Photo by Franzi Meyer on Unsplash As our readers know, The Food Channel spends a lot of time tracking food trends throughout the year. If you missed it, be sure and see our Top Ten Food Trends for 2024. So, what’s happened since we did that report? …
Photo by Franzi Meyer on Unsplash
As our readers know, The Food Channel spends a lot of time tracking food trends throughout the year. If you missed it, be sure and see our Top Ten Food Trends for 2024. So, what’s happened since we did that report?
TikTok continues to be a prime food influencer, introducing new recipes and recipe hacks to a new generation that doesn’t always use traditional cooking methods. What we’re noticing, though, is that Gen Z is surprising us with its interest in heritage recipes. The game changer, though, is that their grandparents are at the most from the 1950s, so heritage is taking on a new meaning.
After years of bread being a dirty word, new recipes for homemade bread and sourdough starter are showing up. There are new bakeries and new online bread and pastry companies that are killing it in the digital space. Apparently the keto world and the gluten-free world and the “give me all the carbs” world have found ways to live in harmony.
Global flavors are having an island moment, with a lot of attention given to Caribbean and other flavors that naturally incorporate a lot of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. More and more recipes call for turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. We see more beans, peppers, and coconut. Fish is almost an indoctrination—lots of fish and seafood recipes are trending, so that even if we aren’t making them at home, we’re more likely to order them when dining out.
The term “Girl Dinner” isn’t what you think—it’s not like a girl’s night out, or a girl’s weekend. It’s meant as a way to describe the snacking style that makes dinner prep easy and yet elevated—so, think a charcuterie board with your favorite things. While people of all genders may be asking for meat and potatoes, a girl dinner is more experimental tidbits and exciting flavors. This is what we meant when we talked about “everything charcuterie” in our earlier story. You can do a butter board, a cheese board, a small bites board…and you can eat it alone or with a group. Yes, you can even send yourself flowers.
Fancy has its place, but people still make peanut butter sandwiches and consider it a meal. We’re seeing upscale and unusual ingredients being talked about (including sea urchin, which we consider an acquired taste), but when push comes to shove, people are still taking home fried chicken and ordering pizza. After all, dragonfruit makes something look really special, but the taste isn’t always what people expect. We think some of this will shake out and that there is room for ALL the flavors and textures–they just need to settle into position outside of find dining.
These are just a few of the things we see moving around when it comes to food. The open discussions and sharing are the healthiest we’ve seen in a while, without rancor or one-upmanship. Let us know if you see something we should be tracking!
Acai is one of the popular functional foods that is on-trend for the futurre as well. Photo by Paul K. Logsdon. Just for fun, we took a look at what AI could tell us about food trends for 2024. What we found were a lot of things The Food Channel …
Acai is one of the popular functional foods that is on-trend for the futurre as well. Photo by Paul K. Logsdon.
Just for fun, we took a look at what AI could tell us about food trends for 2024. What we found were a lot of things The Food Channel insights team has called out in the past—everything from plant-based, to global fusion, to fermented foods. Not saying that AI is looking in on our past reports…but you never know!
Here are the AI-written trends, based on a prompt that simply asked for, “Write an article about the top ten food trends for 2024.” To see our actual trends report, click here.
Plant-Based Innovations:
In 2024, expect an influx of creative plant-based alternatives, from lab-grown meats to plant-based seafood, as the culinary world embraces sustainability and health-conscious choices.
Functional Foods Take Center Stage:
Consumers are increasingly seeking foods with added health benefits. Look out for ingredients like adaptogens, probiotics, and superfoods incorporated into everyday items to enhance nutrition and well-being.
Global Fusion Cuisine:
Culinary boundaries continue to blur as chefs experiment with global flavors, resulting in exciting fusion dishes that showcase a diverse array of ingredients and cooking techniques.
Zero-Waste Cooking:
Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a movement. Expect chefs and home cooks alike to embrace zero-waste cooking, utilizing ingredients fully and finding creative ways to repurpose kitchen scraps.
Smart Dining Experiences:
Technology meets gastronomy in 2024 with the rise of smart dining. From AI-driven menu suggestions to immersive dining experiences, technology enhances how we discover, order, and enjoy our meals.
