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Biography

Nancy Kruse

Nancy Kruse is a menu maven and president of The Kruse Company. She is a well known and highly regarded expert on menu trends. Her monthly State of the Plate column provides insight into the trends influencing menu innovation.

Articles by
Nancy Kruse

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Beverage

Will consumers stay thirsty amid this tsunami of beverages?

Nancy Kruse and Lisa Jennings swim with the gummy sharks to understand the rising tide of drinks, from dirty sodas to turmeric lattes.

Food

All hail the Caesar salad

State of the Plate: The iconic dish, which turns 100 this year, continues to be a platform for creative culinary reinvention on restaurant menus, RB menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse writes.

Food

Bread is rising again on menus and in emerging concepts

State of the Plate: Once shunned by carb-cutters, bread baskets, baguettes, rolls and other yeast-raised items —especially higher-quality baked goods —are proving to be a hit with customers.

Operations

Food halls: A fad still figuring it out

Nancy and Lisa debate the up and downsides of these multi-concept outlets that are a leading cause of Choice Paralysis.

Operations

The restaurant brands we just can't let go

We loved them once. Will we love them again? Nancy Kruse and Lisa Jennings talk about the wave of restaurant brand revivals attempting to make what's old new again.

Food

Inside the tasty evolution of Mexican food in the U.S.

State of the Plate: RB menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse explains how Glen Bell’s “tay-kohs” walked so birria and other authentic dishes and flavors could become runaway hits with American diners.

Food

On restaurant menus, texture matters more than you think

State of the Plate: RB menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse dishes on texture on restaurant menus. But while Americans are culinary adventurers, they remain pickier when it comes to how a food item feels.

Operations

Merry merch and the year of car mukbangs

Nancy & Lisa: A look back on the wacky, the trendy and how restaurants became wearable.

Food

Fusion is no longer a dirty word

State of the Plate: Restaurant menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse examines how foods and flavors are evolving in the kitchen. Chains are demolishing "culinary silos." The trend is driving more authenticity on menus.

Food

Democratizing food media in a waffle iron with Skittles

Nancy Kruse and Lisa Jennings debate the changing of the guard in food media as TikTok steals the show.

Food

Restaurants are suddenly all about dessert

State of the Plate: RB menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse dishes on the rising popularity of the last course, which is no longer operators' problematic stepchild.

Operations

The nugget-ification of America cannot be stopped

Can the nation's collective palate evolve beyond the chicken nuggets they loved as toddlers? Or will we finally reach peak nugget and find another craveable protein to dip in all those terrific sauces out there?

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