Eggs, croissants, hashbrowns, pancakes, sausage—you probably associate these items with a particular time of day. But the lines between breakfast, lunch, and dinner are getting less and less distinct.
We know "brunch" and "brinner" advocates want breakfast flavors any time of day, but we tend to forget that these cross-daypart cravings go both ways. Ingredients and offerings typically associated with lunch and dinner also deserve a seat at the breakfast table. With that in mind, rethink breakfast menus with these three trends.
Breakfast Pizza
Bringing the flavors of breakfast to a pizza may have once seemed like a wild idea—but then again, it took a while for dessert pizza to catch on. Breakfast pizza seems to be following in dessert pizza's footsteps, ascending from the adoption to proliferation stage of Datassential's menu adoption cycle.
To start simple, top pizza with common scrambled egg ingredients, like cheddar, onions, ham, and, of course, scrambled eggs. Ready for something a bit more adventurous? Look to another egg dish, shakshuka. Its poached eggs, spiced tomato sauce, and feta make for a delicious, rustic pie.
Breakfast Sandwich
We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it may also be the most skipped meal of the day. Ohio State University found that more than 15% of adults miss out on breakfast. It's too hard to muster up energy or find time in the hustle and bustle of the morning to enjoy a proper meal.
Hand-helds can help with that. Consumers can quickly pick up a breakfast sandwich on their way to work or school. Of course there's the ubiquitous sausage biscuit, but fried chicken is gaining traction in breakfast sandwiches. Fried chicken sandwichs have shot up 185% on morning menus over the past four years. By adding eggs or replacing the buns with waffles, restaurants can transition the popular sandwich to the a.m.
Breakfast Bowl
Anyone who has eaten a side of sausage in the same bite as a pancake understands the appeal of food bowls. With bowls, ingredients that are typically kept apart are mixed into one flavorful concoction.
There's still so much left unexplored with breakfast bowls. Less traditional breakfast ingredients like noodles and rice serve as great bases for morning classics like bacon and eggs. For global mashups, create a breakfast spin on bibimbap or burrito bowls.
Your Sourcing Solution
As work schedules have shifted in recent years, so have breakfast habits. Restaurants must loosen the boundaries between dayparts to create menus that captivate diners all day long. With our wide range of products and brands, Dot Foods can help restaurants satisfy consumers' evolving morning cravings.