Artisanal Fermentation:
Fermentation takes a front seat as people rediscover the ancient art of preserving and enhancing flavors. Expect to see an array of fermented foods and beverages, from kimchi to kombucha, gracing both restaurant menus and home kitchens.
This beautiful display of hyper-local food items was found at the Harrisburg, PA Broad Street Market.
Hyper-Local Ingredients:
The farm-to-table concept evolves into hyper-local sourcing, with chefs forging direct relationships with nearby farmers and producers. This trend emphasizes freshness, supports local economies, and reduces the carbon footprint of the food industry.
Alternative Flours and Grains:
With the growing demand for gluten-free and diverse grain options, expect to see an array of alternative flours and grains like teff, sorghum, and chickpea flour incorporated into both sweet and savory dishes.
Innovative Dessert Experiences:
Desserts get a makeover with unexpected flavor combinations, creative presentations, and the incorporation of savory elements. Expect dessert menus to become a playground for culinary experimentation.
Mindful Eating Practices:
Mindful eating goes beyond trendy diets. In 2024, consumers will prioritize a holistic approach to food, focusing on mindful eating practices, portion control, and savoring the dining experience for both physical and mental well-being.
Ligonberry pancake from Egg N’ Joe in Scottsdale, AZ. Ligonberries are not just for Europeans or Scandinavians anymore. The uniquely tart fruit is gaining attention for its antioxidant properties as well as its flavor. It’s time for our usual Food …
Ligonberry pancake from Egg N’ Joe in Scottsdale, AZ. Ligonberries are not just for Europeans or Scandinavians anymore. The uniquely tart fruit is gaining attention for its antioxidant properties as well as its flavor.
It’s time for our usual Food Trends report…but, of course, there is nothing usual about how we look at food.
The Food Channel keeps an eye on trends throughout the year, using a mix of data analysis, industry knowledge, analysis of consumer behavior, scientific advances, and global travel experience. We watch with the best as consumers order, prepare, eat and share their personal food tidbits.
If you’ve followed our reports, you know that we work hard to define the behavior that comes out of an observation. It’s not so much the food or the flavor as it is what is driving people to talk about it, buy it, interact with it. With all that said, here’s a look at what we see ahead.
Spice variety is the…well, spice of life. Photo by Paul K. Logsdon.
1. Fresh Spices. 2024 is the year you’ll clean out your spice rack. The past decade has brought us a plethora of new spices—flavors and combinations that were never really accessible before. Black Truffle Parmesan Seasoning. Ceylon Cacao Chili Powder. Umami spice, and the flavor of the year from McCormick, Tamarind & Pasilla Chile Naturally Flavored Seasoning. Then there are the staples that 25 years ago weren’t common in most American kitchens, like cumin and cardamom. And if we start talking about salts, we may never end!
Part of this trend is the movement toward using spices such as cinnamon for their potential health benefits. The rest of it is simply a way to move flavor forward. So, make room for some new staples, and—while you are at it—clean out expired spices. While many hold their flavor, if they no longer smell like they should, are cakey, or they aren’t properly sealed, toss them and treat yourself to new ones.
Along with this will come new understanding about how to season food properly—watch for some self-help videos talking specifically about this. People are asking for it.
2. Heritage Recipes. Old Recipes are making a comeback. It’s funny how those secret family recipes have a way of popping up every decade or so. We’re seeing SO much on social media where people are sharing recipes from old cookbooks, or letting loose of their grandmother’s secret sauce recipe. TikTok has contributed to this trend, perhaps because old recipes offer an unending source of new content. No matter the cause, this is bringing some good recipes back to the forefront, particularly as home cooks add their own flair as they update the ingredient list and simplify the instructions.
Lemon and Berry Tarts from Mirabella’s Table in Rogers, AR. Photo by Paul K. Logsdon.
