Catering to our whims

Hunting for food trends is not easy. When does something become a trend? Who decides which trends to follow and which are out of season?

While clothing trends are hard to miss, Chef Andrea Burgener, who runs Johannesburg's The Leopard restaurant, says South African food trends are difficult to identify because different parts of the country and different economic groups eat differently.

"Our cities are not like those in America or Europe, where the majority of the city is eating very similar food. We've got such fractured food backgrounds and that's why the trends are so tiny in South Africa."

Alfred Henry, Patron Chef of Capsicum Culinary Studio, says our culinary industry used to follow the European market, but nowadays also follows more Asian and US trends, particularly when it comes to food styling and plating.

He agrees with Burgener that what is trendy in one part of the country won't necessarily be big in another part.

Cape Town, he says, is the culinary capital of South Africa. "[This is because] there is a higher concentration of top restaurants and more access to produce.

Cape Town has more diversity when it comes to food culture and people are more willing to experiment with their food," he says.

Both chefs identified upcoming and continuing local food trends.

FOOD TRUCKS

Also known as mobile kitchens, these are restaurants on wheels. Big in Asia and the US, some food trucks sell pre-packaged food, while many others make fresh food on demand.

"The trend is still fairly new locally and people are sceptical about it," says Henry. "But it's a growing trend and we're seeing top restaurants opening up mobile kitchens.

In Asia, it's a part of everyday life. Sometimes the food is even healthier, fresher and cleaner than what you would find in restaurants."

Burgener, however, thinks food trucks are far from taking off in Johannesburg, saying they're more of a Cape Town thing.

ORGANIC

Asking for and about organic food has been a continuing trend for the past few years.

"People want to know where their food comes from, whereas before they would have overlooked it," says Henry.

Burgener agrees that consumers are slowly becoming more aware of what they're eating, but says it is only a small percentage of them.

"People still don't really know where their food comes from, what it was fed and how it was raised," she says.

"It's not really their fault because the information is simply not there. But this is also because a lot of people are 'greened out'."

COFFEE CULTURE

"Coffices" - coffee shops doubling up as offices - are big.

People will head to coffee shops, laptops in hand, and work from said shops for hours.

"Often people will ask if a place has Wi-Fi and if they can get coffee there," says Burgener.

ALLERGY CATERING

More and more restaurants are catering to people with allergies, says Henry.

"There are even a few restaurants dedicated to that market, with menus created especially for them," he says.

Burgener says more people are developing allergies because our food chain has been damaged.

While she acknowledges some people genuinely are allergic to certain products, she also finds that "suddenly everyone has a wheat allergy, for instance, but if they go to a friend's house and they're served the same food they claim to be intolerant of, they will eat it."

SIMPLICITY

Gone are the overly complicated, sensory overload meals. Less is more.

Says Henry: "There are fewer ingredients on the plate and fewer components to a dish. The flavours are a lot bolder and they are the stars of the dish."

MARKETS

Markets are slowly taking off and Cape Town is leading the way.

"[Now] small artisanal producers, micro-brewers and micro-roasters are coming more into the spotlight," says Henry.

While Burgener agrees that markets are all the rage, she says the trend is only relevant to a "tiny pocket" of people. "Unfortunately the real trend is towards people buying from huge corporations. But no one says that because there's nothing sexy about it."

NO CARBS

Diet fads come and go, but one that has become a trend is the vilification of carbs. "We're very American in that way," says Burgener. "We want that magic ingredient that will make us thin or change our lives. But this veers us away from the food we grew up with, the food we are familiar with and the food that gives us warmth. Cutting out carbs is nonsense. The secret to losing weight is simple: don't eat too much of anything."