Food Trends

Trend 1: Spices as Culinary Change Agents
Trend 2: Global Accents Shake Up Menus
Trend 3: Plant-Based Becomes a Mainstream Choice

_{TREND 1}

Spices as Culinary Change Agents

Spices are applauded as culinary change agents with chefs relying on them to add nuance, pop, pow, and lingering layers of flavor that define dishes.

What it means
Spices and spice blends, especially those with global pedigrees, are red-hot for flavor-forward fine-tuning—a task they handle with operational ease.

Flavor is pretty much where it’s at when it comes to food trends, consumers are not shy about expressing preferences for big, bold food and drink sensations and never more so than when the journey takes unexpected directions. Whether in solo acts, complex mixes, or as support players in flavor bases and sauces, spices are easy access points for diners that, according to research firm Datassential, deliver low-risk/high-reward ways to have new experiences.

Datassential’s Menu Adoption Data chart for spices and flavor-dense ingredients shows that spices along with super-concentrated flavor bombs such as tamarind and yuzu often move with supersonic speed from on-the-fringes inception to the kind of ubiquity that shows widespread acceptance by consumers.

Most of the world’s culinary regions have spice blends that add easy intrigue across dayparts. Spotted on menus, these blends don’t insist on staying true to origins, their flavors also complementary to other cuisines:

Africa: Berberé, dukkah, harissa, ras el hanout, Durban curry
Asia: Togarashi, furikake, gomasio, Szechuan seasoning
Europe: Fines herbes, vaudevan, herbes de Provence, quatre épices
India: Chaat masala, panch phoron, garam masala, curry blends
Latin America: Adobo, chili powder, jerk seasoning, Tajín
Middle East: Baharat, advieh, hawaij, za’atar
North America: Cajun blend, pumpkin-pie spice mix, poultry seasoning

In the past year, consumers have increased their hot sauce consumption 23%, more than any other condiment. Salsa holds second place with 22% gain and sriracha, in the sixth spot, by 19%.

NEXT UP: Global Accents Shake Up Menus

_{TREND 2}

Global Accents Shake Up Menus

Global cuisines, trend-forward chefs, adventure-seeking diners, and worlds of inspiration mix it up for a modernist take on America’s new melted-pot cuisine.

What it means
American cuisine is a work in progress, evolving right in step with a changing populace. Reflecting this diversity and giving nod to a rich immigrant culture, chefs merge and mix cuisines to give American cooking its strongest identity yet.

Authenticity is about evolution.

Wolfgang Puck

If chefs have a superpower (and they do!), it’s their ability to observe and adapt to environments, find culinary commonalties, weave past experience to present situations, and spin special magic from local ingredients.

In capable hands, it all ends up in deliciously orchestrated harmony and never more so than now as cook lines, chefs, and restaurant owners are more diverse than ever, upending the idea that culinary styles must follow set patterns. Said one American-born, California-raised Indian chef/owner, “We’re cooking our experiences.”

Even ChatGPT understands the appeal of global culinary mergers. Asked to create an on-trend burger, it whipped up a Caprese Avocado Burger that 57% of consumers polled said they’d order.

Food and drink menus that borrow heavily from traditions of two or more countries—Japan and Mexico, French and Filipino, Peruvian and Japanese, Italian and Israeli, and Cajun and Vietnamese are some of the match-ups around which restaurant concepts have been built—are showing up in all industry segments, the approaches often wildly different. Fine dining relies on respectful elegance while colleges and casual restaurants demonstrate a knack for turning American menu icons into cheeky takes with irreverent appeal, often infusing them with street-food attitudes.

Global Snapshot

World cuisines, from the most frequently menued Mexican, Italian, and Thai, to up-trenders such as Malaysian, Uzbek, and Filipino have both a proven track record on menus and strong upside potential for deeper penetration, according to Datassential.

