Culinary Catalysts: What’s on the menu?

While mealtime is always a challenge for consumers, it’s also been a challenge — and an opportunity — for retailers. The question is, how can grocers best meet the needs of hungry shoppers? Grab-and-go meals? Dine-in restaurant service? Meal kits? And what about meeting the increasing health and wellness needs of customers?

As the supermarket deli transforms into full-scale restaurants in some stores, and cold cuts and sandwiches morph into prepared meals in many more, Supermarket News is always on the lookout for retailers on the cutting edge of foodservice who can meet those hungry shopper needs.

For the fourth year in a row, SN will be recognizing those retailers who shine bright in their prepared food offerings with our Culinary Catalysts program. This year we’re looking for retailers who excel in the following categories:

• Best in-store restaurant

• Best prepared meal

• Best healthy menu item

• Best international menu item

• Best signature item

If your store, or a retailer you know, offers great food, we want to hear about it. Winners will be featured online and in an upcoming issue.

In the past, we’ve recognized the growing trend of in-store restaurants with unique retailers like California’s Erewhon Markets and Niemann Foods’ The Farmhouse, while also giving a nod to retailer classics, including signature dishes like Giant Eagle’s famed carrot soufflé and Stew Leonard’s lobster roll. (You can see all of last year’s winners here.)

Related:Culinary Catalysts 2018

Let us know what you’ve got whipped up in your kitchens; you can nominate yourself or any grocery retailer as one of this year’s Culinary Catalyst Awards by filling out a ballot here. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30.

Good luck, and good cooking!