There are a few food meccas in the world where trends tend to emerge from, currently we are seeing Spanish chefs and Italian slow-food movement making a real impact on our culinary cultural map. While trends come and go - New York is still the place where cutting edge innovation takes place. This is where the rest of the world is interpreted and sold back to us repackaged for easy consumption – and why I make sure to be there a couple of times a year. I spotted two pervasive trends on a recent journey south of the border that you can watch for in your local venues.

Fat, Fat and more Fat:
It seems that food trends always appear like two faces of the same coin. Diet and health gurus are touting the benefits of unsaturated fats and good Omega-three fats while railing against saturated fats of all kinds, restaurant trends are counteracting the zealots with Berkshire Pork and pancetta. Lardo, pork bellies, butter and fatty cuts of meat are the going rage in high-end establishments. Mario Batalli, New York’s reigning culinary king and media mogul, is the pied piper of fat leading all the other chefs of the world down the saturated path. In one restaurant I saw the de-rigeur olive oil for dipping your bread from the 90’s to straight up pork lard for spreading!

Ingredients over Technique:
The second trend I noticed is another flip side, and one I am happy to see. The last few years has seen a surge in techniques driven cuisine, most notably the rise of molecular gastronomy as a trend in the restaurant world. You may have noticed this as the advent of “foams” on all of the dishes you order instead of sauce; think of it as extreme chefing. These guys are master manipulators turning solid foods into gas and vice versa right before your eyes. The trend I spotted, I see as the opposite to this – instead of menus being all about technique, chefs are turning back to ingredients for inspiration. Chefs are highlighting the source of meats, fish and vegetables and devoting entire restaurants to the concept of featuring local farmed ingredients. Menus start out with a list of where and how the food they are serving has been sourced and the style of the food as become secondary to the ingredients.

So in your local hot spots, you can look forward to quality, seasonal ingredients and you better watch out for the fat!

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