20 food trends for 2020
Anne Fullerton and Larissa Dubecki explore the culinary innovations and fads that lie ahead.
01.Booze-free bars
With millennials drinking less than previous generations, a new wave of alcohol-free bars is catering to the dry and sober-curious. In New York, abstinent haunts such as Getaway (getaway.bar) and pop-ups such as Listen Bar (listen.bar) offer cocktails to rival their booze-filled counterparts, while Dublin’s The Virgin Mary (thevirginmarybar.com) and London’s Redemption (redemptionbar.co.uk) are leading the charge in two famously hard-partying capitals.
02.Table-to-farm dining
Turning the (ahem) tables on farm-to-table eating, several companies have begun hosting pop-up dining events in the very places where food is produced. In Western Australia, chef Paul Iskov of Fervor (fervor.com.au) works with Aboriginal land custodians to showcase native flavours in remote and spectacular landscapes, while international outfit Outstanding in the Field (outstandinginthefield.com) will set up its long, open-air table on Australian shores for the first time in February, in Byron Bay. If you’re after something less temporal, Margaret River’s Arimia (arimia.com.au) is solar-powered and grows almost everything it serves on site.
03.
Honey, I shrunk the cocktail
It’s the fun way to moderate your drinking. Half-serve cocktails are the next big thing in the world of drinks, testament to the low-booze movement and the growing trend of drinking less but better. Grab a snack-sized Martini at Sydney’s Bea restaurant at Barangaroo House (barangaroohouse.com.au), Maybe Sammy in the Rocks (maybesammy. com) or Bar Topa in the CBD (merivale.com). In Melbourne’s city centre, there’s Bar Margaux (barmargaux.com.au, left). With any luck, you’ll have half the hangover.
04.Free agents
A number of high-profile restaurateurs went out on a limb in 2019, making 2020 an exciting year for gourmands. Kylie Kwong closed her acclaimed Sydney eatery Billy Kwong after 19 years with plans to open a more casual venue in South Eveleigh (formerly the Australian Technology Park), while the duo behind New York’s three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park (elevenmadisonpark.com) parted ways. Daniel Humm will buy out partner Will Guidara’s stake in the business, with the latter saying he plans to start his own restaurant group. Exactly what he’s cooking up remains to be seen.
05.Buggin’ out
Indigenous cultures from Australia to Mexico have had insects on the menu for millennia. Now it seems the rest of the world is catching on. The insect-protein market will be worth US$8 billion (about $11.7 billion) by 2030, according to a recent report by Barclays – eight times its current value – with interest fuelled by consumer concerns about sustainability. Chefs including René Redzepi (Noma) and Kylie Kwong have dabbled in bug fare but crickets and mealworms are taking off at a conventional level, too. Insect-based snacks are now sold in Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom and through online retailers, including the Edible Bug Shop (ediblebugshop.com.au) in Australia. Even America’s beef-ranching state of Montana is getting on board – Cowboy Cricket Farms (cowboycrickets.com) will open its first bug farm this year.
06.Opposites attract
A portmanteau of “paleo” and “vegan”, a pegan diet takes two popular eating preferences and combines them to create one nightmare dinner guest. It’s an odd coupling – paleo eaters tend to rely heavily on meat, while vegans eschew animal products altogether – but adopting a pegan-ish outlook can be a good way to transition to an unprocessed, plant-based diet. Peganism’s creator, doctor and author Mark Hyman, makes allowances for an occasional serving of pasture-raised organic meat or sustainably sourced seafood but says it should be treated as a side, rather than the main event.
07. The last straw
There’s a new weapon in the war on straws – and it tastes great with Neapolitan sauce. After the EU voted to ban single-use plastics by 2021, images of Italians using pasta straws (above right) went viral and startups began getting in on the action. The Malibubased The Amazing Pasta Straw (pastastraws.org) ships globally.
