texture combination is essential. You can also follow some classic styles of food dishes.

For instance, a smooth vegetable puree with crunchy onion straws creates a marvelous food dish. Besides, topping a steak with crumbled blue cheese makes a classic cuisine.

Placement of Moist Ingredients

The moist food ingredients can run any portion of the plate. In this case, you have to prevent running by placing other food ingredients on the top of the plate.

So place the moist food ingredients first. Then locate other food items on top.

Food Visibility Plating Techniques

Visibility of your food plate is the first and foremost part of food plating. Do you know the customers always focus on the beauty of the dishes?

The food presentation techniques make your dish more colorful and appealing. In this case, you have to maintain a visual balance while preparing the dishes.

Consider the Quantity

Well, you must provide the quantity of the items by following a classic style. It creates a balance of the dish. Then the most important thing to consider is serving the food with odd numbers.

Yes, the odd number makes a positive sense to the service users’ minds. For instance, if you serve five Brussels sprouts to your customers instead of six, the customers feel you serve them more.

Color and Flavor Diversity

You have to design your food plate including different colors. The perfect color combination makes the customers more interested in taking the food.

In this case, when you serve the dish, you may add several types of ingredients that are different in color. For example, vegetables, meats, and other food items are distinctive colors.

On the other hand, the flavor of your prepared dish greatly depends because the customers eat with satisfaction when it smells better.

So it is necessary not to present the food plate with only one single flavor. You have to add different flavors that suit the food more perfectly.

Create Layer of Food Ingredients

The food layer creates art on your dish. If you see the traditional plating system in a restaurant, the plates just contain a lot of food items randomly.

But the modern plating techniques make the dish more presentable. Because nowadays the foodservice owners try to present the food in an interesting way.

In this case, creating a food layer on your plate is highly recommended. It is true that the multiple layers of food arrangement on a food plate stimulate the level of curiosity.

Sauce Plating Presentation Techniques

How to decorate food dishes? The answer to the question includes more considerable points. But the most important thing is to plate the sauce in an amazing way.

In this case, the sauce plating techniques are essential to know. Suppose, you place sauce on the plate but it doesn’t create any additional beauty of the dish.

So what can you do? You should follow the below points.

You can think of your squeeze bottle as a paintbrush. And art your food plate with it.

Smeared Sauce

First, choose the desired color sauce and fill the squeeze bottle with it. Create a circle on the food plate with a thick layer of sauce.

Then with a spoon or other tool, dip it in the center of the sauce where it is thickest. Now pull the sauce quickly across the food plate.

Accent Dots

It is a more interesting one. If you use multiple sauces to create a color contrast, accent dots are the most suitable ones.

First, take a squeeze bottle and fill it up with the colored sauce. In this case, you should use the rule of thirds to decorate the sauce based on your plate.

Smeared Accent Dots

Sauce plating is creative. You can merge two styles and get a combined design. In this case, you can make a curved line along the side of the food plate.

Well, firstly take a small plating edge and locate it at the middle of the first accent dot. Now drag the edge across the accent dots and create a single or multi-color edge.

Swirled Sauce

Fill a squeeze bottle with the desired sauce. Now squeeze your bottle and spin the stand where the plate is placed. It makes a design on the food ingredients and the multicolor sauce makes it more artistic.

However, it’s not about the design of the food plate with sauce, it’s more than that. So wipe the edge of the food plate with a towel or a clean piece of cloth after doing the sauce plating techniques.

Garnishing Techniques

The food presentation techniques are not new. But the traditional food plating ideas are not worthy in this modern era.

Modern food plating techniques are focusing on garnishing. Although the traditional garnishing system was basic, at that time, a piece of kale or an orange slice was thrown by chefs on the plate.

In this era, restaurant owners think differently. The creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery are essential to do something unique.

Now the garnishing is related to its flavor. To create a flavor bite, follow the garnishing techniques below.

One thing you must know, which garnishes should be avoided.

Don’t use unappetizing garnishes including

Use Edible Garnishes

It’s crucial to use edible garnishes with the dish. The garnishes should be placed perfectly in the right position.

Placement of the Garnishes

Based on the type of your dish, you should place the garnishes. In this case, the color contrast of the food is related. Moreover, always try to place the garnishes on top of the dishes rather than at the corner of the plate.

Never Do it Crowded

The garnishes enhance the beauty of the food plate by stimulating flavor. But you should remember that you have to make your dish a presentable and balanced dish. So if the food items of your dish are already too much, you should consider adding garnishing ingredients to it.

The food plate presentation techniques are different in different countries. Philippines, India, Thailand, etc. countries are popular for food in Asia.

Besides, the USA and different European countries are also presenting the food with great care. But the fact is that the food items and the dish presentation are different.

Filipino foods are popular because they serve almost all types of food. Moreover, the Philippines serve different countries’ people.

Here are the best food plating techniques on how to plate food. If you follow those dish presentation ideas, you can create

If you follow the above-mentioned food plating techniques or dish presentation ideas, you can serve your customers perfectly from any corner of the world.

Plate presentation ideas will be fruitful when you follow a systematic and creative way while serving the dishes to the customers.

