Breakfast and Breakfast Foods All Day: Culinary Trend Tracking Series

Breakfast and Breakfast Foods All Day: Culinary Trend Tracking Series

Breakfast and Breakfast Foods All Day: Culinary Trend Tracking Series tracks the rising profiles or fresh incarnations of the following menu items along with retail counterparts:

• Asian Breakfast in the A.M.
• Breakfast Bowls of Champions
• Chilaquiles and Migas: Beyond the Breakfast Burrito
• Donuts with a Difference
• Eggs Benedict
• Frittatas as Open-Faced Omelets
• Juiced Up Juices
• Breakfast Sausage Breaks Out
• Shakshuka: Poached Eggs Middle East Style
• Toast and Breakfast Sandwiches
• Waffles, French Toast, and Pancakes

The analysis provides various types of market research and menu/product development information, including a menu data-supported introduction to these trending dishes and ingredients; a generous listing of current menu items and images; detailed, on-target trend translation tips for menus and retail food; and fresh, relevant insights for tying substantive innovation to culinary and consumer market trends.

Breakfast doesn’t need to be a perfunctory meal best served in the morning. To capitalize on consumers’ free-form dining ways, many restaurants are creating single menus that work all day, incorporating everything from morning coffee to midnight snacks. All-day breakfast selections that can shape-shift their way through the day, multipurposing for breakfast, lunch, post-work drinks and takeout, dinner, and midnight snacks. Breakfast food menus and retail products can appeal to all budgets, all levels of appetite, and all food preferences and dietary requirements.

With the erosion of three squares a day and a clear distinction between light meals and heavy snacks, the percent of U.S. adults who agree that breakfast is the most important meal a day has notched down somewhat from 57% in 2007 to 52% in 2017. Even so, breakfast still beats the pancakes out of lunch (18%) or dinner (19%) by this measure. Beyond eggs, bacon, and toast, new incarnations of biscuits, donuts, and batter dishes such as waffles and pancakes have all hit the bigtime, born again as artisanal expressions of a new generation’s creativity. There are also specialty functional juices, signature breakfast sausage sandwiches, and fruit/grain food bowls to quell thirst or hunger any time of day. At the same time a widening range of global breakfast specialties continue to hit the trendwaves: Asian heritage bao, breakfasty versions of banh mi, and congee; spicy Mexican chilaquiles and migas; Italian-style fritatas; and Middle Eastern shakshuka. Several key drivers propelling these food trends are also discussed throughout this report.