We’re over halfway through 2021, so it’s a great time to take stock and look at what the food trends have been this year. It’s been a different sort of year, but no less great for food discoveries. The greater interest in our health that has developed due to the pandemic has meant this year’s food trends have a more conscious awareness of what goes in our mouths.
On the other hand, the explosion of social media apps like TikTok has spurred on trends of creativity when making food. Hey, people are making whole careers from these little videos – if that alone hasn’t convinced you to move to LA, you should definitely learn more.
So: creativity and health in mind, what trends have appeared for us so far in 2021?
Takeaway options
Takeaway options have always been popular, but no one could have expected how key they would become when the pandemic hit. Many experts can’t see this trend going away.
Even if the virus disappears completely, our behaviors have changed now. For many, getting restaurant food delivered is a lot easier (and often cheaper) than going out for a full meal. This is something food companies are going to have to keep in mind going forward.
Virtual cooking classes
The pandemic lined two things up to make virtual cooking classes succeed. Firstly, the desire for good restaurant food, considering no one could go to a restaurant—secondly, the desire to do something useful with your time. People wanted to learn new things with their time: a new language, a new skill, and, for some: the ability to cook.
Virtual cooking classes have become a trend because they perfectly marry these two trends. But will it stick around when we resume normal life? We’ll have to wait and see.
Heritage cooking
Heritage cooking has been around for generations but has often been missed out of the spotlight. But, this year, we’ve seen a boom of it. People are sharing their stories online and these delicious recipes that they’ve created or had passed down. Feeling more isolated than ever, it seems people want to reach out and learn about others: their cultures and the stories they came from.
Alongside these snappy videos of meals being prepared, people tell the stories of where these meals came from – if they were passed down through the family or created from scratch with their heritage in mind. Through these recipes, people are not only learning about ingredients used frequently in cultures other than their own; they are also learning about the culture your family heritage can bring. It’s a beautiful display of how food can teach as well as bring people together.
Heritage cooking is a great trend to have in the mix, as its rising awareness and popularity have allowed all types of people to interact with new processes, new ingredients, and new styles.
Let’s hope heritage cooking stays in the public consciousness for a long time, not just as a trend. For, as we said before, heritage cooking has been around for a long time before us and will be for a long time after us.