Get your Pork, you've Pulled!

The gourmet burger boom that keeps booming! 

As a die hard fan of Man vs Food and the food based exploits of Adam Richman, I am all too familiar with pulled pork and its use in modern day food culture, but this is no ordinary food fad, this one has staying power and with good reason. 

Originating in the southern United States, barbecue strongholds like Tennessee and North Carolina found a method of cooking tougher, cheaper cuts to cut down on wastage. The method was simply to cook the meat slowly over hot coals for hours until it is ready to be 'pulled' apart. 

Gourmet burger joints are making healthy profits on the back of its success, relatively cheap to make & store, it is an out and out hit with British diners. The arrival signalled a change, taking an otherwise standard meal, and transforming it into something far more exciting, lashings of sugar & tomato based smokey sauces, it's incredible. Not only that, its almost led to a confidence amongst chefs with an entrepreneurial streak to go out and start their own business with a proven formula that consumers are still absolutely loving.

Where before we were limited to a burger with cheese or bacon, or now it seems 8 different types of burgers are the threshold for a burger menu. Customers tastes are ever changing, and where once it was 'this is the menu, this is what you can have', now it seems that restaurants have to be far more adaptable to changing tastes, with up shoots  in allergies and intolerances highlighted by compulsory changes in how menus are produced and how attitudes have changed. 

It can be prep intensive on smaller business and kitchens, but then upside is that done right, it's highly profitable. Upselling is key to a restaurants success, and in a restaurant where there are multiple options that are easily interchangeable, the customer gets what they want, and the kitchen moves its stock faster, everybody wins. It has arguably led to a far more casual approach to dining that's more familiar on the continent in places like Spain with the family style, tapas approach, only in this case, numerous side orders that could be seen in any American style restaurant, poutine, succotash and the like, with anyone at the table just tucking right in. 

In an age where people want everything faster, from news to parcel deliveries, the restaurant trade is having to adapt to this too. Only truly exceptional restaurants can afford to stand still, and even then, that time is limited. Pop-up restaurants are now the new normal, reflecting the pace of today's food scene. Street food is another section that has seen a massive boost in trade lately, the question for burger restaurants is not how long this golden age will last, but how to identify the next big addition to keep customers coming back? 

What food trends do you see emerging at the moment? Leave your comments below.

Original article on Chefs Chef here - https://www.chefs-chef.co.uk/chefs-kitchen/article/get-your-pork-youve-pulled/