The Rise of the Cooking Inconfident

There was a really interesting article in the Washington Post about 10 days ago titled Cooking 101: Add a Cup of Simplicity. It outlined a trend that many of the big food brands who have dedicated teams of recipe developers already know - Americans tend to lack basic cooking skills. There lots of factors that have led to this like increasing numbers of moms in the work place (they have less time to teach the next generation how to cook), the rise of convenience foods, the proliferation of the microwave, the elimination of Home Economics classes from high school curriculums and, of course, there is also Americans' love affair with fast food. The net result is there are a lot of people who don't have the basic cooking skills that past generations took for granted. But don't mistake people's lack of cooking knowledge with a lack of interest in cooking. You only have to look at the explosion of TV chefs, the food network, cooking websites and cooking magazines to know that people are ready to return to their kitchens.....they just needs a little help.

What kind of help should you and your brand give them? If you are a mainstream brand, start with giving consumers very simple "semi-homemade" type recipes that start with your delicious food product as a base. Keep the ingredients list short. Limit the range of ingredients to things commonly found in the pantry of your consumers. Bullet point the prep steps and keep chopping and measuring to a minimum. Keep the prepping and cooking time as short as possible. Finally test your recipes before you publish them to make sure they really are tasty! Nothing will deter a consumer faster from trying more of your recipes than having served a bad or inedible meal to her family. Remember your goal is to be your consumers' resource in the kitchen.

Flavor Trends for 2008

It is always interesting to see what flavor pairings emerge in the annual McCormick Flavor Forecast. Some of the pairings may be a little more relevant to product development and food service menu development than your mainstream product recipes and cookbook applications, but the pairings definitely highlight some key emerging flavor trends. And it never hurts to keep your eye on the emerging trends that may impact you in the future!

• Oregano and Heirloom Beans: The familiar flavor of oregano added to the heirloom beans touches on 2 key trends - food with functional benefits and the emerging popularity of heirloom vegetables.


• Vanilla Bean and Cardamom: Vanilla has long been popular flavor (remember the emergence of all the vanilla flavored drinks a couple of years ago like vodka and sodas?) that people recognize. Cardamon is an emerging trend that many consumers don't even even realize they are eating because it is increasingly in food service menu items but not called out in the menu descriptions.


• Chile and Cocoa: This combination fits very well with the emerging Hispanic flavor trend. As with other ethnic cuisines, there is an evolving sophistication of the American palate that moves beyond the ubiquitous mainstream "Mexican" food to deliciously rich and diverse regional dishes.


• Coriander and Coconut Water: A continuation of the tropical flavor trend that we saw last year.


• Lemon Grass and Lychee: Asian cuisines continue to grow in popularity as consumers move away from mainstream "Chinese food" to regional Asian palates. The pairing of the exotic lychee brings in a freshness to this pairing.


• Red Curry and Masa: This pairing follows the "fusion" trend by bringing together Latin and Asian influences to create a unique flavor experience.


• Orange Peel and Natural Wood: Tangy orange peel matched with the smokiness of natural wood creates a delicious flavor combination that could go into multiple genres of foods from Asian to American BBQ.


• Allspice and Exotic Meats: This combination fits well with the "experience eating" trend where food is more than nourishment for the body, it is an new experience for the senses.


• Poppy Seed and Rose: A unique new pairing taken from North African and Middle Eastern cuisines, it speaks to Americans' expanding ethnic food palate.


• Rubbed Sage and Rye Whiskey: Two traditional American flavors team up for an earthy familiar flavor combination.

Cheese Please

At The Undercover Cook we follow all kinds of food and cooking trends. Some of my personal favorites are the trends in cheese. According to The International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association we ate more than 32 pounds of cheese per capita last year! Not only are we eating more cheese, our taste for cheese is getting more sophisticated. The consumption of natural, artisan and ethnic cheeses is on the rise. The other big trend in cheese is, of course, convenience. As consumers look for food solutions that fit into their increasingly busy lives they continue to reach for more grated, crumbled, cubed, string, natural cheese slices and seasoned pre-shredded cheeses. The convenience cheeses take out the prep work without sacrificing the taste of traditional block cheese.

So as you are thinking about recipes for your brand or your latest cookbook, think about including cheese based recipes tailored towards your target consumer. For example, if you are targeting busy moms think about simple recipes that utilize the ever widening variety of convenience cheese, like a taco dip that uses pre-seasoned shredded cheese instead of of block cheese and spices. If you are targeting DINKS think about using cheese from the specialty cheese case, such as a recipe for boursin crusted pork chops. If your brand features upscale regional products think about using regional artisanal cheeses in your recipes. It is important that your recipes appeal to your target consumers' ever changing taste just as well as your products do.

