Wondering what is happening food-wise in 2021 and what to expect.
Here are some trends that popped onto our radar, some started in 2020 and will continue into 2021.
With the world-wide Pandemic, the industries mostly affected by COVID-19 have probably been the Restaurant/ Hospitality/ Food Industries. This means a lot changed and some of those changes will still follow suit in the New Year.
Here are a few trends:
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The Home Café
Most of us will consider our cup of coffee as the most important thing, first thing in the morning. So with this in mind and with a large amount of people still working from home, any ‘old cup of Joe’ just won’t do any more and thus more people have been brewing their own coffee and improving their brewing skills at home. This is leading to more people purchasing more coffee beans.
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Postbiotics
This can be found in some of the same foods that contain probiotics, such as sauerkraut, sourdough bread and kimchi. Because postbiotics are not alive, they can be used in many more applications than live probiotics.
https://stircrazycooking.co.za/recipes/kimchi-glass-noodle-stir-fry/
https://stircrazycooking.co.za/recipes/kimchi/
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Microgreens
Consumers are buying more Microgreens. These are great because they are loaded with nutrients. These greens can be added on top off egg dishes, sandwiches, into salads and smoothies. Microgreens are easy to grow from home.
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Condiments and Fermenting; Preserving and Canning
During the pandemic consumers missed their favourite restaurant foods and typically started replicating these flavours at home, like sauces, chutneys and seasoning blends and started adding these to their own dishes. Condiments often have a long shelf life and can be stored in the fridge for some time, depending of the condiment it can be kept up to 3 months in the fridge.
During lock down it seemed to be an on-going trend to grow your own herb and veggie garden and the idea stuck or people fell in love with it again. Fermentation, canning and preserving is going to be another trend that came back, as it is an easy way to preserve a product you have a lot. More people are making their own preserves, pickled goods, chutneys and other condiments.
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At-home restaurant experiences
Because Restaurants world-wide had to adapt to the ‘new normal’ during 2020 and restaurant owners and chefs had to create new and interesting food experiences for their customers at home, the ‘At-home restaurant experience’ caught on and gained popularity. With this experience you would have an element of presentation you would receive in the restaurant. Order and delivery of restaurant-style meals packaged for the family.
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Plant based dishes
Plant-based, healthy vegetarian dishes with seasonal ingredients and global flavours are definitely here to stay.
There has been a lot of interest for plant based meals, menus and demo workshops locally in South Africa and our feeling is that it will be here to stay, or for at least for the duration of 2021. We are also currently offering plant based cooking classes.
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More virtual cooking classes
As we offer various themed cooking classes and experiences, we can definitely give some insight here as we also had to focus on virtual cooking class and still receive bookings for these cooking experiences.
We have found that various chefs/ restaurants started offering virtual cooking and baking classes while on lock-down. This was a fun way for friends and family to ‘cook together’ without being together.
At Stir Crazy we advertised the online cooking classes in advance and send out a recipe for the specific class to all participants, to ensure they have all the ingredients they need, we will then connect with them via Zoom and one of our professional chefs would present the online class. This enabled different households to join in on the fun at the same time in the comfort of their own home kitchen. We also offered private online classes.
Prior to the Festive Season and during, we received a lot of virtual teambuilding cooking sessions which made it possible for employees working from home to see their colleagues without having to go into the office. We still receive requests for online classes and also partnered up with retailers who did online workshops and demo cooking sessions. This is definitely a trend that will stay during 2021.
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Even more local
Supporting local has become more important than ever. To support local farmers, markets, buy fresh produce etc. A lot of businesses took a lot of strain during COVID and by supporting a local footprint, we will ensure that small businesses stay open and in that way put money back into struggling communities. These small producers normally have excellent high quality produce and goods on offer.
REFERENCES:
Today.com
Foodandwine.coom
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/biggest-food-trends-2021-chefs
Stir Crazy Cooking