New survey finds consumers motivated to try ethnic cuisines for different reasons.
Ethnic foods may be more popular than ever, but new research reveals
that the reasons consumers eat ethnic foods in the first place vary
widely. According to Ethnic Cuisines: A Profile, the National Restaurant
Association's just released benchmark segmentation study on ethnic
restaurants conducted in cooperation with Creative and Response Research
Services of Chicago, diners tend to fall into three distinctly different
categories:
* Culture-oriented, who actively seek out new dining adventures;
* Restaurant-oriented, who view ethnic restaurants as simply another eating-out alternative; and
* Preparation-oriented, whose interest in ethnic cuisine tends to center on the cooking and ingredients, and for whom eating out is an occasional culinary field trip.
Which Cuisines Whet American Appetites?
Italian, Mexican and Cantonese-Chinese cuisines dominate the market for ethnic foods, both in consumer trial and frequency of consumption. Practically all (90 percent) consumers have tried them, and about one-third are eating foods from these three cuisines more than they were two to three years ago.
Indeed, these three "mainstream" ethnic cuisines have become so ingrained in American culture that consumers no longer need to seek out exclusively Italian, Mexican or Cantonese-Chinese restaurants in order to sample representative dishes. The National Restaurant Association's forthcoming 1994 Menu Analysis, which examines menus taken from a sample of non-ethnic restaurants at two points of time, 1989 and 1994, found that nearly all (98 percent) of the menus analyzed incorporated ethnic dishes in both appetizer and entree offerings. Nearly two-thirds of the 1994 menus featured Italian entrees and one-quarter offered Mexican dishes. Availability of Cantonese-Chinese entrees on mainstream menus nearly doubled over the five-year period, from 7 percent in 1989 to 13 percent last year.
Ethnic Food Experimentation
Although the current popularity of the "Big Three" ethnic cuisines remains unchallenged, consumers are increasingly experimenting with other ethnic cuisines at restaurants. The "second wave" of ethnic cuisines to hit the U.S. includes Tex-Mex, other Chinese (Hunan, Mandarin or Sze-chuan), German, Greek, Japanese (other than sushi) and Cajun/Creole. More than half of all consumers have tried these cuisines, and most are likely to do so again.
Finally, there is a category of "emerging" ethnic cuisines, largely unsampled by the general population. Although Americans are becoming more adventurous about trying new ethnic dishes, their lack of awareness of a specific ethnic cuisine is usually a barrier to experimentation. The new study found that the overall level of consumer awareness of ethnic cuisines is directly related to the proportion of people who have tried a specific ethnic dish from the least-known cuisines.
For example, approximately 40 percent of all consumers are totally unfamiliar with Caribbean, Korean, Middle Eastern, Thai and Vietnamese foods. Not surprisingly, these cuisines garnered the lowest overall consumption patterns and have been tried by less than one-quarter of survey respondents.
Many consumers find themselves in a typically American Catch-22. If they're unfamiliar with a particular ethnic cuisine, they're less willing to make it familiar by trying it for the first time. For instance, approximately three out of 10 diners have never tried Caribbean cuisine and reportedly are not interested in trying it, compared to about two out of 10 diners who would be willing to give it a try.
Ethnic Cuisine Enlightenment
Ethnic Cuisines: A Profile also reveals that restaurants are the primary source of ethnic cuisine education for consumers. As a result, those who choose to dine at an ethnic restaurant with little knowledge about that cuisine often judge the entire cuisine on a favorable or unfavorable dining experience, which ultimately determines whether they opt to eat it again.
Although restaurants are the most common source of experience across all cuisines, other sources vary from one cuisine to another. For example, most consumer recognition of "soul food" comes from growing up with exposure to that cuisine; it has a strong home cooking tradition. In contrast, Asian cuisines ranked low in this category because the requisite ingredients can be hard to find and recipes more difficult to duplicate at home.
Cuisines with festive appeal, like Mexican and Tex-Mex, acquired approximately one-third of their consumer recognition through parties, potlucks or festivals. Cuisines that consumers first experience through travel are the ones that are native to popular vacation destinations, like Caribbean and Cajun/Creole. Chinese and Indian cuisines ranked low among consumers in familiarity through travel, because their countries of origin are far more remote destinations.
Consumer Attitudes About Ethnic Restaurants
A majority of survey respondents (70 percent) agreed that "I hate it when a menu only gives a foreign name without explaining the ingredients or preparation." Beyond that general point of consensus, however, Americans tend to differ more often than not in terms of how they relate to ethnic cuisines. According to Ethnic Cuisines: A Profile, three out of 10 consumers are culture-oriented, 40 percent are restaurant-oriented and 30 percent are preparation-oriented in the way in which they approach the experience of sampling ethnic foods.
