What do you think most about your meal when you go out to eat?

Is it a pop of flavor that lingers in your mind or fast customer service? When it comes to today’s modern culture, a little visual flourish goes a long way in leaving an impression. This has caused many restaurants, cafes and bakeries to start looking into candied flowers and petite microgreens to give their menu that little bit of extra style. These food accents are both tasty and visually stunning, creating a positive loop of feedback that will only spell good news for your business as a whole.

Finding the right specialty produce and using it effectively is an art form in of itself. Here are five simple things you should know.

Psychology And Food Plating

Crafting a good menu is more than just choosing fresh ingredients or following trends. You need to have an intimate understanding of human psychology and what customers want to see when they walk through your restaurant’s front doors. When it comes to plating, or food presentation, children generally prefer more colors and more flavors. Adults, on the other hand, prefer fewer colors and a more bold palette. Multiple age groups, however, love to see a crystallized rose or a few micro herbs to give their meal a fancy touch.

The Benefits Of Blogging Culture

You can thank Instagram, Flickr and general blogging for breathing new life into food presentation. Many people go out to eat not just to enjoy good food, but to show off their personality and all the little details that went into their meal of choice. One of the largest and most active Flickr groups today is called ‘I Ate This’, including more than 300,000 photos that have been contributed by nearly 20,000 members. How could a crystallized rose or microgreens make your menu the next big online trend?

Common Microgreen Varieties

You have plenty of options to choose from. Microgreens have been around for over 30 years and there are currently 100 types of common garden flowers that are both edible and palatable. Microgreens also come in the form of herbs, adding a delicate touch of flavor while doing the dual work of enhancing your food presentation. Adding microgreens to salads is among the most common addition of microgreens in simple dishes. Edible flowers for cake decorating are another well-known decoration, though you can also find a crystallized rose in unique candies and even drinks.

Popular Crystallized Flowers

Flowers are symbolic and beautiful. They inspire positive feelings in multiple areas of life, including fine dining restaurants eager to shake up their menu approach. The crystallized rose is incredibly popular and can add a romantic touch to any pastry or salad. You can also look into a crystallized viola or crystallized pansy to give your customers a few options to sift through as they browse. Visits to fine dining restaurants have gone up by 3% in the past year, with the average fine dining cost per person amounting to $30. There’s a lot of room for growth when you branch out into the art of microgreens.

Creating A Lasting Impression With Edible Flowers And Microgreens

The first thing you should do when expanding into organic microgreens is seeking out a reputable grower. While the crystallized rose or true leaf microgreen might seem like a basic accent, they take a careful hand to both grow and preserve. Microgreens need to be stored at an optimal temperature of four degrees Celsius or 39 degrees Fahrenheit. They also need to be kept in a closed container, with basil being a particularly delicate variety that can brown within a very short time of exposure to the wrong temperature. The positive reception your restaurant will receive with these tiny additions are well worth the effort.

Give your customers something else to talk about. How could herb crystals or a crystallized rose change the way you look at your menu?