If you run a restaurant and are in the process of creating a new menu, we suggest you take time to consider the following: People in your state seem to be associated with some foods more than people in any other state in the U.S. And, in many cases, they aren’t likely to be the dishes you think they are.

Teaming up with food industry analytics firm Food Genius, the Fast Company CoDesign blog created the map below (click through for an interactive version) to show what each state’s most unique menu item. They based “uniqueness” on the appearance of a food item found in a state’s menus compared to the items found in menus of other states. The survey covered 88,000 menus and 59 million menu items nationwide. So the food paired isn’t necessarily a state’s favorite food, rather it’s the food that shows up more in one state than in other states.

Tennessee, the state the small squad here at SmallBusiness.com call home, is matched with chocolate. Makes sense to us we help consume our share each year. Our other unique foods are cheddar cheese, candy, pecans and ranch dressing. We’re guessing that has something to do with our state being listed at #7 on the ranking of states with the most obesity.

Make sure to click through the map below to the one on the Co.Design blog. There, when you hover over a state, your state’s most “distinguished” foods will appear.)

(Map: FastCompany’s Co.Design; Featured Illustration: SmallBusiness.com, Thinkstock)