Archive for the ‘Eating Trends’ Category
The Top Ten Culinary Trends of 2009
December 16, 2009
With the many culinary breakthroughs that bubbled to the surface of the national restaurant scene in recent months, 2009 is fated to be remembered as a year of culinary renaissance. Perhaps the recession was the muse that sparked everyone’s renewed thinking about food, serving portions, costs, and restaurant business models. It’s the year that gourmet kitchens turned mobile, restaurants discovered the benefits of local meats and produce, and Americans explored “the fifth taste.” Above all, it was the year in which America’s renewed interest in well-crafted, high quality meals reached its defining moment. There’s never been a better time to eat in America. Below are ten reasons why.
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Returning to Our Culinary Roots
December 11, 2009
It used to be that modern eating was all about speed–the faster the process of preparation and consumption, the better it was. The ideal–as often portrayed in pop culture’s depiction of the future à-la-Jetsons–was a meal in pill form–conveniently small, requiring a single swallow for complete consumption. A pill is also a man-made artifact, presumably formulated in a laboratory, with the help of advanced pharmaceutical technology and far-removed from nature.
We were on track to make eating and food preparation super-efficient. The fast-food chains and processed food manufacturers that emerged mid-century championed this goal and grew exponentially in the decades that followed. Cooking was fast. Eating was fast. Restaurants became drive-ins and drive-throughs. Baking became a two-step process (Just add water!). And speed overshadowed nutrition as the priority in our eating habits as we grew ever more excited, delighted, and amazed with our seemingly advanced technology and lifestyles.
Fast forward a half century later, and we find the trend toward fast, compact meals has not only lost steam, it’s reaching a turning point. And this observation is certainly a paradox when all the touchpoints in our lives are becoming more compact and real-time: communications technology, communication habits, computer processing speed, information retrieval, analysis, and decision-making.
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Paving the Way to Guilt-Free Dining: An Interview with Clean Plates Author Jared Koch
November 4, 2009
New York City can a tough place in many ways, but not in terms of finding healthy food.
In an attempt to prove that delicious taste and varied flavors can be synonymous with good nutrition, Clean Plates puts reviews of Manhattan’s best healthy dining options, plus advice on improving your diet, all in one handy guide. With a nutritionist perspective and a democratic acceptance of diverse preferences and philosophies – yes, the guide does save room for meat, as long as it’s sustainably raised – the 125 restaurants in the compilation have all tastes covered.
Jared Koch, the nutritionist mastermind behind the guide, is a proponent of bioindividuality: a food-forward approach to healthy eating that disperses the single-mindedness of one-size-fits-all diets. Now, like technology, eating is all about customization, and we find that perfectly tech chic. To find out more about New York’s healthy dining scene, we invited Jared to sit down for an interview. Read below to learn his take on personalized diets, how vegan isn’t always healthy, and the healthiest way to incorporate indulgences into your eating choices.
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Head Cheese, Please: How Americans Are Broadening Their Palates
September 15, 2009
American diners are growing ever more adventurous: that, or the recession-driven “waste not, want not” mentality is expanding comfort zones and broadening the inventory of animal parts we’re willing to eat, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Whether it’s the head, feet, organs, or tail – what’s collectively called the “offal” – of an animal, more upscale restaurants are now including them on their menus.
For chefs, the use of offal is a way of embracing a more creative, completist approach to the use of animal meat and parts. Yet, it’s an approach that also requires some strategy: restaurant guests may be more experimental these days, but that does not mean that they have completely renounced their reservations regarding offal. For the sake of sensitive palates, chefs tend to offer dishes like head cheese in smaller portioned appetizers, or they pair them with more traditional meat dishes, like steak.
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