Is there enough diversity and inclusion for BIPOC in Canada’s foodservice industry?
“The foodservice and hospitality industry is made up of many Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, and new Canadians, who all contribute to our industry, and it could not function without their input and work.” Restaurants Canada, in their commitment to inclusion and anti-racism The meaningful participation of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) goes beyond numbers. It’s also measured by more nuanced matters of inclusion, such…
What does the future hold for foodservice? Here are 7 top trends to keep you on track
Hindsight is 2020, as the old expression goes. Certainly, as we rounded the corner in 2019, the prospect of a bright new year was uppermost in our minds. Who could have foreseen a pandemic…
How’s your mental health during Covid?
Even before COVID became part of our daily vocabulary, the foodservice and beverage industry had high rates of mental health challenges and substance use issues. It can be a stressful job at…
How to make your restaurant an allergy-friendly operation
According to Food Allergy Canada, over three million Canadians (9.3%), including almost 500,000 children, have food allergies. Reactions range from mild to life-threatening so those with food…
Proud to be – Indigenous cuisine rises up
As a little girl on the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta, Shantel Tallow watched her elders prepare food the traditional Blackfoot way from what they had hunted and gathered. “Those lessons…
We have definitely reached the tipping point
Bruce McAdams is the Associate Professor, School of Hospitality, Food, and Tourism Management, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. After coming from a…
Have restaurants reached the tipping point?
Tipping has rattled restaurateurs for years, as they struggle with the merits of tipping and tipping policy. Are tips shared? How are they factored into servers’ wages? What’s the split…
COVID-19 and restaurants – how are consumers reacting?
Is it all doom and gloom? According to projections by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (based on Statistics Canada research), 60% of operators are at risk of closure by the end of 2020. Dark…
Has COVID-19 killed sustainable packaging?
What happens when the sustainable food packaging movement collides with a global pandemic? New evidence shows that use of single-use plastic food packaging increases, while at the same time…
Time to mine the untapped potential in GenZ
What comes after X and Y? If you said, “Zed” or “Zee,” you would be partly correct. When it comes to demographics, the group order is Boomers, GenX, GenY, and then GenZ. That chronology of…
Restaurant operators are turning their kitchens into ghosts
Ghost kitchens (also called virtual kitchens, cloud kitchens, dark kitchens) are delivery-only spaces that have the back-end without the front. No seating areas, no counters, no servers, no…
Pandemic lessons. Don’t wait for the next one to prepare for the unknowable
How do foodservice operators plan for the unknowable? While not recommended, surviving a previously unimaginable experience – like the first wave of a pandemic – is one way. Before Canada…
Vegan goes mainstream and foodservice operators are eating it up
What do Hank Aaron, Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla have in common? The tie that binds them is their vegetarian/vegan diet. Our ancestors started eating meat about…
Food halls on the rise – what they mean to your business
In late 2019, after years of hype and anticipation, Eataly opened its first Canadian operation in Toronto, joining a global empire of 40 stores, encompassing close to 50,000 square feet and…