3. How and When We Eat. There is a burgeoning afternoon evolution of coffee shop-like opportunities for remote workers. We’re seeing life extend beyond the coffee shop into charcuterie and cheese shops, and small plates that don’t require a happy hour to go along with them. Undoubtedly, this is a natural move as we incorporate the lessons of the Covid pandemic into the new realities of worklife. Buffets went out during the Covid pandemic, but are back in a smaller scale. One of the latest adaptations is the “carousel” approach, with a mix of made-to-order items and table service. Mirabella’s Table in Arkansas, where Walmart’s headquarters mean new ideas hit the area quickly, used this approach for its Christmas Eve menu. A fresh omelet station was set up where you could order what you wanted; same with a prime rib station where you could select an end cut or rarer slice. Meanwhile, offerings included baramundi, salmon, shrimp scampi, lemon ricotta pancakes, bobka French toast, seasonal tarts (pictured above) and a whole lot more. All the fun of a buffet with shareable portions brought to the table in all-you-can-eat style.
Coffee Lemonade from Freckleberry Teahouse in Galveston, Texas.
4. Playing With Our Coffee. Speaking of coffee shops, it seems something new with coffee comes up every year. Cold brew, pour over, you name it. This year it’s the addition of lemonade. Coffee Lemonade is now a thing, perhaps because citrus is being lauded for its own health benefits—but maybe just because it’s a flavor combo that seems a bit out there. Try it, though, particularly with an iced version like our Starbucks-inspired recipe, here. And, while we’re on the subject of lemonade-style beverages, we’ve become a fan of Freckleberry Teahouse in Galveston, Tx. They offer a Butterfly Pea Tea that is smooth going down, and presumably loaded with the antioxidant benefits of the peaberry. It’s also fun and insta-worthy, since the tea changes color when mixed with lemon. Oh, and First Watch has a seasonal drink called a Purple Haze, with lemon, sugar, butterfly pea flower tea and lavender. Thankfully, having a little fun with your food is always on trend.
If you want to know a little more about the peaberry, we found a good primer, here:
And, if you want to try making Coffee Lemonade at home, check out this Starbuck’s recipe.
5. Passive Kitchens. It’s back to the 70s with a new concentration on energy efficiency—but now it’s under the term “passive houses,” and it’s hitting the kitchen big time. New designer kitchens are all about natural light, sustainable materials, and lower utility costs. Kitchens are being re-engineered and, while most of us won’t be remodeling any time soon, homes of the future won’t just have utilitarian kitchens. They will be spaces where creativity reigns in both design and home chef-friendly functionality.
Photo by Paul K. Logsdon.
6. AI-Generated Cooking Prompts. We’re not saying that AI can replace recipe development. We’re certainly not saying that AI can take over your kitchen. At least not yet. But AI can write a recipe. We don’t know who ends up owning the copyright, or how many permutations may eventually be created…and, as far as we know, no one is out there testing the recipes. But, ask ChatGPT, as we did, to put together a few ingredients and see what you get. For years, culinary artists have asked for a way to easily review the ingredients in their pantry and come up with something to eat. Here you are, in 2024.
We gave a simple command: Write a recipe using chocolate chips and cinnamon. We can’t say it’s not similar to a hundred muffin recipes in our cookbook archives, but it was quick research and a doable recipe. See the recipe, here.
7. The Electronic Experience. The trends so far are leaning heavily toward home cooking again this year—another outcome of Covid. However, restaurants are recovering from the onslaught of having to recreate themselves for delivery and outdoor dining, and are once again paying attention to their back-end technology. They’ve discovered that the newest part of an exemplary dining experience is one that includes seamless payment and the use of the latest apps. The problem is that there are a bunch of possibilities now—Square, Toast, MyCheck, to name just a few. While Square seems to have a good share of the mom and pop market, we expect to see more of this sorted out as consumers demand a good experience from start to finish.
One additional note on this: We’re seeing a lot of frustration over customer service, so along with an evolution in electronics, we see a revolution in employee training gearing up.
8. Retirement Food. The latest wave of Baby Boomer retirements is doing what pundits have predicted for years: made senior facilities wake up to what people really want. Institutional food is being replaced by chef-created menus and on-site restaurants. These retirees are not into traditional dayparts, either. They like elevenses, high tea, extended coffeebreaks, workout menus, and—dare we say it—flavor and texture that is hard to achieve when you are serving hundreds at a time. Boomers are still a sizeable and influential category, even if it appears GenX is creating all the newest trends. It’s still Boomers who have expendable cash to travel and try new things. So, seniors and food is a category worth watching.
