Restaurant customers can expect to see health taking center stage on restaurant menus in 2022, according to the National Restaurant Association and its annual What's Hot Culinary Forecast. The report offers a detailed look at the topics, trends and products expected to drive restaurant menus in the coming year.
Last year's predicted trends were obvious: streamlined menus, more off-premises dining, restaurant-brand meal kits, alcohol to go and blended meals made up of part homemade, part restaurant-supplied. The pandemic was responsible for those trends.
This year, predicting trends went back to near normal with restaurants returning to near pre-pandemic conditions.
After demand for comfort food surged during the height of the pandemic, consumers are refocusing on better-for-you options. Here's a look at some of the top trends predicted for 2022.
- The plant-based market and plant-based proteins in sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches and burgers all rank as hot trends. Brands such as Impossible Beef are in meat cases in most grocery stores, and restaurants around Chattanooga including Sluggo's, Cashew and Real Roots offer plant-based foods on their menus. It's a growing trend that chefs predict will continue to grow this year.
- Immunity-boosting foods - from tomatoes, seeds and berries to olive oil and dark chocolate - are said to fight cancer, dementia and viruses among other benefits. We could all use a little of that.
- In addition to trending, plant-based selections are increasingly providing menu alternatives in the face of animal protein supply shortages and imparting a sense of eco-friendliness and healthiness. Plant-based proteins check a lot of boxes.
- Traditional proteins continue to rank hot, but this year, chefs indicate the less expensive cuts - thighs vs. wings, ground beef chuck vs. ground sirloin - will show up more often on menus. Whether the trend is due to supply issues, rising food costs, culinary exploration or all these influences combined, expect this to be a big focus in 2022.
- We'll see a surge in global influences this year, with a strong focus on Southeast Asian foods from Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines. In the South in particular, we may see more foods from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominica.
- Will White Russians make a return on cocktail menus? Bartenders suggest we'll be seeing more milk-based cocktails. Also, look for more choices in canned wine, which have come a long way in quality since they were introduced, and bone-broth cocktails, savory drinks sometimes called "stock-tails."
- In the appetizer category, chefs predict potato chips will go upscale with unexpected ingredients. At a recent trip to DaVero Winery in Healdsburg, California, I participated in a wine tasting where peppery potato chips were topped with creme fraiche and drizzled with olive oil. That was unexpected! Wings will also take on flavor-fusion sauces, and fries will be spiced with global seasonings, like Japanese furikake with its toasted sesame flavor that sounds like the marriage of sesame sticks and french fries. Oh yum.
- Sugars made from maple and coconut won't take the place of traditional beet or sugar-cane sugars, but will make a strong showing on dessert menus in America.
- As the United States - and particularly the South, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - continues to suffer from the obesity epidemic, we'll be seeing more low-sugar snacks on the market. Good.
- No surprise that CBD made the list with more CBD-infused beverages along with nonalcohol seltzers and nut milks.
- An increase in the use of spices gochujang, tajin and harissa will show how global flavors will prevail in 2022.
It will be interesting to see how these trends play in Chattanooga in 2022.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com or annebraly.com.
Anne Braly