COVER STORY
biscuit) and the wittily named Where’s Buffalo Again? (traditional buffalo sauce, blue cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and celery slaw).
THE CREAMY, SPICY AND ‘AWESOME SAUCE’ NEW FLAVORS
This chef isn’t technically clairvoyant, although he does have some experience with ghosts. The seeing-into-the-future part is more of a sense of the foods and flavors that are going to be trending next on TikTok and beyond. American Dining Creations (ADC) Vice President of Culinary Chef Jonathan Pye has been known to catch onto food trends long before most, snapping them up and incorporating them onto menus quickly, often in the form of LTOs. For example, back in 2018, he predicted the s’mores trend. A lot of us haven’t quite heard of jacket potatoes (or at least the fact that they are a trend), but they’ve been on his radar for a while now. (Stay tuned to FSD for more on those later). A few years ago, he foresaw the birria trend, which is still pretty much booming now. It turns out Pye has been working on a new sauce line, and he’s made some delicious discoveries along the way, and has some insights to share about where the trends might be heading next. “We are about to roll out ADC’s first-ever signature sauces,” he says. “These are designed to be dipped in and slathered in — and over — anything and everything.” To be that all-encompassing, the sauce line has a lot of ground to cover, with tastebuds tuned to the current trends: “It seems like the trend is creamy and spicy, outside of the traditional ketchups, mustards and mayos, which are constantly popular. We have a fry sauce which we named Awesome Sauce (ketchup, mayo, pickle brine and spices).” That Awesome Sauce may be able to trace its roots back to a food cart in Salt Lake City, where Fry Sauce was invented in 1940, according to legend and this Eater article by Zee Krstic,
tracing the sauce’s history. “You can dip fries and tenders in [Awesome Sauce], put it on a burger or a sandwich and I am currently creating a salad dressing with it, so it will be everywhere in our food halls,” Pye says. “The best thing is, it will be made fresh in all of our locations.” A flavor station is also in the works for all cafes and food halls, where diners will find hot sauces, local favorite condiments, housemade sauces and dips, along with intriguing new spices in shakers. THE “JANG GANG” AND CURRIED-UP MAYO Pye’s pick for the trendiest sauces right now are what he calls “The Jang Gang,” he says. “The ‘jang’ sauces are influencing a lot currently. Gochujang (red pepper), Eojang (fish), Ganjang (soy), Deonjang (fermented bean) and Cho Ganjang (soy vinegar). They are so flavorful. Korean food is taking over the world it seems, and I am on board!” Indian curries, chutneys and spice blends also offer many possibilities that are trending now, which makes sense to Pye’s British heritage. “In England, we smother everything in Indian influenced sauce,” he says. “Fries (aka ‘chips’), fish and chips, spice bags…I saw a sandwich the other day entirely covered in curry sauce! It’s easy to add curry powders or garam masala to an aioli or a chutney for a sandwich spread. There are so many good chutneys that you can use, such as cilantro, tamarind, lime pickle, mango chutney…the list goes on.” A curry-infused mayo is the star of the famous Coronation Chicken Salad, a chicken salad that was introduced to celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. The New York Times’ Melissa Clark calls this throwback classic dish with a royal vibe “an easy, pantry-friendly dish, loosely based on a posh, classically
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PHOTO COURTESY OF ARAMARK
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