Bellamy’s Organic. Children’s Menu Revolution Favours Nutrition

It is not unusual to have a “kids menu” at a family restaurant.

It is also not unusual for the kids menu to be ignored these days because it consists of the same old nuggets and chips, chicken and chips, cheeseburger, spaghetti bolognese, ice cream sundae content. It’s not what you’d call nutritionally balanced.

More and more parents look to the chef to adapt the main menu to suit the child’s tastes.

My daughter had her first few years in our restaurant. Her chef dad certainly was not going to offer the standard “kids menu” when she could be introduced to so many other wonderful healthy options. It was easy to make a smaller meal of fish and vegetables from fresh, organic ingredients – and no deep fryer required!

It is great to see now that healthy children’s meals are fast becoming a focus of restaurants. As the dining public continues to seek out child friendly venues to support a mobile lifestyle, it is encouraging to see the restaurant industry respond intelligently. After all, if you can delight parents with a specialized children’s menu, and satisfy that an evening out for dinner with the family is just as healthy as dinner at home, you’re sure to have a return customer.

Recently, America’s National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot in 2012” surveyed 1800 chefs, who revealed the trends for this year cover some important issues on the kids menu.

The top 10 menu trends for next year will be:

Locally sourced meats and seafood
Locally grown produce
Healthful kids’ meals
Hyper-local items
Sustainability as a culinary theme
Children’s nutrition as a culinary theme
Gluten-free food/allergy-conscious items
Locally produced wine and beer
Sustainable seafood

10. Whole grain items in kids’ meals

http://www.rmgtmagazine.com/content/children-s-nutrition-take-2012

With Australia’s pattern of following that of America, we are sure to see similar trends here. And this is one direction I hope we do follow!

For the Bellamy’s Organic healthy kids menu, go to www.bellamysorganic.com.au

If you’d like to know more about Bellamy’s Organic cereals, pastas and our other products click on this link. It will take you straight to Bellamy’s Organic Online Store.