Restaurant and Foodservice Publications Basics

How to use restaurant publications to further your restaurant business

Restaurant trade publications can help you with your food service business in several ways. You can learn more about marketing your establishment, find out about trends in the industry and discover new innovations.

If you're new to the industry, it can be hard to know which restaurant publication to trust, and you may not know how to put the ideas you learn about into practice. Three things that can help are:

1. Looking at newsletters and magazines that are published by trusted organizations in the industry;

2. Consulting books and journals as well as the typical newsletters and magazines;

3. Reading up on how to put lessons you learn from foodservice publications into practice.

 

Look at some of the most highly respected restaurant trade magazines and newsletters

Some of the first restaurant and foodservice publications you should check out are the ones put together by respected institutions and publishers. You'll have a better understanding of what trusted sources should resemble once you know what these publications contain.
Try: The National Restaurant Association publishes dozens of reports, including an annual industry forecast that explains restaurant trends in detail. Penton Media produces Restaurant Hospitality magazine, which covers prominent chefs, menu options and innovations in equipment and food safety.

Check out restaurant books and journals

If you want to get in-depth information instead of just restaurant and foodservice publications basics, look at books and journals. They often contain industry analyses produced over longer periods of time than what is contained in magazine features. They can also give you more comprehensive knowledge of industry trends.
Try: The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill has a list of useful books that can help when you begin your research. Note that books will not always have as up-to-date information as journals, due to the lengthy publication process. If you'd like to look at journals online, you can go through the University of Delaware's library. It has links to more than two dozen food industry publications, including "Trends in Food Service and Technology" and "Food Control."

Discover how to apply what you've learned from restaurant industry publications

Once you've looked at several restaurant magazines and a restaurant newsletter or two, it's time to think about how to apply your new knowledge to your business. There's not much point in poring over publications unless you make some practical applications.
Try: You may want to use your trends research to help you redesign your menu. The Quantified Marketing Group has an article with additional information that can help. Also, the Interaction Media Group published an excerpt from "Running a Restaurant for Dummies" that can also provide insight on the subject. Whatever you do, keep reading. You never know when you could be inspired to develop the next great idea.

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