How can you address the labor shortage in foodservice? Just add a dash of smarter product sourcing, a sprinkle of tech, and you'll end up with a recipe for creative menu items that require less steps to make yet have enough creative input to be truly yours.

This was one of the topics of a presentation by Katherine Thompson, of foodservice marketing agency Connections, who spoke earlier this week at ECRM's Foodservice Session in Chicago on culinary trends and opportunities in commercial and institutional foodservice.

Focus on speed-scratch

By focusing on convenience and speed-scratch products, you can reduce the number of steps required to prepare menu items, which enables you to quickly train new staff (and we all know the turnaround at foodservice operations!), plus it frees up staff to focus on more value-added activities. By adding your own finishing touches, chefs can still tailor the meal to their particular operation and truly make it their own.

Tech can also accomplish this, with co-bots that take the "busywork" out of the preparation process. One example is Chipotle Mexican Grill's Chippy, which helps fry tortilla chips. By freeing up staff from routine, easy-replicable tasks, they can focus more on serving customers.

Click here to download the presentation slides: Connections_ECRM_Presentation_0416.pdf

Upcoming ECRM Foodservice Sessions

ECRM will host several foodservice Sessions later this year, including its On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session (September 15-17 in Henderson, Nev.), and its Sessions on Campus Foodservice, Commercial Foodservice, Foodservice at Retail, Plant-Based Food & Beverage and Meat & Seafood October 27-30 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Click here to see all the the foodservice listings!