Brilliant Thoughts - Hot Food Trends in the New Year

Bienvenue à 2010!
This month marks the very welcome beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. Although there will likely still be a bit more walking in the dark in 2010, most of us are starting to feel the situation brightening. No better time then to implement some bright new ideas! Every year, the National Restaurant Association (a U.S.-based advocate for the professional culinarian) polls over 1,800 chefs to determine the up and coming trends for the next twelve months.

Unsurprisingly, locally sourced products top almost every category for the industry. Equally unsurprising, most respondents cited food items that concentrated on health, in different forms, as an important trend in the upcoming year. These items ranged from creating entrée salad options for children to investing in gluten-free beer! Yet the best consensus in my opinion? Nearly three-quarters of the chefs surveyed agreed that creating menu items around underused cuts of meat and non-traditional fish - read inexpensive and readily available - is going to be super-hot in 2010. Save the environment and save money? Makes bright sense to me!


EDITED TO ADD: Check out how restaurants, supermarkets and cookbooks are putting these trends to work in Calgary!