Search Results (18)

Food not only fulfills basic human survival needs but also significantly impacts health and culture. Research on food-related topics holds substantial theoretical and practical significance, with food image recognition being a core task in fine-grained image recognition. This field has broad applications and promising prospects in smart dining, intelligent healthcare, and smart retail. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, deep learning has emerged as a key technology that enhances recognition efficiency and accuracy, enabling more practical applications. This paper comprehensively reviews the techniques and challenges of deep learning in food image recognition. First, we outline the historical development of food image recognition technologies, categorizing the primary methods into manual feature extraction-based and deep learning-based approaches. Next, we systematically organize existing food image datasets and summarize the characteristics of several representative datasets. Additionally, we analyze typical deep learning models and their performance on different datasets. Finally, we discuss the practical applications of food image recognition in calorie estimation and food safety, identify current research challenges, and propose future research directions. Full article

This article investigates predicted future developments in fine dining using a mixed-methods approach rooted in German gastronomic culture. By conducting an inductive media content analysis and ten semi-structured expert interviews with leading figures in Germany’s high-end food sector, we applied a qualitative mixed-methods approach. The study was based exclusively on data collected in 2018 and 2019, deliberately excluding pandemic-related developments in order to focus on long-term structural and cultural trends in fine dining. We identified two core thematic clusters: one related to sustainable food practices (ecology/sustainability, regionality, seasonality, from-farm-to-table, and vegetarianism/veganism) and the other to experiential dimensions of dining (experience, topic-based concept, and storytelling). Our findings contribute to the academic discussion on culinary futures and provide grounded insights into how fine dining is likely to evolve in response to broader societal, environmental, and cultural shifts. This study fills a significant research gap by systematically mapping emerging restaurant concepts based on non-COVID data, making it a valuable reference for scholars and practitioners alike. Full article

The restaurant industry, especially fine dining, is characterized by intense competition and an increasing number of closures. Wine is a profit lever, but the exploitation of sales potential can present a challenge. As consumers encounter more extensive wine lists, they often find themselves overwhelmed. A restaurant experiment in Stuttgart, Germany, examined strategies to simplify decision-making for customers and their impact on wine purchases and the dining experience. This experiment, conducted at a small fine-dining establishment, aimed to understand how wine descriptions and pairing recommendations influence customer choices and behavior, revealing key insights that wineries and restaurants can leverage to boost wine sales. The findings underscore the power of wine descriptions and strategic pairing recommendations in enhancing customer engagement. They suggest that restaurants can increase their wine sales by integrating well-crafted wine descriptions into menus, while wineries can benefit by providing comprehensive tasting notes and pairing suggestions that align with restaurant offerings. For both sectors, understanding the sensory and psychological factors that shape wine appreciation can offer a competitive edge. Full article

The present study aims to characterize five fish-based catering dishes, cooked by sous vide, by convection and microwaves in terms of their biochemical content, microbial load, and sensory analysis. The product cooked by using convection had the highest levels of MUFAs, PUFAs, and SFAs and the lowest levels of vitamin PP, riboflavin, and niacin. The sous vide maintained the highest levels of retinol, tocopherol, riboflavin, and niacin. Microwaves triggered the greatest decrease in vitamin content. All microbiological indicators exhibited levels below the acceptable limits, except for the level of fungi in the sous vide cooked product. Shelf life was estimated at 5 days for the product cooked by convection and immediately refrigerated and at 50 days for the product cooked by convection and immediately frozen. The most appreciated product from the sensory standpoint, which falls under fine dining, was the one cooked by convection and served immediately. The sous vide dish, the microwaved dish, and those refrigerated/frozen after cooking were undervalued. Full article

