FOOD & DRINK
began her mission to authenticate Mexican food to us through her Mexican restaurant Wahaca. And we are buying into Miers’ Mexican meals, it seems. Wahaca is now a 20-restaurant strong chain.
Our perceptions are being challenged: a burrito is not a rice, sour cream and cheese-filled, robust wrap that makes for a filling meal, but rather a stretchy, lard-enriched, paper-thin pancake with refried beans and meat and nothing much more. Similarly, tacos are corn-based soft, not hard, shells.
Authenticity doesn’t necessarily mean staying still, but to live by certain rules and principles, such a freshness, simplicity and passion, with willingness to innovate by staying in contact with the source of authenticity but staying true to certain methods, such as the process of making ‘proper’ corn tortillas.
CUSTOMISATION Generation Z enjoy taking part
in conceptualising and actively designing what they eat. Various dietary requirements and lifestyle requirements often dictate that one person would rather not have cheese, another person is avoiding starches
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and a third person is a vegetarian. How do we cater to everyone at the same time? The answer to this may be found in customisation. Customisation isn’t new but it may be a service, which appears to be more relevant and common today than ever before. Mexican food lends itself well to this type of catering, with build-your-own tacos, for example, a popular feature at Mexican food outlets.
Customisation also guarantees something else that is important to us today: freshness. Gone are the days of ordering a cheeseburger without pickles to make sure it is made-to- order. More and more fast food and fast casual restaurants and outlets offer build-your-own options, handing over the creativity and, partly, the design of the item to the customer. Whilst customisation may be less complicated in a sit-down restaurant, fast and street food outlets may find it more difficult to cater to everyone’s specific requirements whilst providing a quick service.
INCLUSION Eating as a social activity is nothing
new, but when did anyone last use public transport without seeing at least a handful of people looking at
their screens? Well, you may not have noticed if you were, indeed, one of those people! But look around the room next time you visit a high-street restaurant and you will see mobile phones on many, if not most, tables. Some places, encourage the use of mobile phones to enable customers to complete part of the service, e.g. by paying on their phones directly from their tables without any staff interaction or waiting time needed.
It is easy to feel like social eating today actually means ‘social media’ eating but that isn’t necessarily the case. The social elements of eating are changing, with sharing and small-plates going hand in hand with customisation, ensuring that everyone gets to try a bit of everything. Authentic and customised Mexican food, again, may provide an occasion to share and interact over a meal whilst catering to everyone’s requirements.
And of course, should those that weren’t at the meal in question feel left out, they needn’t. Everyone can feel included on social media afterwards when a picture of the food is often shared/’Instagrammed’.
www.allmanhall.co.uk TOMORROW’S FM | 21
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