What are the Professional Plating Tools?

It’s a common question. You may also get an idea of the plating tools from Google search. But you should have professional plating tools if you are doing your restaurant business for commercial purposes.

In this section, the professional plating tools are mentioned which are essential for creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.

When you are thinking about how to plate a dish or dish presentation ideas, you should have the plating tools. The plating tools ease the way to design your food more effectively.

Before knowing how to plate food, let’s know which tools are essential for plating. You can get these tools easily from the desired shop of your locality.

Decorating Brushes

Mostly used in sauce plating techniques. In addition to this, to create a coulis or puree base for vegetables or meats, decorating brushes are useful.

It helps to cut the vegetables or other food items to a particular shape. Besides, the ring molds help to structure the height of the food while stacking.

Garnishing Kits

To garnish the food plate, you’ll need some tools like a squeeze bottle, plating wedges, brushes, and tongs.

Plating Wedges

It is used to create sauce design and comes with flat, round, or pointed edges.

The precision tongs help to place the garnishes or delicate items on the food plate.

Squeeze Bottles

To apply the sauce to the prepared food dishes, squeeze bottles are required.

Shaver’s

Helps to cut slices of grated chocolate, hard cheese, and soft vegetables.

The plating spoons are essential while creating a design on the food plate. You can collect slotted spoons which help to separate the solid items from the liquid.

Besides, the saucier spoons are useful in dragging the sauce across the plate.

However, these plating tools are crucial to making a perfect dish. Creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery will be effective when you have these professional plating tools.

What are the Popular Food Plating Styles?

To know how to plate food you have to understand the food plating styles that exist. Food plating styles will help you to get an overview of plate presentation ideas.

If you have a clear understanding of all types of food plating styles, you can design your food plate amazingly and worthy.

Using some food ingredients those plating styles are demonstrated including potato puree, a demi-glace, carrots, filet mignon, pea blend, a pea puree, a lima bean, fried leeks, and thyme.

Classic Plating Style

The classic plating style is given below step by step.

Free Form Plating Style

Let’s see the free-form plating style.

Landscape Plating Style

The landscape plating style is one of the mo0st popular plating styles. Follow the step-by-step process to prepare a landscape food plate.

If you consider creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery, those three popular plating styles are crucial. Filipino foods are most suitable with these food plating styles.

Tips for Food Presentation Ideas

How to plate food? The food plate presentation ideas help the chefs to create the most wanted dishes. Whatever food you serve and wherever you are serving, the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery are fruitful.

Here are the tips for food presentation ideas and creative presentation techniques for food design ideas.

1. Think the Food Plate is Your Canvas

It’s a common question how to decorate food dishes. The most vital part of creating a perfect food plate is your idea and your imagination.

It’s like paint. You will get a plate and just place the food items with a possible layer where you think it suits you best.

2. Focus on Textures of the Food Plate

Is the texture of the food plate important? Yes, you have to play with the textures of the food plate while arranging the ingredients on the plate.

The sauces, foams, and textures of your food plate create a more aesthetic feeling in the customers’ minds. Foam is the best one that can help you to design your food plate in an interesting way.

3. Keep it Simple and Clean

Sometimes the chefs think more items will add more value to the customers. But it’s totally wrong.

If you overcrowd the food plate with some unnecessary ingredients excluding the desired food item, it is better to remove those ingredients for sure. And make the food plate clean and simple.

It is to be remembered that simple plating ideas are the most wanted and demanded food plating techniques.

You should focus on the main food item that you are going to serve the customer. Make the food amazing itself rather than focusing on other additional ingredients like zillion garnishes or swirls of sauce, unnecessary oils or spices or microgreens, etc.

4. Create a Natural Color Contrast

Well, it is said that the more colorful your food plate is, your customer will be more interested in it. Okay, but it isn’t 100% true.

The experienced and expert chefs share their ideas and thoughts in this regard. They said, if you add more colorful ingredients, it depends on the type of ingredients you are going to add.

For example, one chef adds carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, lettuces, beans, etc. which are colorful vegetables that belong to their own natural or organic color. In this case, those ingredients make an aesthetic value of the dish.

On the other hand, if any chef uses color ingredients but that is not natural. Yes, it attracts the customers but they will not be willing to choose that over the natural one.

So color contrast is essential but you should try to make it natural. It is far better and fruitful to make your food plate more appealing and acceptable.

5 . Shape the Food Height on the Plate

It is unnecessary to fill up the food plate with the food ingredients. But it is essential to create a height on the plate.

It indicates the focus point of your food plate. You have to create a food plate attractive to your customers. So highlighting the focal point of your food is more important than overcrowding the plate with food randomly.

The ring mold helps to fix the perfect height of the food plate. So you can use this plating tool for sure.

6. Serve Less in Quantity but Make it Quality

Usually, the customers feel satisfied when they get more food, don’t they?

But if you want to design the food plate in a creative way, you have to add a small portion of food to your food plate. In this regard, the highly recommended part is you should never choose more than six elements otherwise, your design won’t be the expected one and it will certainly be overcrowded.