Research published about the restaurant industry has experienced consistent growth over the past few decades. Yet, a comprehensive bibliometric review of this research has not been performed. This study aimed to perform such a review by examining peer-reviewed articles (n = 792) focused on restaurant business research published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Articles related to health or food science were not examined in this study. Articles were categorized as focusing on one of five types of restaurants (i.e., fast food, fast casual, casual dining, fine dining, and general restaurants), and the articles were analyzed within three research fields: consumer behavior, organizational behavior, and finance. The increasing number of research articles focused on the restaurant industry was found to have occurred during the same time as the number of hospitality scholars and the fast food restaurant sector expanded. Fast food restaurants received the most research attention and the fast casual types received the least. Consumer behavior research dominated the restaurant research, reflecting a focus on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Organizational behavior topics, such as workforce dynamics and organizational structure, received slightly less attention. Finance research was the least explored research field, likely due to its complexity and perceived indirect connection to consumer-facing outcomes. The study emphasizes the need for integrative research linking consumer behavior, organizational strategies, and financial decisions to provide a holistic understanding of restaurant performance and industry practices. Full article

Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity affect a significant portion of the population and require adherence to a gluten-free diet. Dining in social settings, such as family events, workplace gatherings, or restaurants, makes it difficult to ensure that certain foods are gluten-free. Despite the availability of portable gluten testing devices, these instruments have high costs, disposable capsules, depend on user preparation and technique, and cannot analyze an entire meal or detect gluten levels below the legal thresholds, potentially leading to inaccurate results. In this study, we propose RGB (Recognition of Gluten in Bread), a novel deep learning-based method for automatically detecting gluten in bread images. RGB is a decision-support tool to help individuals with celiac disease make informed dietary choices. To develop this method, we curated and annotated three unique datasets of bread images collected from Pinterest, Instagram, and a custom dataset containing information about flour types. Fine-tuning pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on the Pinterest dataset, our best-performing model, ResNet50V2, achieved 77% accuracy and recall. Transfer learning was subsequently applied to adapt the model to the Instagram dataset, resulting in 78% accuracy and 77% recall. Finally, further fine-tuning the model on a significantly different dataset, the custom bread dataset, significantly improved the performance, achieving an accuracy of 86%, precision of 87%, recall of 86%, and F1-score of 86%. Our analysis further revealed that the model performed better on gluten-free flours, achieving higher accuracy scores for these types. This study demonstrates the feasibility of image-based gluten detection in bread and highlights its potential to provide a cost-effective non-invasive alternative to traditional testing methods by allowing individuals with celiac disease to receive immediate feedback on potential gluten content in their meals through simple food photography. Full article

A certain level of culinary sustainability was automatically built into many ancient cuisines due to scarcity in food supplies and, hence, optimal use of the available resources with minimal waste. The concept of sustainability in the global food systems today is much more complex, where the planetary limits to population growth and availability of food resources are leading to tremendous stresses on the overall conditions of the planet including the climate. Still, lessons from world cuisines across space and time may serve as a guide towards a more sustainable plant-forward cuisine in the future. In this essay, we highlight how a focus on gastronomy, especially gastronomic heritage, can provide a framework for a more sustainable cuisine. We see gastronomy as much more than related to cooking and fine dining but also referring to a complex understanding of the word, involving taste, lifestyle, meal culture, commensality, traditional knowledge, craftmanship, and food making. The Mediterranean Diet, traditional Japanese cuisine, and ancient Roman practices are discussed as examples. Full article

As one of the major greenhouse gas emission contributors, the food service industry, particularly buffet-style restaurants, is responsible for reducing food waste. This study explores the factors that shape consumer behavior toward food waste reduction in buffet-style restaurants based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Social Exchange theory (SET), as well as analyzing the gender differences in these determinants, offering practical insights for the restaurant industry. This study also uses structural equation modeling and group analysis to examine a total of 547 valid responses gathered through an online survey, including 286 male (52.3%) and 258 female (47.2%) respondents. The findings underscore the attitudes, subjective norms, and establishment policies that emerge as critical drivers of consumer behavior in buffet-style dining settings. Notably, significant gender differences are observed in attitudes and establishment policies. In light of these results, we recommend strategies that include enhancing consumer attitudes and implementing penalty policies within restaurant operations. Restaurants could display visual signs and images related to reducing food waste, provide detailed portion size information, and apply monetary fines for excess waste to reduce consumers’ food waste intentions. These strategies are particularly effective for male consumers, who are more influenced by these factors compared to female consumers. This research contributes valuable guidance for the industry’s efforts to address food waste concerns, emphasizing gender differences and promoting environmentally responsible behavior among consumers. Full article

