Big Question... next trend?!

[Jim]

I am curious as to what everybody might think about the next big food trend. It seems that fusion is... well.... fusing. Nouvelle/California/Spa cuisine is mainstream. What's next? I have read about the return to comfort food... but I think that really isn't noteworthy; I think we all go back to get ahead... make sense?
Anyhow, curious as to your thoughts...

Hopefully it is just cooking properly.

new and different. I have seen foigras and tuna together and sold like hot cakes. This is the time that anything goes noone wants to see same old same old. If it is from your head and you have never seen it before it is good it sells. The strange combo's are selling and the classics are not. So i say that the future will be very interesting. So keep your noggen thinking.

chefscooter77

[Pete]

I disagree. In recent years I have seen more and more people turn back to the classics. Its directly related to the "devil-may-care" attitude about throwing any 2,3,4 ingredients together. So much fusion food is crap that people have returned to what they know is good. I'm not saying that all fusion food sucks, but most of it does. I think people are going to continue to explore regional foods in their true context, not as some twisted sort of creation such as Asian-N. African Weiner Schintzel. As I have stated in these forums many times before, the classics are classics for a reason. They will always be around.

[Jim]

Pete,
I guess I agree. I have seen alot of 'stuff thrown together' that might, maybe, possibly taste good. However, I think alot of what is out there now is a direct result of using ingredients that are newly available. Specifically, the 'new' produce (i.e purple potatoes, ancestral beans, etc). I guess there are two schools of thought: 1) Experiment with the new to expand horizons or 2) Refine the familiar and make it great. I am not sure that there is one right answer... however, I agree that throwing things together for the sake of being different should not be the path we follow.

[Pete]

Don't get me wrong. I love playing with new ingredients. And sure fusion cuisine has it's place if it is well thought out. But these new ingredients you talk about are really ancient ingredients that have been rediscovered by modern chefs. Why not do a little research on the cuisine of the country where the foods came from. Use the food in the context that it came from.

[m brown]

the next trend is no trend.

[Greg]

Something I've seen lately is greater use of game. Wild boar seems to be the latest favorite; I'm even seeing it on menus here in MN. Fusion, unfortunately, won't die; there are endless combinations of ingredients and an endless supply of unwitting customers to be dazzled by exotic sounding dishes. Personally, I'm hoping for the zen trend, too ( the next trend is no trend!).

[shahar]

I think the next trend will be a further deconstruction of menues. Mostly toward an elimantion of entrees and moving toward ala-carte menus built of small cheap items or set-menus consisting of about twelve small appatizer size dishes. That way a customer can enjoy a dinner full of surprises, color, shifts of texture without feeling over filled.
Of course this is an example and of course it's not a new idea but older. But nothing's new in this field. Many times i found my brightest most modern culinary breakthrough already written in a cooking book three hundred years old...

[Caralien]

Considering the recent trends of fusion, comfort food, decadent food, and steak & cigar restaurants, it appears that the strangest trend that could appear would be along the lines of fructarian and vegan, or at least simpler dishes. Personally, I have liked experimenting with a lot that has come out recently, but some back-to-basics cooking would be refreshing.

Vegan is a great challenge, as a chef. I do that often, for specials. I think fusion or classic, it doesn't matter as long as it's good quality ingredients and it WORKS. I've had classics by people who call themselves chefs that have no idea what they're doing. They have no palette. Seasoning should be the new food trend, because that's my most common complaint when I eat out. Or let's just call it Salt N Pepa. or someone already did that!

Vegan is a great challenge, as a chef. I do that often, for specials. I think fusion or classic, it doesn't matter as long as it's good quality ingredients and it WORKS. I've had classics by people who call themselves chefs that have no idea what they're doing. They have no palette. Seasoning should be the new food trend, because that's my most common complaint when I eat out. Or let's just call it Salt N Pepa. or someone already did that!

Its amazing how many people don't know how to use salt and pepper. It was one of the first seasonings I was taught to use.

I hope that the next trend is one that started this whole business. People getting back to enjoying cuisine, not running in and out of your restaurant because they didn't want to cook but have to get home before "Friends" starts. I would like to see people getting back to the five or seven coarse meals. The classics have their place but so do the new ideas coming out around the world. Chefs just have to be carful when doing fusion cuisine. Everyone is right no one can just throw 3 or 4 ingredients together, but if done right the meal, sauce, or whatever can taste really great.

Originally posted by Jim:
I am curious as to what everybody might think about the next big food trend. It seems that fusion is... well.... fusing. Nouvelle/California/Spa cuisine is mainstream. What's next? I have read about the return to comfort food... but I think that really isn't noteworthy; I think we all go back to get ahead... make sense?
Anyhow, curious as to your thoughts...

Back to the old style of cooking, Hollandaises, Tournedos Rossini,Veal Oscar, Lobster Thermidor, do I agree,not really but thats what I have been seeing around New York City lately.Hey did anybody see David Bouley boiling in a bag in last Wednesdays, New York Times thats a little off the hook for me.