MenuDirections News

The Dine-Around is always one of my favorite moments at MD. My group this year—go Team Blue!—was particularly festive, thanks to July 2012 FSD of the Month Ginnie Dunleavy from Rhode Island School of Design.

The first day of Menu Directions, FoodService Director’s culinary conference for FSDs looking to offer more-healthful options, provided plenty of food for thought. It didn’t stint on food for the more usual sort of consumption, either.

This weekend, the FoodService Director crew heads to Tampa Fla., for the 11th annual MenuDirections conference. After months of preparation, we're ready to offer more than 130 operators a taste of Healthy Flavors, Healthy Profits.

This year’s Dine-Around will showcase Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin Quarter. We talked to staff from each of the Dine-Around restaurants on this year’s agenda to get the inside scoop on what kind of culinary delights attendees can expect March 3.

Much was said at MenuDirections about spices jazzing up a dish. The same can be said for conferences, as this sampler of flavorful quotes attests. Here they are, delivered without any adulteration.

MenuDirections abounded in ideas, some so self-contained that it’s difficult to lump them into categories or one of our larger themed stories from the conference (which you’ll find here.) Here, then, is a mixed assortment of those notions and insights.

After five days on the road, I’m back in our New York office, collecting my thoughts in the aftermath of what might have been our best MenuDirections conference ever.