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For 2012, Get Ready for "Multi-Culti"
The Baum+Whiteman company, a leading international hospitality consultancy headed by Michael Whiteman, has released its 12th annual list of hottest food and dining trends for the coming year.
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The national, city-oriented predictions are always entertaining and often prescient. In recent years B+W correctly predicted (which is to say, identified as a trend and projected) the mainstreaming of gluten-free foods, offal such as beef and pork cheeks, and (as a canvas for chef creativity) Low Country shrimp and grits. Some 2012 trends to watch for:
• The stagnant economy will not much hurt restaurant chains but will take a huge toll on mom-and-pop eateries, with as many as 8,000 to 10,000 closing nationally.
• Expect more casual, low-end dining in which multi-ethnic “flavors clash on purpose.” Examples? “A multi-culti zucchini pizza dabbed with hummus and topped with crunchy wasabi peas” or “a hot dog with cilantro aioli.”
• “Sandwiches piled on things other than bread. Arepas, for example. Flattened tostones. Bao. Waffles. Rice cakes.”
• “House-made vegetable and fruit pickles will appear on more and more menus as chefs concoct ever-more-complex ways of making these preserves.”
• “Thanks largely to food trucks, Korean food has entered the American lexicon…. Look for upscale places to serve items poached in kimchi broth augmented with Asian and non-Asian flavors.”
• Americans are growing bored with meatloaf, mac and cheese and other comfort foods. “Instead, we’re demanding new taste thrills and culinary invention.” Hence, ever-more-outrageous hamburger toppings such as “head cheese, bone marrow, pastrami and eggs, Cajun crawfish.”
• “Outdoor or indoor/outdoor beer gardens will boom around the country…moveable roofs and warmers make them year-round businesses.”
• “Chefs are shifting from stacking food as high as possible to stringing out ingredients in caterpillar-like lines along oblong or rectangular plates.”
• “More entries into the tossed-salad restaurant business, using ever-better ingredients.”
• B+W predict that Peruvian “is the next cuisine.” (On that note, see this month’s review of Patria.)
