News & Media
CCD Innovation's work and innovation process are frequently profiled in highly regarded trade and general consumer publications. Learn more about how we successfully track trends and create craveable consumer products from our latest news headline or contact one of our expert innovators to speak at your next food and beverage industry event.
PRESS RELEASES
03/05/13: From Chia Seeds to Greek Yogurt, a Fresh Mapping of Culinary Trends
01/29/13: In America's Increasingly Multicultural Foodways, Asian and Hispanic Intersect
10/10/12: "Healthful" Food Label Gets Taken to New Levels Through Nationwide Cooperation
08/13/12: Collegiate Millennials Shape Culinary Trends of Tomorrow
04/24/12: Heat & Spice Trend Mapping Report
04/17/12: Freshness Trends Culinary Trend Mapping Report
EVENTS
Kara Nielsen will speak on Collegiate Gen Y Dining Trends at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City on Monday, July 1. Visit Specialty Food’s website for more information
Kimberly Egan presented at the The Research Chefs Association (RCA) 2013 Annual Conference and Culinology® Expo in Charlotte, NC., this March. Her talk focused on Marketing Strategy Basics for Culinary Professionals. View the presentation >>
CCD INNOVATION IN THE NEWS - LATEST HEADLINES
2/21/13 – Trendologist shares sriracha trend tracking in Bloomberg Businessweek
“Sriracha Hot Sauce Catches Fire, Yet ‘There’s Only One Rooster’” explores how Huy Fong Rooster brand sriracha sauce came to be such a big trend with Trendologist Kara Nielsen sharing her first experience with it as a restaurant pastry chef: Sriracha sauce was a familiar condiment of staff meals. She later profiled the red-hot hot sauce in the
Condiments & Sauces Culinary Trend Mapping Report; it has now almost made it to Stage 5 on the Trend Map® as it continues to attract fans. Read more »
2/1/13: Trendologist comments on the Popchips success in Forbes
In “Popchips: The Next $1 Billion Snack Food or Just Full of Hot Air?” Kara Nielsen points out the breakthrough innovation in form, which made the popped snack a permissible chip that delivered on taste but with fewer calories and fat. Read more »
2/13: Prepared Foods features Generational Comfort Food report in cover story
“To Your Comfort and Health” is co-authored by David Feder and CCD Innovation Trendologist Kara Nielsen, based on our 2009
Generational Comfort Food Culinary Trend Mapping Report. Cravings top the list of reasons why consumers turn to comfort food, something most often consumed alone. Updates to comfort food, for more sophisticated flavors or more healthful recipes, are also trends in today’s comfort fare. Read more »
2/1/13: Trendologist chimes in on 2013 trends in Restaurant Business
Kara Nielsen discusses how the vegetable trend is evolving into more vegetarian and vegan entrées in “Menus: What’s in, what’s out.” She’s waiting for a bibimbap chain to break out, adding more great Asian food to the landscape and mentions how a number of ingredients like coconut, chiles and cilantro apply to both Asians and Latin cuisine, and that smoke is infiltrating the menu in new places such as cocktails, ice and desserts. Read more »
1/24/13: Trendologist on how African food could become trend in the Chicago Tribune
In “A Taste of Tomorrow Today,” Kara Nielsen expounds on what it would take for African cuisine beyond Ethiopian to gain traction as a food trend, including a celebrity or vocal advocate, such as Marcus Samuelsson, and more exposure to consumers, such as what happens on college campus cafeterias, a hotbed for new food trends. Read more »
1/22/13: CEO Kimberly Egan a fresh vegetable juice convert in the Wall Street Journal
“I feel like the juice is super-nourishing my body,” said Kimberly in “Juicers Invade Kitchen Counters.” She joins a host of other consumers turning to fresh pressed vegetable and fruit juices for weight management, detoxing and simply a way to get in five or more servings a day. The trend was previously covered in our Vegetables & Sides Culinary Trend Mapping Report in December 2011. Read more »
1/22/13: CCD Innovation Trendologist spots food trends at NASFT’s Winter Fancy Food Show
Joining a team of trendspotters, Kara Nielsen spots botanical beverages, new foods made with blue cheese, seeds in everything, and a prevalence of banana flavors in baked goods, snacks and confections. New oils, such as those made from cherry pits from Stoger, also caught her eye and palate. Read the NASFT’s press release here.
