Come December, every family has its own holiday traditions, whether it’s hiding the ornament on the Christmas tree, singing carols in matching pajamas, or lighting the menorah before enjoying a plate of latkes.
Tapping into the many holiday traditions and observances from around the world can be a good way to drive traffic and add extra holiday spirit to menus. Have fun flowing some of these culinary holiday traditions into your concept.
Hot Tamales
In Mexico, families gather to prepare tamales to enjoy on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, when their corn husks are unwrapped like presents to reveal the delicious savory tamales inside. Offering tamales as a limited time offering in December can be a good way to connect with folks who are interested in this tradition. You can make your own tamales from scratch, using al pastor or tomatillo serrano sauce for your base. Or, to reduce stress on labor, try Contigo® Tamales. They’re fully cooked and come frozen, making them the perfect easy-to-heat and eat dish, available in pork, beef, and chicken varieties.
Buckets Full of Cheer
Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in Japan, but recently the holiday has become synonymous with fried chicken in the island nation. There, Colonel Sanders is a stand-in for Santa, and people enjoy Christmas-themed ‘Party Barrels’ from the famous fried chicken chain. Play with this idea by offering fried chicken on-site and to-go in larger portions for big holiday gatherings.
You can offer the traditional bone-in fried chicken or a Japanese karaage-style fried chicken to play up this trend. Try utilizing Perfectly Southern® Fresh Fried Chicken and Chicken Breaders, the result of a unique proprietary breading process developed by Southern culinary experts, for the most tender, flavor-rich fried chicken, or create your own recipe using Magellan® spices fried in supreme Brilliance® Premium Oils.
Borscht & Bliss!
In Ukraine, Christmas dinner is an all-night affair. There, a 12-course dinner dedicated to Jesus’ apostles is customary. The meal usually follows a specific sequence, but you can adapt this to feature dishes that are within your culinary wheelhouse, such as stuffed cabbage with Braveheart® Black Angus Ground Beef, borscht with Peak Fresh Produce® Beets, and dumplings known as varenyky with russet potatoes.
Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Southern Italian tradition consisting of seven different seafood dishes eaten on Christmas Eve. This is a great jumping off point for creating your own seafood-centric LTO menu with dishes like calamari, shrimp cocktail, and stuffed lobster.
8 Days of Fried
Hanukkah is an eight-day-long Jewish celebration, commemorated by eating fried foods to remember the miracle of the oil, which lasted for eight days instead of one. Foods like latkes and jelly-filled donuts are traditional, but other fried foods are welcome. This would be a great time to add latkes or other creative fried dishes to your menu.
Savor the Soul
Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration of African American culture that takes place from December 26th to January 1st. During this celebration, you’ll find traditional soul food like catfish, collard greens, and macaroni and cheese, as well as other foods from the African diaspora.
Hosting a Kwanzaa dinner can be a good way to honor and welcome African American guests to your restaurant. Consider offering a set menu featuring some of the foods that your team does best that fit the Kwanzaa theme. Use black, green, and red colors in your decor and feature a kinara, a seven-branched candle holder traditional to the holiday.
