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Food Trends Across the Country – How Do They Start and, More Importantly, Why?
Food trends are like fashion trends – sometimes they start
in cities like New York and L.A. where the big names hang out, and then they work their way into the vernacular, and soon are on the shelves of malls and supermarkets. Sometimes trends start merely by the off-handed endorsement of a Super Star, and sometimes they just seem to happen spontaneously through some unseen force.
Urban Trends:
Living in a city like New York has the distinct advantage of access to the new and novel. People come here to make it big in a variety of callings – fiction, fashion, fame, food. Those hoping to be on the cutting edge seek out the innovative. A chef with Big Ideas likes to know what is happening on other plates. Competition is fierce. New things pop-up all the time.
A few years ago lavender was all the rage – it was impossible to get a crème brulee without it. But lavender is strong flavor, one that many people simply do not like. (There has been a lavender flavored candy floating around down south for generations, but it is a particular taste.) Right now, pomegranate is making headway in everything from mixed dinks to salads to roasted fare. It is a flexible ingredient that stands a good chance of making its way into the cooking vernacular of the American Kitchen, except for one thing – it is messy. Technology can help us out here, as there are many ways to process the pomegranate, thus making it easier to use.
Other flavors working their way into our pantries and spice racks are lemon grass, cilantro, fresh basil and truffle flavored oil.
Super-Trends:
Super-trends permeate the food service industry from top to bottom, and right now the super-trend is the “origin controlled” pedigree of various ingredients – haute chocolate (merci, M.Cluizel), coffee, vanilla, figs, apricots, nuts of all kinds, olive oil, flour, hams, salt and tea.We may see much of this as marketing (and it surely is), but there are chemical realities at play here.
Enter the Onion:
The Vidalia onion – a sweet allium grown in the area around Vidalia Georgia - and counterfeited all over New York City; many markets label onions “Vidalia” and charge premium prices when in fact what you are getting is a cheap-ass sweet onion that is NOT a Vidalia. At more than triple the price of the plain old yellow onion, that’s quite a fleecing. But what makes the Vidalia such a coveted member of the onion family? Its sweet and think flesh, which makes one fine onion ring, and which, when sliced thinly adds a nice kick to many a salad. Regular sweet onions, which do have their uses, cannot boast the same quality of onion ring, nor the same effect when served freshly sliced with cucumber and tomato. The town of Vidalia should start a franchise – Vidalia Rings and Wings.
And so the notion of a Franchise based on a Flavor has
arrived. Let’s take a look at the humble ingredient, the chipotle pepper. Long the flavoring tool of Mexican chefs, and to a limited extent Texan and Californian chefs, the idea of chipotle has now become as ubiquitous as the
actuality of feta cheese and proscuitto. Chipotle Grill is a sign of the times – find a flavor, work it out, dress it up, dress it down, send it out all over town and then, if it still is popular, you have yourself a viable trend that you can franchise, take public and make millions. So, do not mock the notion of “origin controlled” or “branded onion”. Someone will find a way to make it a great business decision.
Infra-trends:
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. New trends sometimes start with the our own selves, our Doppelgangers, our alter egos, those things that we are from time to time yet hate to crowd up against during rush hour – Tourists.
Sometimes when we are abroad, or even just down south, we run into something that we’ve never had before, are bowled over by it, and then want to take it home with us as if it were a furry, stuffed animal or shells from the beach. We try to find that new thing here, but to no avail. Some of us are so insistent that we open up a place to sell that very thing that we could not get otherwise. In the history of flavorings, Tabasco comes to mind. Named (kind of) after a chili from the Mexican state of Tabasco, this famous
“hot sauce” was created by an enterprising New Orleans businessman with time, peppers and salt on his hands. Now, it is everywhere. Visitors to New Orleans wanted it shipped to their homes, talked about it all the time, cooks and chefs touted its uses, and soon enough, those little bottles of fire were on tables everywhere, and were included in the bartender’s arsenal of Sunday brunch shockers.
What is the next big trend?
What flavors will next be working their way down from Upscale to Quick Service? Does the pomegranate stand a chance? Is there some as yet undiscovered flavor that we all must have? Will any item ever displace the hamburger? And what of catsup? Is there nothing we can do to make it a coveted “condiment”? Bookies everywhere should be including food trends on their list of odds. What are the odds that a corner shop selling fish balls will hit upon an idea that will become the next big trend?
Tags:
chipotle, chocolate, fish balls, food trends, new york, vidalia
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Posted on 3/7/2006
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