Brunch culture is currently ruling the world, and eggs benedict is king—followed closely by Queen Mimosa. This classic egg-meat-bread-sauce combo is a byword for “weekend indulgence” for diners across the country.

To Suzy Badaracco, president of Culinary Tides and a trends forecaster for the food industry, this soft spot for soft eggs has to do with economics. “We’re in a stall pattern right now, in neither recession or recovery. When that happens, diners want comfort foods and retro items, but served with a twist.” She says the traditional presentation of eggs benedict is “comfort based,” but she says diners will be more interested if you move the story forward with unique seasonings, spices, presentations and accompaniments.

Badaracco notes chefs incorporating global flavors in the standard recipe, or trying presentations such as serving it in individual cast iron skillets. “With Nordic food still trending, it can be paired with arctic berries or Danish kringles as the base,” she says. To accommodate low-carb eaters, she suggests subbing a vegetable like artichoke hearts for the English muffin. “Or try roasted pepper or chipotle in the hollandaise,” she suggests. “Whatever you do, keep in mind that current global trendsetting cuisines include Central America, South America, Middle East, Nordic and Filipino.”

Origin story

While Badaracco associates eggs benedict with a “50s and 60s vibe,” it’s actually been around much longer than that, depending on which story you believe—Delmonico’s or The Waldorf. In one version, the dish was created in the 1860s at Delmonico’s restaurant in New York City after a regular customer, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, didn’t want any of the dishes on the menu. After a consultation with chef Charles Ranhofer, a new dish named after Mrs. LeGrand was created (Delmonico’s is a supporter of this theory).

An alternate version takes places decades later, in 1894, when Lemuel Benedict, a Wall Street broker, visited New York’s Waldorf Hotel with a terrible hangover. Mr. Benedict ordered buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs and hollandaise sauce as his cure (The Waldorf is a booster of this theory).

Part of a trend

Badaracco says our current obsession with brunch culture is a “cousin” of the all-day breakfast phenomenon that gained popularity a couple years back. “Brunch has been riding on all-day breakfast’s coattails,” she says. She also associates brunch with futurist Faith Popcorn’s cultural theory of “clanning,” which takes place during fearful times. “People stick with those they know and trust, and brunch caters to that feeling,” she says. “You may go out to breakfast by yourself, but brunch is more social.”

Hop on the bandwagon

If your restaurant already offers brunch, consider including a twist on eggs benedict for your specials (read below to see how more than 50 chefs around the country are adding their own spin to the benny platter). If brunch is not yet a menu staple, keep in mind that Restaurant Business Magazine says adding a brunch menu is one of best ways to expand a restaurant’s business–morning menu items often carry a higher profit margin than later meals. The NPD Group, a food and consulting research firm, has noted that breakfast was the only meal to see a growth in traffic out of three meal times last year.

Resources

Culinary Tides

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Recent chef variations on the Eggs Benedict theme from USA Today

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Give a fig—please. The long-treasured fruit has been gaining in popularity, thanks to the continued appeal of the Mediterranean diet. A natural in baked goods like breads, pastries or tarts, figs are also great when featured as a sweet touch to a salad with spicy greens (another Mediterranean menu staple). They’ve even been making appearances in cocktails, pairing well with bourbon, rum, port and other dark spirits.

New varieties

There are plenty of options when choosing figs, since they have more naturally occurring varieties than any other tree crop. Common varieties include Black Mission, Calimyrna and Brown Turkey, but newer varieties on the scene include the “Panaché” Tiger Fig. Its exterior has dark green strips, and its interior flesh, which carries a hint of strawberry, is crimson.

Fig forward

No wonder Chef Dominique Crenn has said she loves cooking with figs because they’re “like a summer dance when nature is awake and singing.” Other chefs agree, and some recent examples of fig-forward dishes in fine dining include: Morimoto Napa serves the unlikely combination of fig tempura with peanut butter and foie gras sauce; Mission Street Food has sautéed lamb tongue with fig and Fernet jam, beluga lentils, mint yogurt and fried ginger; Luce serves black olive cake with roasted figs, yogurt sorbet and fig granola; and Tyler Florence’s Wayfare Tavern serves a salad of fresh figs with sunflower seeds, roasted onion, burrata and a honey-black pepper dressing.

Figs on a plate

While the fruits are lovely served on their own and eaten out of hand, a bit of creativity can really make them shine. (And can help you avoid Momofuku restaurant’s David Chang’s infamous comment of a few years back that “every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate.”)

At breakfast service, fresh or dried figs are a fiber-rich stir-in for oatmeal or other grain porridges. For appetizers, consider an easy fig roast, served with a drizzle of simple syrup or honey. If you’re blessed with an overabundance, try making jams or chutneys with the bounty. Figs love cheese, so consider pairing them with a tangy goat cheese or housemade labneh (strained yogurt). For a warm appetizer, fill figs with a soft cheese like mascarpone and bake until warm. And they’re great on a charcuterie plate, especially when paired with prosciutto.

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Marc Bauer, master chef at New York’s International Culinary Center, offers easy recipe ideas

Recipe

Brie & Fig Bruschetta

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They’ve been making dim sum diners happy since around the year 200 A.D., according to Chinese legend (invented, so the story says, by scholar and military strategist Zhuge Liang). But these days, bao have made a break from tradition and are being served up in all sorts of inventive ways.

Formally known as “baozi” but more commonly shortened to “bao” (rhymes with wow), the name means “wrap” in Chinese. These steamed or pan-fried buns can be filled with meat, vegetables and even soup. If you’re a dedicated dim-sum-er, you’ll probably be most familiar with char siu bao, which are filled with barbeque pork. But these days, anything and everything can make up the filling in a bao.

Great anytime

“Bao are like the cool cousin of the hot pocket,” says Yia Vang, chef and founder of Union Kitchen. “They’re what Hot Pockets want to be but never are. They’re less greasy and healthier, and they have a fun name that’s easy to say.” Yang, a Hmong-American who regularly teaches bao-making classes with his mother, Tang, says that bao can be dressed up or down and served at just about every meal.

“They’re great at brunch, but they’re equally good at happy hour or on an app menu,” he says. Vang fills his traditional bao with minced pork, a hard-boiled quail or chicken egg, vermicelli glass noodles and always—always!—a slice of Chinese sausage.

Growing trend

While bao are currently on only 1 percent of U.S. restaurant menus, they’ve seen 54 percent growth on menus over the past four years. If you’d like to be ahead of the curve and add bao to your menu, Vang has some advice: “When I was growing up, I always thought my mom’s bao’s didn’t have enough meat in them. But when I made them for myself, I overloaded them, and they ripped open during steaming. It’s all about having the right filling strategy. I found out that mom knows best.”

Resources

Union Kitchen

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Nation’s Restaurant News digs into the bao trend, which is in the inception stage

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Make sure to check out our recipe section.