Apple Fennel, Balsamic Thyme, Ranch Chia. These are some of the products I will see at The Fancy Food Show in January next year. And stores will be placing orders for these and more. So I thought I’d make our Hot Topic Sizzle about What’s new in our markets in 2015. A ‘heads up’ on food choices!
This past year we saw an explosion in market foods catering to vegan diets. These included cashew cheese and broccoli containing french fries. You know that what they are calling ‘cashew cheese’ isn’t a cheese at all, right?
NO CHEF! I’VE NEVER HEARD OF CASHEW CHEESE BEFORE!
Well let me tell you about it. Anything in the vegan world that ends with cheese is usually ground up nuts, tahini (used in hummus), garlic, lemon and a few other ingredients depending on the recipe. It tastes like a blended nut compound, but they call it cheese. Go figure!
According to the people who put the event on: “This year, vegan foods are standing tall, boasting that they’re simply superior in taste and health. Some companies avoided labeling products as “vegan” altogether. This tactic is starkly different from the norm several years ago, when labeling a food as “vegan” was just about as sexy as you could get.
Instead brands are focusing on taste, clean ingredients and excellent nutrition. Laughing Giraffe, for example, hits the trifecta of food trends with its raw, curry-flavored, paleo-friendly snacking granola. Likewise, Turmeric Golden Milk relies on ancient wisdom to deliver a dairy-free milk made from coconut and hemp and anti-inflammatory spices.
Animal-free eating is still very much on trend. But manufacturers are catering to consumers by focusing on complex flavor development and health benefits rather than kind sourcing”.
The reason Animal-free eating is still a trend is because it’s going to change our global warming footprint. We have found that triple emissions come from cows not cars, that contribute greatly to the hole in the ozone. Further, I saw this movie called “Cowspiracy” and they gave me the concept that the land one cow lives on, may feed one family. But if you take that same land and plant food, it can feed a village. And that would free up land for us to re-grow trees again.
Even better than that…. Have you ever been repulsed by the concept of warehousing chickens?
YES CHEF!
Well, if we eat less chicken there won’t be as much of a demand, and that will automatically resolve itself.
I don’t know. It sounds good to me. Even if we just do “Meatless Monday”, that certainly is a great start!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian