2012 food and dining trends: #1 {Real food is chic}

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's finish our 2012 predictions with the number one trend on our list. We're finally done.

The coolness of REAL food.

Real Food is food which truly nourishes and respects producers, consumers, communities and ultimately, the earth.  It is a fundamental food system--from seed to plate--that fundamentally respects human dignity and health, animal welfare, social justice and environmental sustainability. Suck on that Glenn Beck.

Some people call it "local,", "hippie communists", "green," "slow," or "sustainable". Most knowledgable people just call it "Real food". It's that simple. Real food is food that is as close to its natural and original state as possible. Real food is not produced in a factory, it is not engineered in a lab, nor is it full of artificial colors, sweeteners, or flavors. It's what your grandparents and great-grandparents ate. Real food doesn’t have a list of ingredients - it is the ingredient. 


The more I travel, more I see food provides slowly move into this world. Real food, in my mind, is the number one trend in food service today. Real food looks like what it is – a tomato that smells like a tomato and is ate in the heart of summer. The Decentralization of procurement in our country is because people are starting to understand the "why's" of eating healthy. Let's face it, Our food system is broken. From food riots abroad, to rising rates of diabetes and obesity here in America; from the carbon emitted by agriculture to the human rights abuses in the fields; it's clear our food system is in need of major change. Travel to many urban communities and see the food deserts that have served our youth and less fortunate. 

Government and big business have failed to step up to the challenge, with business-as-usual prevailing over the health of our bodies, our communities, and the Earth. There's a real movement happening and slowly the economics are going to make sense. When it does, you'll see a new opportunity of entrepreneurs, farmers and artisans who will capture our stomachs and minds with this new progressive approach to eating.

Here's to REAL FOOD. Raise your pint glass now.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

#7 - The fusion of family style meals and belittlement

#6 - Beer is King, not the King of Beer
#5 - Cloud Eating and Cooking
#4 - Grains, Grains. Grains and .....more Grains.
#3 - Grow your own
#2 - Rage against the food machine

Chopbiscuit food 101: The Restaurant of the future {flux capacitor style}

Editors note: This is a series of posts on food, cooking and sustainable eating habits. We will explore the culture around food in this country and the little steps we can make to secure a laudable future in the world of provisions 

Chapter 4 - The restaurant of the future (flux capacitor style}

 As I travel around the country, I'm often always asked - "What's the future restaurant going to look and feel like?" Well, maybe I'm not asked that too much. I'm just being a little pompous. I like to think I have a keen eye for concept, but that's just the serial entrepreneurist in me.  So without further adue, here are some thoughts about future food, concept and strategy moving forward in the food circuit.

I think we're truly at a crossroads in the large food retail market. Eating has always been a sociable, celebratory event from the first campfires, Greek banquets to the most visually stunning Japanese sushi cafes in Tokyo. Although glorious waterholes have existed since man had figured out how to ferment - the actual word restaurant didn't appear until the 16th century. We actually have to thank post-revolutionary France for bringing in the restaurant circuit that we're accustomed to today.

Let's switch over to the American movement, to the restaurant style that we're accustomed to today. The 1930's saw the minimalistic movement towards the simplification of restaurant design and menu applications. Eventually in the late 1950's we saw a true democratization of mobile dining patrons to the new surging middle class in America. Restaurant design and menu simplification was a powerful tool to distinguish the difference between high-end hotel bistros, taverns, diners and the new fast food options. During the later half of the 20th century we saw a return to the "elite" class of dining institutions with superstar chefs, extravagant layouts and big name designers such as Adam Tihany and Philipe Starck. The big budget productions had it's run in the world of provisions, but everyone knew they would eventually have a bust. Well, it's currently happening.