7. Present Food with Matching your Restaurant Theme

You may have a color theme for your restaurant. The food plate and other serving tools should be matched with the theme of your restaurant.

The customers always enjoy something expected rather than unexpected.

Suppose, the customers enjoy your interior design and the ambiance of your restaurant. Although it’s not unexpected that you are going to serve them with a plate that matches your restaurant theme.

But when the customers see that you are presenting the food in such a way, they will feel more excited. So always try to understand your customers’ unwanted expectations.

8. Cut Meat Uniquely

It is highly recommended that you cut the meat horizontally that you are going to serve to your customers. Besides, slice the meat on a 45-degree bias. It helps to visualize the tenderness of the meat more prominently.

9. Decorate with Edible Garnishes

The garnishes are an inevitable part of the food plate design. If you want to know the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery, garnishing is a crucial step you must have knowledge.

You can use the herb, spice, or a flower but it must be edible and fresh. The garnishes not only add visual satisfaction to the food plate but also add an expected flavor to the customers.

10. Express Your Creativity

Whatever you want to do, you can try it. The customers can choose the best creativity that you will show on the food plate.

The chefs always think which food plate design can be the best and they look online for getting the food plating techniques.

Yes, it is needed but you should create your plate more unique and worthy to the customers.

11. Select Attractive Plates for Food Presentation

The size of the plate and the design of the plate both are considerable things. You should choose the right plate for your restaurant.

Besides, the attractive food plates grab the attention of the customers. Moreover, the design of the food plate greatly relies on the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.

12. Consider Flavor of the Dish

The flavor of the dish stimulates the appetite of the customers. Food lovers always try to judge the food quality with its smell.

The food which releases a better smell creates more aesthetic acceptance to the customers.

This is how to plate food in a unique way. The dish presentation should be well enough to deliver an expected dish to your customers. Best food plating techniques will show you the proper guidelines to continue your foodservice business.

However, the tips of food plate presentation techniques are universal. And if you are serving Filipino or Indian foods or any western food, you should follow the above-mentioned techniques to create a more interesting food plate.

A Classical & Effective Food Placement and Dish Presentation

The food plating design can vary from region to region. But the most common and classical food placement and dish presentation is the clock-style food plate technique. A question can arise in your mind what is the best food plating technique?

Your food plate is like the face of a clock. And considering it, you can place the food. Generally, three types of basic food items are presentable to the customers including starch, vegetables, and main food items.

Let’s see how to plate food in a classical way. It is a more popular style all over the world. Especially the food lovers always look for something new but trendy.

You should design your food plate based on the clock analogy that is given below.

Main food item : From 3 to 9 O’clock

Starch : Between 9 and 11 O’clock

Vegetables : From 11 to 3 O’clock

Effective Food Placement and Dish Presentation

How to Plate Asian Dishes Uniquely?

Asian dishes are popular and unique all over the world. The dishes of Asian dishes always attract people's eyes. Because it is different to look at, and the way of eating or cooking.

Food plating styles are different in different regions. The chefs should know about the food culture of different regions. In this case, they can apply how to plate food exactly.

Let’s see how to plate dishes in Asian culture.

Asian people love to share their food as it’s an Asian culture. Some food items are not presentable in a way that the western food plate can be plated.

In this case, Asian food plates can be designed with aesthetically pleasing garnishes and unique containers including dim sum baskets, steamboats, banana leaves, etc.

Specific Dishes

The dishes of Asian food sometimes follow the western plating styles. The fusion dishes are served in this way. Modern food presentation techniques are also applied in different types of food.

One Dish Meal

Typically the one-dish meal is presented to place the rice at the center of the food plate. Then the other food items including vegetables, protein, or starch are placed around the plate. Here, the color contrast should be maintained based on the natural color of the food items.

However, Asian food plates are more interesting. The chefs of the Philippines create more realistic and appealing food plate designs.

Wait, Are You Concerned about Food Preparation Time? Let’s Minimize Your Time & Costs?

The restaurant owners face a common problem which is how to manage the time and costs. Yes, it’s very crucial because without managing your resources, you can’t make a good return at the end of the day.

With knowing about how to plate food, you must have a knowledge of how to manage your restaurant. Besides, food waste management is essential. If you can minimize the food preparation time with a digital system, then why not?

Modern restaurant management software helps chefs to reduce the communication gap with customers. The modern software helps to build a network among the customers, chefs, restaurant owners, and waiters.

The modern restaurant management system saves both time and costs. Besides, you can manage all essential operations of your restaurant perfectly.

Besides, the kitchen display system of restaurant software helps the chefs to process the order and provide real-time notification of the cooking status.

Then what are you waiting for? Adopt an advanced online ordering system to make your foodservice more convenient.

Mobile-friendly restaurant management is high in demand at present. So you can manage your restaurant through mobile and it provides you mobile app integration system for both Android and iOS.

So Make your plate more interesting with the best food plate techniques and digitize your restaurant with the latest technology.

Bhojon - Restaurant Management System

Final Words

Now you got your answer on how to plate food or how to plate a dish in the desired way.

The restaurant business owners always focus on the customers and the chefs of the foodservice industry focus on the food plate.