08. A touch of romance
Dark and moody bars and bistros are on the rise, taking old-school Paris and New York as inspiration. Perth’s neighbourhood-style Le Rebelle (lerebelle.com.au) in Mount Lawley and central Sydney’s cosy Little Felix (merivale.com, above) swing classic French, while lamplit Pepe’s Italian & Liquor (pepesitalian. com.au) in Melbourne’s CBD exudes an Italian-American vibe.
09.Beyond the Beyond Burger
Plant-based “meats”, such as the Beyond and Impossible burgers, have become so ubiquitous that they’re served in American fast-food chains but both versions rely on plant proteins to mimic the texture and flavour of the real deal. The next step in the ethical-meat revolution? Lab-grown meat that’s indistinguishable from the farmed variety. Finless Foods (finlessfoods.com), a California-based startup, is using cellular agriculture technology to grow marine-animal cells in the hope of making sustainable labproduced fish a reality in “years, not decades”, while Just (ju.st), which already sells a vegan egg substitute, aims to get its cultured Wagyu beef into restaurants even sooner.
10.The next mescal
With mescal now found in everything from cocktails to desserts, connoisseurs have started the search for the next big spirit – though they haven’t ventured far, geographically speaking. Pox (pronounced “posh”) is an ancient Mayan tipple brewed from corn and sugar cane that’s predicted to become the next cult drink, while sotol, a spirit distilled from a plant of the same name, has been available in America for some time. Pox can be found in some mescal bars but the price makes it prohibitive for most watering holes. Then again, the exclusivity is certainly part of the appeal.
11.Round and round
Bite-sized is back, from Italian classics such as meatballs to the crab and curry powder morsels at Sydney’s Lankan Filling Station (lankanfilling station.com.au), and the best examples are spherical. American chef Andrew Zimmern has even listed his favourite round foods, including boudin (a Cajun pork and rice sausage) at Cochon in New Orleans, the meatball sub at Chicago’s Publican Quality Meats and a Latin-American take on Scotch eggs at New York’s Empellón.
12.New vegies on the block
Purple haze carrots, New Guinea beans, spigarello broccoli – obscure vegetables and little-known heirloom varieties are top of the pops as chefs search for the latest statement. Growers such as The Falls Farm (thefallsfarm. com) on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast produce these and other unsung heroes to order. With begonia, purple choi and baby sun rose trending in eateries across the land, we’re expanding our dining horizons beyond the everyday.
13.
Wine into water
Sales of lightly flavoured alcoholic sparkling water, aka hard seltzer, are exploding in America, growing by about 200 per cent in the past financial year, according to Nielsen data. It has the same alcohol content as standard beer with far less sugar. But there’s another reason for its success – producers have found a way to brew the beverages, which means they’re taxed at a lower rate than mixed drinks made with distilled alcohol. Hard seltzer is convenient, cost-effective and as low-kilojoule as you can get without giving up the booze altogether.
14.
From margins to mainstream
Indigenous ingredients are finally moving from fine-dining cameos to lead roles thanks to a growing awareness of their possibilities. Warrigal greens, saltbush, river mint, finger lime and lilly pilly are hitting the mainstream. You’ll also find them growing at the Yerrabingin Indigenous rooftop farm, a 500-square-metre garden on an office block in Sydney’s Eveleigh (yerrabingin. com.au). At Mabu Mabu (mabumabu.com.au) in Melbourne’s Yarraville, you can brunch on purple yam smash and saltbush and pepperberry crocodile with a side of cured wild boar bacon. “I’m trying to break out of the idea that you have to sit in a fine-diner and get a little sliver of something native on a dish,” says owner-chef Nornie Bero, a Torres Strait Islander. “We want to make a difference by saying this is the way it should be.”
