Food trends which will dominate in 2016

Timeliness, taste, and convenience shall continue to define and dominate the food segment, says an expert.

Chef Tushar at McCain Foods Kitchen lists down some of the discernable trends for this year:

♦ Aspirational cooking: Restaurants and QSRs (Quick service restaurants) are taking up street food and serving it in a modern setting and the old-school recipes are being cooked a grander scale. With cooking shows budding aplenty, sky is the limit. With a bit of skill, creativity and the will to experiment, local cuisines from different regions are now getting a facelift and greater acceptance.

♦ Make in India: Foods that are grown or procured locally may gain popularity owing to the consumer sentiment about transparency in the food they are having. Organic is making way in the Indian palate.

♦ Flavours: Foods in 2016 are going to be big on flavours and taste, both conventional as well as unconventional. International flavours like oregano, basil and thyme have made their way into the Indian platter and this will only be aggravated in the coming times, making recipes more global in their appeal and definitely more flavoursome.

♦ Fusion foods: With boundaries in the world shrinking fast, and greater access to information, innovation in foods is the coming rage this 2016, this year we can expect to see new avatars of age-old recipes, thereby giving a cosmopolitan touch to the oriental. 

♦ No-waste kitchen: The no-waste kitchen movement was the most trending movement of 2015 and in 2016 more and more kitchens are adopting this policy by reinventing the leftovers and minimising the excess. The shift is towards convenience food as they are low on food wastage.