the flags are flying there now. 70 years since probably the most desisive battle of world war two began.

>> new takes on classics are constantly evolving.

times it's a type of cuisine. do food trends naturally happen or do they come out of pure public infatuation? is there something or perhaps someone that's driving us to buy or school fashionable food? here to discuss this is joren peterson. she's won the foot network's show cub cake wars, twice. and david sax, author of the taste makers, why we're crazy about cup case and fondue. every year we witness food fads from kale to kim chee and cupcakes. they are often industry driven. how does that happen? >> it often starts with the

kernel of what you said, organic but gets taken up through marketing and sort of medias channels. everybody wants to capture a taste of that food trend because it represents tremendous dollars and tremendous potential in terms of the consumer food market. and so when they see that cupcakes are selling and become a popular thing big companies will pay specialty companies sort of these -- almost food trend think tanks. tremendous amounts of money to develop recipes for them, to develop prototypes and to look for what the next trend will be. so while we think it just happens to end up on the menu of tgi friday's because it sort of evolves that way there are people and companies that are bringing it there and taking those food trends, those fads and making them mainstream. >> so doren, you started sticky fingers which is a vegan restaurant and bakery 15 years ago. >> true. >> you started it as a niche

business, and now 15 years later it has become not just incredibly tasty but trendy food. was that your expectation 15 years ago? >> it was our goal i guess, but we had no idea it would come up that way. we came up with recipes that were vegan on purpose. we had given up animal products and we wanted to make sure we could enjoy all the treats we remembered as kids. if we wanted it, other people probably did, and we opened our doors and people thought it was great. 15 years later we feel we pioneered it. if you take a look at happycow.net they have 83 vegan bakeries listed in the united states and over 11,000 vegan-friendly restaurants. that's an insane growth factor. >> the stuff on the table there i would not know it's vegan, nor would i care.

i am the only nonvegan person on the set today and i would eat any of that in a heartbeat. >> we want to make sure there's nondairy and food without animal products available for everyone. we want to prove and show that you can have these items and it is just as delicious if not better, right? better for you, better for the environment. so if we can do this, then you can do it and any other business can do it. not only show you how, but we have a baking book out, and anybody can purchase it. baking classes, cooking classes, we'll show you how to do it. if you don't believe us you can come in and eat tasty streets. >> lobster so high brow, so savage, boiling them live, as they thrash about. poor things. i think people think about what their eating hands mean. you talk about companies have designed a path to get on people's plates but not just companies.

actually the u.s. government i know has done this as well. the usda works with cheese makers on how to sell more cheese but yet the usda is responsible for telling citizens what's a healthy diet. interest? >> if you got into the conflict of interest you could devote an entire season to that. but it's true. there are sort of competing interests. and at the end of the day, everybody is looking to sell their food. whether it's you know somebody opening an individual vegan bakery or the government that's trying to promote agricultural products like pork belly or a big restaurant chain a lot of these trends and the push to grow trends and make them bigger is driven fundamentally at the end of the day, by the desire to sort of capture market share. and you saw that with the bacon trend which was really something

that was created by the national pork board. which is supported by the usda. in the late '90s when nobody was buying bacon because of the low-fat diet trend. and they said how can we get people to eat bacon, the pork bellies price was pennys on the dollar. they started selling precooked round bacon. now we have the wendy's bacon double hamburger. that started the trend to bacon ice cream or vegan bacon , fake bacon. >> you brought a product called beyond meat which is insanely delicious. >> here is a sample of one of our wonderful trendy salads.

it's kale and quinoa and we use . so people see a baked cup cake for instance for instance and you really don't pay too much attention to the ingredients unless you're watching something specific and you have an allergy, that's the gateway into our shop.

>> what's going on behind the scenes? how do you know that you're hitting the quote unquote sweet spot? is it trial and error or do you have a recipe that you stick to to create the food that you know is going to work, know that's going to sell? >> we definitely keep an eye often the trends. we make sure we are providing what people want. we listen to the customers, the general consumer base, we pay attention to the statistics out there but it's really what's selling on our menu. this is a business first and foremost. we are looking at the cost of ingredients, looking at where we need to pull back. maybe one year we'll have a lot of almond based items on our menu, but if there's a drought in that area, we'll pull back and see what people are looking for in place of that food. we have to pay attention to what's going on worldwide if not nationally. >> i don't think i could tell whether that was real chicken or not. i recently

