Food trends: What’s hot, what’s not and what we’ll never quit eating.
Say goodbye to meals in jars and hello to doughnuts with weird fillings.
The National Restaurant Association has released its “What’s Hot” culinary forecast for 2018. The annual food trends list was compiled after a survey of 700 professional chefs to highlight the hottest menu trends. Expect to see some of these items on menus near you soon.
There are also foods that diners are over, things that will be falling off the trendier menus, if they aren’t gone already.
But there are some foods that we can’t get enough of, won’t ever stop eating such as barbecue and bacon, the chefs say.
Heating up:
▪ Doughnuts with non-traditional filling (North Lime Coffee & Donuts is all over that one.)
▪ Ethnic-inspired kids’ dishes (street food-inspired dishes are hot everywhere)
▪ Farm/estate-branded items
▪ Heritage-breed meats (red wattle hogs, Bourbon Red turkeys and more are showing up)
▪ Peruvian cuisine (the No. 2 hottest global flavor, the chefs say)
▪ Thai-rolled ice cream
▪ Uncommon herbs
▪ Vegetable carb substitutes (think cauliflower rice)
▪ Veggie-centric/vegetable-forward cuisine (such as plant-based burgers and sushi)
What’s cooling down:
▪ Artisan cheese
▪ Heirloom fruit and vegetables
▪ House-made charcuterie
▪ House-made/artisan ice cream
▪ House-made sausage
▪ Meal kits
▪ Nutrition
▪ Protein-rich grains/seeds
▪ Savory desserts
▪ Whole grain items in kids’ meals
What’s yesterday’s news:
▪ Meals in Mason jars
▪ Offal
▪ Bitter melon
▪ Algae
▪ Spiralized vegetables
▪ Pumpkin spice
▪ Flavored popcorn
▪ Egg-white omelets/sandwiches
▪ Fried chickpeas
▪ Black/forbidden rice
These are the perennial favorites, according to the chefs:
▪ Shellfish
▪ Barbecue
▪ Bacon
▪ Comfort food
▪ Gelato
▪ Hand-made pasta
▪ Breakfast burritos/tacos
▪ Mediterranean flavors
▪ Juice/milk in kids’ meals
▪ Breakfast hash
This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Food trends: What’s hot, what’s not and what we’ll never quit eating.."