Food trends are widespread changes in
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
preferences. Some such trends prove to be long-lasting. Food trends are often discussed in magazines devoted to
cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
, and around the internet.
Duration
Although certain food trends may be more of a
fad
A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period.
Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...
(see also
Fad diet
A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defini ...
), some become long-lasting and, at times, a permanent fixture in the culture of food. In an article in ''
Bon Appétit
''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...
'' the difference between a food trend versus a fad is discussed. David Saks, author of ''Tastemakers: Why we're crazy for
cupcakes
A cupcake (also British English: fairy cake; Hiberno-English: bun) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as frui ...
but fed up with
fondue
Fondue (, , ) is a Swiss melted cheese dish served in a communal pot ( ''caquelon'' or fondue pot) over a portable stove () heated with a candle or spirit lamp, and eaten by dipping bread into the cheese using long-stemmed forks. It was promote ...
'', states, "Think about
extra virgin olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
—with the
gourmands
A gourmand is a person who takes great pleasure and interest in consuming good food and drink. ''Gourmand'' originally referred to a person who was "a glutton for food and drink", a person who eats and drinks excessively; this usage is now rare. ...
it hit big in the late '70s, early '80s, and it trickled down to everyone else in the '90s. It became the 'thing.' Now it's not a trend, nobody really talks about it. But it's the default oil. Food trends last a long time and are often good."
Discussions of trends
Authorities from ''
Bon Appétit
''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...
'' and ''
Food & Wine
''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and season ...
'' magazines to the top chefs of the world have driven and reported on these trends. For instance, ''Bon Appetit'' recently released their top 25 food trends for 2013 in their article "The BA 25: What to eat, drink, and cook in 2013",
Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
give links to sites listing what to serve this season. Pinterest is designed to display trends and food is one of their biggest categories.
Smaller, blog-style sites have also appeared; examples include ''Violas Pantry'', ''Mouth from the South'', ''The Daily Meal'', and ''Spiced'',
that recruit smaller numbers of readers and provide entertaining, colloquial content to more targeted audiences.
References
{{Reflist
Food and drink culture