This year, hotel food and beverage departments as well as catering outlets and F&B in conference and exhibition centers struggled to catch up to post-Covid pent up demand as well as to what is now called “accommodation cuisine.” As meetings went back to in-person settings, health and safety stayed paramount.
Bon Accommodation
Our May feature story on “accommodation cuisine” took many aspects of this new category into consideration: health, religious and allergen-related choices were all part of our report. Tracy Stuckrath, a meetings food advocate and consultant, said, “We’re at a meeting and we’re there to build relationships, land deals, network and learn. And then we’re left out. We are left hungry at the table because something was not presented to us as we requested. We lost out and we may lose our deal because at a critical moment, we had to leave the table.”
Essential F&B: 2022 Catering Trends
Our January 2022 feature on catering trends saw locally-sourced foods as a major player. Adrian Colameco, executive chef at Casa Marina-A Waldorf Astoria Resort in Key West, Florida, said this continuing trend will shift into overdrive “as there is significant difficulty in sourcing many products due to the supply-chain challenges we are facing.”
Chef Thomas Tuggle at The Harpeth Hotel, a Curio Collection by Hilton, in Franklin, Tennessee, added that going local is part of the larger embrace of community. “Involve the community into operations, showcase local products, hear what they have to say and give them what they crave,” he says.
Essential F&B: Let them Eat (Gluten-free) Cake
Let them Eat Gluten-free Cake explained the “mainstreaming” of accommodation cuisine and why it’s the trend of the future.
Ravish: Pasta-licious
Ravish: Pasta-licious took a deep, delicious dive into major F&B pasta dishes to die for. Pass the vino!pas