9. Appliance Cooking. We’re always asked about a piece of equipment when we do our trends report, so here’s one for 2024: the rice cooker. Those who want them have air fryers, but rice cookers offer a small appliance that doesn’t have to sit on the countertop. Recipe books such as “I Love My Rice Cooker” are popularizing some unexpected uses of the appliance and bringing new interest to meals. Hint: We recommend the Root Beer Beef Shortribs recipe.
10. The Olympics of Food. The 2024 Summer Olympics are in Paris starting in July, which brings a whole new level of culinary interest to the world. Combine this with the renewed interest in European travel and you have something worth paying attention to. While the focus will be on sports, we expect new interest in crepes, croissants, and escargot.
Reconstructed tacos with the cheese on the outside, from MartAnne’s in Flagstaff, Az.
BONUS
In addition, here are some individual food items we’re watching for 2024:
Pizza bowls will continue to innovate, as people avoid carbs but want the rest. Forget scraping and eating the top—new bowls are on the horizon. So quit arguing about the type of crust and focus on the flavor and other ingredients.
Breakfast soups are now a thing. It’s a way to extend the dayparts, and even the seasons, since cold soups are becoming more and more popular as well.
We did deconstructed food. Now people are doing reconstructed food: putting the cheese on the outside of the taco, for example, as pictured above.
Mushrooms are popping up as a flavor enhancer as well as a standalone meal.
Savory baking is growing. This is a trend that was pretty much confined to high end bakeries until lately, as home cooks are more willing to experiment with timesaving shortcuts, such as refrigerated dough or frozen puff pastry. And, since a little sweet goes a long way, pastries and popovers are showing up with all the elements of a quiche. A few years ago we predicted hand pies would become more universal, and we were right—this just moves them from a hand-held lunch into a standard breakfast item.
All the bakers are no doubt baking, and everyone else is simply drooling over the bakery cases! It’s that time of year when we turn our eyes to treats, treats and more treats. Watch for new cookie recipes coming from The Food Channel!
All the bakers are no doubt baking, and everyone else is simply drooling over the bakery cases! It’s that time of year when we turn our eyes to treats, treats and more treats. Watch for new cookie recipes coming from The Food Channel!
A tasting at Blue Mountain Brewery in Nelson County, Virginia, is about more than the beer. It’s about comfort, relaxing, ensuring you have the right fit for your dining and drinking pleasure. It’s more like a lesson in how to do life right. Not to …
A tasting at Blue Mountain Brewery in Nelson County, Virginia, is about more than the beer. It’s about comfort, relaxing, ensuring you have the right fit for your dining and drinking pleasure. It’s more like a lesson in how to do life right.
Not to build up hopes or anything, but that’s the kind of experience we had while touring the brewing company, which is in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Credit goes to President and Brewmaster Taylor Smack for setting the tone. He, along with partner Matt Nucci, founded what’s been dubbed just “Mountain” back in 2007—making them a pioneer of Virginia’s rural brewery scene.
They set the example well, since there are now several more breweries, plus distributors, gathered in Virginia’s “Alcohol Alley.” Smack says, “All of us have banded together to do charity work and so on,” meaning it’s not about competition. Each is distinctive. So, back to Mountain, now in its 16th year.
“Basically, I had a dream I shared with my wife and my business partner Matt,” says Smack. “I had gotten into the corporate world and hated it. I started skipping work and visiting [surprise!] a brewery. I threw myself into it and went to brewing school in Chicago.”
He soon decided to take his new knowledge and skills back to his home state. He says, “I love Virginia and wanted to come back and be part of the craft renewal that was happening.” They established themselves in a place “where life is a little slower and a lot more fun.”
Smack adds, “The whole idea we had was to create traditional or experimental beers using great ingredients.” They focus on working with suppliers who have mission-oriented stories—grown organically, grown privately, locally-based.
“We aren’t sponsoring the Super Bowl so we can concentrate on trying new things,” he says. “We wanted to bring all that excitement back to Virginia and get craft beer out of the urban environment and mindset.” He adds, “After all, when you think wine, you think beautiful orchids and land. Why not the same for beer?”
As he thinks back to the early days, he says, “I just happen to like beer more than wine. Beer is really an agricultural product, and I thought, “why couldn’t we do the same thing with beer.” They started with what he describes as, “a tiny kitchen in a hayfield in the middle of Nelson County. It seemed cool to me!”
