From food allergy conscious menus to healthy children's meals to culinary cocktails with fresh ingredients, restaurants are undergoing a paradigm shift in the way they Supriya Kutty gives you a heads-up on the top 10 food trends that are likely to make eating out an experience worth relishing even more
1. More wine please
Despite the giddily high excise duties that wines attract, wine drinking continues to surge upwards. According to the "Indian Wine Industry Forecast 2012", wine drinking in India is expected to grow by 25-30 per cent annually. The not-so-sporadic sprouting of wine-tasting clubs, societies and tasting workshops and the easy access to Indian and world wines are all reasons why we should raise a toast to this happy trend.
2. Cooking global, buying local
A National Restaurant Association survey estimates that more and more chefs will source produce locally instead of importing them this year. This idea is likely to gain wider acceptance as more and more high quality produce used for all types of global cuisines becomes locally available, cutting huge shipping costs and giving a big fillip to the freshness factor.
3. Modern Indian
Last year's saga of new age Indian will continue to excite food lovers with its innovations, small and light portions and sophistication. The foundation of this movement laid by the likes of Vineet Bhatia's Ziya, Hemant Oberoi's Varq, Manish Mehrotra's Indian Accent and Marut Sikka's Kainoosh, will be strengthened as customers delight in the fine compositions of India's growing tribe of maverick chefs.
4. Healthy menus, no kidding
Health-conscious menus for kids have already taken seed in India with parents becoming more aware of child obesity and the nutritional needs of their children. Movenpick Hotels and Resorts set the ball rolling this year by creating the 'Power Bites' brand of menus featuring healthy but attractive dishes for children. Low in sodium and sans saturated fats, these delicacies incorporate plenty of fruits and veggies.
5. Vegetarian and loving it
As people adopt healthier lifestyles and become aware of their bodies, vegetarianism and veganism are proving to be more than passing fancies. Moving beyond the ubiquitous matar paneers, menus today are exploring new frontiers of vegetarian produce with intriguing vegetarian items like almond pea tikki, mushroom khichdi, saffron upma, beetroot curry.
6. Technology talk
Restaurants like Koh at The InterContinental, Escobar and Royal China in Mumbai and Setz and FU-Better than China in Delhi were the pioneers who sought to talk tech to their clientele. iPad menus with luscious pictures and sexed up descriptions of dishes are becoming more popular with time. Even online home delivery services and websites that promise gourmet fare are mushrooming all across major Indian cities.
7. Cocktails from the barrels
Tipplers are welcoming the all new barrel-aged cocktails where vodka, rum, sherry, whisky or even port wine is used as the base flavoured with a variety of liqueurs and other ingredients and aged in barrels. These cask-aged cocktails are wonderfully versatile and every mixologist and bartender can create their own in-house barrel-aged specialty spirit.
8. Deli delights
The concept of delicatessen cum cafes is proving to be a big hit with customers. Delis are enticing foodies with their own preserves, spreads, dips, cold cuts, flavoured butters, whole grain baked goods and more which are infinitely more interesting than mass produced branded fare. Most delis run cafes serving gourmet sandwiches, pies and salads, that appeal to all age groups and are all-occasion dining places.
9. Health first
Healthy, MSG-free, preservative-free, organic, low-fat... these terms are being increasingly seen on food packaging. Iron-enriched breakfast cereals, fruit-packed low-fat yoghurt and multigrain biscuits are just the beginning with companies realising the changing trend. In the coming months, many companies are slated to launch products that will capture the imagination of the new, healthy snacker.
10. The great Indian experiment
The Indian food scene is a vast, rapidly evolving food lab ripe for new flavours, unions of European and Asian cuisines, innovations, inventions et al. Possibly the biggest trend in the larger picture will be about expatriate chefs bringing their skills to this new frontier, fusions of techniques and unlikely ingredients and flavours, presenting staggering food choices like we never had before.
Despite the giddily high excise duties that wines attract, wine drinking continues to surge upwards. According to the "Indian Wine Industry Forecast 2012", wine drinking in India is expected to grow by 25-30 per cent annually. The not-so-sporadic sprouting of wine-tasting clubs, societies and tasting workshops and the easy access to Indian and world wines are all reasons why we should raise a toast to this happy trend.
2. Cooking global, buying local
A National Restaurant Association survey estimates that more and more chefs will source produce locally instead of importing them this year. This idea is likely to gain wider acceptance as more and more high quality produce used for all types of global cuisines becomes locally available, cutting huge shipping costs and giving a big fillip to the freshness factor.
3. Modern Indian
Last year's saga of new age Indian will continue to excite food lovers with its innovations, small and light portions and sophistication. The foundation of this movement laid by the likes of Vineet Bhatia's Ziya, Hemant Oberoi's Varq, Manish Mehrotra's Indian Accent and Marut Sikka's Kainoosh, will be strengthened as customers delight in the fine compositions of India's growing tribe of maverick chefs.
4. Healthy menus, no kidding
Health-conscious menus for kids have already taken seed in India with parents becoming more aware of child obesity and the nutritional needs of their children. Movenpick Hotels and Resorts set the ball rolling this year by creating the 'Power Bites' brand of menus featuring healthy but attractive dishes for children. Low in sodium and sans saturated fats, these delicacies incorporate plenty of fruits and veggies.
5. Vegetarian and loving it
As people adopt healthier lifestyles and become aware of their bodies, vegetarianism and veganism are proving to be more than passing fancies. Moving beyond the ubiquitous matar paneers, menus today are exploring new frontiers of vegetarian produce with intriguing vegetarian items like almond pea tikki, mushroom khichdi, saffron upma, beetroot curry.
6. Technology talk
Restaurants like Koh at The InterContinental, Escobar and Royal China in Mumbai and Setz and FU-Better than China in Delhi were the pioneers who sought to talk tech to their clientele. iPad menus with luscious pictures and sexed up descriptions of dishes are becoming more popular with time. Even online home delivery services and websites that promise gourmet fare are mushrooming all across major Indian cities.
7. Cocktails from the barrels
Tipplers are welcoming the all new barrel-aged cocktails where vodka, rum, sherry, whisky or even port wine is used as the base flavoured with a variety of liqueurs and other ingredients and aged in barrels. These cask-aged cocktails are wonderfully versatile and every mixologist and bartender can create their own in-house barrel-aged specialty spirit.
8. Deli delights
The concept of delicatessen cum cafes is proving to be a big hit with customers. Delis are enticing foodies with their own preserves, spreads, dips, cold cuts, flavoured butters, whole grain baked goods and more which are infinitely more interesting than mass produced branded fare. Most delis run cafes serving gourmet sandwiches, pies and salads, that appeal to all age groups and are all-occasion dining places.
9. Health first
Healthy, MSG-free, preservative-free, organic, low-fat... these terms are being increasingly seen on food packaging. Iron-enriched breakfast cereals, fruit-packed low-fat yoghurt and multigrain biscuits are just the beginning with companies realising the changing trend. In the coming months, many companies are slated to launch products that will capture the imagination of the new, healthy snacker.
10. The great Indian experiment
The Indian food scene is a vast, rapidly evolving food lab ripe for new flavours, unions of European and Asian cuisines, innovations, inventions et al. Possibly the biggest trend in the larger picture will be about expatriate chefs bringing their skills to this new frontier, fusions of techniques and unlikely ingredients and flavours, presenting staggering food choices like we never had before.
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