USA
EN
Cost of living is through the roof…and your customers are seeing their spending power plateau. Understandably, they’re becoming more selective about where and how they spend. They want experiences that feel personalized, memorable and worthwhile. The challenge for operators is delivering on those expectations while protecting margins, managing labor and building more resilient businesses.
Ahead of the launch of Entegra’s new 2027 Trends Report, we sat down with the expert chef team at Entegra Culinary Consulting. We found out what they’re seeing across foodservice and hospitality, which trends deserve attention and how operators can turn them into practical, repeatable strategies.
Entegra Culinary Consulting (ECC) helps any foodservice operator — not only Entegra clients — improve profitability, streamline execution and build stronger menus. Meet the ECC team:
Chef Lynn blends culinary expertise, business acumen and client-centered strategy to lead the Entegra Culinary Consulting team. With a background spanning sales, entrepreneurship and national account leadership, she now drives innovation and results through food and agency services.
Read more: Q&A: How to build your best menu with culinary consulting
Chef Brett oversees menu and recipe development for Entegra’s healthcare and senior living clients, backed by more than 25 years of experience in the industry. With dual business and culinary degrees, he brings disciplined leadership and segment expertise to every project.
Read more: Ask a chef: How to elevate the dining experience in senior living
As a certified research chef, Chef Sam brings a strong mix of culinary innovation, operational leadership and product development expertise across foodservice, hospitality, manufacturing and national brands. His background spans large-scale operations, menu innovation, commercialization and brand development, giving him a well-rounded perspective on both strategy and execution.
Read more: Chef brings food research expertise to the EPK
Chef Kevin brings deep culinary experience and creative strategic thinking to the restaurant segment, specializing in LTOs, menu management and trend-forward guest experiences. A CIA graduate with a diverse background, he’s known for pairing strong kitchen skills with visual storytelling and operational insight.
Read more: [Webinar] Chef digs into what factors drive changes in commodity prices
Chef Lynn: From my point of view, quality is definitely the emphasis, even if that means a reduction in the quantity of experiences out. Younger consumers in particular are becoming more discerning about the foods they put in their bodies and what those foods can do for them. Across industries, we're seeing a continued shift toward quality over quantity.
Chef Sam: Agreed. With costs remaining high, lodging and leisure guests expect greater value for their money and experiences they cannot easily recreate at home. When deciding where to spend, they’re prioritizing service, quality and the overall experience.
Some operators have seen success satisfying consumers’ expectations by instituting loyalty programs that provide opportunities for guests to earn points toward food and beverages.
We saw a great example this past week when Chef Kevin and I did an operations review for Charleston Hospitality Group, which owns several restaurant concepts in Savannah and Charleston. In downtown Charleston, they have 3 concepts. Guests can earn points while enjoying the evening at the group’s dueling piano bar, then visit its breakfast location and continue earning or redeeming those points across the different concepts. It’s a great way to take advantage of a loyalty program in a high-tourism area where the concepts are close to each other.
Chef Brett: In non-commercial operations, especially in senior living, personalization and choice are the top guest expectations to plan for in 2027. Residents are used to going to restaurants outside the senior living community, and they want to see that same quality, choice and customization on their menus.
Providing that level of personalization without increasing labor and food costs is tricky. It requires a balance of simplifying things in the back of the house while offering more choices for residents. That could translate to good SKU rationalization and cross-utilization of products.
Chef Lynn: Yes, this is definitely a hot topic — I just chatted with the other panelists about this at the Entegra Cost Outlook webinar last month.
Data is such an important part of what we do and how we steer the ship in operations. Utilizing AI to help us analyze data streamlines the culinary consulting our team offers and makes it more comprehensive. This ensures operators have more time to spend on what matters most to them, like culinary creativity and locking in the menu.
Chef Sam: In hospitality, technology is becoming an increasingly valuable tool. Like a car that gets you from point A to point B faster than walking, technology can accelerate that journey, but you still need to steer. That means the demand for personal service isn’t going away in the hotel world. In fact, I believe it will increase. Guests still want to socialize, connect with others and feel cared for.
Chef Brett: In the world of senior living and healthcare, I look at AI as a tool for menu planning, trends and especially operational changes that patients or residents are going to see. I see it helping employees run the business better. In that way, it gives them more time for human interaction, which is a crucial part of the guest experience in every segment.
