The most important voices in elevating today’s culinary scene are not Michelin chefs or Le Cordon Bleu-educated cookbook authors, but instead, Gen Z influencers. The NEXT Flavor Network by Rubix Foods aims to advance restaurant cuisine by simply listening to the kids.
Since 1981, Rubix Foods (formerly Darifair Foods) has assisted restaurant executives and brands with ideas for innovation and further development of their menus. While it began in privately labeled dairy products, it now has a robust food science team and innovation center that helps bring unique sauces, glazes, spreads, and more to eateries in need of change.
“We really help to concept and develop new items for menus or even into the retail space,” says Shannon O’Shields, vice president of marketing for Rubix Foods. “Our role, really from an innovation standpoint, is to apply a universal lens of seeing what’s happening in the marketplace, what is the need, what is the problem to be solved, and then bringing together a really strong, nimble, but cross-functional team of people who can help to actually bring that concept to life.”
“We are really starting to be more proactive,” O’Shields adds, “and that is part of the genesis of the NEXT Flavor Network.”
Trendwise, she says, restaurants have become a “sea of sameness” with very little menu differentiation. With so many fast-food restaurants available now, the brands that take time to create and innovate upon menu items will be the ones that succeed. By creating the flavor concepts itself rather than pursuing an idea once it is in demand, Rubix Foods can stay ahead.
Why target Gen Z’s cravings? “The reason that Gen Z’s palate is so much broader and more exploratory than any other generation before is that it is the most diverse generation ever,” O’Shields explains, “and the exposure that [they] have because of social media… that unrivaled access that [they] have to seeing what is available and what is out there.”
“We know that nearly half of Gen Z has made a purchase decision based on an influencer’s recommendation, and we also know that market research, in and of itself, is changing,” says O’Shields. “It’s extremely expensive to get insights from consumers but Gen Z is not someone who’s going to sit and take a survey… we can get more authentic, unfiltered, raw insight from a TikTok video and the comments section than we can when I spend thousands of dollars on a survey.”
Collaborations with influencers are becoming more common in spaces like the makeup industry, but rarely do food influencers ever get a say in up-and-coming menu items, and even less do they get to be behind the scenes of the matter.
The NEXT Flavor Network was launched this summer by Rubix Foods and functions as a culinary idea generator driven by three major social media influencers within the food space. The three picks for Rubix Foods’ 2024 roster are Matt James, Alexis Frost, and Nate Llorin.
James rose to fame as the first African American man to be the titular lead on ABC’s “The Bachelor” in its 25th season. With over half a million followers on TikTok, James now makes foodie content, vlogging his experiences at restaurants around America.
Frost began making video content as a high school math teacher, but her online success has launched her into a new career—reviewing new and trendy fast food. A queen of the drive-thru, she now sits at two and a half million TikTok followers.
Llorin has been creating culinary-centered content since 2021. Now, he has shifted his focus to trying fast-food recommendations from his nearly 700,000 TikTok followers, offering criticism in a casual way from the front seat of his car.
The NEXT Flavor Network has tasked these three social media influencers with creating diverse new flavor ideas in the form of sauces, which will help to inform menu concepts by Rubix Foods that will be used in restaurants. For Rubix Foods, the end goal is to find out what key tastes truly drive excitement with Gen Z audiences, whose cravings seem to have changed each time the “For You” page is reloaded.
“We know that QSRs are watching influencers,” says O’Shields. “They’re oftentimes paying them to come and review foods and drive traffic to the restaurant, but why is nobody actually tapping them for insight before the item is on the menu?”
While two of the Flavor Forecasters are not Gen Z, their audiences are predominantly Gen Z. Another thing Gen Z loves, says O’Shields, is friendly competition. On August 3, the Flavor Fight commenced at Lollapalooza, featuring a pizza ranch by James, a chimichurri ranch by Frost, and an Asian aloha sauce by Llorin. Festival-goers could stop by, sample a sauce-dipped fry, and vote on their favorite.
While Frost’s chimichurri ranch won the Flavor Fight with 52 percent voting it the best, the contest is not over. O’Shields says the true prize is getting one’s sauce on a menu.
Foodie influencers serve as a conduit to the customer, producing unbiased and authentic feedback in real time. Besides name association, the social media content creators assist with adding credibility to the products they represent. When going into a QSR to pitch an idea, O’Shields says having the “buy-in” from a well-respected culinary influencer like Frost “removes the guesswork that happens in product development.”
This season of the NEXT Flavor Network is only the beginning for Rubix Foods. Up next, O’Shields says the program will only grow, creating a “better and faster understanding of what Gen Z really wants on menus.” She also notes that in the future, they hope to bring on more influencers while still maintaining their relationships with the current Big 3.
As Generation Alpha (anyone born from 2010 to the present) begins to take its place online, innovation will become an expectation to evolve and stay afloat in the restaurant industry, while keeping items that fit the brand’s identity and are relevant to the customer.
“We’re much more in it for collaboration than we are for credit!” says O’Shields. At the QSR level, she adds, marketing is making more and more decisions on the menu creation, rather than just the culinary team. From behind the scenes, Rubix Foods helps to both predict and create the newest culinary trends.