With rising consumer demand for fast-food options, quick-service restaurants are constantly developing new menu items to attract consumers. Sous vide cookery has become popular for the in-home and fine dining consumer but has not been considered the first cooking option for quick service applications. Therefore, ground beef patties were manufactured to measure the influence of sous vide cooking time on the patty characteristics of moisture, color, and objective tenderness. Patties were randomly assigned a sous vide cooking time of 30, 60, or 90 min and then grilled to an internal temperature of 71.1 °C. Patties sous vide cooked for 30 min exhibited the greatest (p < 0.05) cook loss, Allo–Kramer Shear Force (AKSF) and were darker (L*) than patties sous vide cooked for 60 or 90 min. Additionally, neither internal redness, calculated spectral values of chroma, hue angle, or red-to-brown differed (p > 0.05) regardless of sous vide cooking time. Sous vide cooking duration prior to grilling the ground beef patties altered the moisture, color, and objective texture characteristics of ground beef patties. Full article

Sustainable practices are increasingly promoted in the restaurant industry. One significant aspect of sustainability in restaurants is the use of local supply chains, especially for food, which also serve as a means for restaurants to promote freshness of produce, sourcing, and quality. Considering the prevalence of locality in menu marketing, this study aims to explore the relationships between sustainability and locality at fine-dining restaurants. Michelin-starred restaurants are significant influencers in the restaurant industry, as well as food fashions overall, and may therefore serve to promote sustainability practices. This study examines the sustainability of 135 Michelin three-star restaurants by conducting website content analysis. By identifying restaurants’ sustainable practices during the processes of procurement, preparation, and presentation and analysing the official websites of 135 Michelin three-star restaurants, this study finds that although all sustainable practices are mentioned by less than half of the reviewed websites, most practices could be interpreted as being embedded in their locality, especially local food and restaurant history. This study suggests that promoting locality could therefore help sustain sustainability in the fine-dining restaurant industry. Although this study is limited to the website content of official websites for Michelin three-star restaurants, it provides potentially valuable insights on the promotion of sustainable restaurant practices. Full article

With the current rapid economic development, restaurant practitioners need to pay attention to the issue of how fine-dining restaurants can achieve sustainable operations in the presence of fierce competition. Fine-dining restaurants have gradually become a reflection of consumers’ self-image; therefore, this study combines the VAB framework, self-congruity theory, and generational theory to investigate the relationships among perceived quality, customers’ self-image congruity, and their willingness to pay a price premium (WTP-PP). Current research uses generation as a moderator to explore the intergenerational differences between Gen X and Gen Y. We adopted Smart-PLS to conduct SEM and MGA. The results of this study showed that the quality of the atmosphere and food induced actual, ideal, and ideal social self-image congruity, while the quality of the service could not only induce the above three aspects of self-consistency but also induce social self-image congruity and have a significant positive impact on WTP-PP. Meanwhile, WTP-PP was also significantly affected by actual self-image congruity and ideal self-image congruity. Furthermore, Gen Yers cared more about the atmosphere quality than Gen X. Contrarily, Gen Xers valued food quality more than Gen Y. Full article

The past two years have been challenging for the restaurant industry in Canada and countries worldwide. This has led many casual and fine dining restaurants to adapt their business models to overcome the immediate and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to understand how COVID-19 has impacted Canadian consumers’ on- and off-premise dining behaviors and how such behaviors vary among various sociodemographic groups, general knowledge of COVID-19, and telecommuting. Data were collected from a nationally representative consumer panel (n = 1091), from a survey administered online by Angus Reid. The results show that Canadian consumers increased their off-premise dining experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also varied across various sociodemographic groups. There was also an increased level of telecommuting during the pandemic, of which 68% started following the pandemic. However, telecommuting was negatively correlated with off-premise dining experiences during the pandemic. Canadian consumers perceived off-premise dining during the pandemic as reasonably expensive, lesser quality, and more convenient. The findings may have important implications for casual and dining restaurants in Canada to improve channel decisions and messaging as operators prepare for a full-service post-COVID-19. They can build on the infrastructure and capability that has been established during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer sustainable services beyond the pandemic. Full article