It grew, as dreams do. They continued to innovate, becoming the “first crafter to can in the state in 2009.” The facilities now include not only multiple breweries but a restaurant and an inn which is booked solid on weekends. Pre-pandemic, they had about 200 employed, and while it’s a bit lower now, it continues to build back. Smack grins as he says, “It’s been a ride and now we have so many good people in place it’s easier. There were high schoolers making more than I made in our first few years!”
At the time, laws were unformed around offering tastings, and Smack says, “We, by force, became a restaurant. Locals gave us a shot and it evolved—and now the restaurant is booked more often than the brewery!”
Then, in 2012, “our brewers guild helped change the law and it allowed for the explosion of breweries in Virginia.” There are now more than 300 in the state. “Now you don’t have to be a restaurant and can just serve beer,” he explains. Across three brewery locations they brew and bottle for on-site and what he calls “a little bit of distribution.”
The most popular beer at Blue Mountain is called the “Full Nelson,” and it’s become known throughout the state. As for the restaurant menu, it’s the “Date Night Pizza,” which really has to be tasted to be understood—and is definitely craveable. Since the menu changes periodically, also watch for the Apple Bratwurst Pizza, the Hummus Wrap, or the popular Fish Tacos served on Tuesdays.
Thinking back to the bent toward agriculture, it should be noted that they grow hops on site, keeping products close to their original dream.
Flights are served lightest to darkest, all the way from a Classic Lager to a Dark Hollow Ale (100 days in a bourbon barrel). On that, Smack says, “we are reinventing barrel-aged beer to get the flavor from the barrel.”
It takes a lot of energy to run a brewery, a restaurant, and an inn—all while continuing to innovate. Good thing Smack exudes energy, along with the love of brewing craft beer that brought him back to Virginia, gave him enthusiasm for work, and opened up an area that delights the locals. It’s doing life right.
About This Series
The Shenandoah Valley is nestled between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains in historic and scenic west-central Virginia. It has the transportation infrastructure and connection to markets in every direction. One of their major areas of focus is the food processing taking place in the region. The Food Channel recently had the opportunity to work with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to tour some of the up and coming places, and to talk with entrepreneurs as well as established business people eager to tell the Virginia story.
The Shenandoah Valley is nestled between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains in historic and scenic west-central Virginia. Interstates 81 and 64 traverse the region, providing an excellent transportation infrastructure and connection to markets in every direction. The area is plentiful in natural resources and boasts a powerful cluster of employers rooted in manufacturing, agriculture, and logistics. Food and beverage production is at the heart of the manufacturing sector, representing four times the national average and employing more than 5% of the Valley’s labor force of over 175,000 people at major companies. The Shenandoah Valley is also the No.1 region in Virginia for the total value of agricultural products sold.
Insight companies (which The Food Channel has partnered with since its inception), base their trend reporting on data: surveys, analysis of consumer behavior, scientific advances, and the numbers behind the behavior. Food manufacturers and others …
Insight companies (which The Food Channel has partnered with since its inception), base their trend reporting on data: surveys, analysis of consumer behavior, scientific advances, and the numbers behind the behavior. Food manufacturers and others pay big money to access those reports.
Two things, however, have made trend reporting muddy. First, the internet. Sure, online polling and observation offered new ways of watching the trends. It also put new voices on the scene, some trained and some not-so-trained. Second, the COVID crisis, when all bets were off and consumers went into survival mode, where trends just didn’t seem to matter as much.
Now, companies are tentatively finding their way back. With that in mind, we are publishing a mid-year trend piece just to get the juices flowing again. Here are five of our Top Food Trends for Mid-2023:
1) Food & Travel Changes. Yelp and TripAdvisor have gotten cluttered, and TikTok has added to the mix to the point that many no longer know where to turn for reliable information. What’s sponsored and what is truly a consumer experience? Do you use Expedia, Travelocity, Hotel Tonight, reward apps direct to the hotel…and when are they all the same thing/owned by the same parent? As more Boomers enter retirement and have time to travel, how do they figure it all out?
