One of the featured themes in the 2019 TrendZone at New England’s largest hospitality trade show, the Maine Restaurant and Lodging Expo, was global breakfast foods. Cherie Scott, creator of “Mumbai to Maine” - the culinary blog and TV series, and Dana Moos, real estate broker, cookbook author and chef – were invited to showcase as culinary trendsetters along with six other vendors from Maine.

On the concourse, the all-new TrendZone featured eight chefs and food entrepreneurs including Higher Grounds, Cafe Miranda, The Farm Stand, Plant Monsters, FarmDrop and Fork Food Lab. This year's event, created by Kathleen Pierce, HospitalityMaine's director of member experience, re‐energized northern New England's largest hospitality trade show.

“Tantalizing aromas greeted Expo-goers as they entered the Cross Insurance Arena,” said Pierce. “We regionalized global breakfast, hyper local, zero-waste cooking, and CBD-infused drinks. These are the trends that will dominate menus all year.”

Scott showcased her “Mumbai to Maine” masala chai – hot milk infused with freshly mortar- and–pestle-ground cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, star anise, peppercorns, nutmeg, ginger, and her unique blend of the finest malty Assam and floral Darjeeling tea leaves.

“Masala chai is an iconic Indian breakfast beverage,” Scott said. “Although chai has been around southeast Asia for centuries, in the last two decades it has become a trendy beverage of choice in the West. Attendees enjoyed sampling my creamy, robust, and spicy chai as I handcrafted small batches of it all day long.”

In an effort to showcase a genuine “Mumbai to Maine” product in the TrendZone, Scott collaborated with Maine’s premium spice store, SKORDO, for her chai blend, and Mexicali Blues’ hand-made Indian tapestries were featured in her display.

Dana Moos recently won the Lobster Chef of the Year People’s Choice Award at Harvest on the Harbor; and won First Place Awards for the Judge’s and People’s Choice for the Best Lobster Bite at the 2018 Boothbay Harbor Claw Down competition. At TrendZone, Moos showcased her Vietnamese breakfast tacos - Vietnamese braised pork, pickled cabbage, red onion, and cucumbers, topped with a fried egg, sriracha aioli and cilantro.

“This dish is sweet, spicy, creamy, tart,” Moos said.“ It’s all about balance of textures, flavors, and colors. My idea of Vietnamese street food breakfast!”

Moos loves to put simple ingredients together in beautiful and unique ways and is currently awaiting the release of the 2nd edition to her cookbook, “The Art of Breakfast: B&B Style Recipes to Make at Home” in August.

Both women are guest culinary instructors at Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School. Moos will be teaching 10 classes through September. And, May through October, Scott is launching her six‐part series on regional Indian cooking. The series will feature traditional and trendy dishes – north, south, east and west; including her ancestral homeland of Goa, and Mumbai street food.