Watch on demand: Entegra Cost Outlook, Fall 2026/Winter 2027
Chef Sam: One effective way to protect margins is to find creative ways to use existing SKUs across multiple menu items. Extending one product into two or three offerings can lower costs while creating opportunities for growth.
Back in my line cook days, we would repurpose leftover products for something called “family meal,” which was a family-style meal for the back-of-house staff. How can we take that same concept and make it profitable and menuable for operators? The product still costs the same, but now you have two or three different revenue streams where you’re featuring it.
Chef Lynn: I would start with menu strategy, informed by your actual food and labor costs. Look at what’s selling, what’s contributing profitable margin and what takes the most work to produce. A slow-selling dish that requires unique ingredients and multiple prep steps may be tying up inventory, adding labor and creating waste.
When you identify a potential product swap, don’t look at case price alone. Look at yield, prep time, portion size and waste alongside the cost. And make sure the product and recipe perform and your guests enjoy it. If something is important to your brand and your guests expect it, protect it. Then look at other areas where you can make a successful swap and save money.
If you want to make a change, consider adding an LTO. I’d also recommend consulting reputable trend reports, like Entegra’s 2027 Trend Report, or using trend services like Datassential or Technomic to make sure you’re staying on top of trends without going overboard with what’s viral on TikTok. Use data to support what you’re doing and how you’re reworking your menu.
Chef Brett: In addition to SKU rationalization, it’s about forecasting, purchasing the right products, portion control, looking at waste and taking inventory. Post-production is also important. Did we overproduce something that’s now going on the waste log, or can it go on a leftover log and be turned into a family meal?
Those are all things operators have the ability to control on their end by managing the business closely and using those practices to help protect margins
Chef Lynn: I think it comes down to understanding the total cost of a dish, making decisions based on data and evaluating how your team’s time is best spent. Cross-utilization is really important. If you can use one ingredient across multiple recipes, you can reduce waste and labor while making the most of the ingredients you already have.
Time-saving ingredients can also allow the people producing your menu to focus on flavor, presentation and the details that make a dish special. Balancing labor with how many ingredients it makes sense to have in your walk-in or freezer is what makes the business sustainable while keeping the creativity flowing and delivering what guests expect.
Chef Sam: I agree. I’m already starting to see this with the use of speed-scratch or convenience SKUs to improve consistency and quality while also helping with cost and labor.
When I worked for Smithfield Foods, for example, we had fully cooked brisket and pulled pork products that required minimal training to prepare but still gave the end user a high-quality experience. Using speed-scratch items like these can help reduce waste, create more consistency and ease some of the labor required in the back of the house
Chef Brett: There’s environmental sustainability, but I also think about operational sustainability. It comes back to food reduction and waste, pre-planning and post-production, forecasting meals and cross-utilizing ingredients.
Better forecasting and planning can help operators reduce waste in ways the guest may never even notice. For example, let’s say you forecast 200 eight-ounce portions of chili. Use that number to determine how much ground beef, beans and other ingredients you need.
After the day of service, review what actually happened. Maybe it was hot outside, or fewer customers came in because of the weather, and you only sold 125 portions. The next time chili is on the menu, you might adjust your forecast to 150 portions based on that data.
You’re probably never going to hit the exact number, but that’s not really the point. The goal is to use the information you have to get closer so you’re not overproducing and wasting food. Post-production data, including how much you sold and how much was left over, helps make those forecasts more accurate over time.
Chef Brett: The challenge is that you can’t track everything. When it comes to post-production, I would focus on high-volume and high-dollar items. Don’t try to track 115 different things and chase your tail over sunflower seeds on the salad bar. Start with something like fried chicken or chicken tenders.
If you can track two things successfully, maybe the stretch goal is to track two more the next time. Get some things established, identify the patterns and then expand.
Chef Lynn: Agreed. And I would add that making small tweaks to your standard operating procedures can also make a meaningful impact when the changes you make are intentional and aligned with cost and execution. When you build a solid foundation with strong SOPs, it can save your team time, meaning there is more time for important post-production analyses.
Chef Sam: Dubai chocolate. I don’t get it. It’s delicious, but chocolate, pistachio cream and those flavor combinations are classics. If you look at Middle Eastern sweets, these combinations have been around for decades. Even if Dubai chocolate fades, I think we’ll continue to see familiar flavor combinations repackaged, rebranded and presented in new ways.
