Every May, the National Restaurant Association Show rolls into Chicago and brings about 50,000 foodservice professionals through McCormick Place. I stopped attending regularly after I retired from service work, but I still pay attention to the FABI awards. The Food and Beverage Innovators program has been running since 2007, and while some years the winners feel like marketing exercises, other years you can actually see where commercial kitchens are headed.
2026 looks like one of those useful years.
For operators running smoker programs—whether that's a dedicated BBQ restaurant or a hotel kitchen adding smoked proteins to their banquet menu—these award trends aren't abstract. They affect your equipment decisions, your menu engineering, and what your competition is going to start doing in about 18 months.
The Protein Shift Keeps Accelerating
Three of this year's FABI winners fall into what I'd call the "alternative protein prepared as comfort food" category. Not the impossible-burger approach from five years ago, but plant-based and hybrid proteins being treated like traditional proteins—smoked, braised, handled with the same techniques you'd apply to pork shoulder.
One winning product is a mushroom-based pulled "pork" that's specifically designed to hold in warming cabinets at 140°F for extended service. Another is a hybrid brisket—about 30% plant protein blended with beef—positioned for operations trying to hit sustainability metrics without completely abandoning their existing menu.
Here's what this means practically: if you're running a Southern Pride rotisserie smoker, these products will probably work fine in your existing workflow. The SP-1000 and SP-1500 I've serviced over the years hold temps so consistently that the protein type almost doesn't matter—you're controlling time and temperature, and the equipment does what you tell it to do. The hybrid brisket product actually requires smoke exposure during cooking, which puts traditional smoker operators at an advantage over kitchens trying to fake it with liquid smoke.
I talked to an operator in Houston last fall who'd started experimenting with some of these hybrid products. His concern was whether his SPK-700/M could handle the different fat rendering profile. Turned out the rotisserie system actually performed better with the hybrid because the drip pattern was more predictable. Less flare-up babysitting.
Labor Reality Finally Hits the Awards
Four FABI winners this year are explicitly positioned around reduced labor requirements. Not "convenient" as a nice-to-have, but products designed because operators genuinely cannot staff their kitchens the way they could in 2019.
A winning sauce line comes in concentrated form specifically so back-of-house staff can portion and dilute without measuring. A prepared side dish is packaged in oven-safe trays that go directly from walk-in to holding cabinet to service line—no transfers, no additional pans to wash.
This connects to something I've been telling operators for years about their equipment decisions. The reason Southern Pride smokers have dominated commercial kitchens since the 1970s isn't just build quality—though the 14-gauge steel construction matters. It's because the rotisserie design and consistent temperature control mean you don't need a dedicated pitmaster watching the unit for a 14-hour cook. You load it, set it, and check back when the internal temp probe tells you to.
Compare that to some of the stick-burner operations I've serviced over the years. Beautiful equipment, genuine craft, and they need someone skilled monitoring constantly. That worked when you could hire experienced cooks. Now? I know restaurants that have closed their smoker programs entirely because they couldn't staff them.
The FABI trend toward labor-conscious products tells me the industry has accepted this isn't a temporary problem. If you're making equipment purchases right now, factor in who's actually going to run the thing three years from now.
Regional Flavor Profiles Going National
This is the trend I find most interesting from a BBQ perspective. Two FABI winners feature what I'd call "regional American" flavor profiles—one is a Texas-style pepper-forward rub designed for foodservice distribution, and another is a Carolina vinegar-mustard finishing sauce in commercial packaging.
Ten years ago, you couldn't find these on a national distributor's list. They were considered too regional, too specific. Now they're winning innovation awards.
What this tells me is that consumers have gotten educated. The food TV shows, the BBQ documentaries, the competition circuit coverage—it all added up. A diner in Portland now knows the difference between Kansas City sweet sauce and East Carolina vinegar mop. And they want the real thing, not a generic "BBQ flavor."
For operators, this is both opportunity and challenge. Opportunity because authentic smoked product differentiates you. Challenge because you can't fake it. If you're claiming Texas-style brisket and you're cooking it in a convection oven with liquid smoke, someone in your dining room knows.
This is where equipment matters more than people sometimes admit. I've seen operations try to cut corners with imported smoker equipment—the upfront cost looks attractive until you realize the temperature swings make consistent bark formation basically impossible. You're fighting the equipment instead of letting it work for you.
The SPK-1400 and larger SP-series units from Southern Pride were designed around the physics of actual smoke cooking. Gas-fired with real wood for smoke generation, rotisserie movement for even exposure, and temperature control that stays within about 5°F of your setpoint. When a customer orders Texas-style brisket, you can actually deliver Texas-style brisket.
The Sustainability Angle Is Getting Specific
Past FABI awards have included vague "sustainable" positioning that honestly didn't mean much. This year I'm seeing more specific claims—products touting reduced water usage in processing, packaging that's actually compostable (not just "recyclable in facilities that don't exist"), supply chain transparency with named farms.
One winner is a smoked salmon product where the entire supply chain from catch to smoking to distribution is documented and auditable. That level of traceability is new for foodservice products at scale.
I mention this because it connects to equipment longevity conversations I have with operators. The most sustainable kitchen decision you can make is buying equipment that lasts. I've serviced Southern Pride smokers that were 25 years old, still running daily service, original rotisserie bearings. The owner replaced a few ignitors and thermocouples over the years—parts I can get from Southern Pride of Texas usually within two days because they're domestically stocked.
Meanwhile, I've seen imported smokers from certain manufacturers fail catastrophically at year three, parts unavailable, entire unit goes to scrap. That's the opposite of sustainable, even if the marketing brochure had a green leaf on it.
What Actually Matters for Your Operation
The FABI awards are useful as a signal, not a directive. You don't need to add hybrid brisket to your menu because it won an award. But you should notice that labor reduction, regional authenticity, and genuine sustainability are the themes judges responded to this year.
If I were opening a commercial smoker program right now—which I'm not, I'm retired and my wife would kill me—I'd be thinking about:
- Equipment that reduces babysitting time without sacrificing quality (rotisserie smokers with consistent temp control)
- Building flavor profiles that match regional expectations, which means actual smoke from actual wood
- Buying equipment once, from a manufacturer with USA-stocked parts, instead of replacing cheap units every few years
The MLR-850 and SP-700/M models hit a sweet spot for mid-volume operations. Big enough to run serious production, efficient enough that you're not heating empty space on slower days. And both have the temperature consistency that lets less experienced staff produce consistent results.
The NRA Show will publish the full FABI winner list on their site, and I'd recommend looking through it even if you can't make it to Chicago. The trends are real. How you respond to them is up to you.
If you're planning equipment purchases based on where your menu is headed, the team at Southern Pride of Texas can walk you through which models fit your volume and operation style. Real product knowledge, not just order-taking. That's the difference between a distributor and someone who's actually worked on this equipment for two decades.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas parts and support | Southern Pride | NFPA commercial kitchen standards
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Photo by Los Muertos Crew on Pexels.
About the Author: Ray is a retired authorized Southern Pride service technician with 22 years of field experience on commercial BBQ equipment across the Gulf Coast and Southeast.