In this regard, the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery can be the best solution for chefs or food makers.

On the other hand, the right choice at the right time will be the ultimate solution for restaurant owners. When the chefs prepare the food by adopting creative food presentation techniques, the restaurant owners can increase the sales as well as return.

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Hilarious health food rebrands go viral on TikTok

I would totally fall for these.

Clever branding and packaging design can make a world of difference when it comes to communicating a product's attributes and ultimately making a sale. But looks can be deceiving. When it comes to food and drinks, certain tropes are often used to make a product appear cleaner and healthier than perhaps it really is.

One designer is showing just how easy that can be done by giving 'healthy rebrands' to junk foods from Coca-Cola to Cheetos, Nutella, Oreo and Twinkies. His videos have gone viral on TikTok and are highlighting how branding and packaging design can be misleading (see our pick of inspiring packaging designs for brands that got things right).

@mattrosenman ♬ original sound - Matt Rosenman

Matt Rosenman of Cheat Day Design describes himself as a health food branding expert and a guy that loves food and fitness. On his TikTok account , he's been posting amusing videos exposing how junk products can be rebranded and repackaged to update their identities for a more health-conscious age – all without telling any all-out lies.

His most successful video to date shows his branding for a 'healthy Nutella', giving the fatty, high-sugar spread a radical new look that might fool many fitness fanatics. In a video that's received over 8 million views, Rosenman notes that he himself thought of Nutella as a health food for most of his life since it's advertised as a breakfast item.

More videos have followed, many of them by popular request. Other products to get healthy-looking makeovers include Monster energy drink and a healthy Coke, which Rosenman has branded as Thrive by Coke.

As well as being very funny, Rosenman's makeovers are helping to enlighten people about what they're eating in some popular foods, and why we can't always trust brands or their graphic designers.

"I would fall for this with ease," one person commented on the Nutella video. "I now question EVERYTHING I buy because of these videos," someone else wrote. See our pick of the worst design fails for more packaging that hit the wrong note.

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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news and features, updates buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment for creatives, from monitors to accessories and office supplies. A writer and translator, he also works as a project manager at London and Buenos Aires-based design and branding agency Hermana Creatives, where he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing photography, video content, graphic design and collaterals for the hospitality sector. He enjoys photography, particularly nature photography, wellness and he dances Argentine tango.

Kultura Bar with Food

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Holidays & Parties

Game-Day Parties

The 67 best recipes to add to your tailgate menu.

Grab your team jersey and gather up your friends. We've got all the recipes you need for the best tailgate, from chili to wings — and everything in between.

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Be the MVP of Snacking

Do you know what we love most about football food? It doesn’t matter which team you’re rooting for once the snacks come out! Everyone is welcome to dig into the nachos or scoop themselves a bowl of chili . And, since it is the thing that unites us on game day, we do our best to create a winning spread. With this lineup that covers everything from salsas to desserts , you can do the very same. Whether you set up a portable grill in the parking lot or gather your friends for an at-home tailgate, these recipes are sure to earn you MVP status! Wondering where to start? Ree’s easy pico de gallo is a must-have. You can use it to top tacos , sprinkle it over guacamole or simply scoop it up with tortilla chips while you sip on a cold beer.

Get the Recipe: Pico de Gallo

Pull-Apart Dogs in a Blanket Ring

How to improve on pigs in a blanket? Supersize them in a pull-apart ring. This oversize version features 7-inch hot dogs, 4 layers of flaky crescent dough and a thick melty layer of American cheese.

Get the Recipe: Pull-Apart Dogs in a Blanket Ring

Chili con Carne

Get the Recipe: Chili con Carne

Roasted Jalapeno Poppers

Get the Recipe: Roasted Jalapeno Poppers

Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip

Get the Recipe: Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip

Jumbo Cheesy Italian Meatballs

Get the Recipe: Jumbo Cheesy Italian Meatballs

Jalapeno-Cheddar Beer Bread

This no-fail, no-fuss recipe, uses just a few ingredients, requires no rising time and has tons of savory flavor.

Get the Recipe: Jalapeno-Cheddar Beer Bread

Ree's Cowboy Nachos

A marinated beef brisket is the basis for quite a few of Ree's favorite meals. Use it to top broiled layers of tortilla chips with spicy beans, cheese and pico de gallo. The whole thing gets broiled until the cheese melts, and then all you have to do is dig in.

Get the Recipe: Cowboy Nachos

Fantasy Footballs

The trick to making perfectly shaped, football cake pops? Don’t skip the step where these pops chill out in the freezer. It gives you a chance to smooth their shape before you dip them in melted chocolate.

Get the Recipe: Fantasy Footballs

Game-Day Chili

Get the Recipe: Game Day Chili

Three-Cheese-and-Artichoke Calzones

Get the Recipe: Three Cheese and Artichoke Calzones

Warm Artichoke and Bacon Dip

Get the Recipe: Warm Artichoke and Bacon Dip

Charred Corn Guacamole with Corn Chips

Get the Recipe: Charred Corn Guacamole with Corn Chips

Get the Recipe: Beer Punch

Melissa d'Arabian's Grilled Tomato Salsa

Get the Recipe: Grilled Tomato Salsa

Ree's Baked Ziti

Get the Recipe: Baked Ziti

Doritos Fried Mac and Cheese

These gooey, homemade mac and cheese bites boast two times the flavor: Nacho cheese-dusted chips flavor the creamy sauce as well as the crunchy, deep-fried coating.

