Future food trends?

[21TonyK]

Whats new? Where I live in South Devon we are literally 5 years behind major cities, think pasties and cream teas.

I have quite a bit of spare time and potentially a lot more over the next 6-12 months.

Thinking about a new food based business, not even going to consider bricks and mortar, been there, done that.

What have you seen that looks promising?

[devnull]

All things umami I reckon - Japanese, Korean big spicy flavours. Lends well to vegans / vegetarians too as you can play on mushroom flavours.

I think the whole big dirty American style burgers / loaded fries trend is over saturated now.

[Lynchie999]

devnull said:

All things umami I reckon - Japanese, Korean big spicy flavours. Lends well to vegans / vegetarians too as you can play on mushroom flavours.

Yeh, I'd say this too... Vietnamese / Korean etc... (Korean also covers Fried Chicken!)

[ambuletz]

japanese has already reached saturation, korean is almost there. IMO brazilian and filipino food are slowly making a rise.

[Motoring12345]

As I live in London there are ultimately lots of niche subcultures in the food industry that you decided to pursue. Based on my likes and social life I feel like below is a good representation of current food trends for people my age.


Reginal Chinese seems to be getting big around east and south London - Stuff like Biang Biang noodles, authentic dishes from Xing Jing region.

Also experimental/modern Turkish. Places like Magal 2 and Black Mangal.

You also have modern French/Scandinavian small plate places popping up with natural wine.

[Cotty]

devnull said:

All things umami I reckon - Japanese, Korean big spicy flavours. Lends well to vegans / vegetarians too as you can play on mushroom flavours.

What about Vietnamese especially things like Pho. There is a Vietnamese I need to try locally
https://saigonbargrill.co.uk/

[Cotty]

21TonyK said:

What have you seen that looks promising?

There is a Cook near me that I have not visited, covid etc but some people are lazy sometimes or just want something in the freezer as a back up. Frozen meals you can pick up at a shop or delivered to your door.
https://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals

[Chunkychucky]

ambuletz said:

IMO brazilian and filipino food are slowly making a rise.

Oddly quite a few Brazilian restaurants round here in N. Yorkshire, varying between the steak-on-a-sword places to more a la carte dining - not bad for a bit of steak, but once you've been to experience it then it's kind of been done.

Filipino would be intriguing to try.

[JKRolling]

I’m starting to follow some of the recipes/ideas Roy Choi has from his Kogi Food Truck days, especially Korean inspired tacos! I’ve seen something similar at the Digbeth Dining Club.

Edited by JKRolling on Friday 4th February 13:27

[ambuletz]

Chunkychucky said:

ambuletz said:

IMO brazilian and filipino food are slowly making a rise.

Oddly quite a few Brazilian restaurants round here in N. Yorkshire, varying between the steak-on-a-sword places to more a la carte dining - not bad for a bit of steak, but once you've been to experience it then it's kind of been done.

Filipino would be intriguing to try.

I've noticed an increase around east london. afew fast food places, restaurants and now also some butchers too. pork is making a come back it would seem as the only 'local butcher' type places are halal ones.

[captain.scarlet]

ambuletz said:

japanese has already reached saturation, korean is almost there. IMO brazilian and filipino food are slowly making a rise.

Agree there. I remember when Thai initially started off it really was a big thing until it reached saturation point, and more recently Japanese and Korean have done the same. Seems like Vietnamese came in to kind of fill another country void, but I'm not sure that some aspects of Filipino food would be massively appealing.

I would say central Asian as another unexplored part of the world: the menu is limited and very hearty. Some items similar to Turkish, which with it's heavy grilling focus would surely appeal to everyone.

I've also in recent years become a fan of Ethiopian and Eritrean food. There's pure vegan stuff that they have as authentic which from restaurants I've frequented have proven to be very popular, then there are meat dishes that are very tasty. Injera bread does require time and effort to make, but being made from teff for flour it's also very healthy and does not bloat, so altogether their foods fill you up rather than fill you out.

[Venisonpie]

21TonyK said:

Whats new? Where I live in South Devon we are literally 5 years behind major cities, think pasties and cream teas.

I have quite a bit of spare time and potentially a lot more over the next 6-12 months.

Thinking about a new food based business, not even going to consider bricks and mortar, been there, done that.

What have you seen that looks promising?

Home dining service? Wealthy folk who would like to host a dinner party but not confident in the kitchen? Agree about taking on too much risk, I think target the most affluent market and keep risk/overheads as low as possible.

[nebpor]

Tony, I think an Asian-inspired mash-up is best - as said, hits the healthy and vegetarian market, but can also hit the hot and spicy market.

A fusion-style place has so many countries to draw dishes from, using many of the same ingredients, without being stuck on a "traditional" country menu.

Here's a great example. Everyone loves it https://www.ka-pao.com/

In my own experience, you barely see a Japanese restaurant outside of London BTW - not a proper one at any rate. I'd kill for more in Scotland

[devnull]

Cotty said:

21TonyK said:

What have you seen that looks promising?

There is a Cook near me that I have not visited, covid etc but some people are lazy sometimes or just want something in the freezer as a back up. Frozen meals you can pick up at a shop or delivered to your door.
https://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals

FWIW we were gifted a cook voucher when we had our first kid a couple of years ago. Everyone raved on about it and we were very grateful, but the food was very so so, bland and super expensive.

[Sway]

Cook is pretty local to us, so we're fairly familiar with them. It's OK, reasonable 'home cooking' made labour less.

Mate kicked off a satay bike over lockdown after being made redundant. It's done very well selling simple grilled wraps during the day, and often is outside a local micro pub early evenings too.

He then added in a weekly "curry club" to heat at home either fresh or frozen. Can be collected from the bike or delivered locally through one night a week.

He's now bought himself a cabinet smoker, and is adding in smoked hams, etc. Idea is that when he does his weekly prep day he's got some decent sized batches of things cooking away with little attention.