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What trends does your crystal ball show?

Back in January I wrote a post on what I thought would be the big trends in food, and it’s interesting to look back and see whether any of it came to pass, whether the crystal ball gazing was any good! Here goes:

1. A return to home-made goodies – I think we can safely say this one really took hold over the year, with just about everyone seeming to be busy making jam and cakes. The Tefal Electric Jam Maker seemed to be the upmarket gizmo to help everyone take part in the jam making bonanza, but you were just as likely to find us raiding hedgerows and recycling old jars into new jams.  A Lakeland or John Lewis bag became the new It bag.  Allotment gluts were turned into all manner of jams, pickles, relishes and chutney. We may all have enough for the year ahead! But I reckon this one will run for a bit longer yet!

2. We’d all be feeling very nostalgic – I think recession always makes us nostalgic, and there’s been lots of different examples. The whole M&S 125 year anniversary has seen us looking at designs from the 50s, which has actually ended up looking very fresh now. Nostalgic sweets have apparently seen massive sales growth, as we all craved small treats, ditching expensive artisan chocolate (at least occasionally) for the delights of fizzy cola bottles and sherbet pips. There was even a campaign to stop them changing the packaging of Sherbet Fountains. And the endless march of the cupcakes feeds into the same trend. Will it continue? Maybe, or maybe we will move into a more future looking phase of new cooking.

3. We’ll be be shopping local and real – I am hoping this is a continuing trend, and I think there are signs that it will. The ever-growing number of farmer’s markets, local food festivals, a general rise of interest in great food…all of these good signs that we can begin to really get behind British food, and hopefully take a chink out of the dominance of the big boys in the food chain.

4. It’ll all be about the food – My take on this was that this possibly wasn’t going to be the year of molecular gastrononmy, smears and foams, as we’d all be too busy chowing down on shepherd’s pie and treacle tart. I’m not sure. I think comfort food, nursery food, real British food has been huge, but sous vide seems to have really come to the forefront during the course of the year. I think it may still count as being all about the food though, as the method really maintains the integrity of the ingredients. We had roast beef at the Hinds Head at Bray the other week that was cooked this way, and it was fabulous. Yet to go very mainstream, but 2010 may be the year it does. We’ll see.

5. Good honest kit – it was going to be about investing in one really good piece of kit that would last, rather than buying lots of stuff that doesn’t get used much or that is cheap and cheerful but that breaks really quickly. I think that’s why things like the KitchenAid mixer and Mason Cash mixing bowls have been really popular, things that will really stand the test of time.

So, I think it wasn’t a bad piece of fortune telling on the food front. If only I was this good at predicting lottery numbers. Big question, aside from Saturday’s numbers, is what food trends lie ahead for us foodies in 2010?

Fabulous photo by Richard Lamb Photography.