Food trends 2023

Returning to more or less ancestral traditions, sharing, hybridization and metaverse: what are the new things we should expect at the table in the next 12 months? The Fork, a Tripadvisor® brand and leading platform for online restaurant reservations in Europe and Australia, has outlined the 7 trends that will shape our dining experiences in 2023.
 

"Primitive" traditions

Recipes and techniques from the past are making a comeback with the goal of saving the know-how of our ancestors. Thus, primordial cooking becomes trendy with a return of barbecuing even in restaurants. Braise in Paris, or Brat in London are reviving primordial fire cooking techniques to offer their diners a different experience based on the most primitive traditions. In Italy, too, establishments are exploding that put charcoal at the center, following in the footsteps of established and long-standing successes, one for all Andreina in Loreto.

The restaurant as a place for socializing

After the great comeback of bistros, brasseries and city broderies where traditional and convivial dishes are honored, inns and agritourisms are the new places for sharing, vacationing, tasting and culture because they bring the element of conviviality to the center. Growing in the city and out of town are special initiatives that transform the restaurant experience into opportunities to socialize around the table as well as social dinners. In Milan, for example, there is Dry Aged, which in its three rooms articulates different options for experiencing the restaurant in company, from the shared table to the private room for parties and celebrations.

The quest for self-sufficiency

While there is a depopulation of the countryside in Italy, in the cities there is a search for a lifestyle more in touch with nature: the trend of neighborhood living leads to a growth in urban agriculture and local self-sufficiency. According to an analysis by Coldiretti and based on data from the ISTAT report on urban greenery 2021, in the last 5 years in Italy there has been an increase in urban gardens of 18.5 percent, exceeding 2.1 million square meters occupied; this implies more agricultural knowledge even in the city and a search for authenticity on the plate. The idea is for everyone to have easy access to fresh, well-made products that are the result of traditional know-how. An emblematic example is the Marennà restaurant whose vegetable garden, a work in progress, stands on the hill in front of the winery and is an immediate narrative of the extraordinary richness of their land.

The festival of cultures

With globalization, ideas and culture travel fast. People therefore also try not to forget their cultural heritage and traditions. In the kitchen, this translates into two only seemingly contrasting phenomena. The recovery of "grandma's" recipes on the one hand, well represented by restaurants such as Chic Nonna, a novelty awarded by TheFork Awards and carried out by Vito Mollica, which celebrates even in its name the knowledge of our ancestors. On the other, restaurants that become places of integration, think again in the context of restaurants awarded by TheFork Awards to Azotea Nikkei cuisine restaurant in Turin.

The need for sharing

After years of social distancing, people want to resume human contact, share, discover and experience. The restaurateur is asked to welcome, share his experience and knowledge through places, convivial dishes and storytelling. The public rewards chefs who know how to tell the territory and tell their story, enhancing the raw materials of the context in which they are located and also telling the story of the producers through sincere, genuine and sustainable cooking to the point that restaurants and chefs also take on the task of educating the community to eat better and in an environmentally friendly way. The rediscovery of nature also translates into the choice of poor and nutritious ingredients. One who well represents this dimension of territorial storytelling is the Casa Gallo restaurant in Pompeii, which has been drawing on local raw materials for generations to bring traditional Campanian dishes with authentic flavors to the table.

Word of mouth: social media 

The restaurant industry is taking over social media. Five out of 10 millennials have ordered food or visited a restaurant after seeing it on TikTok, while 38 percent of people are traveling far from home to try food recommended by this same social. New and original trends are maturing in this context, even on more established social, for example on Instagram there is a greater search for truth and authenticity in the aesthetics of the dish to the benefit of flavor. Web 3.0 for example could become a vehicle for accessing exclusive experiences via non-fungible tokens, while 3-D printers for food are beginning to catch on. An example of a restaurant leveraging NFT technology the expression of Japanese cuisine in Abruzzo Oishi Japanese Kitchen, which through the purchase of a virtual token that allows access to a range of exclusive activities such as a dedicated tasting menu, special dishes, reserved discounts, the ability to pay in cryptocurrencies, and access to a community to stay in direct contact with staff and ownership.

An ethical kitchen

Ethics and sustainability are also a priority in the kitchen today. When it comes to environmental sustainability in the strict sense, in addition to catering close to the land, scientific research is developing new solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the food industry. California startup Air Protein for example has created an alternative to meat called Air Meat, composed of microbes that turn recycled carbon dioxide into protein. The product aims to replicate the taste and texture of real meat products. Some scientists and researchers are already looking for ways to produce food once there is no more arable land. Arina Shokouhi, a graduate student at Central Saint Martins, has invented an avocado alternative called Ecovado, designed to move people away from buying resource-intensive imported food. A new focus on ethics is also placed on work within restaurants to create attractive conditions for young people entering these professions. The kitchen becomes a tool for integrating diversity and a social laboratory for reintegration projects as in the case of restaurants such as Etico Food in Rome and Pizzaut in Milan.