Mushrooms for All Seasons, Items and Segments

For compatibility with any and all Savory Menu Items, nothing, not even onions or garlic, is more versatile and complementary than the succulent Mushroom.

Category Incidence for Mushrooms, 2009

• There are 1,477 restaurant menus in MenuMine and of these 69% include at least one menu item with mushrooms.
• Mushrooms are trending up for all market segments combined and for each segment (see table below).

Mushroom Types/Preparations

• Restaurants use approximately 40 various mushroom types
• Mushrooms below ranked by menu share, read left to right, then down

Cuisine of Menu Items with Mushrooms

• Italian Cuisine menu items account for 26% of all mushroom menu mentions.
• Other leading cuisines include American Traditional, Healthy/Light, Atlantic Seaboard, and Mexican / Tex Mex.

Menu Part of Menu Items with Mushrooms

• Prepared Entrees account for 22% of all menu items with Mushrooms.
• Center of Plate (18%) and Pizza (14%) are other leading menu parts.

Leading Items with Mushrooms as Ingredient

Leading Items with Mushrooms as an Ingredient

Items per operator menuing Mushrooms 2009, by Market Sector

• The average foodservice operator menuing items with mushrooms, has 5.6 menu items that feature mushrooms.

Trend of Items Per Operator Menuing Mushrooms

• Growth in number of items per operator menuing is strong in all market sectors.
• Note: analysis is not on "same store basis --- some operators added and some deleted.

"Same Store" Trend in Chains Menuing Items with Mushrooms

• Same store growth in mushrooms in chains is up in Prepared Entrees (to 19.6% from 19.1%)
• And down in Pizza to 18.3% from 19.1%.
• Use in Burgers is up substantially (to 7.2% from 6.1%)
• Declines are noted also in Center of Plate and Hot Sandwiches.

Leading Chains Menuing Items with Mushrooms

• Several chains have 30 or more items on the menu that incorporate mushrooms into entrees.

Price Trends for Menu Items with Mushrooms

• The average price of menu items using mushrooms is $11.51, up from $10.75 in 2007.
• Wild Mushrooms, Shiitake, Truffles and Porcini and Black demand hefty premium prices.
• It pays to feature Entrees with mushrooms and this translates into a menu price that is 22% greater than Entrees not including mushrooms.
• In the above calculation, entrees are classified as either sandwiches, burgers, center of plate, prepared entrees or pizza.

Mushroom and Cheese Cross Tab

• 30% of all menu items using both a mushroom type and a cheese, use Mozzarella, 12% use Swiss, 9% use Parmesan and 7% use Cheddar.
• 5% use Provolone, 4% use Blue Cheese, 3% use Monterey Jack and 2% use Goat.
• The balance of 29% use other types of cheese or they may use multiple cheeses simultaneously, for instance in sandwiches with several cheese types.