Add Menu Twist To Your Food Truck With A Fusion Dish

Based on the cuisine of every food truck, consumers don’t expect certain foods to show up on these menus. You’d think you wouldn’t see sushi on a taco food truck, or you wouldn’t see pizza on an Indian food truck. But having a fusion dish from another cuisine on your menu is a perfect menu twist. Most food trucks can benefit from adding a fusion dish to their menu.

Adding A Fusion Dish To Your Food Truck Menu

As a consumer, if you saw a dish that seemed like it was on the wrong menu, your eyes might bug out. A fusion dish will become something that is remembered. Most customers will become curious, and many will try out the dish. Everyone else in their group will be eager to give it a try.

Of course, to do this properly, you want to serve a Hispanic interpretation of sushi or the Indian interpretation of pizza. This may present a special challenge to you in execution. This dish will be under the microscope and you should take your time in deciding how to fusing cuisines. The key is to wait until you perfect the blending before you put it on your menu because of the attention it will receive from your regular customers. But if you do pull it off, these customers will undoubtedly tell many of their friends and family.

You don’t have to be a fusion food truck to do something like this. In fact, it has less marketing punch if you are a fusion food truck with a menu full of surprises.

Beware Of Over Promotion

If you do create a new fusion dish and a good one, the temptation most vendors will run into is to promote it as much as possible. Unless you are a food truck that appeals to novelty seeking foodies, this isn’t going to be the best course. You ruin the fun if you sell the dish even before the consumer sees the menu and customers believe you created the dish only to promote it. Instead let word of mouth do the work for you. You can also encourage your server to suggest the dish if a customer is having a hard time deciding on what to order.

If you get a good response, you may think about expanding the special dish. That doesn’t mean adding more fusion dishes but if it is a pizza in an Indian food truck you may want to try to do a couple other Indian inspired pizzas. Make sure the second and third are as good as the first as there will be a lot of expectation around this dish. Also, along the way, try to get as much feedback from your customers as possible.

Do you have a fusion dish on your food truck? Do you have any additional tips for vendors interested in creating their own fusion dish? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section or on social media. Facebook | Twitter

By Richard Myrick|2017-11-28T09:01:39-05:00Nov 28, 2016|Menu Design|

About the Author: Richard Myrick

Richard Myrick is an architect by degree (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan) who began his career in real estate development and architectural planning. In September of 2010 he created Mobile Cuisine Magazine to fill an information void he found when he began researching how to start a mobile hotdog cart in Chicago. Richard found that there was no central repository of mobile street food information anywhere on the internet, and with that, the idea for MCM was born. Richard also wrote the "Running a Food Truck for Dummies" available in bookstores everywhere and Amazon. You can reach out to Richard by email at: [email protected].