Get the Recipe: Doritos Fried Mac and Cheese

Beef and Black Bean Chili with Toasted Cumin Crema and Avocado Relish

Get the Recipe: Beef and Black Bean Chili with Toasted Cumin Crema and Avocado Relish

Avocado Salsa

Get the Recipe: Avocado Salsa

Sangria Ice Pops

Get the Recipe: Sangria Ice Pops

Venezuelan Empanadas

Get the Recipe: Venezuelan Empanadas

Gatorade Margaritas

Sports drinks aren’t just good for athletes looking to replenishing post-game — they’re surprisingly tasty in margaritas too!

Get the Recipe: Gatorade Margarita

Charleston Cheese Dip

Get the Recipe: Charleston Cheese Dip

Breakfast Garbage Bread

Crumbled bacon and breakfast sausage mingle with potato tots, eggs and melted American cheese in this garbage bread, which is reminiscent of a breakfast sandwich or burrito. Serve it with lots of hot sauce or ketchup for early-morning tailgating.

Get the Recipe: Breakfast Garbage Bread

Chocolate, Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Get the Recipe: Chocolate, Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Devon's Award-Winning Chili

Get the Recipe: Devon's Award-Winning Chili

Enchilada Crescent Ring

Forget the tortillas! This flaky, golden ring of crescent dough is packed with all the cheesy, enchilada filling you’re craving — and it’s perfect for feeding a crowd.

Get the Recipe: Enchilada Crescent Ring

Glazed Brownies

Get the Recipe: Glazed Brownies

Indian Summer Turkey Chili

Get the Recipe: Indian Summer Turkey Chili

Alton's Meatball Sandwiches

Get the Recipe: Meatball Sandwiches

Spiked Lemonade

Get the Recipe: Spiked Lemonade

The Neelys' Spicy Fried Wings

Get the Recipe: The Neelys' Spicy Fried Wings

Stuffed Green Peppers

If you’re looking for some hearty game day grub, this comfort food classic is a winner. Stuffed green bell peppers are easy to make ahead too: Fill the peppers in advance but wait to bake them until the day you want to serve them.

Get the Recipe: Stuffed Green Peppers

PB&J Chocolate Bars

Get the Recipe: Sarah's PB and J Chocolate Bars

Braised Brisket Tacos

The flavor of this beef roast is even better the day after you cook it so try making the brisket the night before the big game. Then, when you’re ready for tacos, just slice, reheat and serve.

Get the Recipe: Braised Brisket Tacos

Philly Cheese Steaks

Get the Recipes: Philly Cheesesteaks

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Brie

Toss shredded rotisserie chicken with Buffalo wing sauce, then grill atop a small wheel of Brie until the cheese is melty and ready for crackers. What's not to love?

Get the Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Brie

Texas Chili

Get the Recipe: Tyler's Texas Chili

Grilled Sausage With Spicy Sauce

Duff skewers kielbasa (or any smoked sausage) and grills it up to serve at his tailgate with a simple dip made of ketchup, spicy mustard and hot sauce.

Get the Recipe: Grilled Sausage with Spicy Sauce

Purple Potato Salad

Get the Recipe: Purple Potato Salad

Hot Spinach Dip with Mushrooms

Get the Recipe: Hot Spinach Dip with Mushrooms

Get the Recipe: Fried Pies

Sunny's Sticky Onion Crunch Wings

Get the Recipe: Sticky Onion Crunch Wings

Ina's Guacamole

Get the Recipe: Ina Garten's Guacamole

Pressure-Cooker Chili

Get the Recipe: Pressure Cooker Chili

Salted Caramel Cheesecake Squares

The Pioneer Woman's pecan-crusted cheesecake squares are smothered in a luscious salted caramel sauce.

Get the Recipe: Salted Caramel Cheesecake Squares

Get the Recipe: Chili Mac

Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls with Two Dipping Sauces

Get the Recipe: Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls with Two Dipping Sauces

Pork-Bellied Poppers

Get the Recipe: Pork-Bellied Poppers

Chorizo-Stuffed Mushrooms

Get the Recipe: Stuffed Mushrooms (Hongos Rellenos de Chorizo)

Avocado Deviled Eggs

The ultimate tailgating mash-up, this easy-to-make recipe combines two game day favorites: guacamole and deviled eggs!

Get the Recipe: Avocado Deviled Eggs

Mexican Meatball Subs

Get the Recipe: Smoky Meatball Subs

Grilled Egg-and-Cheese-Stuffed Breakfast Fatty

Athletes aren't the only ones who need to fuel up for game day. When tailgating starts in the morning, you need something hearty to get you through the day. This epic breakfast sandwich, which contains all the good stuff—bacon, sausage, cheese, ham and eggs—served on a cinnamon bun, will do the trick.