Chef Lynn: One thing I think we’ll see more of is momentum around functional wellness. As I’ve been saying since I started my culinary career: food is medicine. Consumers are beginning to think this way too, and that’s why we’re seeing a trend of changing portion sizes and functional add-ons like energy, fiber and protein.
When it comes to portions, it’s not necessarily about making everything smaller, but more about giving consumers more choices. Do they want a traditional portion, or do they want half a plate?
With add-ons, I don’t just mean smoothies with protein powder. We’re seeing an increasing demand to utilize coffee and tea in more ways than just breakfast drinks. Protein is now a premium drink add-on, along with fiber, healthy fats and energy-boosting ingredients. Offering these add-ons is a great way to deliver on guests’ desire for functional wellness while also boosting check averages.
Coffee cocktails and mocktails are growing in popularity as well, along with mixology around coffee and tea, like refreshers and dirty sodas — though personally, I am ready for the dirty sodas trend to be over!
Chef Brett: I think the food experience in senior living is going to become more upscale. People are traveling globally and becoming foodies, and residents, especially in independent senior living, want restaurants, pubs, happy hours and the types of dining experiences they enjoy outside the community. I think that will continue.
Chef Sam: Look for ways to create fresh experiences out of things you’re already doing every day. Give guests a behind-the-scenes look at new flavors or menu items you’re working on. Invite them into the process and ask for their ideas. Something that feels routine to you might be interesting and unexpected to them.
Chef Brett: With rising costs, inflation and everything operators are dealing with, the best advice I can give is: get to know your operation intimately. Don’t just chase trends. Understand where your labor is going, where your waste is going and what your guests value. Really knowing how your business runs can help you operate more efficiently and mitigate some of the headwinds that will continue to challenge operators.
Chef Lynn: Keep creativity and cost discipline working together. Creativity brings guests in; cost discipline helps make that success sustainable. At the end of the day, we want to create food our guests enjoy at a cost that works for the business. Being thoughtful about both is part of being a good culinary team.
The biggest opportunities in 2027 won’t come from chasing every emerging trend. They’ll come from understanding which ones your guests truly care about and finding practical ways to bring them to life without adding unnecessary cost or complexity. With the right balance of culinary expertise, operational discipline and guest insight, operators can create experiences that are memorable, profitable and built to last.
Check out Entegra’s 2027 Trends Report, dropping later this month, for a deeper look at the top five trends shaping foodservice and hospitality, plus actionable strategies to help turn them into stronger guest experiences, more resilient operations and long-term growth.
Entegra Culinary Consulting (ECC) is a team of expert chefs who help foodservice operators improve profitability, streamline execution and build stronger menus. Services include recipe development, menu costing, menu mix analysis, limited-time offer creation, operational assessments and SOP development.
ECC supports operators at every stage of the process, from concept development to implementation. Much of this work takes place in the Entegra Performance Kitchen (EPK), where concepts can be tested under real-world operating conditions before recommendations are delivered to operators.
Culinary consulting helps reduce food costs by identifying opportunities within recipes, ingredients, menus and purchasing practices. ECC evaluates factors such as menu mix, ingredient utilization, product specifications and operational workflows to uncover savings opportunities without compromising quality or the guest experience.
Operators working with ECC have achieved measurable results. One operator reduced chicken costs by 20 to 30 cents per pound, while another lowered overall food costs by 5% through a single product change.
A typical engagement starts with identifying business goals such as reducing costs, improving menu performance or simplifying kitchen execution. ECC then develops recommendations that may include recipe testing, menu analysis, operational evaluations or new product development.
Each solution is validated in a real-world environment before rollout. Deliverables can include finalized recipes, menu costing, standard operating procedures, stylized photo shoots, training materials and implementation plans.
The Entegra Performance Kitchen is Entegra's dedicated culinary innovation and testing facility, designed to help operators develop, validate and refine ideas before they reach their businesses. It functions as a real-world test environment where chefs and operators can evaluate recipes, equipment, workflows and menu concepts under practical operating conditions.
No. The Entegra Performance Kitchen is open to all operators, not only existing Entegra clients. Businesses can access culinary expertise, innovation sessions and consulting support regardless of their current procurement or purchasing relationships.