I am not a professional trend forecaster, just an amateur food blogger and optimistically competent cook who occasionally sets fire to things unintentionally. However, I consider myself a professional eater of food and voracious devourer of any media relating to that grandest of needs, most glorious of hobbies. Over the past year and recent months I took note of things that have started creeping into our food magazines, programs and recipe books or making an unexpected appearance in international ones. I’ve also noticed what has been exhausted or started to run its course, both globally and locally. And mixed in with that is a bit of my own personal bias of what I am looking forward to or grown tired of seeing. As such, I have decided to write up Cuizine’s first Annual 2014 Food Fauxcast, and leave the forecast to the pros who use data, qualifiable research and more educated guesses than me. And here it is:
What’s probably out
- Macaroons (or macarons) are on their way out. They are tough to make, cost a fortune each and although very pretty, often fail to live up to the flavour hype promised by their appearance. Probably to be replaced by the other, more relaxed and less finessed version that uses coconut instead of almond and is sometimes dipped in chocolate.
- Intricately designed novelty cake sculptures will start to phase out as the more home-made, layered aesthetic makes a comeback. Costs are going up and so is concern for flavourants and colourants. Fondant is edible plastic (yummy edible plastic, I know) that is imbued with a lot of synthetic colour. You will start seeing savoury wedding cakes made of tiered wheels of cheese, draped with grapes and figs.
What’s in
- Cream cheese in sushi. I don’t know why this is happening. There should be laws against this kind of thing.
- More South American cuisine like Peruvian and Argentinian dishes. Ceviches and chimichurris.
- Scratch-made artisanal foods. Home cooks are getting more experimental and into their veggie gardens and pantries. Ingredients that were previously harder to find are more readily available like rennet and beer kits. There will be more home-made brews, breads, cheeses and pastas to pair up with the usual pickles and jams.
- Dim sum is the new tapas. Tapenades and dips are being replaced by dumplings and steamed buns.
- Veggies looking more natural in stores. Heirloom “ugly” varietals of tomatoes are finally coming back. Baby tomatoes on the vine. Carrots and beetroots with stalks.
- Sliders are the new burgers.
- Gourmet salts beyond Himalayan. Murray River pink salt from Australia, Hawaiian black lava salt, salt blocks.
- Cauliflower everything. I’ve started seeing recipes for it being used as pizza bases, “steak”, in bagels or instead of rice. The paleo and gluten-free movement is driving this as it can replace flour in some products.
- Mixology. High-end cocktails are the new gourmet avant garde. Less sugar, more bitters, retro cocktails coming back. Gin and whiskey food pairings.
- New words you may have not heard of but will start noticing: freekeh, seacuterie, sriracha and kimchi.
Have any opinions on the above? Think I’ve missed anything? Leave a comment and let me know 🙂
I think that perhaps you haven’t had a macaron from the right person 😉 a coconut macaroon, in my opinion will never come close to a properly made macaron.
Perhaps true, Viveshni 😉 But I also think because of money and time, of which people have even less of than last year, it’s uglier coconut cousin may make more of an appearance.
Great Fauxcast – I agree with all of your comments, and am currently halfway through a huge bottle of sriracha brought in from the US, delicious! I would add to your ‘heirloom’ comment – expect to see a bigger variety of chillis in stores, the chilli trend seems to keep on growing!
You are so right about the chillies! I even saw chipotle the other day, although imported. Habanero and your regular garden variety red and greens are old boots now. So great.