What's Hot & What's Not
Faithful readers will know that I love trends. I also think they can be kind of silly. (The joke around here is that if you find three examples, it's a trend.)
Restaurants seem more susceptible than a lot of businesses to trends, so I was delighted to get a copy of the National Restaurant Association's survey of 1,282 chefs, members of the American Culinary Federation.
They were asked to evaluate 194 foods, methods of preparation, cuisines and drinks as "hot," "cool or passe" or "perennial favorite."
I'll give you the top ten today...
...and I thought it would be fun to go through all 194 one at a time in more depth once a week. Then it occurred to me we would be in 2010 when we finished, at which time the info would be somewhat outdated.
Some of it seems sort of obvious. I wrote a story for the food section about No. 1, bite-sized desserts, over a year ago, so I'm feeling pretty cutting edge this morning. But some I'd have to do a little research on. By the way, No. 194 is soda/carbonated drinks: 12 percent think they are hot, 46 percent, passe; and 43 percent call them a perennial favorite.
Here are the top ten. Remember, the numbers refer to "hot," "passe," "perennial favorite."
1 Bite-size desserts 83% 11% 6%
2 Locally grown produce 81% 5% 14%
3 Organic produce 75% 16% 9%
4 Small plates/tapas/mezze 73% 20% 8%
5 Specialty sandwiches 71% 14% 15%
6 Craft/artisan/microbew beer 70% 17% 13%
7 Sustainable seafood 65% 21% 14%
8 Grass-fed items 65% 26% 9%
9 Energy drink cocktails 64% 31% 5%
10 Salts (e.g., sea, smoked, colored, kosher) 64% 20% 17%
(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)
Comments
What? Beet foam didn't make the top ten? :-)
It didn't even make the top 194.
Posted by: Hal Laurent | November 29, 2007 1:14 PM
Didn't you declare small plates/tapas/mezze as passe when Pazo started serving big plates?
Yes. Thank you. Cutting edge. 20 percent of the chefs agree with me.
Posted by: Eric | November 29, 2007 2:25 PM
Yes, but who are the 73% of chefs who still think small plates are hot, and what part of Iowa, Indiana or Nebraska are they from?
And as to the 21% who think that sustainable seafood is passe, what is the next big trend...eating endangered fish? I'll have the trio of Chilean Sea Bass, Russian Sturgeon and Dolphin.
Posted by: Robert | November 29, 2007 4:11 PM
Grass-fed items? What kind of "items"?
That struck me, too, but I think I've got a lead on this one for you. :-)
Posted by: fairfax | November 29, 2007 9:06 PM
I'm guessing that it refers to grass fed beef ala The Omnivore’s dilemma.
Posted by: Earl Huch | November 30, 2007 9:13 AM