Get the Recipe: Grilled Egg-and-Cheese-Stuffed Breakfast Fatty

Stuffed White Mushroom Caps

Get the Recipe: Stuffed White Mushroom Caps

Pork Meatballs with Spicy Sauce

Get the Recipe: Pork Meatballs With Spicy Sauce

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Are you a fan of crispy cookies or do you cheer for chewy chocolate chip rounds? This recipe is perfect for both: the bars along the edges are golden-brown, but the center cuts are rich and gooey.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Greek Meatballs with Lemon and Arugula

Get the Recipe: Greek Meatballs with Lemon and Arugula

Taco Lasagna

A cross between two crowd-pleasing favorites, this lasagna is made by layering noodles, cheese and a salsa-based sauce. Choose a mild salsa to keep the lasagna kid-friendly — and a spicier salsa if you want to liven things up!

Get the Recipe: Taco Lasagna

Asian Pork Meatballs

Get the Recipe: Hoisin-Glazed Pork Meatball Lettuce Cups

Ricotta-Filled Meatballs with Fennel and Chili

Get the Recipe: Ricotta-Filled Meatballs With Fennel and Chili

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Zesty, creamy and packed with rotisserie chicken, this dip will remind you of your favorite hot wings — without all the napkins!

Get the Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Dip

Pretzel Rolls

Guy Fieri's soft and chewy rolls are the perfect pairing for any sandwich.

Get the Recipe: Pretzel Rolls

Ragu-Stuffed Peppers

Get the Recipe: Ragu-Stuffed Peppers

Italian Meatball Meatloaf Sandwiches

Rachael puts a new spin on the iconic American comfort food meatloaf. This meatloaf tastes like one giant Italian meatball, but it's easier to make because you don't need to roll individual balls: Simply serve slices on white loaf bread with onions, basil, tomato, fresh mozzarella and an Italian-style ketchup.

Get the Recipe: Italian Meatball Meatloaf Sandwiches

Philly Cheese Steak Pizzas

Two game-day favorites come together in this steak-and-cheese-topped pie.

Get the Recipe: Philly Cheesesteak Pizzas

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Bars

No one will say no to these sweet squares. Valerie mixes flavors of butterscotch and peanut butter for a treat that's perfectly sweet and nutty.

Get the Recipe: Butterscotch Peanut Butter Bars

Grilled Stuffed Cheeseburger Buns

Forget the days of the massive cheeseburger assembly line at your tailgate party. Here, store-bought pizza dough is stuffed with mini cheeseburgers, which can be prepared in advance so all that’s left to do is grill them up at game time! A perfect snack for a party where seating is limited, these stuffed burgers are the ultimate grab-and-go score.

Get the Recipe: Grilled Stuffed Cheeseburger Buns

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Takeaway review: perfect pimped-up bagels in a cool new food truck yard

Creative fillings and keen prices set these sandwiches apart.

Outcasts' bagels are generously filled and very tasty

What’s on offer?

In 2021, Ben Heather and Jack Hitchcock bought a used shipping container in the docks, converted it into a kitchen and opened a hatch in Baldoyle serving bagels with creative fillings and equally creative names. OutKast fans will spot the music references. They source their bagels from Fitzgerald’s Family Bakery in Cork. They moved to the yard beside Clarke City Arms pub in Stoneybatter in Dublin 7, in August 2022 where they have some smart picnic tables. There are further plans for the yard with a pizza truck (already in place), a taco truck, and someone trading from their unit at night. There will be live music, market days and talks, and potentially two saunas and cold plunge pools.

What did we order?

The Big Boi, Spudi-Udi-Dopalicious with an add-on of bacon and cheese, and Nacho Libre from the specials board. Some customisation is possible with add-ons such as crispy shallots, bacon and rocket.

How was the service?

Chatty and efficient. You order at the hatch and wait as your food is prepped to order.

Was the food nice?

Yes. The bagels are generously filled and very tasty. The spudi is loaded with potato that has black pudding crumbled through it, with scrambled egg, chorizo, spicy mayo and the extras of cheese and bacon. There’s a load of eating in it. The Big Boi is filled with shredded maple glazed ham, with pickled red cabbage bringing a nice saltiness to it. The Nacho Libre, the vegetarian option, is our favourite. A spicy sweet potato and black bean patty is loaded with smoked cheddar, jalapeño, red onions, coriander and avocado crema.

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What about the packaging?

Foil burger style wrapping, so not recyclable.

What did it cost?

€27.80 for lunch for three people – The Big Boi, €8.90; Spudi-udi-dopalicious, €7.90 with a €2.50 add-on for bacon and cheese; and Nacho Libre, €8.50.

Where does it deliver?

Available on Deliveroo within a 5km radius, but it’s more fun to eat in the yard. Open daily, 9am-4pm Mon-Fri; 10am-4pm Sat-Sun.

Would I order it again?

Most definitely. The bagels are great and it’s a cool space.

