Goodbye comfort food. Your place in the culinary sun is being overshadowed by the next big trend discomfort food.
Strong, competing flavours and cultural mash-ups are breaking all the rules, says Michael Whiteman, one of the worlds most sought-after restaurant consultants.
His trends talk at the Food Expo trade show was titled When Worlds of Flavour Collide. Three years ago, when he showed a photo of Vancouvers Japadog food cart at the Culinary Institute of America, his audience laughed. Mondays audience at the Vancouver Convention Centre might have squirmed in their seats as he showed photo after photo of questionable offspring of various cultural cuisines, but they were taking his observations very seriously.
Pastrami egg rolls, cheeseburger sushi and spaghetti tacos were examples of what he called confusion cuisine. Chefs and owners have thrown out the rule books, he said.
Comfort food, which became fashionable when the recession hit and everyone craved food that filled a yearning for happier times, has hit the wall, Whiteman said. Now were bored by gastro-nostalgia and want more innovation.
Were also looking for the thrill of being attacked by strong, spicy flavours. Theres a neurological reason why we like foods that lay siege on our tastebuds; the link in our brain between pleasure and pain is very close. Radical tastes jangle your brain chemistry and youre hooked.
A second trend is snacking. People want to drop by a restaurant at four in the afternoon and not feel guilty ordering something small. More of us are eating four times a day and some are just grazing from snack to snack.
And when four oclock rolls around, be prepared for more customers wanting to share a drink with friends. A lot of people dont work in an office; instead, they spend the day on the road. By the end of the afternoon, they want to gather with colleagues to talk over the days events. If theyre drinking earlier, theyre also eating later. (At this point Whiteman showed a slide of Late Night Sloppy Duck, which goes on the menu at a New York restaurant only after 10 p.m.)
Artisan and hand-made authentic foods are appealing to foodies who are not only more knowledgeable about what they eat, but are also more adventurous. Look for crispy sweetbreads topped with pasta made of squid.
He encouraged chefs to think of certain items on the menu as carriers foods that can be laden with other flavours and foods. Carriers include hamburgers, which can be loaded to excess, French fries (eggs Benedict poutine, anyone?) and pizza.
If you dont believe him, he said, that single Japadog cart has not only spawned other Japadog carts and a brick-and-mortar Japadog restaurant but its now making a foray into Whitemans home town, New York.
Laugh no more when theres a chipotle pork chop with carrot kimchee and tarragon mayonnaise on the menu.
