Following the cycle of trend has always been a fickle business. One minute, your jeans are tight and slung low around your hips, and your phone is smaller than an amoeba’s pinky. Next minute, you’re traipsing around town in sock-less loafers, attempting to trap imaginary creatures with a phone the size of a tablet.
Your food choices are no different. What you eat is also dictated by the ebb and flow of trend that has a unique ability to influence our choices, and fill our plates with unique tastes and textures, at a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pace.
This year saw us tucking into tacos stuffed with fermented vegetables, salads made from seaweed, and non-alcoholic beverages. Next year, according to Clint Jaeger, Executive Chef of Seventeen in Sydney, will see a deepening of our understanding of food, and a larger focus on plating aesthetic.
Here are five food trends you’re sure to be sampling in 2018, that will make for a very appetizing and appealing year ahead.
1. Regionality
Most of the venues on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list boast a strong loyalty to showcasing regional food in a very distinctive way. As such, in 2018, consumers will be prone to seeking gourmet experiences which speak of a region’s heritage, and highlight local produce.
“Diners have become more and more willing to travel the world to taste a region on a plate,” Jaeger says. “As such, we’ll be seeing more and more chefs reverting back to local cuisine and cooking techniques to illustrate a region’s uniqueness.”
2. Flowers
Micro greens have long been a chef’s go-to for adding a little panache to a plate. Next year, however, plates will be abloom with the added colour of edible flowers.
“They don’t really add any flavor to the plate but they certainly add a dose of color, which is very appealing to the eye, making for a more holistic dining experience,” Jaeger says.
3. Sustainability
Moving on from marbling and gavage (or the final fattening phase of live stock for dishes such as foie gras), savvy diners will be seeking humane food experiences that promote sustainability. Think pasture-fed meats, farm-raised eggs, and supporting smaller producers who adhere to the ethical treatment of livestock.
“Diners no longer want to see cruelty on a plate,” Jaeger says. “This year will definitely see a surge in consumers wanting to know that the proteins they consume have had a good life.”
4. Unique seasonings
In his kitchen, Jaeger bakes and grinds kumamoto oyster shells to season his Pillows Angasi dish.
Others take to stripping the bark off of native trees, or foraging the earth for insects that harbor interesting tastes. The use of unique seasoning will boom in 2018 and their consumption will no longer be an experience solely for the courageous.
“We look at food differently nowadays,” Jaeger says. “And the use of, say, ants that taste like lemongrass, or bark with a bitter coffee scent, will only further the authenticity of a dish.”
5. Gold
Forget rainbow bagels, and multicolored cream cheese. Next year, the road to culinary indulgence this year will be paved in gold, with desserts and fixings boasting gold leaf inclusions, glittery condiments, and a dusting of 24-karat indulgence.
“Next year will be all about eating healthy and wealthy,” Jaeger says. “Being able to consume gold is not a new technique but it will certainly pique the interests of those who like to sample the finer things in life.”