Corinna Hardgrave

Corinna Hardgrave, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes a weekly restaurant column

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Meat-free family favourite: herb-scented mushroom lasagne feast perfect for generous helpings, food & drink quiz: which acclaimed french chef recently lost his third michelin star, mushroom lasagne, john wilson: is that bottle of wine worth €100, tasty summer fruit tartlets: tried and tested recipe inspired by pastry perfectionists, boarding denials and ghost flights with aer lingus, cancer doctors accuse insurers of denying patients access to new drugs, a chapter closes, another potentially lucrative one opens for ryan tubridy, dublin house with over a dozen tenants served fire safety notice over conditions, pwc suspends nine over tax leak scandal which has dragged in irish operation, latest stories, bail granted to unlawfully-at-large killer who absconded from custody in northern ireland, barry finale: an ending even more devastating than the roys’ weepy exit in succession, it’s doubtful any irish squad of around 43 players has ever been harder to muscle in on, harris pledges that the search for the remains of the disappeared will not stop, nato peacekeeping troops hurt as ethnic serbs clash with police in kosovo.

The 25 Funniest Borg Names We've Seen

Expect puns—lots of them.

But if we're being honest, the best part about borgs is decorating your personal gallon jug. On a practical level, it's important to label your borg to distinguish it from the other partier's. And many people think of funny puns for names and even decorate their jugs with drawings and accessories.

So, naturally, we all want to have the funniest borg at the function. You never know when a friend's borg name ranking will go viral on TikTok —which means it's extra important to put your best foot borg-ward . We've scoured the internet to find the funniest names that you can use for your next borg.

More From Delish

Do you have other funny borg names we failed to mention? Drop them in the comments below.

Gabby Romero is Delish’s editorial assistant, where she writes stories about the latest TikTok trends, develops recipes, and answers any and all of your cooking-related questions. She loves eating spicy food, collecting cookbooks, and adding a mountain of Parmesan to any dish she can.

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On World Hunger Day, Globe kicks off culinary crusade against hunger with Longest Hapag Food Festival Series

Standing firm against hunger, Globe launches the Longest Hapag— a five-month nationwide food festival series. The campaign kicks off in time for the commemoration of World Hunger Day this May 28, amplifying the global call to eradicate chronic hunger.

This initiative is part of the Globe-ledHapag Movement, which aims to help address the staggering problem of involuntary hunger among 13.5 million Filipinos. The advocacy raises funds and spreads awareness about the problem while empowering communities to create sustainable livelihoods.

“Involuntary hunger is one of the critical societal challenges of our time. With the Longest Hapag, we are leveraging strategic partnerships and collective effort to confront the hunger problem that continues to affect our nation,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer.

The campaign calls on restaurants, food chains, chefs, commercial centers, brands, and civic organizations to mount fundraising efforts through their food offerings to support the Hapag Movement. This united front will create a ripple effect of change, reflecting the campaign’s core message: Be part of the Longest Hapagand help make a difference.

The Longest Hapag will also align with local food festivals across the country, ultimately culminating on World Food Day on October 16, 2023.

Chef Jessie Sincioco is the first culinary expert turned advocate who supported the Hapag Movement. She launched a special Hapag menu where half of the proceeds go to the implementing partners and their family beneficiaries. The Longest Hapag campaign was inspired by Sincioco’s project Chefs Unite, which seeks to encourage chefs from around the world to support the Hapag Movement. Chefs Sau del Rosario and Kay Carreon have signed up to support the movement.

With successful fundraising activities such as the recent Hapag ni LuzViMinda fund-raising dinner, and Chef Kay’sgenerous contribution of her book proceeds, Chefs Unite exemplifies the profound impact that the culinary industry can have on the cause.

Despite a slight decrease in food insecurity to 9.8%, hunger remains higher than pre-pandemic levels in the Philippines. It ranks 67th out of 113 countries in the 2022 Global FoodSecurity Index, falling below the global average. As such, Globe’s efforts aim not just to alleviate immediate hunger but also to address these long-term challenges.

“We invite everyone to be a part of the Longest Hapag and make a tangible difference. By working together, we can help families conquer the problem of involuntary hunger and help uplift the lives of our fellow Filipinos,” Crisanto added.

The Hapag Movement brings life-enabling support through supplemental feeding and livelihood opportunities to hunger-afflicted communities through its mobilization partners Ayala FoundationInc., Caritas Philippines, Scholar of Sustenance, Tzu Chi Foundation, and WorldVision.

For more information about the LongestHapag movement and how to get involved, email us at [email protected] or visit the Hapag Movement website . #UniteForHapag.