Culture-Oriented: On The Cutting Edge
Culture-oriented ethnic food diners are motivated by the thrill of participating in a culture other than their own. They look forward to experiencing untried dishes and exotic flavors, and don't shy away from foods that may be challenging. Food is a hobby for this group, and they love to eat - frequenting restaurants three times more often than the other two groups.
Equally divided between men and women, culture-oriented consumers tend to be educated and employed in the managerial/professional ranks, with higher-than-average household incomes. Sixty-four percent say they "love finding a restaurant that offers unique menu choices - things other restaurants do not have." Members of this group actively seek out restaurants where natives eat, and report they would be "distressed if there were no more new cuisines or dishes to try."
Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, side-by-side Mexican eateries in Chicago, are examples of restaurants that try to appeal to the culture-oriented market. Owners Rick and Deann Bayless call themselves "zealots for understanding and appreciation of traditional Mexican cooking." The restaurants change their menus every two weeks and feature authentic dishes from various regions across Mexico.
Four times a year the restaurants host special events that showcase Mexican foods in new ways. Most of these occasions make the news. This past Valentine's Day Bayless recreated the entire menu from the book Like Water For Chocolate. He also brings in chefs from Mexico to cook for his customers once a year - most recently for an authentic pig roast from the Yucatan, complete with performances by the Mexican Folkloric Dance Company of Chicago.
Restaurant-Oriented: Anything, As Long As It Tastes Good
Representing the bulk of the consumer dining market, restaurant-oriented customers are less experimental than their culture-oriented counterparts, and they tend to treat dining in restaurants largely like eating out in general. For this group, an ethnic meal is just another dining experience - hence, they look for foods they know and like in a comfortable atmosphere.
Restaurant-oriented consumers tend to skew somewhat younger than either culture- or preparation-oriented diners; 53 percent of them say that "good flavor in a cuisine is more important than whether the cooking is truly authentic." Furthermore, nearly three-quarters emphasize that there are foods they would never eat, regardless of how they are prepared.
Panda Express, a rapidly growing Chinese fast-food chain with 161 units, offers the familiarity, consistency, convenience and value pricing that restaurant-oriented patrons desire from ethnic restaurants. The streamlined menu of a dozen items features well-known Mandarin and Szechuan dishes like beef and broccoli.
Although the menu has not been "Americanized," says Joseph P. Micatrotto, the company's president and CEO, it has definitely been prepared with the mainstream American palate in mind - full-flavored but not exotic or experimental. All items are prepared on-premises and are served buffet-style so that customers can pick and choose. "We want to simplify what is perceived to be complicated" about an unfamiliar cuisine, says Micatrotto. Even the decor echoes this sentiment. The chain has divested itself of dragons, lanterns and other ethnic accoutrements in favor of an understated contemporary decor with a black, white and red tile motif.
Preparation-Oriented: Will This Work In My Kitchen?
Although they may not patronize restaurants as frequently as the other two groups, preparation-oriented diners probably get the most out of each visit. Describing themselves as "above-average cooks," members of this group go to ethnic restaurants primarily to learn about new preparation techniques and ingredients. In addition, they tend to be older (over one-quarter are retired), female (73 percent) and more nutrition-conscious.
Preparation-oriented diners feel right at home at Jasper's in Kansas City, an Italian fine-dining restaurant where tableside service is emphasized. Owner and chef Jasper Mirabile, Jr., goes to Italy every summer to bring back new dishes for the restaurant's regular menu, as well as for his popular cooking classes.
For more than a decade, Mirabile has been offering cooking classes to make Jasper's more accessible to a larger audience. The two-hour classes include the background and history of the dishes, and participants can take home recipes. Each class also includes a complete four-course meal. At first, 90 percent of the participants were women; but when the classes were moved from noon to a weekday evening, the mix changed to 60 percent women and 40 percent men.
In order to accurately identify consumer attitudes, experiences and preferences concerning ethnic foods, Ethnic Cuisines: A Profile was conducted in two phases - an exploratory phase based on in-depth personal interviews, and a quantitative phase based on a nationwide survey of 1,185 households. It is the first consumer survey the National Restaurant Association has undertaken regarding ethnic foods in over five years, and by far the most comprehensive.
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| Publication: | Frozen Food Digest |
|---|---|
| Date: | Jul 1, 1995 |
| Words: | 1598 |
| Previous Article: | A global market for US food products. |
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