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Growing awareness of diverse cultural voices, cooking sustainably, and exploration of untapped cuisines from regions of Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and South America are among trends to watch, according to a panel of food and cooking authorities who took part in “The Next Big Bite, 2020 Vision: What We Will Cook, Eat, Drink and Crave,” on October 15 at the Redeemer W83 Center in New York City. The annual event was hosted by Les Dames d’Escoffier New York, a professional women’s culinary organization with members who are leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage, and hospitality.
Speakers for the evening included Deb Perelman, self-taught home cook and creator of Smitten Kitchen, who was the opening keynote. Sarah Carey, editorial director of food and entertaining for Martha Stewart Living, moderated a panel of food writers and cookbook authors including: Justin Chapple, Just Cook It, Food & Wine; Jake Cohen, feedfeed; Gaby Dalkin, What’s Gaby Cooking; Cassy Joy Garcia, Fed + Fit; Vallery Lomas, Foodie in New York; and Megan Scott, Joy of Cooking. Jessica B. Harris, orator and culinary historian, videoed a closing keynote to end the event.
Here are five food and cooking trends to watch in 2020, according to the speakers:
- Less new food for the sake of being new. There is a drive toward new products and recipes, noted Perelman, but let’s prioritize quality over quantity. “Often I want a perfect mac-n-cheese or chicken noodle soup. I’d rather see a throwdown over the classics.”
- Diverse voices in cuisine. Cohen called for more unique voices from a more diverse group in the food world, including exploring diaspora cooking. “Every food has a story and it moved and shifted and became something unique,” he said.
- Sustainable seafood. In addition to more sustainable varieties, we may see a seafood version of nose-to-tail cooking. “I want to see people use more of the fish—unfamiliar parts like the tail and collar,” said Chapple.
- Global cuisines from new regions. Filipino and Laotian cuisine is becoming more popular in the mainstream, said Chapple. West African foods are also gaining more mainstream awareness, noted both Lomas and Harris. When we think of Southern foods, which we look at as American, so many have roots in Africa, Lomas pointed out. “We’ll see new foods from unknown, untapped, and unheralded cultures,” added Harris, who cited fonio from Africa and aji chile from Peru among examples. Among other lesser-known cuisines gaining awareness, Harris points to regional African cuisines of Kenya and Angola; Caribbean foods beyond the English-speaking West Indies; and foods from Guayana in South America.
- Food as a unifier. “Foods from areas of conflict will come to the table,” said Harris, “and we’ll learn about our ‘enemies’ and heal.”
Fading Trends
Speakers offered their opinions on food trends that are losing interest:
- Anything that associates health benefits with cocktails, said Scott.
- Aquafaba
- Avocado toast
- Bowl meals
- Cauliflower rice, pizza, gnocchi. (“Someday we’ll have to explain to our kids' generation why we did this,” Perelman said.)
- CBD—“I don’t want to hear about this in everything,” said Carey.
- Charcoal
- Chia seeds
- Good food/bad food characterizations, said Lomas.
- Pink salt
- Pumpkin spice anything—“Unless it’s pumpkin bread and then only three weeks out of the year,” Perelman added.
- Rainbow food
- Truffle oil
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few more emerging trends and ingredients that the speakers mentioned:
- Alternative methods of cooking, including fermentation, preserving, and air frying
- Chrysanthumum greens
- Waste reduction
Related: Tuna May Not Be as Sustainable as Previously Thought; Americans Hungry for Global Flavors.
from Food Trends https://ift.tt/2MoWTRI
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