heard a company mixed up their labels what was real-meat salads or fake salads. they just realized, wait, there wasn't complaints, that it wasn't real chicken. >> they did a taste test, and the hosts couldn't tell whether it was chicken or mock-meat. >> something they perceive as delicious and attractive and nutrition and beautiful, whatever it is they're going for. >> david, what's the cusp of food trends? what are we looking for next? >> main treatment "the stream" indian. we've known kind of indian food, curries, masala

as, and simosas. indian salads and fast food going across the country. cities like san francisco and new york where there are large indian populations, and whole foods which has been pushing it aggressive. but somewhere someone will create indian chipotle, and it's truly an american trend. >> david sax you're coming back in the next segment. and doran, thank you for coming. food trucks, restaurants on wheels promise to deliver tasty treats but are they safe? we reveal five top cities that beat out the rest for the most food trucks per capita. and hear about what this food truck owner has to say about the most unpredictable part of his job.

and creating jobs by predicting more than their industry counterparts.

>> welcome back. before the break we mentioned the role of food trucks in inspiring creative food concoctions and we promised to reveal the top five cities that have the most food trucks per capita. number 5 austin, texas, followed by minneapolis, minnesota, washington, d.c, miami, florida and the one with the most is orlando, florida.

matt ge geller's group works to expand rights for food vendors in southern california. thanks for joining us. matt food out of a truck isn't knew but in the last few years we've seen the food truck industry explode with fine cuisine. what was the transition trigger there? >> i think in los angeles, it was cuisine together with slumping economy. all mixed together to make the ple public really -- public really interested. you couple that with the taco trucks that went out of business because of the construction slump. so people could get into the business really quickly all throughout southern california. >> ietle food truck -- it's a

food truck frenzy just outside of our building every day. >> i get sick of eating at the brick and mortar restaurants. i am a big support of the food truck guys over there but you know it happened so fast that the city kind of had to play catchup with the rules and regulations, how they competed with brick and mortar stores. we went out to talk to some of the owners, you have a package. >> some of the most creative cuisine is coming to america on four wheels and hungry consumers are bracing it with open -- embracing it with often arms. washington, d.c. was home to 15 food trucks now patrick rathbone said there is more than 200. >> more nondescript trucks, more and more trucks came out on the road, the harder parking became and also, the more i

guess threat for brick and mortar restaurants thought that we were. >> and in a city where parking's at a premium the competition for high-value mobile vending spots or mrvs got so competitive that dc had to start a lottery. >> did you enter the lottery? >> i thought we did 140 sandwiches. if we with in a nonmrv, we would do 40 sandwiches. monday through friday lunch is probably 40% of our business where it used to be all of our business. >> any way you slice it, business is good. and if d.c. is any indication it's here to stay. >> all right. i actually have a question for you mike but before i do, i have a public service announcement for our viewers that are in los angeles. one of our viewers they just tweeted in a picture of a brownie that they bought at a food truck.

this is called from b sweet mobile, and the number ask the slutty brownie. >> can you vouch for that? >> i can't vouch for that but it looks fantastic! let me ask you mike, i mentioned before the package how the city has had to catch up with the food truck explosion here in washington, d.c. >> absolutely. >> have you found that the regulations, are more about protectionism for brick and mortar stores or are they more about health and safety concerns for consumers? >> well, we had that concern while we were in the process of trying to update the regulations. so that concern was definitely there and that was definitely a huge risk. the way things actually ended up shaking out, you know, it's not ideal but it worked i think to the vendors' benefit more than to protecting the incumbent industry, so to speak. but that was a massive concern during the entire time that we were working towards new regulation. since 2010 when food trucks started to get very popular in

d.c. up until i think nine or 12 months ago when we actually got them passed there was a whole three year ordeal, working with the city councils and administrations and on. >> not just to protect brick and mortars that this narrative that food trucks aren't safe, and aren't inspected as much. what do you say to that? >> here in los angeles, food trucks are inspected just as much as brick and mortar and we are graded just as sort restaurants are. as you go throughout the country we are seeing more and more health departments kind of catch up quickly and inspect food trucks just as they would inspect restaurants. so i don't think there's any merit to that. and i think that as the industry grows, you're going to see just better examples of just great food coming of very safe food trucks.

