Business View Magazine l November 2022

149 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 11 Food & Beverage trends As if the pandemic wasn’t bad enough, now we are all dealing with the economic challenges associated with it. Costs have increased dramatically, especially with food & beverage. Costs are up about 10% this year and projected to climb at the same rate through 2023. With client budgets being stretched innovation has been needed here as well. Trends have included more grab-and-go options vs. traditional sit down meals. Menu selections have been reengineered with more cost effective ingredients but being careful not to impact quality or presentation. This puts added emphasis on the overall experience in addition to the food itself. Food is like art and we’ve seen some really creative things since COVID. The supply chain has been unreliable at the same time, so Chefs have had to stay nimble and adjust on the fly. In many ways it brings out more creativity. Expectations for the future Interest in hybrid meetings continues to grow even as the current usage declines. When the world shut down everyone was forced into a virtual meeting environment. Even our kids