Inspiration and Information for your Tabletop

Every December, we get to read all the interesting articles about what to expect in the coming year. Food trends, flavor profiles, equipment innovations to look for, and even the best new tabletop -- all of these are part of our industry's canon of content as we enter the new year. There's one trend, though, that always stands out to us here at BauscherHepp.

There's no doubt Americans and Europeans do things differently. From the metric system to the fingers we use when counting, we have many idiosyncrasies that comprise our overall cultural canons. But perhaps nothing divides our cultures more than our dining habits.

The past year has been marked by successful showcases and events for BauscherHepp, each contributing to our mission of fostering excellence on the tabletop in the foodservice and hospitality industry.

For as long as humans have been eating, they’ve needed a utensil to scoop up the food. Sometimes, cupping your hands just didn’t do the trick, as it was inefficient, messy, and unhygienic. That’s why the spoon took its rightful spot on the dinner table.

The importance of sustainability in the foodservice and hospitality industries cannot be overstated. Sustainability saves us money by reducing spending and waste. It helps our environment. And it also gives us a public relations advantage over competing operations that don't care about efforts to be "green."

One of our top food trends to watch in 2020 is the increasing popularity of low to no-alcohol beverages and the restaurants that make them.

The tabletop has become a place of exploration. Between the chefs who are more creative than ever and the dinnerware that is bolder than ever, an explosion of patterns, shapes, textures, colors, and materials are becoming commonplace.

When we think about dinner service in Western culture, it typically involves sitting down to rolled cutlery, maybe a bread plate, a water glass, possibly a candle, or even a salt and pepper shaker. What you typically don’t see is an empty plate, as plates are most often brought from the back-of-the-house with food on them.

Coffee continues to hold its place as one of the most popular — and most profitable — beverages in America. In fact, coffee's popularity is so consistent that the overall numbers of coffee drinkers remains fairly static from one year to the next. But that doesn't mean everything in the world of coffee stays the same.

If you grew up in rural America or had grandparents who did, you might remember summers out in the garden picking beans or cucumbers or tomatoes. Those fresh, vine ripe vegetables weren't going to last forever, though, so after the best were set aside for an evening salad, you might remember what happened next.