15.Hyper-regional cuisine
Referring to a restaurant as “Japanese” or “Mexican” is so last decade. Savvy diners know that national cuisine varies wildly between regions and are looking for menus that reflect this diversity. In East Sydney, Yu Sasaki brings the flavours of Japanese prefecture Shimane to life at his namesake restaurant (sasaki.com.au), where the tables, chopsticks and crockery all hail from the region. Global Mexican offerings have so far been dominated by Oaxacan food but the fresh flavours of the Baja Peninsula look set to give it a run for its money, especially in health-conscious California, where eateries such as Sol Mexican Cocina (solcocina.com) in Newport Beach are riffing on the seafoodheavy cuisine. Meanwhile, London has gone all-in on regional Italian – from the area-specific fare of Rosso (enotecarosso.com) to Venetian share plates at Polpo (polpo.co.uk).
16.Secret fish business
It’s been dubbed “the Josh Niland effect” and the man behind Saint Peter restaurant and Fish Butchery (saintpeter.com.au) in Sydney’s Paddington can certainly claim credit for the gill-to-fin movement of chefs daring to explore beyond the fillet. Fish wings and collars, prawn heads and dry-cured shellfish are appearing on menus around the nation as concerns about food waste increase: Ben Devlin at Pipit (pipit restaurant.com) in Pottsville, northern NSW, is a fan of turning the fat stores of cobia or Murray cod into brioche petits fours and madeleines.
17.Hello, possum
It’s been dubbed pestatarianism and if artist Kirsha Kaechele has her way, we’ll be eating sweet and sour cane toad, wild cat consommé and myna bird parfait. Part cookbook, part philosophical treatise, Eat the Problem proposes consuming invasive species to stop them decimating native animal populations. Restaurants such as Melbourne’s Vue de Monde (vuedemonde.com.au) have supported the cause with one-off dinners featuring wild rabbit cooked in camel hump fat. The long-spined sea urchin is served in select eateries and possum has appeared on the menu at Melbourne sceneleader Attica (attica.com.au).
18.Sake’s time to shine
Japan’s rice-based brew is ready for take-off and we’re not talking imports from the Land of the Rising Sun. Australian distillers are climbing aboard, with brewer Sun Masamune (sun-masamune.com.au) in Sydney’s Penrith making the Go-Shu range and craft beer company Yulli’s Brews (yullisbrews.com.au) in inner-city Sydney producing clear and cloudy sakes. James Harvey, co-owner of the operation, says the liquor is gaining traction among drinkers for its versatility, while the local product showcases the Aussie terroir. “Our sake is made with NSW-grown medium-grain rice, locally cultivated koji and our soft Sydney water. Once you realise how dynamic – and damn delicious – it is, it’s hard to turn back.”
19. Food with a conscience
Every week in Australia, OzHarvest (ozharvest.org) rescues more than 180 tonnes of food “waste” from supermarkets, cafés and restaurants and delivers it to charities that help people in need. In the United States, Drive Change (drivechangenyc.org), which employs young ex-prisoners in its food trucks, has turned into a culinary training school. Even Italy’s Massimo Bottura (below), one of the world’s best chefs, is cooking with a conscience, co-founding Food for Soul (foodforsoul.it) in 2016 to combat food waste and undernourishment – issues he describes as “two faces of the same problem”. He has since opened refettorios (community kitchens) in Milan, Rio de Janeiro, London and Paris that use top chefs to turn unwanted ingredients into healthy meals for the cities’ poor. There’s now talk of similar projects in Sydney and New York’s Bronx.
20. Time-warp desserts
You may have noticed an American classic, bombe Alaska, popping up on Australian dessert menus – from the mescal-flamed version (below) at inner-Sydney’s Mary’s Underground (marysunderground.com) to the pear and sorrel confection with caramelised puffed rice at Coda (codarestaurant.com. au) in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane. Or perhaps you saw New York magazine herald the “surprising comeback” of traditional British puddings such as Eton mess and rhubarb trifle. Whether you blame the influence of TV series The Great British Bake-Off or consider it an international case of saccharine nostalgia, there’s no denying we’re in the midst of a retro-dessert renaissance.