Why Texture Is Flavor Foreplay

Texture provides a playground for the tongue and ears—a front-row seat to the sizzle, snap, squish. Texture is the secret sauce that makes flavors sing, turning a dish into a full-on sensory party. ASMR videos nail it: crisp fries crunching, silky soups slurping, crackly crusts breaking, bouncy bobas bursting.

The U.S. is finally catching up to textures that are table stakes in other cultures, like squiggly noodles, elastic mochi and fluffy foams. Each is subtly different, with variations that can be difficult to articulate—at least in the English language. In an Insta-obsessed world, visuals aren’t enough. It’s an unspoken rule in menu development that the dish looks good; now, it must also engage the senses of touch and sound.

Where unicorn-sparkle foods were a one-hit wonder, texture has a long runway ahead. It is the new vehicle for delivering craveable, viral moments that engage beyond the plate: Your tongue plays with crunch, your ears perk at the crackle, your eyes might even catch the shift as a chewy exterior yields to a gooey interior. It’s degustation foreplay, and without texture, you’re missing the food moment.

Global textures, especially those from Asian cuisines, are pushing to the forefront, with jiggly custards, crisp tempura flakes and chewy noodles. These iterations may be new, but U.S. consumers are already fans of other texture combos, such as Primanti Bros.’ fries-on-sandwich legacy, Dairy Queen’s chocolate-dipped ice cream cones, Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap and Starbucks’ flavored cold foam caps.

Diners want that multi-sensory hit, and texture is integral to the formula, with consumers demanding novel textures across categories: beverages, handhelds, bowls, salads, entrées and sweets. For an item to compete in today’s landscape and seem “worth” the price tag, it must impart a singular moment. And that’s something texture inherently brings.

Here are a few ideas to get you started building a texture playbook.

1. Sandwiches: Channel Primanti Bros. and serve a Tuscan schiacciata with razor-thin prosciutto, creamy stracciatella and crispy fries tucked inside for crunch, plus a crackly crust and a smooth pesto aïoli.
2. Breakfast burritos: Update Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap formula by wrapping a jammy egg, crispy rice and shredded chicken in a frico cheese crust (a la Detroit-style pizza) for crackle. Pair it with a Greek yogurt-based dip for a cooling contrast.
3. Desserts: Elevate Dairy Queen’s iconic chocolate shell by tucking silky Vietnamese coffee-flavored ice cream in a crunchy waffle cone, dipping it in a crisp chocolate shell and rolling it in crushed ladyfingers for a playful take on tiramisu.
4. Beverages: Put a healthy spin on Sonic Drive-In’s customizable, candy-studded Slushes by blending chewy basil seeds into a blackberry-infused lemonade slushy.
5. Pizza: Take inspiration from Papa Johns’ gluten-free, ancient-grains crust by incorporating spelt flour into the dough for thin crispness and topping it with creamy bianco sauce, chewy sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and crackly sorghum puffs.

To discover even more ways to play with texture, check out The Next Texture Frontier.