This research paper aims to analyse how consumer emotions have evolved during the pandemic period in comparison with the pre-pandemic period in relation to restaurant demand in the Romanian fine-dining industry and uses valuable information based on social-media sentiment analysis and content analysis. Focusing on theories of consumer behaviour, the study aims to emphasize how, under the influence of an epidemic crisis caused by an infectious disease, individual behaviour adapts to the “new normal”, embracing a series of changes in the preferences, attitudes, and cognitive choice-making processes. The article takes into account a comparative analysis of the consumer emotions between the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (2010–2019) and the pandemic period (2020–present), based on the online reviews provided by customers for five fine-dining restaurants from Bucharest, the capital city of Romania: The Artist, Relais & Chateaux Le Bistrot Francais, Casa di David, Kaiamo, and L’Atelier. The research was based on two mining analyses—content analysis and sentiment analysis—and explored the emotional intent of words, with the data being collected from TripAdvisor through web-scrapping. The empirical results defined the fine-dining experience during the pandemic as being associated with the quality of the dishes and also with the quality of the service. The overall consumer sentiment in the direction of the restaurants analyzed is positive. The sentiment research found that throughout the epidemic, the consumers’ attitudes about restaurants deteriorated. In this sense, consumers seem to be less satisfied with the restaurants’ services than before the pandemic. This is another thing that the restaurants had difficulties in when adapting their operations for the pandemic. Full article

Although brand love–loyalty relationships can deepen, the literature does not include systematic and empirical investigations demonstrating when perceived value and relationship duration are valuable in enhancing the brand love–loyalty relationship. This study investigates the effects of relationship duration, perceived value, and restaurant type on the relationships between brand love and brand loyalty during the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, hedonic value rather than utilitarian value is hypothesized to negatively enhance the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty when consumers continue to have long-lasting relationships with a restaurant brand. Using data collected from an online research firm in Korea, the findings revealed that brand love negatively influences brand loyalty. However, the impact of brand love on brand loyalty increases when customers seek hedonic value. Our findings also demonstrate that consumers who sought hedonic value strengthened the brand love–loyalty link compared to consumers who sought utilitarian value, particularly one with a short-lasting relationship. Consumers who sought utilitarian value through a long-lasting relationship strengthened the same relationship, although the increased correlation was not statistically significant. Furthermore, brand loyalty gradually decreases at fine-dining restaurants, whereas it sharply increases at takeaway restaurants. Full article

The COVID-19 outbreak has forced customers to shift their food habits to more locally grown products. Therefore, restaurants have begun to provide local food, which is reflected in “farm to fork” or “locally-sourced” or “farm to table” restaurants. Thus, purchasing sustainable food, specifically local food products, has become one of the most salient sustainability practices in restaurants. Therefore, this study seeks to further explore the influences of the Sustainable Local Food Supply Chain (SLFSC) of green fine-dining restaurants on tourist food experiences and destination branding in the USA. Data were analyzed using the partial least square (PLS) technique of a sample of 232 respondents. The findings of this study showed positive impacts of all sustainability dimensions on most consumption values of tourists (i.e., emotional, epistemic, health, taste/quality, etc.). The findings indicated that each sustainability dimension and overall sustainability of the local food supply chain had strong positive effects on destination branding. Finally, tourist food experiences in totality mediated the relationship between the overall Sustainable Local Food Supply Chain and destination branding. This study contributes to the existing literature by developing and validating a scale to measure the sustainability practices of local food supply chains in restaurants to fill this gap in the literature. Additionally, the findings have intimate important theoretical and practical implications. Full article