Staying Relevant During a Value Shopping Trend

As we tally up our numbers and close the books on 2007 one things is clear, increasing commodity prices and decreasing consumer confidence have impacted our consumers as much as they impacted us. If your brand is a value player then you may have seen a bump in sales even as your bottom line has been getting squeezed. If you are a mid-range or premium brand you probably felt the pinch on the top line as well as the bottom line as your loyal consumers become more conservative in their shopping habits and trade down to the value brands.

So is there anything you can do with your recipe marketing plan to help stop this trend? Absolutely! No consumer wants to trade down. As a general rule you can bank on the fact that we consumers don't like denying ourselves our favorite foods even when money is tight. Your consumer needs for you to show her how she can affordable incorporate that indulgent product back into her families normal eating routine. This is a great time to offer what I like to call "stretch recipes". "Stretch recipes" use several ingredients to stretch the more expensive ingredient into more servings. For example let's say you are selling a premium refrigerated pasta product and you find that consumers who were purchasing your tortellini for a center of the plate entree are now trading down to a more affordable dry tortellini. You could feature a recipe campaign that focus on side dish applications for your product. The same package of product then goes from serving 2 main dishes to 4 side dishes. If the recipes incorporates some vegetables or other ingredients then the dish feels substantial and mom gets to feel good about serving this affordable indulgence to her family again. Don't worry, when consumer confidence picks up and the purse strings loosen up again you can go back to steering consumers towards center of the plate applications that incorporate more of your delicious product in each serving.

Healthier Eating in 2008

It is no secret that America has a weight issue. According to an IRI Times and Trends report, nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers are overweight to obese. The good news for our ever growing waist lines is that as many as 75% of consumers report that they are making changes to their diets in effort to eat healthier (sometimes referred to as the Better-For-You trend). Of course we know that what consumers say they are going to do and what really do are two different things, but that is a separate issue.

While I would not suggest that you should totally revamp your brand to match the Better-For-You trend (that would be a much larger branding question than what I am addressing), but you should consider adding a few healthier recipe and usage suggestions to your marketing arsenal. For example you could develop recipes that incorporate your product into a salad or a vegetable side dish or use whole grains like barley in the dish. Not only can these new healthy options draw in new more health conscious consumers who would have never considered using you product, they can keep you product relevant to consumers who may be considering healthy lifestyle changes.

Breakfast is Back

Restaurants believe that breakfast is becoming more relevant to consumers. How do I know? According to the November 2007 e-Gazette Food Bytes, restaurants (from QSRs to Fine Dining) have been increasing the number of breakfast items on their menus (a statistic also known as "breakfast density") for the past 2 years. While QSRs clearly lead the way on providing breakfast to consumers, it is the fine dining establishments that are showing the most growth on breakfast menu items.

If you are developing a recipe library for your brand, website or cookbook, you should consider including a few recipes for this important day-part. Try putting a breakfast twist on a non-traditional breakfast item just to keep in interesting. If you are selling pizza dough, why not include a recipe for a ham, egg and cheese breakfast pizza? If you are selling crab cakes, think about a crab, artichoke, sundried tomato and Parmesan cheese breakfast scrambler. If your e-newsletter theme is this month is cheese, try including a recipe for pancetta and brie mini quiches. It is very easy to add fun breakfast recipes to your recipe repertoire just by adding fun new ingredients to the traditional dishes that people already know and love.

Welcome to The Undercover Cook

The Undercover Cook is a full service recipe consulting business. We specializes in writing recipes for consumer brand products, websites and cookbooks. What sets us apart from other recipe development companies is that by following cooking and food trends we understand how different segments of the population cook. One common mistake we see on consumer brand packaging and websites is complicated labor intensive recipes that don't match up to how the target consumer group really cooks. At The Undercover Cook, we carefully write recipes that fit within the skills set, time constraints and personal tastes of the specific group our client wants to target. We can also help guide our clients in developing beautiful food photography with maximum appetite appeal.

If you are a brand manager or product manager, you may ask why recipes should be important to you and your brand. Recipes are key to showing your consumers alternative usage occasions for your product (and we all know that increasing usage in existing customers is cheaper and more effective than just targeting new consumers to make their first purchase!). Recipes provide great content for brand websites and PR campaigns. Good recipes can turn your brand from just another product to a resource for consumers.

If you are a cookbook writer or recipe website manager you need good on-trend recipes as well. Your recipe needs will be based on your target reader. Are you targeting cheese lovers with specialty cheese based recipes or busy moms who want healthy meals for their families in under 30 minutes? Whoever your target is, you want recipes that are not above their skill level and not below their preferred tastes.

What ever your recipes needs, The Undercover Cook is ready to help you target your particular consumers. Go to theundercovercook.com to learn more.