11/26/12: Trendologist on “Dinnertime Helpers” in Supermarket News Whole Health
Meal starters continue to assist busy consumers who, as Kara Nielsen points out, like the idea of adding their own fresh ingredients to the mix. Globally inspired meals enhanced with complex and sometimes unfamiliar spices are a restaurant favorite, but can be intimidating to make at home, so meal starters offering these flavors, ready-made, are a boon to consumers, she notes. Read more »
11/23/12: Top 2013 trends for menus in Chain Pulse Magazine
Kara Nielsen discusses “2013 Menu Trends” for foodservice including the rise of more plant-based proteins on menus in the form of veggie burgers and chickpea-based falafel. Also keep Asian and Latin-oriented beverages, chiles and marinades in mind to cater to these growing demographic groups. She also urges continued gluten-free food development, pointing out the continued presence of this important dietary niche. Read more »
11/12: Trendologist interviewed for New Hope Media
In “Why Natural Retailers Should Care About Food Trends,” Kara Nielsen points out a number of ways food and beverage trends can add excitement and news to natural food aisles. American consumers love novelty so retailers should be sure to find ways to bring in new products, like chia seeds, in interesting places or grass-fed dairy. Don’t neglect to communicate what is new with signage or special shelves in the store consumers can visit regularly. Nielsen also is keeping an eye on sprouted grains as a way to address digestion and consumer challenges with grains. Read more »
11/12: Nielsen on soup innovation for foodservice in Chain Pulse Magazine
“Delivering on Soups…” CCD Innovation’s Trendologist suggests adding fresh cues with assorted garnishes added at the last second before serving so diners know it’s just for them. Adding more seasonal soup offerings and making sure male customers can dig into a hearty bowl of soup, chili or stew are other ways to bring news to the soup kettle. Read more »
11/12: Food Technology magazine explores trendworthy desserts
Vegetables, smoke and spice jazz up desserts now appearing in Stages 1 & 2, says Kara Nielsen in “The Unexpected Evolution of Dessert.” Corn, tomatoes, parsnips, beets and orange squashes take a bigger role with spices, chiles, herbs and salt continue to balance out sweet flavors. Read more »
10/18/12: “The New Healthful” Trend Report in Natural Foods Merchandiser
To translate the profiles covered in this report to the natural foods retail space, Trendologist Kara Nielsen suggest new items, like breakfast salads and heritage grains, find a place in prepared food cases and self-serve bars. She also points out restaurants, especially trendy better burger joints, have improved today’s veggie burgers and encourages stores to find great tasting grain and vegetable burgers when possible to expand options. Read more »
10/12: Kara Nielsen muses on the changes the La Boulange acquisition will make on the pastry case at Starbucks in Chain Pulse Magazine
Will Americans go for the rather Frenchified baked goods now appearing in test locations of Starbucks in San Francisco? Will they seem too caloric or gourmet for scone and low-cal muffin lovers? Or will a consistently made product across the country garner fans, happy to find the same croissant in any Starbucks they visit? These questions are discussed in the digital Chain Pulse Magazine's "What the Starbucks acquisition of La Boulange could mean to bakery chains." Read more » (registration for free digital issue trial required)
CCD Innovation in the News Archive »
CHEFS' COUNCIL® NEWS
January 2013: Elizabeth Falkner has been busy in her new Brooklyn home, with another season of “Iron Chef” under her belt and a successful launch of her new pizza-centric restaurant, Krescendo. The New York Times gave her a rave review and she is also found time to offer cooking classes. Congratulations to Elizabeth!
January 2013: Mani Niall held a flashy grand opening party for his new Sweet Bar Bakery in January 2013. His lively event included a flash mob dancing to Thriller (see the YouTube video on his website here, a nod to Mani’s former position as private chef to Michael Jackson during this era in his career. Mani also has earned fans for his “fauxnut,” a sort of vegan doughnut that is nearly sugar free, with agave nectar sweetening the cake batter and only a little sugar in the ganache topping. And it’s baked, not fried. Mani’s bakery is part of a revitalization of Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood.
January 2013: Speaking up Uptown, Amey Shaw is now the chef at Luka’s Taproom, the casual tavern and gastropub that was the first restaurant to land in the hot ‘hood.
Late 2012: Award-winning pastry chef Nicole Plue kicked off her new online treat business in late 2012, Sideshow, featuring ready-to-eat toppings and snacks, including her signature Saltine Toffee and trendy chocolate “soil.” Read more about her sweet venture in Tasting Table.
Late 2012: Scott Barton, a Chefs’ Council® member from New York, is busy studying the intersection of profane and sacred foodways in Northeastern Brazil, as a performance of identity, cultural resistance, and agency. He’s making a film about Brazilian foods and exploring symbolic items like acaraje, black-eyed pea fritters that are a popular street food but also function as a sacred offering in local religions as well as Afro-Catholic ceremonies. Scott is taking a break from his various chef positions to earn a graduate degree.
October 2012: Tanya Holland announces a future Brown Sugar Kitchen Cookbook, to be published by Chronicle Books in 2014. Read more »
October 2012: Elizabeth Falkner is making an energetic transition to her new home in New York and keeping plenty busy. Her newest cookbook, Cooking Off the Clock, arrived in August, featuring a sensational collection of accessible recipes to inspire great tasting, seasonal home cooking. She'll soon be cooking pizzas and more at a new Brooklyn restaurant called Krescendo, slated to open this fall. Look for her signature style on fruit-focused recipes this holiday season; Elizabeth has been chosen to provide recipes for the Harry & David Fruit of the Month Club mailings.
September 2012: Jeffrey Saad's California home is featured in Star Kitchen in Food Network Magazine. Check out his island, meat station and special appliances for inspiration here. Read more »
Fall 2012: Tacolicious owner Joe Hargrave and his chef Telmo Faria, both Chefs' Council members, are at it again, opening a third location of the hopping contemporary taco restaurant, this time to Palo Alto. Just as long as you can still get a "Tickle Me Telmo" cocktail shot, we're there!
June 2012: Tanya Holland featured in Oprah Magazine, Food & Wine
West Oakland's revitalizing force, Tanya Holland, owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen and B-Side BBQ, is featured in a glossy profile in the June issue of Oprah Magazine, "The Restaurant That is Changing the Face of Gritty West Oakland". We learn of Tanya's long-time ambition to showcase the flavor and character of soul food along the path of her remarkable career; don't miss the recipe for her signature fried chicken and cornmeal waffle from Brown Sugar Kitchen. Tanya and her husband are also included in "Best BBQ in the West," a round-up of top Western pitmasters in the June issue of Food & Wine.