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.
1. Twittering Food Trucks
Whether it was the Korean-Mexican fusion of the Kogi Korean Barbecue truck in L.A. or Van Leeuwen’s artisinal ice cream truck in New York, one thing was certain in 2009: Food went mobile. But don’t confuse these Twittering trucks with the standard grease-caked taco truck or coffee cart—these are one-of-a-kind, gourmet kitchens on wheels offering dishes that show care and attention to detail. And their ability to change locations on a whim affords them a magical quality. The Twitter-savvy have the upper hand since the trucks always tweet their locations, but nothing beats the sense of good fortune when you come across one of these trucks spontaneously.
2. The Rise of Pho
When L.A. allows for its most famous zip-code to be reinvented with a restaurant known as 9021 Pho, you know that the Vietnamese dish has made it. 2009 was indisputably the year of the noodle. The recipe for pho couldn’t be much simpler—hot broth, noodles, a healthy sprinkling of cilantro and some shreds of raw beef. Yet, it’s one of those mysterious, savory combinations that never fails to hit the spot. Though pho is just fine in its basic form, its simplicity can also serve as a blank canvas for your colorful culinary additions. Add green onions, bean sprouts, and basil to your liking; doctor it up with hoisin sauce or the unbeatable sriracha hot sauce for a bit of kick. Just be warned: After you gain a taste for pho, severe noodle cravings could haunt you again at any moment.
3. Head-to-tail Consumption
You never thought you would say the phrase “Please pass the tripe,” but the year 2009 might have changed that. More and more diners took the proverb “waste not want not” to heart, or shall we say cow’s heart. From the cheeks to the tongue to the tail to the feet, a wider array of animal parts and organs made their way onto diners’ plates. Consider it a function of the recession, or perhaps the dawn of an era of experimentation. Either way, few things were considered off limits when it came to meat products.
Eating offal (the technical term for these animal parts) is nothing new. Authentic restaurants like San Francisco’s La Folie have been serving offal-infused dishes, like pig’s feet terrine, for years, and the traditional cuisines of China, Italy, France, and South America embrace tripe. But for typically more squeamish American diners, consider this foray into uncharted meat territory a major expansion of the national palate.
4. Locavore Dining
From the White House to the dog house, everyone wanted to feel a more personal connection to their food this year. Produce wasn’t desirable unless you could theoretically drive an hour or less and pick it off the farm yourself, or so it seemed. Although restaurants like Chez Panisse have been promoting the concept for decades (not to mention humans have been eating local since hunting and gathering times), local food consumption made a major comeback at restaurants this year and it’s extended beyond its Bay Area roots. The logic is that food can be of higher quality if it doesn’t have to undergo the wear and tear of a global or cross-country trek to get to your table. Urban farming and backyard vegetable gardens were in, as were a number of spin-off trends, like organic, slow food, and sustainably raised produce and meat products.
5. Housemade Ingredients
Continuing with the trend of locality, housemade (or house-made) ingredients are even more local than local: they’re prepared in the restaurant itself. Take Dressler, the Michelin-starred, Brooklyn restaurant whose menu is dappled with ingredients like “housemade pickles,” “housemade gnocchi,” and “housemade granola.” Unlike the term homemade, which has grown passé, housemade doesn’t merely refer to a style of cooking; it implies a greater sense of craftsmanship and propriety. Step aside, Grandma. Your homemade apple pie won’t impress, unless of course it features a house-made crust.
6. Prix Fixe Menus
Keep it simple and up-front. That’s the idea behind prix fixe menus, which sprouted up at restaurants around the United States. Pre fixe means an entire meal of multiple courses has been pre-determined with a set price. Consider it a more European style of dining out. It eliminates the tedious decision-making process when dining as a group, and puts the trust in the chef’s selection of dishes. It may seem like a more passive form of dining, but it also allows you to sit back, relax, and not worry about unpleasant surprises once the check makes its way to the table.
7. Small Plates
On the other end of the spectrum from pre fixe is the small plate. People love customizing and sharing these days, and the rise of small plates gives you proof. If in the past you ever went to a restaurant with a rowdy group of friends after an evening of barhopping and ordered a slew of appetizers to share, then you get the idea. But don’t turn your nose up at the thought of bar food. Small plates can also exhibit entree-worthy complexity and attention to detail. Whether its tapas or izakaya, you can find treasures like lamb skewers or grade-A sashimi in the international world of small plates. Of course, sticking to the bar food roots, any small plates meal goes best with plenty of wine, beer, or sake to go around.
8. Umami Knowledge
If you ever thought the taste of a particular dish carried an elusive, yet seductive quality, that certain je ne sais quoi might have in fact been Umami. Just as delightful to taste as it is to say, umami, a borrowed Japanese word that means “flavor” is known as “the fifth taste” sensed by our taste buds (the other tastes being sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). Best described as savory or brothy, umami is the taste we often associate with meats, mushrooms, cheeses, or tomato sauce. As we all exclaim a collective “Why didn’t I think of that,” some gourmets are now seizing the renewed opportunity to explore this linguistically overlooked taste.
Umami is believed to come from glutamic acid, which is found in high protein foods. It’s also thought to be the key to addictive foods (potato chips, for instance, are high in glutamic acid, which is why you really can’t eat just one). A naturally addictive flavor may sound like a restaurateur’s fantasy, but some are hoping it’s a reality. Umami Cafe in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, is certainly putting all bets on the taste. Every dish at the cafe contains at least three umami ingredients. The most dangerously addictive dish? The Truffle Mac and Cheese: it combines 5 umami ingredients, including wine, cream, black truffles, and parmagiano and reggiano cheeses.
9. Smoked and Savory Liquors
While this trend could be filed under the new interest in the aforementioned umami, the expansion into cocktail territory deserves special recognition. As mixologists push the envelop in terms of cocktail creativity, it seems they’ve exhausted every combination of fruit, vegetable, and herb-infused flavors. Finally, they have crossed that final frontier: meat-flavored cocktails. Take the bacon and egg martini at L.A.’s Allston Yacht Club. This, perhaps the most unusual of 2009’s culinary trends, is presumably an offshoot of America’s renewed love for bacon, plus the recent spotlight on creative cocktails. More generally, though, bacon cocktails are indicative of a more pronounced tendency for putting things where it was once thought they didn’t belong.
10. Drunch/Slunch
Whatever you choose to call it, it might as well just be called Sunday at this point, or better yet, Saturday night recovery. The most recent chapter in the evolution of brunch, drunch’s typically occupies the hours of 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The meal’s defining elements are a.) Alcoholic drinks served in the daytime, b.) Several hours of free time, and c.) A hangover. While brunch typically puts the focus on food, drunch permits the cocktails to take the spotlight. This may be the most nascent of 2009’s culinary trends. The terms drench and slunch haven’t made official entry into the restaurant lexicon, but the grassroots beginnings are in the works. Now, let’s have another round of bacon martinis.
Sources:
“House Sweet House,’” pressherald.mainetoday.com;
“What’s Umami? Human Taste Now Comes in Five Flavours,” cbc.ca;
“Allston Yacht Club’s Bacon & Egg Martini: It’s What’s for Breakfast,” latimesblog.latimes.com;
“Drunch: The New Dining Trend,” swide.com.
Photo courtesy of:
schemamag.ca;
prochoiceva.wordpress.com;
Wendy Maeda;
National Restaurant Association;
Kogi (via blogs.ocweekly.com);
Print ThisPosted in Culinary Trends, Eating Trends, Gourmet food trucks, Health, Ingredients, Restaurants, Tech Chic, Trends, Wine |
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