Unilever Food Solutions Supports Growth for Davao Food Businesses
with Future Menus 2025
Following a successful launch in Thailand, Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is rolling out its highly anticipated 2025 edition of Future Menus across the Philippines, with a major stop in Davao. This initiative aims to equip local food professionals and restaurant owners with the insights and tools needed to navigate the evolving culinary landscape and achieve sustainable growth.
The “Taste Kitchen” event, held by invitation at the Acacia Hotel, Davao City, gathered foodservice and business professionals from Davao and surrounding areas in Mindanao. UFS chefs shared invaluable strategies on how local food businesses can future-proof their operations, particularly by leveraging Davao’s rich agricultural produce, its growing tourism sector, and the increasing demand for diverse and authentic dining experiences. With Davao celebrated for its abundance of fresh fruits like durian, mangosteen, and pomelo, its diverse cultural influences, and its position as a gateway to Mindanao’s natural wonders, there’s immense potential to innovate while honoring its distinct culinary identity. UFS is committed to helping businesses tap into these trends, transforming them into profitable menu items that captivate both locals and visitors.
UFS Country Executive Chef Kenneth Cacho, alongside Senior Sous Chefs Carlos Aluning, J. Brando Santos, and Paulo Sia, and special guests, led a series of engaging industry talks and live culinary demonstrations. They brought to life the four key trends identified in the Future Menus 2025 report through practical, real-world applications, showing how they can be adapted to Davao’s unique gastronomic scene.
“Now on its third year, Future Menus continues to evolve alongside the dynamic needs of the foodservice industry,” shares Sheala Ang, Operator Experience Manager at UFS Philippines. “We understand how challenging it is for chefs to keep menus fresh and relevant while adapting to ever-changing diner preferences. With insights from over 250 chefs globally, Unilever Food Solutions is committed to turning global trends into practical, profitable recipes that empower chefs to create future-ready dining experiences. For our partners in Davao, this means providing tailored support to enhance their menus, streamline operations, and ultimately, grow their businesses by attracting more diners who seek both the comfort of familiar flavors and the excitement of culinary innovation that reflects Davao’s unique bounty.”
An In-Depth Look at the Future of Food
The UFS Future Menus 2025 report is more than just a trend guide—it’s a roadmap to success in a fast-changing culinary landscape. Featuring four global trends backed by research, chef insights, and actionable tips, the report helps operators meet evolving diner expectations for creativity and innovation. UFS provides the expertise and products to help your business implement these trends effectively, leading to increased customer satisfaction and profitability.
Street Food Couture
Traditional street foods are being elevated to gourmet offerings with chef expertise in every food service channel, including fine dining. Gen Z is a major driver of this trend, with 65% seeking value for money when it comes to food and dining experiences. With humble ingredients and cooking techniques like charcoal grilling, steaming, and wok hei, chefs are elevating favorites such as crepes, tacos, skewers, burritos, spring rolls, dumplings, bao buns, and Korean corn dogs. Imagine elevating Davao’s famous kinilaw na tuna or pastil into a gourmet street food experience, or transforming durian into a refined dessert, attracting a wider clientele and showcasing local specialties with a modern twist.
Diner Designed
Diner Designed is all about putting personalization at the heart of the culinary experience, with growing demand for custom flavors and interactive dining. Emerging technologies like AI and AR are driving this trend forward by enabling immersive, multisensory meals. Diners now enjoy more control through techniques like table-side cooking, 3D printing, build-your-own dishes, and blowtorching. With 47% of people now preferring to spend money on experiences over material goods, UFS supports businesses with training, menu engineering, and the easy integration of menu trends.
Borderless Cuisine
Borderless Cuisine celebrates the fusion of global food traditions, driven by globalization, culinary tourism, and migration. This trend brings exciting new flavors and ingredients to the table while honoring authentic techniques and cultural roots. Dishes blend the old with the new, featuring standout ingredients like miso, kimchi, shiso, pomegranate, and calamansi to create fresh, yet respectful culinary experiences. Restaurants in Davao might try introducing exciting international flavors while celebrating local produce and techniques, perhaps a durian-infused curry or a pomelo-glazed chicken, creating unique and memorable dishes that stand out in Davao’s diverse culinary landscape.
Culinary Roots
Culinary Roots highlights a return to indigenous ingredients and hyperlocal cuisines, as chefs delve into forgotten recipes and traditional techniques to honor the regions they cook in. This trend is particularly relevant for Davao and Mindanao, encouraging the use of local, seasonal ingredients from its fertile lands and the revival of traditional Lumad, Moro, or Visayan-influenced dishes, appealing to a growing demand for authentic, regional flavors and supporting local farmers and producers.
The Davao “Taste Kitchen” event marks a significant step in UFS’s commitment to supporting food businesses in Mindanao. Davao follows successful rollouts in Bacolod, Nueva Ecija, and Cagayan de Oro, with Cebu set to host the final stop of the nationwide Future Menus 2025 campaign.
Created for professional chefs, foodservice operators and even culinary students and home cooks, UFS Future Menus is an annual, data-driven global report and resource that identifies emerging food trends and provides chefs and foodservice operators with actionable insights, recipe ideas, and techniques to help chefs innovate menus and stay ahead in a competitive industry. The report combines extensive global data with direct input from Unilever’s network of professional chefs to offer guidance on emerging trends such as Street Food Couture, Diner Designed, Borderless Cuisine, and Culinary Roots.
The Future Menus 2025 Trend Report is now available for download. Parties interested in collaboration may reach out to UFS at https://supportseaa.unileverfoodsolutions.com/SEAA/s/?language=en_PH&.html