Today it's not about what and where you eat. It's about "how" you eat. It's about where that food was gathered from and the practices used during that gathering. It's about how "in touch" the restaurant or concept is with it's surroundings. You can splatter all the Vegas style layering's, interiors and food showcasing you want, but it's eventually going to hide what your experience is really about - the food. If you've never been to San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace or Eataly in New York, you're missing out on the new "ruling class" of food design and concept in culinary innovation that fuses retail and restaurant to it's grandest. These ultimate dining experiences are based around the simplistic styling of food - with the sheltering backdrop of creative design. This design is the shell that holds the key to the culture of the food.

The mecca for foodies in San Francisco

The farm to table movement is guiding this Renaissance of simplistic dining by creating self sufficient models for eager and creative entrepreneurs. Proprietors harnessing grown, harvested, prepped and cooked items all in one location is the psyche where most people are headed. People are moving towards honest, pure and simple deal points around food when they are making decisions dining out. Our eating habits are less formalized - smaller portions and portable options are a must today. The movement for open authenticity and food experience, both on the menu and design is bringing the human touch back to the people that work in these restaurants.

Real food is the new luxury around fine dining. With new and exciting enhancements in technology, the human connection will come through the food instead of the maitre d' or waiter. Restaurant concepts are now powering culture into more of an egalitarian outlook. There is more than ever, a desire for artisan brands to go global in ways we've never thought before. Look for these brands to adapt to the characteristics of the locale in a way we've never seen.
 

Chapter 1 - Eating Seasonally
Chapter 2 - How you should eat {Meat, no meat, both)
Chapter 3 - Eating will always have the fringe

Changing your meat habits - Quality over Quantity

Let’s start and make this simple. Meat. I like meat. Unless you’re vegetarian or vegan, you unassumingly enjoy meat as well.  You probably go to the grocery store and buy whatever products you may enjoy from the meat, fish and poultry coolers or when your wallet is thick – those nice visual high-end cuts from the butcher department.  More than likely, those cuts of meat came into the grocer from a factory farm.  A factory farm is a size able slaughterhouse that meets the large scale demand for mostly regional and large national food distributors, retailers and Supermarkets.

Much of the meat we find at most grocers use these farms and often the product contains numerous food additives. Most of these additives are used for shelf-life and to change the way the food looks, tastes and feels. The farms also produce large amounts of greenhouse gases from animal waste and fossil fuels used to get the product to the consumer. Most of us have never been in one of these factories, nor would ever want to visit one.  There is a reason these factories are in remote regions – “Hear no evil, see no evil”. 

The most prevalent issues among these farms are the animal cruelty aspect. I will not get into too much detail on this and tell you to read (insert book titles). Whether or not you’re an animal humanist, hunter, vegan or Ted Nugent fan – we all should wake- up to this cause and make sure our society takes the welfare of animals seriously.  As farms have become more industrialized, animals have become more of a commodity and are basically treated as a widget. They are considered units of production, rather than living, breathing beings, and as a result these animals are treated inhumanely with intolerable acts of cruelty bestowed upon them. Thankfully, more and more consumers are becoming aware of this and are demanding rights for these creatures. In truth, I don’t actually fault the factory farms. You say whaaaaat? Well, it’s our eating habits that have created this mess. We have to realize that we have become so greedy, lazy and selfish that we placed this burden on ourselves. To put it bluntly, we eat way too much meat and processed foods. As Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters plainly stated, 

“ The industrialization of food production was one development that – though positive at first – is now exacting intolerable costs. Just no one could foresee that cars would eventually suck the earth dry of oil and pollute the atmosphere to unsafe levels, no one could have anticipated that we would raise and eat more animals than we need to physically sustain us, that in the name of economy and efficiency we would raise them under especially cruel conditions (requiring some humans to work under cruel conditions as well), or that these practices would make them less nutritious than their wild or more naturally raised counterparts and cause enormous damage to earth, including the significant acceleration of global warming.”

