Food Trends for the Decade

One of the best things about ushering out 2009 is that we’re finally over the "00" decade. I mean, what was that? It was like the decade of the losers.

But now we have the decade of ... oh wait, what do we call it? The tens? The teens? It’s like the prepubescent decade. Anywho, I thought I would take a moment to look back at the food trends of this past decade and give a little prediction of my own on what I think will be happening in the next 10 years.

So as you can see from my list of what I think are on the way out, there are some things that I actually love like roasted beet salads. I’ll still order them at restaurants, it’s just that I feel that every restaurant serves it the same way – and that’s with goat cheese. That’s like the classic presentation, and I’m getting a bit bored of it. I hope some creative chef comes out with a new way to serve beets in the new year.

Some other things that I think are going out are things that I never really liked, so I’m hoping that everyone else will be so over them. Things like sous vide, which Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry really endorses. But I never liked the look of meat that’s been sous vide – cooked in a very slow water bath giving it a tender texture – because it always ends up looking like raw, mushy meat.

I’m thinking the fried chicken craze will be out, mostly for health reasons because I just think it’d be bad for everyone to be eating fried chicken.

Some of the things that I think will be hot trends in the coming year or decade are things that I’m beginning to see quite often. You might be familiar with them already, but I see marcano almonds served with cheese at almost every restaurant now. And speaking of restaurants, I think Korean restaurants will be the new Thai.

One thing that I hope will be a trend is grilled burritos. Have you ever had one? I don’t think it’s very traditional, but I love anything grilled like paninis. So it just makes sense that grilled burritos will be something worth trying. In fact, the La Salsa chain sometimes serves its burritos grilled, and that creates a nice warm burrito for lunch.

So what do you think will be the hot trends in the next decade? Whatever they are, I’m really looking forward to them. That’s the thing I love about food; you’re always discovering something new.