The two most noteworthy trends in for 2016 have nothing to do with food
Big disrupters are a revolution in high-speed food delivery to homes and offices, and a conversation regarding tipping and pay disparities. Cleansing menus of additives won’t be enough. Why there’s a new obsession with fried chicken, plus at the end of the article you can find the strongest keywords when it comes to food and beverage for the year ahead.
Explore the most significant predictions about the hottest global food and beverage trends 2016 follow.
4. Vegetables Step up to the Plate
We've reached a tipping point for vegetables. They're pushing animal protein to the side of the plate ... or entirely off it. Relentlessly rising beef prices, horror over hormones, a scramble for ever-more antioxidants, health-and-diet concerns, growth of farmers markets, locavore drummers, increasing numbers of flexitarians ... all the stars have nicely aligned.
It helps that vegetables are more seasonal than animals, adding menu excitement for restaurants recognizing that buying seasonally reduces food costs ... and keeps menus fresh. Say hello to "Root to Stem" dining ... a logical extension of the nose-to-tail movement ... with restaurants serving vegetables trimmings otherwise heading for the trash. Say hello to "Vegetable Forward" restaurants ... with increasing numbers of chefs deploying flesh as a condiment ... not as the main act on the plate.
USDA says potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce comprise 60% of US veggie consumption. Fast food may be to blame ... but you also might conclude that, like fish, people shy away from cooking at home what they don't know about. You don't see heaps of romano beans at the supermarket, or rainbow chard, or romanesco ... and tonight not many people are grilling cauliflower steaks ... or fabricating carpaccios of mushrooms. You go to restaurants for that stuff.
Not just vegetarians and vegans ... consumers behind this shift are omnivores who believe they eat too many animals that poop up the environment.
The transforming idea is that veg-forward restaurants no longer sell hippie food tasting like punishment. They're serving great meals composed mostly (or entirely) of vegetables that are great to look at, satisfyingly memorable and compatible with wine.