Many are falling back on traditional travel agents, even though they are often hidden behind a .com name. Companies such as cruisetraveloutlet.com, and others, are offering bundled options and all-inclusives that recognize that some people travel specifically for the food experiences. Culinary tours continue to spring up, and we expect to see more. Travel has changed, and food travel has become its own niche opportunity.
(To begin your research on culinary tours check out sites such as these: https://www.exploreworldwide.com/experiences/
https://www.culturediscovery.com
https://www.zicasso.com/italy/food-tours-vacations
https://www.foodnwinevacations.com/culinary-tours-italy)
2) The Conversation Around Tipping. We first called this out in a column in 2015, then in our Trends Report in 2016. We’d been following a conversation started by noted restaurant entrepreneur Danny Meyer, among others, and saw early hints that there would be a call for change. Now, with tip jars on counters and machines that ask for your tip before they move forward, well, consumers are starting their own conversation. We’re hearing words like “enough,” and “I draw the line.” At the same time, consumers recognize that workers often rely on tips, and want to help. When will the conversation move into action, and what will be the final impetus for change?
3) Customer Service. Granted, this has been iffy for years, and the fallout from recent events has made it worse simply because companies are short-staffed and don’t always have time for advance training. Restaurants are focusing on the need to create a place where people want to come. Consumers want to be around people who appreciate their patronage. This is the opportunity area: Nurturing staff members who are excited to help customers find what they may not even know they want. Less shrugging of shoulders and more extensions of consideration. It requires knowledge, training, but most off all attitude.
This is crucial as restaurant service is recognized as a long-term career, not an interim or high school job. That means the incentives have to be better, and the industry has to work harder at this.
Photo by ArtiSims Boards, Boxes & Bites (available on Facebook) Artisims@yahoo.com
4) Charcuterie anything. For a while it was food flights, where bars and restauranteurs offered tastings. They can be fun, actually—pancake flights, beer flights, cheese flights, dessert flights, and more. The next step seems to be putting them all together on one big board…or into something innovative (snackle box, anyone?). Celebrity Chef Tyler Florence has reportedly even called out “tin fish boards” as the new charcuterie—using cans of caviar and other tinned fish.
People are playing with size, too, making mini-boards for personal feasting and table-length boards with multiple options beyond the traditional meat and cheese. TikTok Influencer and “private chef in the Hamptons” Cooking Classy (also known as Meredith Hayden of Wishbone Kitchen) has been known to comment that “cheese chunks and crackers are not charcuterie,” and she’s not wrong. After all, the origins of charcuterie are about charred meat, paired with cheeses and any number of sweet and savory items for flavor and texture. That includes pickles and olives, various spreads and preserves, mustards, honey, fresh fruit, and more.
Presentation is part of making food fun, and it’s a great way to make food both entertaining and safely sharable. So, bring on the Charcuterie Brunch and the Charcuterie Chocolate boards.
5) Pickles. We always try to offer at least one specific food item that answers the question, “What’s the on-trend food item?” When the Chick-fil-A app allows you to remove its famous pickles from a chicken sandwich, it makes you wonder how popular that option would be, because pickles are in the limelight right now. It goes along with our previous trends that identified an interest in brining, although the latest interest extends to the pickle juice itself—cooking with it, reusing it, even drinking it. And it’s not just cucumbers. Sandwiches have pickled onions, as do tacos. Pickles and all-things-pickled are turning up as something more than a condiment right now, and are worth watching.
That’s our top five for a mid-year checkpoint of food trends. We’re also watching as more and more restaurants begin charging an additional percentage to use a credit card. We’re watching AI and the pros and cons and how they will affect the industry. We keep an eye on the kinds of grocery stores where people collect their merchandise and even shop and ship for others (yes, Trader Joes, but it’s catching on). Food prices and availability are still discussion topics, and lots more.
In the past we’ve brought you mushrooms/mushroom coffee, plant-based, seafood, nostalgia foods, mocktails, food as medicine, THC, Ube, African food, fermented, hatch chilis, and more—all before they were regularly talked about. For fun, go back and look at a few from the past. After all, knowing what has come before is often the first step to understanding what’s next.
Rhubarb-and lots more-is in season. This beautiful display was found at the Harrisburg, PA Broad Street Market. Destination: Harrisburg, PA You hear the term Farmers Market and what comes to mind? Well, it depends where you live. Some towns have a …
Rhubarb–and lots more–is in season. This beautiful display was found at the Harrisburg, PA Broad Street Market.