Menu Adoption Cycle Stage: Ubiquity
Global influence is integrated into all parts of food

Menu Popularity: High
While it varies by each global cuisine, overall, the concept is highly menued

Growth: High
Global influence is one of the core areas of innovation

Trendability: High
Less familiar global cuisines are gaining awareness

Regionality: High
Influence of global cuisines varies by region driven by immigration patterns of each region

Sashimi tostados, birria ramen, masala cheese steaks, saag paneer pizza, pepperoni pizza dumplings, and hamburger arancini are among the culinary odd couples on menus. Expect the trend to gain traction; as a group, Generation Z is proving to show open-minded enthusiasm for mixing and matching flavors, inspirations, and techniques from around the globe.

NEXT UP: Plant-Based Becomes a Mainstream Choice

_{TREND 3}

Plant-Based Becomes a Mainstream Choice

Plant-based and plant-forward foods set deep roots as appeal goes mainstream and creative menuing flourishes.

What it means
Many diners, especially Gen Z and younger, see no reason for strict “this” or “that” food-choice lifestyles, choosing instead mixed menus of animal- and plant-based foods. Their anything-goes appetites that eschew labels and put all food and drink options on the table are becoming the new normal.

Most sources agree that about 5% of the U.S. population is vegetarian and 2% vegan, the numbers largely static over time. Hardcore adherents aren’t main drivers in the growth of plant-based products. Fuel instead comes from consumers, often called flexitarians, who play both sides. Citing health, animal ethics, sustainability, and a desire to diversify diets, they happily alternate choices meal-to-meal and day-to-day.

ON NEW TERMS
“Vegan,” long the term attached to diets free of all animal products, has for many been replaced by “plant-based diet.” While the meaning is the same, plant-based is more inclusive, acknowledging the many diners who opt to eat animal-free on a meal-to-meal basis.

With an ever-widening supply of plant-based meats, poultry, seafood, cheese, dairy, egg products, and sweets joining creative applications for tofu, beans, legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables, the base of actively interested diners continues to grow and flex multi-choice muscles.

Menus that give nod to these new dining habits are strongly positioned. Here are plant-based and plant-forward selections that brim with broad appeal:

Roasted summer squash with tamarind, labneh harra, cippolini onions, and pistachio dukkah
Mushroom-walnut Bolognese, with carrot paccheri, celery, and mint
Crispy celery root katsu with shiso, mustard sauce, apple umami paste
Ember-cooked beets with celery-top purée, sunflower-seed pistou
Burger with lentils, cremini mushrooms, and quinoa on toasted brioche

Sunshine lentil-mushroom burger with avocado, cashew-dill cheese, arugula, sweet-chili mustard on pretzel bun
Lemongrass tofu bahn mi sandwich with pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeños, soy sauce, and pepper on baguette

70%

Amount of total U.S. population that consumes plant-based foods, up from 66% one year ago

CULTURE CLUB
Cell-cultured meats and poultry, derived from animal stem cells and grown in labs to bypass the environmental impact of traditional practices, are ready to face-off with plant-based meat analogs; an okay to market them has been approved. Dominique Crenn of Bar Crenn in San Francisco, is said to have been first to have served cell-cultured chicken to guests. Taste, texture, and appearance are said to be near-perfect mimics.

50%

Portion of so-called flexitarians that have “foodie” instincts and a strong desire to keep current with the latest trends in dining

_{^{Sources–Trend 1:}}_{^{Flavor Trends for Food and Beverage (January 11, 2023); What Generation Shifts Mean for Predicting Food Trends (July 24, 2023); Datassential (July 6, 2023 Webinar).}}_{^{Trend 2:}}_{^{The Latest Restaurant Trend: Chaos Cooking (September 6, 2022); Datassential, The World of Global Flavors (June 2023); Datassential, Ten Need to Know Facts and Figures From Our Mid-Year Trend Report (July 2023).}}_{^{Trend 3:}}_{^{How Many Vegans in the World? In the USA? (February 3, 2023); 2022 U.S. Retail Sales Data for the Plant-Based Foods Industry (undated); Beneo Offers Insights About Flexitarian (June 6, 2022).}}