09.03.2008
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For more Hartman Group articles on CHANGING FOOD CULTURE, click here...
04.16.2008"Food Trends of College Students"
04.02.2008"What Emerging Dining Trends Can Teach Us"
02.06.2008"Understanding Consumer Culture"
03.28.2007 "The 'Fiber' of Organics"
11.14.2007 "4 Signs of Changing Tastes: The Adoption of Ethnic Foods in America"
11.07.2007"Fresh Thinking on Fresh"
09.05.2007 "Restaurant Trends: Looking to the past to tell the future"
08.29.2007"Multicultural Foods"
06.20.2007"4 Key Implications of the Globalization of Food"
04.11.2007"New Paradigms in Eating: From Healthy to Quality"
01.24.2007"What Makes Local Special"
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Subscribe »World-Tripping Cuisine
Young Americans Go Global
Americans have traveled far with their taste preferences in a short amount of time.
Noting this distance, companies today are chasing after the youth of America, with a keen focus on their eating habits. What are they eating? Where are they choosing to dine? How can be lured? What will be the next big thing for food?
To gain some insight into the changing world of food, and the youth driving these changes, let’s take a trip back in time to 1987 to a wedding, or more specifically a rehearsal dinner.
A Wedding Story with Flavor
The scene: a rehearsal dinner in Austin, Texas, hosted by the groom's family.
The menu: an assortment of Pan-Asian foods.
The items featured on the menu at this rehearsal dinner were items that today have become sort of ubiquitous and ever present but for the time they were fairly progressive. It is, after all, 1987.
Think about it, 20 years ago in Austin (even more so in the plains of Kansas where the bride's family was from) items such as pot stickers were completely unheard of.
At the dinner, the bride's parents were absolutely offended — so much so that the bride's mother was driven to tears — because they had a very clear notion of what food was and they felt that a wedding called for very specific foods items.
In a nutshell, this rehearsal dinner fiasco describes what has happened with food. Strange to think that 20 years ago a pot sticker generated incredible pain, it generated tears. Today one could serve these items and not only would people not get upset, they would eat them. Moreover, they’re the ones telling their parents to eat them.
Marriage of Foods
Americans — especially young Americans — have become completely comfortable, if not enchanted with, the foods, cuisines and menus of foreign lands. To be certain, our comfort level varies (generally the older and more rural are somewhat less open to foreign or "ethnic" cuisines), but the big picture is clear: We are rapidly evolving into a culture marked by truly global food preferences.
For a whole group of people under the age of 30, it's less a motivation to try global cuisine than a reason not to try. A lot of the younger people we talk to tell us that no food is off limits, and all foods are foods they can eat. Not long ago, we posed what was thought to be a pretty basic question to several young consumers in their late teens and early 20s:
You and a friend decide to go out for lunch tomorrow and it's your turn to pick, where are you going to go?
Without hesitation, the answers rolled off their tongues, Thai, Chinese, Ethiopian, Greek, Pho, Indian, Teriyaki, Taco truck...
Every single kid — all 15 of them — mentioned a cuisine (Thai) or a preparation (Teriyaki), and in each case their answers reflected an international selection. As a follow up we asked about McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC and the like. While several admitted occasionally dining at these restaurants, the consensus was pretty clear. As one unusually articulate young consumer noted, "American food sucks."
Gimme More Choices, and Make ‘em Real
Young people today are constantly making choices, and they rarely think twice about it. For them, it is not unusual to make a variety of different choices with food in any given day and, for example, have a burrito for lunch, stop by a grocery store in the International District after school to pick up some Japanese candy for a snack and then meet friends for sushi for dinner.
What’s more, young people have a notion that it is authentic, and it is often the deciding factor when dining out. They go to fast food places, but often times they don't prefer it. For example, they go to McDonald's and tell us they are fully aware that the food is not good for them. In fact, they may not even like it, but they still eat there from time to time. When we ask young people where they would go to eat if we gave them $75, we never hear them say Taco Bell or Pizza Hut, they pick from a whole different set of foods (Ethiopian, Thai...) based on their mood. It just goes to show that when given other choices they'll seek out something other than fast food.
As we've noted many times from our research, consumers have an increased desire to obtain products they deem are the "real deal" or most authentic. Quality markers — such as ingredients and narratives of origin (i.e., local) — and the context within which a purchase is made are those factors that have the most influence on the perception that a product is or is not authentic. As one consumer told us:
“Authenticity means something is genuine; it's real, not just for show... Something that is more heartfelt, something with human spirit in it... authenticity is fairly hard to find.”
Authenticity, for most, is brought in as a way of adjudicating between restaurants and foods. In the food world when people talk about a good wine or a good restaurant, it is an opinion that we can't really argue about, they are preferences. In the future, it will be interested to see how obsessed people become with authenticity.
American Food in the Future
People over 50 (i.e., their parents) grew up with very clear notions of foods that were "real." Many felt they had good reason not to eat certain foods and have a hard time imagining growing up in a world where all foods are acceptable. Though somewhat beholden to what their parents are serving at the dinner table and stocking in the pantry, as young people continue to develop a global palate, parents seem much more willing to accept their recommendations and be influenced when they are out of the house.
So, what impact will the changing taste of America’s youth have on the future of American cuisine?
Globalization, where culture, goods and services move freely and rapidly from country to country, is having its own impact in the context of the American consumer’s curiosity for new cuisines. No longer content, and even bored, by the diets and dining experiences of previous generations, consumers young and old continue to cultivate greater enthusiasm for experiencing foods and beverages from other cultures. As this, and other Hartman Group research clearly show, the desire for new distinct taste sensation is rooted in a deeper quest for premium quality food experiences.
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