It’s about reducing our meat consumption. According to the latest agricultural statistics, about “70% of the world’s farmland is dedicated to livestock production.” As a society we continue to increase our consumption and demand for meat, more than any other country in the world. We want meat with breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We want meat snacks. We have bacon flavored soft drinks (Thank you Jones Soda). I often partake in festive football tailgating adventures in the fall with glorious cuts of animal proteins, too numerous to list. Could you imagine if I brought some veggie burgers to that social gathering – I’m surely would have been thumped in the eye for being a “vegetarian wussie”. We’re Americans right – give me my  meat! Well, think again – and think a little bigger. If the thought of factory farms disturbs you – which it should, you need to rethink about your dietary habits in relation to animal protein.

We all know that factory farms degrade the environment, create appalling animal welfare and ravage local communities. We know that Factory Farms have been shown to cause substantial damage to human health. In addition to releasing a host of hazardous air and water pollutants known to compromise the health of workers and anyone living nearby, many factory farms misuse antibiotics, which promotes the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, decreasing the effectiveness of drugs used to treat humans.  

Good times.

I believe we all can agree that the foundation of these farms is to pump out “Quantity” not “Quality”. It's about time we finally stand up for that latter, don't you agree?

Chopbiscuit at the farmer's market

Eatin' local isn't for the yuppie class

For me and my wife Katie, every weekend pretty much starts the same. Generally, after a long work week that included logging some road miles, airport hopping and mental exhaustiveness - we usually hit our local Saratoga Springs farmer's market to grab some fresh greens, fish, beef, milk and whatever goodies that might be in the mix as we peruse the exhibitors for artisan food and goods. For us, supporting our local business's makes appropriate sense, especially when it comes to food. We openly support local farmers, grocers and restaurants. We believe that a effervescent local food culture adds buoyant social climate for most of it's inhabitants.

The Saratoga farmer's market started (according to their site) in the late summer of 1978 in the Spring Street parking lot, Saratoga Springs. A small committee met several times prior to that at the Saratoga County Extension Service, now known as Cornell Cooperative Extension. A space in a parking lot was negotiated with the City. Unfortunately, it rained many of the market days and the only protection was a few patio umbrellas. Few customers came and the less than ten vendors became very discouraged. But some did not abandon the idea. The farmers’ market concept was a challenge and we wanted to see it succeed.

From the rainy market days in 1978 until the present, the farmers’ markets have survived, grown and prospered. They have become an institution, a social center for surrounding communities. Want to see your nearby neighbor or someone across town or out of town? Go to the farmers market, have a good visit and take home some goodies.

The history of the markets has really been written by the perseverance of the growers, bakers, crafters and other vendors, and the generosity of officials of the municipalities where the markets are held, and most of all the customers.

Katie and I often use the market to ideate recipes and think of certain dishes will prepare for the upcoming week. It's a great opportunity to think about what you put in your belly and how it impacts your neighbors and community.  It makes us think of eating seasonal and not take for granted what's available and why. The farmers brings back a sense of culture around why we choose to eat the way we do. I've changed a lot over he past few years in terms of how I view food and community in ways I've never imagined. I chose to live and become part of a community the cherishes the same values that we hold.

I highly recommend if you are within driving distance of any local farm, farmer's market, CSA or local grocer that you make a conceited effort to stop by and support them. I've often had some heated debates about what eating, sustainability and choosing ethical food means. Most people see it as a leftist, hippy, hipster chic point of view that most common folk just can't seem to grasp. Well, I consider myself common folk. I'm none of these folks and I don't often practice what I preach. Sometimes I'm a hypocrite, but I'm okay with that. Ultimately I know what's right and it's a choice you have to make to move into that direction. I drive a '98 Jeep Grand Cherokee that gets horrible gas mileage, so no, I don't even own a Suburu. Just once, make a concious effort to support your local food eco-system.   You'll thank me later.

*Plus, making your own tomato puree with fresh local tomatoes in the summer for your weekend spicy bloody mary for brunch - would never be the same.