Road to Boston: Q&A with Aaron Noveshen
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By Mercedes Grandin, SeafoodSource contributing editor
12 February, 2010 -
SeafoodSource talks to Aaron Noveshen, founder of The Culinary Edge, abut his upcoming International Boston Seafood Show seminar “Coast to Coast Innovation: 5 Profit Driving Trends from America’s Top Independent Seafood Restaurants.”
Grandin: What are the major trends you'll be covering in your seminar?
Noveshen: The big picture of the talk is about trends that are starting in the fine dining or independent food space that are really ripe for explosion, trends that are starting to feed into the greater chain environment and continue to grow pretty dramatically. So something that's starting like the topic of whole fish or on-the-bone fish being served, this ‘whole animal' approach is a trend that's not only happening in the meat world with pork and butchers. But in the seafood side there are tons of restaurants that are starting to serve whole fish and whole seafood, and it's ripe to spread over to some of the chains. "Is it the right time for a restaurant to dive into that?" is a question I'll be asking and hopefully answer. This is an area that's really dramatically growing everywhere in independents and fine dining that's getting ready for primetime.
Will you be covering restaurants across the foodservice spectrum?
Absolutely. I'll cover all segments, from trends that are happening in fast food to trends that are happening in full service. And in talking about independents, the whole sandwich and fish taco space is getting ready to explode and they're starting to pop up on menus everywhere. Really this seminar is designed for the people attending this who are looking for what's hot and what consumers are looking for and what manufacturers are going to need to be ready to provide solutions for, and also what are the chains looking for in terms of the restaurants and the big movements in foodservice that they're going to need to start testing and putting on their menus.
Will you address how the economy has affected seafood restaurants?
It's not the focus of this presentation but I can certainly answer with an opinion. The trouble is that seafood hasn't really gone down in price whereas most other commodities have, so it's been a challenge for restaurants to push a lot of seafood specials right now because seafood isn't really declining in cost at the same pace as some proteins have in the last year. Beef and chicken have really come down in price a lot more than seafood has over all.
What are some of the other challenges seafood restaurants are facing that you'll cover?
It's really about how to drive top-line sales. Everything is about driving sales right now and creating new menu excitement. So what we'll be covering is how to drive top-line sales, how to create new menu excitement, what are the success stories out there and how people can take these ideas and mend them and tailor them for their own establishments.
Will you cover how restaurants are changing their seafood offerings and seafood marketing?
Yes, definitely both. We'll be touching on some of the stuff Joe's Crab Shack has been doing lately with their buckets or one-pot specials that are complete meal ideas that have made it into the chain environment and how they've presented that to consumers in a meaningful way. We have a lot of other research we're looking at, and we'll determine which cases or examples provide the richest data.
What do you hope are the takeaways from your seminar?
Getting big ideas on what's happening and what are the emerging trends in seafood in order to help people decide on menu evolution. I hope people will be inspired to lead and not only follow, so providing inspiration.
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15 February, 2010
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