Food & Drink

Food trends to get excited about in 2013

10. Haute-meal Porridge
Now that everyone has discovered steel-cut oats, chefs are going to try experimenting with innovative ways to serve porridge in a fine dining context. Imagine oatmeal with foie gras or for the molecular types, encapsulated oatmeal with maple foams.

9. Edible dishware
Going past compostable dishware, the trend for 2013 will be plates and bowls you can eat. Creative chefs will pair the dish flavours with the meal they are serving.

8. Un-fish

In 2012 chefs woke up to the concerns of maintaining a sustainable fishery. In 2013, they will be using fish which was caught and released. Menus will describe the fish you would have been eating if you were less concerned about the state of the oceans in vivid detail, including giving you the specifics of where it was caught and by whom.

7. Vegetable peelings

For the past few years, chefs have been playing with the “scrap” or fifth-quarter cuts of meat. In 2013, chefs will find innovative ways to use the peelings and trimmed ends  of their carrots, potatoes, parsnips and the like.

6. Tableside local

Restaurants will take the buy local movement to its logical conclusion by having window box style gardens attached to each table. The produce used in your meal will come from this miniature garden. Patrons will be encouraged to water, weed and otherwise tend to their little garden plot.

5. Donkey

Ostrich and Emu have come and gone, the new trendy meat will be donkey. With the populations of Central America switching to the automobile, there  is an abundance of donkeys. Enterprising ranchers will be marketing this tasty meat to North America. Their marketing slogan?  “Donkey, the other red meat. Leaner than Beef, less ethically troublesome than Horse.”  Donkey from Shrek has already signed a five year marketing contract.

4. Table to farm

Completing the circle, guests will now be encouraged to order food and have it sent to the farmer who produced it. What better way to say thank you to the hard-working people who grow our food.

3. Chicken coops

For years, we have been able to select our lobsters from tanks in high end steakhouses  and seafood joints. Now, restaurants will have in-house chicken coops which allow patrons to select the bird they would like roasted. Nothing says “fresh” like fresh killed.

2. Salt and pepper

The hottest seasoning for 2013 will be salt and pepper. Forget cumin and coriander, lose the saffron, drop the sumac, who cares about kaffir lime leaves. These are so last year. This year, you will see chefs using salt and pepper on all their dishes. Sit back and wait for the flavour explosion.

1. House-GMO

Molecular Gastronomy has run its course. The new “modernist” cuisine will involve in-house genetic manipulation.   Imagine scallops that taste like beef, or carrots that look like artichokes. This new culinary field is limited only by the imagination.

All in all, 2013 looks like an exciting year for food.

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Alexander Svenne is the food writer for Spectator Tribune and chef at Bistro 7 1/4. Follow him at @ChefAlex

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