Destination: Harrisburg, PA
You hear the term Farmers Market and what comes to mind?
Well, it depends where you live.
Some towns have a Saturday market, often set up in the downtown Square or on a picturesque street. They offer everything from clothing to fresh baked items; and, vine-ripened tomatoes to freshly picked apples. Items may be seasonal, and vendors may be your neighbor down the street or an Amish family from outside the city limits.
Some operate out of the back of a series of trucks, often on a mall parking lot, and others are seasonal roadside stands.
Well, if you want a somewhat smaller—but still excellent—version of that, try going just down the road a bit to Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market. It’s open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, perfect for winding down after a long workweek and stocking up on a few market staples.
Of course you can find fresh vegetables. This time of year the rhubarb stands out, its ruby red color taking center stage. As in the Philly market, many of the stands are run by Amish or Mennonite families, presenting the tried and true recipes that bring people back time and again. Think whoopie pies, pot pie squares, and fresh sticky buns with nuts or raisins.
At this market you can also find a couple of delightful treats, such as the Arch of Happiness offered by the Italian family running the Nonna Ilva stand. It’s essentially a phyllo dough filled with fresh whipped cream and sliced strawberries, and it is both eye-catching and scrumptious. And who doesn’t need an ARCH OF HAPPINESS in their life? Try downing it with a cappuccino from one of the market’s “we have everything” stands, where you can get a really large cup for just $2, with plenty of rich real cream included.
If you go at mealtime, stop at Let’s Pretzel and get a breakfast log or a stuffed pretzel. The steak, egg and cheese log has the same steak used in many Philly cheesesteaks, and is a nice switch-up from the usual fast food breakfast sandwich. The pizza pretzel also gets high marks, and, if you ask the people who work there, you just may find that it’s their favorite, too.
If none of that appeals, you might enjoy one of the French Toast breakfast sandwiches (with your choice of excellent pastrami or turkey) also found at Nonna Ilva. Or, perhaps you’ll choose a non-traditional chocolate chip whoopie pie, a lemon-filled doughnut or any of the myriad pastry choices scattered throughout the market.
You can also find potted flowers and, well, a variety of just about everything. There’s nothing like farmers market shopping AND eating. Find one in your area!
We round up cakes that look like paintings and sculptures from artists like Picasso, Warhol, and Van Gogh. Just look at #everythingiscake or #isitcake.
Cake inspired by art is having a moment.
True, it’s never been hard to find ambitious pastry projects on TikTok or Instagram, but these are more often than not confections shaped like familiar objects: a watermelon, a camera, a pot of pasta, a kettle. (All are represented in a single video at Tuba Geckil’s TikTok account, @redrosecake_tubageckil). But there seems to be a new focus in 2022 on cake as objet d’art.
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, for example, recently hosted its Great Blanton Bake-Off; 16 bakers recreated works of art found in the museum’s collection (21,000 works to choose from) in the hopes of winning gift cards from local pastry shops and Blanton membership packages — plus bragging rights, of course.
Blythe Johnson, the winner of the amateur category, re-created Mac Wells’ Untitled piece (see images below). Her cake had layers of blueberry almond sponge, lemon curd and whipped cream, according to Smithsonian Magazine. She made the joconde many times to find the perfect colors to match the artwork — stopping and starting over a two-week period — to complete the cake.
Georgia Chido, a 15-year old who won the under-18 division, reproduced a textile work by Venezuelan artist Luis Montiel (see actual item under the cake version below). She made the fondant on her own and then did all the color-matching to make sure that the cake’s hues were accurate.
The top prize among pro bakers went to Hannah Erwin, founder of HC Confections and a business administration and marketing student at Texas A&M University. Her cakes looked exactly like six different works of art from the Blanton collections — including geometric, abstract and pop-art works (see actual items below at left and cake versions below at right).
This apparently kickstarted the meme #everythingiscake, which continues to thrive and has more than 12,000 examples. You might have also noticed that Netflix launched an engaging new show, Is It Cake? in March of this year based on the idea that good bakers can make cake look like anything. That hashtag — #isitcake — also has thousands of examples now.
