According to Datassential, breakfast menu items have been growing in popularity over the past four years: In a December 2020 report, the research company cited that breakfast bowls had grown 111 percent on menus between 2016 and 2020. Similarly, breakfast sandwiches had grown 36.3 percent, and breakfast sausage had enjoyed 24 percent growth.
But here are a few other menu items of note that tell the full story, of how breakfast items are breaking out into other dayparts and rising in popularity all day long: Breakfast burgers had grown 94.4 percent across four years, while breakfast pizza had grown 26 percent. Datassential also reports that bacon has achieved 35 percent penetration on all-day menus, and bacon-wrapped items have shown 6.7 percent growth across four years.
This rising interest in breakfast food outside of the normal morning daypart presents an opportunity for chefs who are dealing with an unprecedented labor crisis. While it may be difficult to prepare and cook certain meals that are typically popular during lunch and dinner, just about any cook can create something that diners will love using prepackaged breakfast ingredients. Especially for chefs that currently like to create sausage and prep bacon in house, there’s an opportunity to cut back on labor without sacrificing on the quality by working with Smithfield’s ready-to-use breakfast proteins.
“Some food operations are thriving right now,” Spieberg says. “There are businesses that are increasing their volume without increasing labor. Obviously that means you have to make more food with fewer people, and the biggest thing that enables you to do that is products, like Smithfield’s, that are ready-to-use and truly outstanding products.”
Some real-world applications of chefs using Smithfield’s breakfast proteins in lunch and dinner applications include Frank Sanchez, executive chef at the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters, creating a Hearty Tomato Stew with Smithfield’s Breakfast Sausage. Meanwhile, Rick Lopez of Condesa in Austin, Texas, uses Smithfield’s bacon in a BLT Quinoa Avocado Bowl.
“You can bring bacon and sausage into your restaurant and create ten different menu items out of those alone,” says Brian Wright, executive chef at Doc B’s in Chicago.
As dayparts blur and the desire for breakfast items throughout the day becomes more widespread, chefs are looking to brands like Smithfield for those consistent, versatile SKUs that cut back on labor and help create great meals.
“The quality Smithfield has is really unparalleled,” Spielberg says. “Smithfield has a team and the equipment to create (products) that are really of an outstanding quality that is difficult to describe if you haven’t tried it.”
To find out more about Smithfield’s products, visit SmithfieldMorningsAndMore.com.
