Comfort food: how to adopt this trend in your restaurant

You know that food that brings comfort? That dish your grandmother used to make on Sundays, that warm chocolate cake with coffee, that plate of pasta that feels like a hug?

That's comfort food, a concept that has become a trend in restaurants and won over consumers. Want to know more about it? Then keep reading this article!

What is comfort food?

Comfort food is an English term that can be understood as “comforting food”. It refers to dishes that provide emotional relief, creating feelings of well-being and coziness.

These foods evoke an emotional memory, childhood, home cooking. That's why they're usually not complex preparations like those of haute cuisine. Chicken soup, for example, is a comfort food classic.

It's common for consumers to seek out this emotional cuisine in moments of stress, sadness or loneliness. After all, tasty food is also a form of comfort that awakens nostalgia, brings back positive memories and creates a sense of pleasure.

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What are the types of comfort food?

If we stop to think about the concept of comfort food, we realize it's quite subjective.

After all, everyone has their own memories and preferences; the food that is a refuge for one person may not be for another — and every mother has a seasoning like no other, right? On top of that, eating habits vary by region, social class, culture and other factors.

So how do you create a comfort food menu that is truly welcoming for a large number of customers? We can think about the characteristics of foods that create comfort. From there, we get some common types of comfort food:

Nostalgic foods

These are foods eaten to satisfy a longing, whether for childhood, family or one's homeland. They can be foods that defined a generation, dishes with a homemade touch and also typical dishes from a specific region.

Indulgent foods

In this case, the consumer seeks food for pure pleasure, as a reward for stress, sadness or anxiety. They don't care about nutritional value or satisfying hunger. This is the well-known junk food, which includes foods high in fat, sugar or sodium.

Convenience foods

Here, the focus is on practicality and immediate consumption, usually with no preparation needed. That's why this category is dominated by processed products, such as cookies and chips (which can also bring back childhood memories).

Physical comfort foods

These are foods whose composition, texture and temperature bring physical comfort in addition to emotional comfort. Broths, soups, coffees, teas and alcoholic drinks are some examples. Fatty and sugar-rich foods also fall into this category.

Why is comfort food a trend?

This concept became common from the 2000s onward, when the food industry started using terms like “grandma's cooking”, “made with love” and “homemade seasoning”, for example, to convey the idea of nostalgia and comfort.

Later, consumers began to value the quality of the food they ate, preferring healthier ingredients and preparations, in contrast to fast food, for example. As a result, the idea of homemade gained even more strength.

Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, comfort food became popular as a form of emotional relief from the anxiety and stress people were experiencing at the time.

From then on, people started to identify which foods were comforting and, once isolation ended, comfort food took off in restaurants.

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5 tips for adding comfort food to your menu

Adopting comfort food in your restaurant is advantageous for several reasons: you'll be tapping into a consumer trend, making your menu more appealing and setting yourself apart from the competition. That way, you can attract and retain more customers.

To create a comfort food menu or add a few options, check out our tips below!

1 – Explore regional cuisine

Practically every Brazilian who travels abroad comes back missing rice and beans. The food of our homeland connects us to a place and makes us feel closer to home. That's why it's worth exploring regional dishes: feijoada, escondidinho, moqueca.

2 – Perfect your plating

The concept of comfort food revolves around pleasure and warmth, and the presentation of the dishes can contribute a lot to making the experience even more satisfying. After all, a careful presentation, made with affection, makes food more appetizing and comforting.

3 – Use quality ingredients

Emotional cuisine refers to grandma's kitchen, where food is prepared slowly and with natural ingredients, often picked straight from the garden.

So it makes complete sense to look for organic ingredients, swap processed seasonings for natural ones, partner with local suppliers and prioritize seasonal vegetables.

4 – Reinvent the classics

For a distinctive experience, you can reinvent classic dishes. That way, at the same time as you catch customers' attention with dishes that trigger emotional memories, you also offer something new.

5 – Bet on simplicity

Although many fine dining restaurants apply the concept, a comfort food menu doesn't have to be sophisticated. In many cases, simplicity wins, because it's exactly what customers are looking for.

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Offer the best experience to your customers with EPOC

Adopting the comfort food trend in your restaurant is an excellent way to deliver a distinctive experience and build customer loyalty.

Emotional cuisine has the potential to create connections, awaken positive feelings and win over the public not only through taste, but also through a feeling of comfort. To complete the experience, personalized service is essential.

That's why having a POS system like EPOC is essential. With it, your waiters can take orders faster and focus on service, answering questions, making suggestions and selling more.

If you'd like to explore EPOC's features and see how it works in practice, Schedule a free demonstration now!