Food Trends 2012: What We'll See In The Year Ahead

The other day, HuffPost Food brought you the 11 Food Trends we've seen over the past year, from insects to meatballs. But almost anyone can see that there are more kinds of bitters on cocktail menus now than there were a couple years ago. It takes a special kind of soothsayer to pick up on the fainter patterns and subtler accelerations that portend the trends of the future.

Pretender-prophets abound: every food publication and organization, from the James Beard Foundation to foodchannel.com, releases its own predictions for 2012 around this time of year. One tricky thing about predicting the future is that no one can disprove a prediction in advance, so, on some level, you'll just have to trust that HuffPost Food's predictions are as good as anyone else's... at least until December 2012.

Here, then, are the 12 trends we expect to crop up in the culinary world in 2012:

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Comments

[Di Weston]

04:08 PM on 09/13/2012

Spain is on the way back. But not the Spain of paella, fried fish, potatoes bravas or gazpatcho. More herbs, spices, honeys, cheeses. Natural cooking like your grandmother given a modern but subtle twist.I tried the future of SPanish food at La Pepita in Barcelona. Fresh and modern. Another chef to watch is Papa Serra, heard good things about his his exciting cooking classes - healthy Spanish food, surely not!? THe flavour of the future? Carob, chufa and baby bay leaves. Go ask www.papaserra.com how to use them all. And get to know your shellfish, clean cut fillets are out and briny shells are where it is at.

[sssourabh]

11:13 AM on 02/09/2012

Awesome article, the skin trend is one that I totally missed in my "forecast"!
http://sssourabh.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/cravings-2012-astrology-for-gastronomy/
Baked potato skins all the way!

[TomInJax]

04:20 PM on 01/19/2012

I never understood pulling the skin off of chicken. Fried or baked or broiled or grilled. The skin is always the best part. Maybe not the most healthy, but then again I am from the south.

[ah123]

01:06 PM on 12/27/2011

THIS is the prediction for 2012?? Some are hardly trends in many places, some are over generalizations , and the rest are a bit ambitious in predictive power. Pffffffft!

[Adam Valen Levinson]

03:48 PM on 12/12/2011

it seems like some of this is just the good ol' US of A being behind the game — food carts of Singapore or the rabbit-eating in France. I'm excited, though, sounds like an improvement from the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger Era.

[climbing panda]

02:28 PM on 12/12/2011

chicken skin with pari-pari sauce and wrapped around a shichimi pepper!

[venise50]

10:02 AM on 12/12/2011

I am old school.... I do not like the new pretzels that are made.... I like the old fashion ones you would get off a stand in central park heated....These pretzels are like rubber and tasteless....wish someone would come back with the old hard pretzels.....

[Adam Valen Levinson]

03:50 PM on 12/12/2011

philadelphia baby, home of the soft pretzel.

[gemin8888]

09:54 AM on 12/12/2011

I would rather prepare 3 meals a day at home. Eating out might be fast and easy but it puts quite a dent in your wallet too. I can't imagine how much these people are spending on 3 meals per day by eating out. Just buying one salad out somewhere will cost more than buying the ingredients to make a few days worth up at home. Sure it is fast and easy buying everything done for you but the time and effort I put into making my meals at home also makes my food more wholesome, healthier, larger quantities for leftovers and it saves me money.

[brisedemer]

09:52 AM on 12/12/2011

Rabbit and goat? Give me a break. Eating a goat is like eating a dog. Disgusting. And rabbit? I'm not into eating rodents. No thanks. The day I start eating rodents ( rabbits, squirrels, et al ) is the day it's time for me to move to the hills and start making moonshine.

[SoulOfDespair]

01:27 PM on 12/12/2011

I understand eating Billy the goat,... but eating a rabbit!? That's like.. eating your good luck charm...

[plantbasedpunk]

02:36 PM on 12/12/2011

What's the difference between eating a goat and eating a dog? They're mammals, they're sentient, they have personalities, they breathe.

[Al Schrader]

09:47 AM on 12/12/2011

Ok, I'm actually an expert on this. Never cook anything at less than 145 o F, Sous Vide or other.
The chance for bacteria growth is too great. Also, be sure to cut the food into small pieces to reduce the amount of time it is between 41 oF and 145 oF, the range where bacteria grows.

The reason for the success of the food trucks that fail 90% of the time when they become restuarants has nothing to do with the people operating them. It has to do with the fact that the municipalities are broke. If you open a restuarant in a building, the authorities come out with tape measures and measure it to the inch and calculate an incredible tax on you. And they charge you commercial city water and sewer rates that are astronomical. And the commercial electric power rates are double (most of the buildings in our cities are empty as a result - drive around have a look yourself). It is more cost effective for me to cook a pizza right in a truck and deliver it with the gas guzzling truck than out of a building with drivers using Priuses....Al-

[seattleite4]

09:58 AM on 12/12/2011

Yes, I will pass on the Sous Vide--I prefer my food without botulism. I would constantly worry about poisoning someone. There are too many critical factors and I am not a competent enough cook to do it right--you practically need to be a scientist to use that thing.

[NJBill]

09:33 AM on 12/12/2011

People are going to eat what they LIKE, what TASTES good to them, they aren't going to eat food just because it is "in"...

[seattleite4]

09:36 AM on 12/12/2011

..but they do eat it because it is available. If there was a "salad hut" I would go there but there isn't one.

[plantbasedpunk]

02:37 PM on 12/12/2011

No kidding. Finding a good salad is impossible and the ones that ARE good are overpriced.

[markinmissouri]

09:29 AM on 12/12/2011

fast, casual, asian??? you must catch fish, in mouth. uh, no thanks.

[pruettee]

09:15 AM on 12/12/2011

I ;guess all you all yuppie and new fad folks ain't never heard of T-bone steak, pot roast, Roast beef w/mashed and brown gravy. Then there is pok chops, pok chops, and more pok chops. Now and then some good old fried chicken with some mashed taters, gravy, corn on the cob, and yes, white beans. Course, in WW II, I sure did like that fried squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant. We had lots of good ole catfish. I guess you have to be over 60 to remember those things. Best of all, a fresh baked apple pie made from apples picked off the tree in the back yard. Time for this old guy to take a nap. Have a great day. Oh yes, I don't eat chicken skin unless there is some chicken inside.

[markinmissouri]

09:32 AM on 12/12/2011

PRUETTEE.......... why isnt what you typed called AMERICAN FOOD? that is what we eat and WHAT WE LIKE!!!

[seattleite4]

09:38 AM on 12/12/2011

Love you pruettee!!

[hman570]

09:11 AM on 12/12/2011

I think this article is full of BS. How can anyone tell what the American People will be eating next year? Most of the things listed have been on menus for a long time now. If this is what the stores are going to be showing in their cases then cool. I don't know a lot of people that will be buying it? As food prices rise and pays are cut, people are looking to go back to the old days with meatless meals, and a more conservative way of putting a meal on the table. American's are fade prone then anything else. Don't know if this stuff will take off but I know I am not buying into it.

[ssmith94015]

08:58 AM on 12/12/2011

OOOoooo, Rabbit Fricase! Or simply fried rabbit - delicious! However, at times they are scare as my butcher was telling me researchers pay more for the rabbits than the farmer can get by simply selling them for their meat. So the choice is bunny going for experimentation or on the dinner plate - I would prefer the dinner plate. Growing up on a farm, sure, my little lamb was a "pet", but come slaughter-time, it was chops to eat.