Ten years ago, bowl entrees only appeared about 150 times on restaurant menus. Now they show up more than 1,500 times. Just in the past three years, menu incidence of bowls has increased 65%, according Mintel Menu Insights. What has happened?
I can point to at least two things. The bowl has become a recognized carrier of themed ingredients and it’s one of few formats that unwieldy health-forward beans and grains easily fit into.
The bowls of yesterdecade were often rice or noodle bowls with Asian moorings. Breakfast bowls were also starting to appear and have done nothing but soar in the past three years, up 148%.
But I like to ponder what it was that made restaurant menu developers start to think seriously about bowls, and I want to zone in on the “themed carriers” idea combined with the upscale concept of deconstructing that’s now in everybody’s playbook. Sandwiches/wraps and pizza are among the most common classic ingredient carriers, but if you tear them down and put the ingredients in a bowl, you have things like Olive Garden’s Meatball Pizza Bowl, but more. Because with a bowl, you can add extra flavorful ingredients. After all, bowls enclose. Pizza doesn’t.
More is better, especially if it is better. Power bowl is a common entrée name to convey that this isn’t just a hodgepodge of random ingredients, but a carrier for superfoods. Corner Bakery recently launched its Power Breakfast Egg Bowl, partly described as “our power greens blend of baby kale, arugula and spinach topped with fluffy scrambled eggs, farro and oven-roasted tomatoes.” Meanwhile, LYFE Kitchen just added its Acai Power Bowl: “housemade acai-blueberry compote, coconut milk, chia seeds and toasted pecan almond crunch.”
Notice the way menu developers are turning to bowls to make healthy more craveable. Chipotle, that until the new guard arrived, rarely added a new ingredient or dish, recently launched a line of Lifestyle Bowls, calling out keto, paleo, whole30 and double protein. Dunkin recently added an Eggwhite Bowl which smacks of healthy. Indeed, the company notes that the bowl contains vegetables, lean protein and no bread to appease the low/no-carb crowd. (Let it not be lost on anyone that many carriers are carb-laden, bringing on a nap attack.) And BFY brand Jamba Juice just dropped the word Juice from its name to expand its focus and added a tagline: Smoothies. Juices. Bowls.
Bowls are also a palatable way to get more fish in front of guests. Menu incidence of fish bowls went from near zero to 65 in the past three years. Perhaps we have the emergence of Hawaiian cuisine and its iconic poke bowls to thank for that. For anyone embarrassed to admit they don’t know what poke is, it’s raw fish chunks (often tuna) ala sashimi, but mixed with mayo and a few other seasonings. For those who won’t eat sushi unless it’s a California roll, poke is an indulgent first stab at raw fish.
I think bowls are only in their infancy as a carrier for themed ingredients. We aren’t seeing many dessert bowls, beyond ice cream. But even that could take a twist. You’ve heard of freak shakes that include all kinds of decadent ingredients? Why not freak bowls?
The second reason I think we’re in for a lot more bowl action is the emergence of robots. Notice my last blog post The Salad Bar of the Future. Sally the salad robot by Chowbotics is also a bowl robot. After all, a salad is a bowl. The company is just now promoting it as also a bowl robot.
And finally, I have to give a nod to ingredient manufacturers/marketers as the third reason we will see more bowls. It’s the job of food/ingredient manufacturer corporate chefs to develop and pitch menu ideas to restaurant chains. There are grain (and bean) companies doing just that, and bowls are the dream trend for these folks. There will be more bowls on chain restaurant menus, or those companies will die trying.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
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