OK so you won’t actually find “Fusebiquity” in Websters – our friends at Datassential coined it as a way to describe a smart strategy for menu innovation. It’s what to call it when you thread the needle between offering menu items with broad appeal AND still different enough to stand out and get noticed.
Chefs who work with Aussie lamb tend to do this instinctively – Bob Gallagher’s sweet potato gnocchi with North African braised lamb is one example, and Janine Booth’s Aussie Lamb Pizzetta with Pickled Fennel, Hazelnut Romesco and Gremolata is another. Putting a trending but less common protein like Aussie lamb together with sexy North African or Mediterranean flavors makes great flavor sense. The great flavor approach gets even better for sales on an approachable, comfort food base.
The idea is to build on a base with broad appeal – something ubiquitous like pizza, pasta, tacos, mac and cheese, burgers or bowls. And then to fuse onto that a trending ingredient or flavor that’s growing rapidly, but might be too out of the mainstream to stand on its own. Put them together and you have an item that sells, with…fusebiquity!
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18% of foods/flavors are declining on menus
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49% of foods/flavors are holding steady
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26% are trending
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7% are showing super growth <– 363 foods and flavors in this category!
For more fusebiquitous recipe inspiration, click here.