At the cutting edge of cooking – what trends can we expect for 2016?
Looking back to this time last year, we put together a part tongue-in-cheek, part serious review of trends we’d noticed, and what we predicted might become trends in 2015, with the help of Google (Five food and cooking trends in 2014 and two predictions for 2015).
They say it’s not a good idea to look back at predictions you’ve made in the past, and now that we have, we can see the reason why. In fact, we could probably just slap ‘2016’ at the top of last year’s article and still get away with it. But now we’ve said that, we can’t really do it now.
What is very interesting re-reading last year’s article is to see how many ‘trends’ take a long time to go mainstream. Quite a few mentioned are still trends, maybe a little bigger now. Or perhaps we were just a little ahead of our time. It’s also something many business owners have to deal with when their product, described by the media as an ‘overnight success’, is revealed to have been on the market for many years before being ‘discovered’.
When we talk to I.O.Shen and Nirey stockists around Australia, we always ask them what trends they are seeing in their industry, whether these are trends at the consumer or the pro end of town.
So this year, straight from our very own research and conversations with our stockists, we present 15 general trends we’ve spotted…
1) Preservative free, gluten free and nitrate free meat and meat products (Lee’s unusual career change)
2) Strong regional restaurant cultures, with places like the Gold Coast, Noosa, Port Douglas and Palm Cove leading the charge (A day in the life of a restaurant critic)
3) Japanese/Asian style knives – like the IO Shen range – gaining in popularity due to lighter weight than more traditional style chefs knives and so much easier to use if you’re working a long eight hour shift (this trend mentioned by many of our stockists eg here… Japanese style chefs knives gaining popularity in the Top End)
4) Cooking shows on TV driving renewed interest in cooking and cooking utensils, anything from knives to new gadgets. Devices like the Spiralizer and Nutribullet selling well based on strong TV advertising campaigns and the current focus on healthy eating (Purveyor of chefs knives and knife sharpeners tothe tropical far north)
5) Fishing using ‘Micro Jigging’ – using ultra light rods and jigs with different techniques – not strictly food-related we know, but interesting… we think (Angela’s Warehouse)
6) A move away from catching fish to eat by recreational fishers – most fishers now only catch and release, aware of the sustainability issues facing fishing stocks (Angela’s Warehouse)
7) Fewer, better kitchen knives – Matt Preston’s advises that you really only need two kitchen knives – a ‘sharp large chef’s knife’ and a ‘good small knife’. We disagree of course (News roundup for lovers of kitchen knives, chefs knives and professional knives)
8) Bespoke knife making (News roundup for lovers of kitchen knives, chefs knives and professional knives)
9) A lot more people doing home food preparation – not just making cakes, more like home sausage making and home butchering, where good knives are essential (Is your kitchen knife or chefs knife a little ill? Go and see the doctor)
10) A lot of city dwellers getting very interested in hunting and bushcraft, even a sort of ‘survivalist’ movement (Is your kitchen knife or chefs knife a little ill? Go and see the doctor)
11) Raw food diet trend, which is seeing a lot of Spiralizers go out the door (Head to Australia’s shopping Mecca to get your next chef’s knife)
12) Kettles shaped like ducks, giraffes and cows – you heard it here first! (Head to Australia’s shopping Mecca to get your next chef’s knife)
13) The ‘keep’ cup – a reusable, environmentally friendly coffee cup (Head to Australia’s shopping Mecca to get your next chef’s knife)
14) Food processor cookers. No surprise here, it seems everyone either has one or knows someone who does (Coffs Harbour home to best store in the world)
15) Breadmaking and cake decorating – especially amongst men (An emporium in the heart of Brisbane)
So there’s our roundup. Do you agree? Would you add any to this list?
PS As we were researching this article we came across an article on some 2016 predictions made by Masterchef winner Adam Liaw on Twitter, tagged #2016FoodTrends. Maybe not to be taken too seriously…
Happy New Year!