>> but david i'm looking at an article of the roughly 3200 food trucks and carts, are coming up in areas that haven't been inspected in los angeles. is this article wrong or it -- >> i'll tell you about the article, it was some of the frustration that we had had. when we wanted -- when our gourmet industry first started getting going is our trucks were being inspected three, four, five, six times a year because of their participation in community events. our trucks are super-easy to find but there are many trucks that move every 15 minutes and only service construction sites. so i think the head of the environmental health department set said about 98% of the gourmet food trucks have had an inspection within the last year. so we're very well inspected. the problem is we're the most visible of the industry so when they say something like 40% we're the ones that get the front page headlines. whereas trucks that are harder

to find and servicing construction sites and moving every 15 minutes are very difficult to find. >> david what's the trend for food trucks? is this something that's sustainable or are we reaching saturation in a lot of markets? >> no, i absolutely think it's sustainable. it first of all does correlate to what matt's been doing about working with better regulations. so you know, in new york they've plateaued, and you have about 100 food trucks in new york city because the regulations are very difficult. there's a limited number of permits. but you know, you're seeing food trucks going into territories in cities that aren't major cities. you're seeing them going into cities that have you know 500, 300, 200,000 people in them. and the fact of the matter is, they're not atrend. they're a new business model that i think has really up-ended the food business.

anybody that's going to start a new restaurant is going to look at a food truck first. the barrier to entry is much lower. the regulation is will go to and fro and matt will have some challenges on his hands as food trucks appear in different cities. here in toronto we've had a heck of a sometime dealing with regulations and nobody seems to be happy. which i guess means somebody is something -- is doing something right. say. thank you very much, david sax and matt geller. not your dad's brewery, we're talking about the surprising ways microbreweries are making gains on are traditional breweries, and regulations that are still intact. e night's even,

a smarter start to your day. mornings on al jazeera america >> hi, my name is eric o'gray. i'm a vegan and health advocate and i'm in "the stream." >> piquing the public's interest, we turn now to the innovative methods of craft breweries, which are a

growing. >> washington, d.c.'s first brewery in almost 60 years and julia is craft program director. award winning home brewer. thank you very much for being here. brandon what's the difference between craft beer and regular beer? >> hi, how's it going? >> hi! >> difference between craft beer and regular beer there's a specific definition but it really has to do with anything from the ingredients you use to the amount of quantity you produce. but for me it's really internally, beer that comes from an inspiration, that has an inspiration. >> most of our guests don't come byob but i so appreciate you did. tell us down the line here what you have. >> we've got a little sampling of our products here. the corruption ipa which is our flagship year round india

pale ale. and the citizen which is our year round belgian stout ale. >> rolling back the cans? >> rolling back the future whichever way you consider it. when it came time for us to plan this business, myself and my partner jeff slum agreed to the faculty we were going to be a canned brewery. >> a good buddy of mine, his entire instagram is talking about beers i've never heard of. his comment: they're not concerned as hot girls in a bikini, or a dog floats by in a raft. they're concerned with selling you a quality product, made with some of the best ingredients available. so is that fair, julia? >> home brewers are a part of this entire craft beer movement

and kind of the localization of beer that we're now seeing. there's 1.25 million people that home brew, me being one of them and it's an excellent, rewarding hobby for sure. >> brandon, it's a $15 billion a year industry employs 100,000 people. a lot of people are into it. it can't be supereasy. what were the barriers to your entry? >> in any industry there are going to be barriers to entry. it is very capital-heavy but outdated laws and regulations that are still in place locally around the country. >> give us an example of something that's a snag. >> for us in washington, d.c, sircht tha different than somebody

see what we need to succeed. >> they call these things microbreweries but micro, may not be a fair word anymore. how many brewers do you have? >> 20. >> but this industry represents 120,000 across the country. julia can you tell us something about home brewing in the u.s? >> home brewing is growing at a rapid pace, over 40,000 members in the main association and it continues to grow practically double digits so it's very strong and very solid. >> jewel ayah are trends we are seeing like craft beer staying steady solid growth or is this a

bubble on the crest of bursting? >> the bubble is a period of overinvestment, that's absolutely not where we're at. many breweries, the subpopulation compared to the late 1800s, we could 74th 10,700 breweries and we only have 2800. lots of room for supply. >> until next time we'll see you online.

>> welcome the al jazeera america. i'm stephanie and here are the stories we are following for you, president obama is insi insisting that the provocations must stop by russia. the president is not apologizing for the framing of the sergeant bergdahl. thousands are arriving to normandy for the celebration of d-day.