Seasoned attendees understand that the National Restaurant Association Show is a marathon, not a sprint, when they traverse the packed halls of Chicago’s McCormick Place every May. Chockablock with all the requisites for running a successful foodservice business both front and back of house, this year’s edition was worth the shoe leather. The annual trade extravaganza remains a reliable idea factory and taste indicator in the industry.

On the Show Floor I: Global Convenience

It is both fun and instructive to check out first-time exhibitors, often enthusiastic entrepreneurs eager to show off their wares. The show boasted 800 first-timers this year, and in line with the recent past, the current crop of newbies featured an abundance of global foods and flavors in convenient formats.

Pedone Pinsa, for example, offers the authentic Roman-style flatbread that’s a first cousin to pizza. Fabricated using a combination of “ancient Italian wisdom with modern techniques,” the pinsa crust also reflects the experience of its creator, Carlo Pedone, who drew on his 30 years of experience as a restaurateur to craft the toothsome product. In fact, he was one among many operators-turned-exhibitors on the floor, which was an underlying throughline of the show.

K-Fun in the form of K-Food was the order of the day among numerous exhibitors, who are taking advantage of burgeoning worldwide fascination with K-pop, K-dramas and all things Korean. Seoulfully Sauce taps into the cultural phenomenon with fermented, Korean-fusion sauce starters that include gochu, the sweet-spicy, red-pepper-based flavor that, as the basis for gochujang, has taken mainstream menus by storm.

Mochi Love was a newcomer to both the Show and to the food business. Launched in spring 2024, the brand promises “pure squishy love” and an experience that “transports you to your happy place.” The vehicle of said transport: refrigerated mochi dough dumplings in the form of Crème Clouds with a variety of on-trend fillings like mango passionfruit and raspberry lychee.

And hailing from the Old World, The Ultimate Artichoke aims to bring that vegetable to the center of the plate with its “much sweeter” Tudela White artichokes, grown and packed simply in olive oil in southeastern Spain. Super convenient as well as addictively tasty, they can be flowered on the plate for an eye-catching presentation.

On the Show Floor II: Domestic Creativity

The “Taste of the States Pavilion” is an annual food fair in McCormick’s North Hall that puts the spotlight on homegrown innovation. Standouts this year included Illinois-based Tierra Negra Salsa, a premium dark salsa made with a blend of pasilla, guajillo and arbol chiles in olive oil, lending it a rich, dark color and flavor. The five-year-old company is the brainchild of Ivan Gutierrez, who has worked since childhood in his family-owned Mexican restaurants in Chicago.

In the nearby Colorado aisle, Green Belly Foods is another family business, this one started by two cousins, with a focus on a hyper-regional hot sauce. In this case, it’s a traditional Guatemalan variation made with imported smoked chiles Cobáneros, which are grown by small indigenous farmers near the city of Cobán. Founded by Juan Ignacio Stewart using his mother’s recipe, the company has made a name for itself on the farmers market circuit of its home state.

One of the biggest buzz generators of the show sat in a corner booth among the Minnesota delegation. Here, 3 Cricketeers sampled its namesake cricket-based snacks and sweets, like Cricket Dark Chocolate Clusters. Founded by a nurse whose sons brought home cricket cookies from school, the company now cranks out treats for “curious snackers” and promotes the sustainability and nutrient-dense nature of the crunchy critters.

On the Show Floor III: Beverage Enhancements

The sizzling hot beverage category is a source of inspiration for multiple manufacturers who help turn non-specialists into beverage experts with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.

Alamance Foods Inc. is an old-line dairy company with a distinctly new-age product line that includes aerosol cold foam coffee toppers in a range of flavors like white chocolate and the requisite pumpkin spice. Meant to provide a sweet finish to coffee, tea or soda and positioned as a “barista’s best buddy,” the product allows operators to crown their drinks with a layer of uber-trendy sweetened cream.

Speaking of beverage trends, none takes a back seat to the boba craze, and another brand new exhibitor, BobaBam, addresses the opportunity it represents. With frozen brown sugar boba, the brand promises to boost the QQ factor—a Taiwanese term to describe a bouncy, chewy but never mushy—texture. BobaBam’s signature product imbues the traditional tapioca spheres with distinct texture and mouthfeel.

Matcha is still going strong, with the ceremonial Japanese green tea continuing its growth across segments and menus, from beverages to desserts to savory items. Hoping to take advantage of the surging interest, Cuzen Matcha introduced a system that takes organic, shade-grown matcha leaves and freshly grinds them into tea beverages at the push of a button—a one-stop shop for matcha-curious operators.

When the dust finally settled, this year’s show hosted 53,000 foodservice pros and more than 2,300 exhibitors. As always, attendees who walked the aisles of McCormick Place were treated to an extraordinary smorgasbord of items and inspiration that was worth the extra effort this year. Through the vagaries of scheduling, the event overlapped with a Beyoncé concert, which ran three days at neighboring Soldier Field, and prompted some creative bus rerouting to accommodate thousands of members of the Bey Hive.