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COMMENTS

Playing With Your Food: Tips for Creativity in the Kitchen
5 Ways To Be Creative With Food Today Buy one new piece of seasonal produce. Find a way to eat it (because you can buy it and use it as decor, but that's not the point). Pull three things out of your pantry or fridge (Chopped-style) and see if you can find a way to make them work together for dinner. Buy a new spice.
Food as Art: The Methods Behind Making Beautiful Food
To make this kind of gorgeous food, it takes an incredible amount of creativity and ingenuity, artistic flair and years of experience honing one's craft. However, if one examines some of the most stunning plates of food on earth, it's apparent that there are common patterns and methods that great chefs use to make their food look so good.
40 food innovations you should know about
Food innovation is the development and commoditization of new food products, processes, and services. Right now, it's happening rapidly. Food and beverage companies are looking for ways to make healthy, nutritious offerings that are not only enticing, accessible, exciting, and unique, but also sustainable.
Creativity in Food Product Development
Creativity in Food Product Development Written by Science Meets Food chips, flavor, flavours, new foods, product development, science of food Food Industry, Recipes, Research 1 comment By: Alex Pierce-Feldmeyer I have food anxiety. It isn't debilitating but I often experience internal battles when I discover new food products.
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May 24, 2020 Creative Dinner Recipes to Cook at Home Delicious, creative dinner recipes that are perfect for cooking and enjoying at home! You'll find easy dinner ideas for the whole family, fun dishes to cook for two and more. From pastas and homemade meatballs to seafood and vegetarian dinners!
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Advertising. Email marketing. Optimized blog and website content. For food and beverage businesses to stand out among so much competition, they must implement an effective marketing strategy that considers all corners of the industry and a broad range of brands, including: Packaged food manufacturers. Grocers and supermarkets.
11 Creative Restaurant Ideas to Come Out of COVID-19
Getting creative The restaurant sector is synonymous with experimentation. New trends and innovations in the food industry are a constant, and the pandemic only hastened this ideation process. Sure, obstacles like dining room closures posed a monumental challenge.
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October 1, 2020. We've compiled 16 stand-out examples of brilliantly creative packaging designs across a range of F&B categories, from snacks to takeaway food. Creative packaging design is not always associated with the food and beverage (F&B) industry - packaging for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) can be a little, well, perfunctory.
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1. Incorporate veggies in new and exciting ways. The options are endless here but I'll share a few of my favorites! Spiralize! You can buy pre-spiralized vegetables at a lot of grocery stores or you can make your own using The Spiralizer. You now have noodles made from vegetables that can be used for anything from breakfast to dessert.
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20 Foods That Will Improve Your Creativity Creativity has been described as "a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created." A story, a joke, an idea, a concept, a masterpiece - they all stem from creativity. Even something as simple as experimenting with a new recipe or building a fort with the kids requires bursts of creativity.
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With over 25 amazing food crafts ready to explore with your kiddos - get creative in the kitchen today! 1. Hidden Vegetable Cream Cheese Bagels A DIY hidden vegetable cream cheese bagels are a fantastic and easy way to ensure kids eat their vegetables.
How to Plate Food: Top 10 Artistic Food Presentation Ideas
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Published on December 09, 2021. Credit: Corleone Fine Italian Foods Ad Age is expanding its "Creativity Top 5" series to include new roundups of our favorite special-interest campaigns and ideas...
Hilarious health food rebrands go viral on TikTok
On his TikTok account, he's been posting amusing videos exposing how junk products can be rebranded and repackaged to update their identities for a more health-conscious age - all without telling any all-out lies. His most successful video to date shows his branding for a 'healthy Nutella', giving the fatty, high-sugar spread a radical new ...
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Is this a place where you buy ingredients to cook your own food? Yes No Unsure. Thanks for helping! Share another experience before you go. Reviews (67) Write a review. Filter reviews . 67 results . Traveler rating. Excellent 28. Very good 23. Average 8. Poor 4. Terrible 4. Traveler type. Families. Couples. Solo. Business. Friends. Time of year ...
Moscow Metro
Along with the journey through the Golden Ring of Russia, every travel guide includes a trip to another interesting ring. The ring of Moscow metro stations. We have collected for you the best metro stations of Moscow. Just look for yourself at what amazing art is presented in underground area.
KULTURA BAR WITH FOOD, Elektrostal
Kultura Bar with Food, Elektrostal: See unbiased reviews of Kultura Bar with Food, rated 2 of 5 on Tripadvisor and ranked #31 of 38 restaurants in Elektrostal.
Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro - Red Guard 2016. Download this week's Free Good from the Drop and unlock your creativity!
Food Network's Top Tailgating Recipes
Food Network Magazine's meatballs are so substantial they don't need a pile of pasta to make a meal. Stuffed with fresh mozzarella, they're best served with tomato sauce, ricotta and a little ...
Takeaway review: perfect pimped-up bagels in a cool new food truck yard
In 2021, Ben Heather and Jack Hitchcock bought a used shipping container in the docks, converted it into a kitchen and opened a hatch in Baldoyle serving bagels with creative fillings and equally ...
The 25 Best Borg Names We've Seen
Food News. The 25 Funniest Borg Names We've Seen. The 25 Funniest Borg Names We've Seen. Expect puns—lots of them. By Gabby Romero Published: May 25, 2023. Save Article.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
On World Hunger Day, Globe kicks off culinary crusade against hunger
Standing firm against hunger, Globe launches the Longest Hapag— a five-month nationwide food festival series. The campaign kicks off in time for the commemoration of World Hunger Day this May 28 ...
Royal Tot tiki bar in Charlotte, NC has closed permanently
Food and Drink A Charlotte tiki bar known for creative cocktails and themed pop-ups has closed its doors By Heidi Finley. Updated May 23, 2023 4:06 PM. ORDER ...