The most popular side dish of all time is probably fries. We all love a portion of fries, they are ordered with most street foods, in pubs, restaurants and coffee shops. Everyone serves them because customers love them with one major high street burger chain serving 9 million pounds a day worldwide.
A relative newcomer to this market is sweet potato fries. I consider to have more flavour and be more versatile than the regular fries, they also contain vitamin A and more fibre than regular fries.
So how can we add value to a side of fries? The great thing is that every country you travel to has a different way to serve or, accompany them and let’s face it we all have our favourites. Whether we want to jazz up to use as a meal, customers go crazy for ‘Dirty Fries’ or just something extra to add to a side, below are our ideas to create something special:
- Loaded Nachos Fries: Guacamole, salsa, soured cream, black beans and sweetcorn
- Brie and Bacon: Crispy sweet potato fries topped with crisp bacon and brie.
- Asian Sweet Potato Fries with Pickled Carrot and Chilli Garlic Sauce.
- Chilli Sweet Potato Fries – take your chilli fries to a new level!
- Chorizo Sweet Potato Fries – topped with crisp chorizo and manchego cheese
- Cuban Sweet Potato Fries – think Cuban sandwich meets fries
- Vietnamese Fries – A dash of Hoisin sauce, spicy Sriracha, garlic mayo, and a topping of peanuts.
Adding extra value to your menu is important to keep your customers coming back, but if you don’t have the space to add on one of the dishes above or, if your menu just requires a side dish then I would recommend flavoured salts. My favorite is grated parmesan and thyme.
Kindly contributed by Steve Midgley Consulting Development Chef, 30 years experience in fine dinning, creating fantastic experiences at Michelin star restaurants.
