Menu Matters Monthly Minute | May 2026
Hello-maxxing.
Brow-maxxing. PTO-maxxing. China-maxxing. Career-maxxing. Hobby-maxxing. Weekend-maxxing. Friction-maxxing. Boob-maxxing. Jetsons-maxxing. Jimmy Buffet-maxxing.
Are we maxxed out on -maxxing yet?
What started with looks-maxxing, then spread to everything from sleep-maxxing to fiber-maxxing, has now become the most overused suffix in online content in less than a year. It’s all a part of our relentless bubble culture, where every concept must become a “trend,” chewed up and spit out ad nauseum until inevitably the backlash becomes its own trend (this is hardly the first time someone has decried the -maxxing trend).
It’s not just annoying, it saps out anything authentic about an experience. Discovery focused solely on trying to uncover the next trend, adoption only because it ticks off a box, strips the thing of whatever made it worth discovering in the first place. Look at vintage shopping, where everything from vintage Pyrex to ‘90s basketball jerseys to ceramic dogs have become the latest (ironically) craze, to the point where knockoffs are now being mass produced to fulfill the trend maw.
All of this trend-maxxing also speaks to our world of extremes, where everything has to be amped up to eleven in order to break through. You can’t just enjoy the weekend or have a hobby or listen to Jimmy Buffet, you have to do it to the max, make it a part of your lifestyle, use it to optimize your very existence. Can we read a book without books-maxxing?
This cycle is clearly unsustainable. Algorithms chew up and spit out trends in record-breaking time. You click on a TikTok video of a song you like and suddenly your entire “for you” page is filled with that artist. A few days later you’re already tired of that song. How can any brand or company keep up?
It’s OK not to. In many cases it’s better to slow down and make a conscious decision whether your brand needs to be the 1,000th company that latches onto a random micro-trend that happened to catch fire last Tuesday. Indeed, the brands that leap onto everything end up with no central ethos, no agency, and no meaning. If your brand is going to stand for something, it can’t stand for everything.
So stop letting the trend-maxxing cycle control you and your brand and start focusing on that old-fashioned human innovation, critical thinking, and decision making.
DID YOU KNOW?
41% of Gen Z is on their phone while they eat.
That’s compared to only 2% of Boomers — it was the largest gap between generations of any question we asked in our 2026 Consumer Needs Report survey.
Depending on who is eating your food, they may be having a very different experience. A younger person may be totally checked out, not even noticing what they eat as they scroll through TikTok, while a more senior diner may be more focused on their meal or have their attention taken up by other types of media.
How does that impact the types of meals and products you create? Do you develop options that recapture attention, focusing on multi-sensory experiences? Is there a way you can combine the meal and phone experience together in a way that is genuinely unique and engaging?
Sometimes the experience of the dining occasion can have more of an impact (or lack thereof) on your dish or product than the item itself. How often do you focus on that?
What We Learned
On LinkedIn, we start the week with our #MondaySparks (three creative ideas to jumpstart the week) and end the week with our #FridayFive (five things we learned in the past week). Here are five of the most popular posts from the past month:
You can catch every #FridayFive, #MondaySparks, and more here and here.
The Hot List
Delicious meals, excellent hotels, favorite products, thought-provoking books, great TV shows and movies — these are some of Maeve and Mike’s favorite recent discoveries.
Lake Nona Wave Hotel
“We were recently in Orlando for a client event and stayed at the Lake Nona Wave Hotel. This is one of the most tech-forward hotels I've stayed at recently. What I love is that the tech doesn't in any way replace or remove hospitality. Instead, we experienced some of the best hospitality a hotel has recently offered. Every employee introduced themselves, asked about us and our stay, and ensured we had everything we needed. It's just far enough out from the hyper touristy areas that you feel a little more peaceful staying here, but everything you need is close..” MAEVE
“There are a lot of great wineries in Napa Valley, but Sequoia Grove is one of two that I’ve returned to more than once. It’s the perfect blend, so to speak, of taking their wine seriously while offering a welcoming, unpretentious tasting experience. I love that they specialize in wine meant to pair with food (and their chef is great — I had a delicious pierogi entree there years ago) and classic, delicious flavor profiles. On my last trip they convinced me to sign up for the wine club. In a world of trapping people into bad deal subscriptions, it feels like a genuine value.” MIKE
“It's not a new restaurant, but it was new for me. Laurie Neff of Tulkoff Food Products organized a great dinner at Mott St. It seems a bit out of the way and the space is funky - it has the feel of eating in a pantry - but the food is spectacular. From the casual outdoor patio to the funky and cozy inside space, the service was spot on. While we were all disappointed that we couldn't order the hamburger (we missed the window and weren't seated at the bar), the delicious food and the Dragon Shot - served in an elaborate dragon flagon - more than made up for it. ” MAEVE
Where We’ll Be
Orlando, FL - June 3-5 - DON Conference
Amherst, MA - June 7-12 - Chef Culinary Conference
Columbus, OH - July 9 - Private Client Event
Chicago, IL - July 15-16 - Private Client Event
Palm Harbor, FL - July 27-29 - Chicken Marketing Summit
Tampa, FL - July 29-30 - Innovation Hunting Trip
Sacramento, CA - August 11-13 - Private Client Event
Can we measure food craveability?
The latest episode of the Menu Matters podcast — The Mess Hall, where we have messy conversations about the thorny topics that matter to the food and beverage industry — is here.
In this episode, we check in on our 100 Recipe Challenge, a year-long project to cook 100 new recipes from cookbooks we've collected. We compare progress, debate the merits of following recipes to the letter versus trusting your gut, share our favorite and least favorite dishes so far, and go down a rabbit hole on the quest for the perfect pancake. Then we sit down with Beth Kimmerle, founder and CEO of Attribute Analytics, to explore the science of sensory evaluation and how her trained taste panels help food companies translate aroma, texture, taste, and emotion into actionable data. Beth digs into why texture has emerged as the new strategic focus in food innovation, why consumers can tell when their favorite products have quietly changed, and how the explosion of data and AI is reshaping -- and sometimes paralyzing -- product development. The conversation ranges from the National Restaurant Association Show floor to the future of underleveraged senses like sound and smell, the rise of ASMR-driven food discovery, and whether we'll eventually evolve a sixth sense (or grow an antenna) to keep up with a world where almost everything else can be faked.
You can find it on all of your favorite podcast platforms (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Overcast).
Get Your Q3/Q4 Insights Immersion on the Calendar
Have you always wanted to host an in-market insights immersion for your team and/or clients? Now is your time to get it on the calendar for this fall or winter.
There’s nothing quite like an in-market trend immersion to spark new ideas, bring data and insights to life, experience every sensorial aspect of a dining experience, and bring a team together to capture the imagination. But there’s also nothing quite like a Menu Matters immersive experience, which are designed to bring that “wow” factor, going beyond a simple tour to include pre-event engagement, guidance to get the most out of the event for each attendee and meet concrete goals, tools like bespoke apps to take the experience to the next level, and post-event follow-ups to keep the ideas flowing.
The goal is for attendees to not just leave having had a great social experience, but to push them to think anthropologically about the food and trend landscape, ultimately capturing ideas to share with internal teams and jumpstart future initiatives.
