Blogs
The traditional Sunday lunch is becoming the midweek dinner, reveals newly published research from Premier Foods.
A lunch time roast seems to no longer fit in with diners' weekly schedules, and roasts are being repositioned as an evening meal. Only 1/7th of Sunday lunches are full roasts, whilst 1 in 5 Sunday dinners are. The much quicker, less labour-intensive sandwiches are the new Sunday lunch of choice, accounting for more than 25% of lunches eaten.
Research also suggests that the midweek roast is growing in popularity, popping up more often in dinners Monday to Friday. Kantar Worldpanel found in October that more than half of roasts are eaten on days other than Sunday.
While there are reports that fewer people are cooking roasts at home (allegedly 75% of Brits haven't cooked one in the past month, and 1 in 10 haven't in the past 6 months), the popularity of the roast in general shows no signs of waning. Although people are apparently unwilling to make them at home, Kantar concluded that roast consumption is increasing year on year.
Operators who currently offer a roast as part of their Sunday lunch offer may consider being more flexible with timings, putting roasts on the menu all weekend, and potentially during weekday evenings as well. We know already that guests are breaking with convention and looking to put twists on traditional tastes, and a Sunday evening or weekday roast offers operators another way to cater to their guests changing tastes.
