FSR July 2023

TRENDING ON THE MENU // Specialty Cheese

Specialty Cheese Trends A FEW KEY INSIGHTS FROM DATASSENTIAL ON SPECIALTY CHEESES

SPECIALTY CHEESES GROWING ON U.S. MENUS Type

• Eighty-one percent of consumers like or love cheese, and 60 percent of restaurant operators believe add ing cheese to an item will help it sell better. • Blue cheese, a widely menued mainstay, appears on nearly half of all U.S. menus and has seen little change in recent years. • Meat eaters tend to enjoy blue cheese, while flexitar ians tend to enjoy gorgonzola. • Cauliflower with gorgonzola, the fastest growing dish featuring this cheese, has increased menu pen etration by 124 percent over the last four years. • Gorgonzola is becoming more common on menus in sit-down-style formal restaurants. BLUE CHEESE A class of cheese with cultures of Peni cillin mold added, resulting in blue marbling. Used most often on menus with wings, salads, and pizza. A classic pairing with buffalo chicken. CONSUMERS: Know It Have Tried It 87% 58% MENU EXAMPLE: Smoked Blue Cheese, D’Anjou Pear, and Spinach Salad: With lavender-walnut vinaigrette, spinach, water cress and frisée, dried cranberries, house-smoked blue

Menu Penetration 4-Year Growth

Shaved Asiago

0.4% 7.2% 3.5% 2.8% 0.5% 5.1% 8.9%

+46% +16% +14%

Burrata

Pecorino Romano

Grana Padano

+5% +4% +4% +4%

Halloumi

Smoked Gouda

Mascarpone

SPECIALTY CHEESE TRENDS TO WATCH & UNDERSTAND // COURTESY OF DATASSENTIAL

cheese, cherry tomatoes, toasted walnuts. The Remington Restaurant at the St. Regis HOUSTON, TX

STILTON An English cheese available in both blue and white varieties, with applications similar to other blue cheese varieties (salads, with steak, burgers, and so on). CONSUMERS: Know It Have Tried It 28% 12% Watermelon and Stilton Blue Cheese Salad: Local water melon, Stilton blue cheese, pistachio-lime vinaigrette. Runyon’s Restaurant // CORAL SPRINGS, FL

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JULY 2023