The computer decides: these are new food trends
Algorithms and statistics: an American food magazine had more than 2 billion social media posts analyzed, and the results are crystal clear: these are the new food trends. Are you ready for corn, pumpkin and cucumber?
One moment kimchi is everywhere, and the next you see seaweed on practically every menu—or you can’t eat anywhere without having beets pushed under your nose. What are the major trends right now? American food magazine Fine Dining Lovers teamed up with platform Tastewise to find out what common thread they saw in all those posts about food and drink on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. They ran an algorithm over them to discover: what are the current trends in restaurants?
3 million online recipes
The photos people take in restaurants were an especially rich source of inspiration for the algorithm. A few figures: 69 percent of millennials and 45 percent of the older demographic post photos of what they have eaten online. Online restaurant menus were also analyzed, as were trends in dishes people cook at home and delivered meals. Altogether, that amounted to 2 billion social media posts, 3 million online recipes and menus from 36,000 restaurants. All in the United States, so the trends may not translate one-to-one to European restaurants, but broadly speaking the developments will probably be similar.
These are the trends:
Corn
Both corn on the cob and unusual corn preparations, such as corn croquettes.
Tacos
Also hip and happening in the Netherlands: genuinely delicious Mexican food, far beyond kidney beans with an obscene amount of melted cheese.
Basil
As a flavor enhancer in cold dishes, not just in Italian dishes.
Citrus
Perhaps America adopted this trend from Europe: the preference for lighter dishes. When it comes to citrus, don’t just think of lemon and lime, but especially bergamot, blood orange and yuzu – the more exotic, the better.
Vanilla
Only the real thing, so pods and seeds—no fake vanilla from a sachet.
Lamb
Carried over from that wonderful Middle Eastern trend of recent years?
Pumpkin
A trend in America, but already a hit here for a long time: ravioli with pumpkin, sage and a little balsamic syrup.
Radishes
Deliciously crisp and fresh—and also: such a lovely pink-white-red color. Always works well on cold dishes, such as steak tartare, or grilled.
Scallops
A MasterChef cliché: if you got a euro every time someone on that show tried to make scallops without cooking them until they were rubber, you’d now have a very expensive food processor.
Sushi
A classic. Now also found outside Japanese restaurants, and with much more variety than the traditional ingredients.
Cucumber
Discover the tingling freshness of: cucumber. Cucumber flowers (borage) count too.
Toast
Old faithful toast, indispensable with—yet again—steak tartare and every cheese board (fig bread toast).