The New York Times noticed the trend twice in 2021 with articles dedicated to trompe l’oeil cakes and whimsical cakes. Further research, however, confirms that people have been gawking at cakes as art for years, even decades. Bored Panda compiled some noteworthy works of edible art in 2020 and an article in the now-defunct Flavorwire is titled “Amazing Cakes Inspired by Art,” but none of the pictures come through (both their Instagram and website seemed to have come to a halt in 2019).
The blogger-baker-graphic designer at Sweet Fancy Cakes — Kristen from North Salt Lake,Utah — published a post with her rendition of a Mondrian in cake form in 2015 (it’s the Mondrian at the top of the article) but unlike the painting, it probably smelled and tasted as good as it looks. Earlier examples of cakes-that-look-like-art probably stretch all the way back to the 1600s — the era when round cakes were first baked in Europe, according to FoodTimeline.Org. But no one had TikTok back then….
Pinterest Boards of Art as Cake
Of course, there are always Pinterest boards dedicated to the topic as well as Instagram accounts by cake makers who could easily get into the forgery business — like this Russian company (Tortik Annushka) that has over a million followers.
Below are more snapshots of art as cake from Pinterest.
And finally, if you want to see a demonstration of someone making a cake that looks like a painting (and frame!), check out Rosanna Pansino‘s “Cake or Fake / Painting on Cake” video below.
With the launch of new candles from Junior’s Cheesecake, Shake Shack and Katz’s Deli, we take a look at the whole market of scented candles.
Humans have been creating candles that smell like food for thousands of years. Some researchers say the Romans used tallow wax — derived from the meat of cows and sheep — and twine in 500 BC. Others go back farther pointing to the ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago. Over the last few months, with the release of several new scented candles from restaurateurs, it’s safe to say we’ve hit peak smelly candles.
An article in Eater recently drew attention to the latest wave of candles, those that smell like dishes you can order at beloved restaurants and fast-food chains, including Junior’s cheesecake, Katz’s egg cream, and Shake Shack’s burger. We’ve covered the topic before (as in the White Castle burger candle from 2010), but not the big picture.
Below, we spotlight 34 food-forward candles you can buy today. We’ve also organized them into four conceptual categories: highbrow delicious, highbrow gross, lowbrow delicious and lowbrow gross (these are often gimmicks and products you give others).
Full disclosure: Just because a candle can smell like something doesn’t mean it should. We approach this topic with optimistic skepticism. And for the record; we did not purchase or test any of these products. Yes, it’s possible that, say, a canned tuna candle could actually blanket a room with an intoxicatingly pleasing fragrance. But we doubt it.
The flavors of fall used to be cinnamon and nutmeg, mingled periodically with sage, toasted pecan, and of course, pumpkin. Have no fear, those flavors are still strong-but there’s much more to an increasingly global palate. Natalia Y//Unsplash Tier …
The flavors of fall used to be cinnamon and nutmeg, mingled periodically with sage, toasted pecan, and of course, pumpkin. Have no fear, those flavors are still strong—but there’s much more to an increasingly global palate.
Natalia Y//Unsplash
Tier two ingredients include caramel, pomegranate, sweet potato, and honey. These are flavors we are already incorporating into our cooking on a regular basis, and they will be the flavors that evoke fall for our children for years to come.
For at least the last five years, we have been seeing more and more recipes featuring butternut squash, walnut, and stronger vegetable flavors such as Brussel Sprouts. More recently, emerging ingredients include maple, cardamom, harissa (a blend of hot chiles, garlic and more), ginger, and baharat (a blend of Middle Eastern spices).
Calum Lewis//Unsplash
Without question, our palates are handling hotter spices and are willing to be a bit more adventurous. We’re watching ghost pepper, more varieties of balsamic vinegar, and stronger flavors such as anise pop up in recipes and on cooking websites.
We’re also embracing flavors that tend to help even things out, like jicama and pear, plantain and pineapple and — have you noticed? — orange seems to be an ingredient in everything.
If you want to branch out and experience some of these flavors, consider one of the following recipes.
Photo by ArtiSims Boards, Boxes & Bites (available on Facebook)
Try downing it with a cappuccino from one of the market’s “we have everything” stands, where you can get a really large cup for just $2, with plenty of rich real cream included.
