What will the Year of the Fire Horse bring us regarding food trends? Has our food culture stagnated to the point where every year looks the same? Or is there some exciting new trend just on the horizon? Because of inflation compounded by tariffs, I expect another difficult year for the restaurant community. But when the going gets tough, the tough find ways to somehow improve their margins.

Smashing Your Burger
I always thought this was a brilliant food trend to help improve your margins. Burger vendors could use smaller portions of ground beef without compromising flavors as the larger surface area of the smashed patty created more caramelized edges (and more flavor) and the quick cook time allowed you to serve more burgers in the same amount of time. And personally, I enjoy a burger that doesn’t require unhinging your jaw to bite.

Lower food cost, potentially higher sales and still delicious. It’s a win-win situation all around!

Waste Not, Want Not
Or as your grandparents may have stated, mottainai. From a restaurant perspective, this means using as much of the protein or produce that you purchase. For proteins, that means using all parts of the animal, especially those less desirable cuts. Any chef can make a ribeye or filet delicious but it takes real talent to make tougher cuts or offal delicious. Maybe it’s because I was raised in the 50th, but locals have always favored braised oxtails, grilled turkey tails or tripe stew. And with produce, I still fondly remembered our second home; Vino Italian Tapas and Wine Bar that made it a habit of purchasing local grown produce that was misshapen or simply wasn’t classified as perfect and normally left in the fields as unsellable.

They used it in braised or roasted dishes so the farmer still made a sale, diners still enjoyed a delicious dish and it reduced environmental waste.

Scale Down That Menu

There’s a saying that’s something like this; “If you try to succeed at too many things, you’ll fail at everything.” Along that same line, if you put too many things on a menu, there’s a chance that none of them will be outstanding. Personally, I prefer a smaller menu where every dish is outstanding instead of an unlimited menu where everything is just so-so. Plus this can help reduce food costs and waste.

The Home Chef
A trend in the 50th that is still expanding is the “cottage food” regulations that started in 2017. Initially, only foods that weren’t time- or temperature-sensitive from a spoilage standpoint — such as cookies, cakes, breads or desserts — were included after the “home chef” passed a food handling class approved by the Hawai‘i Department of Health or American National Standards Institute certified the product could only be sold directly to the consumer with labeling that included the statement, “Made in a home kitchen not routinely inspected by the Department of Health,” as well as ingredients, major food allergens, the name and contact information of the “home chef” and the common name of the product. Since then, pickles, kimchi and salsa are now included, even if they require refrigeration, as long as the final product has a pH of 4.2 or less or have water activity of 0.88 or less.

Dried meats, seafood and fruits from the melon family are still excluded.

Along with another income stream for local families, the money remains in Hawai‘i instead of lining the pockets of some CEO that’s already overcompensated.

Ryan Tatsumoto is a graduate of both the University of Hawai‘i and UC San Francisco. He is a recently retired clinical pharmacist and a budding chef/recipe developer/wine taster. He writes from Kane’ohe, HI and can be reached at gochisogourmet@gmail.com. The views expressed in the preceding column are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.

Ryan Tatsumoto, Nichi Bei News

The Gochiso Gourmet is a column on food, wine and healthy eating. Ryan Tatsumoto is a graduate of both the University of Hawai‘i and UC San Francisco. He is a recently retired clinical pharmacist and a budding chef/recipe developer/wine taster. He writes from Kane’ohe, HI and can be reached at gochisogourmet@gmail.com. The views expressed in the preceding column are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.