Ingredients

Insights from growers and menu ideas on a variety of ingredients

Growers' Insights: Hawaii’s "hot" chocolate is always in season

While the majority of the world’s cacao beans are grown in Africa, Hawaiian production is spiking.

Menu insights: chocolate

Chocolate is found on 32% of menus and more data from research firm Food Genius.

Chocolate has long been the domain of desserts, candy and sweet beverages, but cocoa can do more than satisfy your sweet tooth. Operators also are using chocolate to bring an earthiness to a variety...

Growers' Insights: What’s in a name?

Heirloom tomatoes are cherished as delectable, old-fashioned and wholesome, but not all growers produce heirlooms from humble seed.

Make a tomato upgrade

With their variety of shapes, colors and tastes, heirloom tomatoes have become highly coveted by non-commercial chefs—when they can get them.

Doing more with melons

Be it sweet watermelon, classic cantaloupe or humble honeydew, non-commercial operators know seasonality rules when menuing melons.

Growers' Insights: Safe slice

Food safety is a grave concern for cantaloupe farmers. In 2011, 33 people died from consuming cantaloupe carrying listeria, a deadly pathogen.

Shellfish opens up

Be it crabs, mussels, clams, scallops or—the big daddy of all shellfish—lobster, operators have come up with endless ways to incorporate these invertebrates into their menus.