2022 TRENDS
Used coffee grinds, lion’s mane mushrooms among local picks
Jackfruit, once considered an upcoming food trend, has found a comfortable place on a lot of local menus.
Other future stars have sizzled before they fizzled: Cupcakes, gourmet hot dogs, stuffed portobello mushrooms, ancient grains and decadent toast are recent examples.
As 2022 kicks off, some local chefs are on the watch for the next thrilling ingredients.
Seth Lassak, the chef at Wolf ’s Ridge Brewing, said he’s favoring spent coffee grinds and Asian apples.
In one dish, he buries earthy beets in used coffee grinds, which flavor one of the restaurant’s homemade beers, and are repeatedly rinsed for a cleaner taste.
The beets are imbued with coffee flavor – but not too much, he said.
“It’s subtle but you can definitely taste the coffee,” he said. The plate is garnished with a coffee-balsamic reduction, horseradish cream, Manchego cheese and a pile of frisée.
For the Asian pears, Lassak likes to keep them fresh, using them in a slaw, for example, as a foil for rich meats, such as glazed pork belly.
At Rodos European Grill, a casual spot in Clintonville, co-owner and chef Erion Permeti said he wants to see couscous make a triumphant comeback.
“It’s not new but it’s not popular,” Permeti said, and it’s not even on the regular menu; he uses it only on the catering menu to build a Greek salad.
He uses the little balls of semolina in lieu of lettuce. He said the couscous absorbs the lemon-olive oi dressing better but doesn’t get soggy.
“It holds the taste in,” he said.
He said he also likes whole-animal cooking seen in rural parts of the Middle East. A chicken, for example, is stuffed with vegetables, fruit and seasonings, sutured up, tied to a dowel rod and lowed into a pit, dangling above smoldering charcoal and wood.
The hole is covered by a plate, with dirt shoveled over the top, to trap in the heat.
“I’m not saying that’s going to happen here, believe me, but the technique is cool,” he said.
Clearly, plant-based diets are here to stay and growing as fast as a sunflower under bright summer skies.
Mike Goldstick, who cofounded Guided by Mushrooms in Dayton two years ago, sees lion’s mane mushrooms roaring out of the gate, given the good kickstart it got last year.
At first glance, it might not look too appetizing, given its fuzzy appearance – Goldstick calls the protruding spikes “teeth” – but the mushroom itself has a dense texture somewhere between tofu and meat, he said.
Goldstick, whose company has several local accounts, said the mushroom is often used as a substitute for seafood, particularly crab and scallops, but also can complement other ingredients or serve as the centerpiece of a dish.
The teeth, meanwhile, soften when cooked, so there’s no competing textures, he said.