I realise I have left my start-of-year predictions article rather late, but it’s still January (just), and at the moment we can all do with looking into the future as much as we can.
Food fashions are usually driven by cutting-edge restaurants, but at a time when we are all spending much more time in our kitchens than eating out, let me suggest ten food and drink trends you might like to look out for in 2021.
1. Nostalgic comfort food
Times of crisis are not the occasion to beat yourself up about your diet and only eat chia seeds and organic quinoa.
Unsurprisingly, we are turning to food which reminds us of happier times, and which gives us the warm hug that we are all missing.
Old-fashioned puddings in particular will be a smash-hit - supermarkets are reporting soaring sales of sticky toffee pudding and trifle.
My 84 year-old mother-in-law asked me to make her a lemon meringue pie at the weekend; the smile on her face when I delivered it on Monday spoke volumes.
2. Preserving, fermenting and pickling
Another nod to the past, and driven by the fact that we all have more time on our hands right now, home preserving will be big in 2021, with everything from traditional jams and marmalades to more exotic fare such as kimchi and sauerkraut set to be on the menu.
At a time when food supply is under pressure, this will have the added benefit of avoiding waste.
3. Proper bread
The first lockdown led to a flurry of sourdough baking at home – followed by the realisation that making proper bread requires great skill, oodles of time, and commitment.
The queues outside every artisan baker suggest that people have got the message. We want quality daily bread, and a proper local bakery is the only place to get it, whatever the supermarkets might claim.
4. Breakfast
Do you remember those heady days when mornings were a blur o getting the kids to school and embarking on the daily commute?
The first meal of the day was often a cereal bar gobbled down in the car and a takeaway coffee.
Now our days are more fluid, many of us have the time to sit down for a proper breakfast. Time to enjoy that homemade marmalade on that artisan bread, or those preserved fruits with yoghurt.
5. Seasonal food
This one will be rather forced on us: the Brexit-related problems of importing foodstuffs mean that we will be increasingly reliant on UK-grown, seasonal food.
That’s a good thing as far as it goes, but don’t come crying to me when you can’t get salads next winter.
6. Better quality meat
The relentless haranguing of meat-eaters by the vegan lobby might be tiresome, but we are all aware that for health and environment reasons, we shouldn’t be eating meat at every meal.
Lockdown has been generally good news for local, independent butchers; people wanting to avoid supermarkets have discovered that their local butcher can provide much better quality, and have largely stayed loyal. If we all must eat less meat, then let’s make the meat we do eat better quality.
7. Italian speciality meats
There are fashionable ingredients every year, and in 2021, two of them come from Italy. Guanciale, or cured pork cheeks, is the vital ingredient in spaghetti carbonara; until now it has been nigh on impossible to get hold of, but now it’s stocked by Waitrose.
Likewise, nduja, the spicy, soft, spreadable pork sausage from Calabria, is having a moment. Delicious on pizza, it too is benefitting from being stocked at Waitrose.
8. Speciality seasoning
Of course, salt and pepper never goes out of fashion, but each year brings newly-trendy seasonings. In 2021, it will be seaweed, Himalayan pink salt, and bottarga, the salted, cured fish roe that tastes like parmesan, and which has been made popular by Nigella Lawson.
9. Sherry
Regular readers will know that I have always championed sherry as the most under-rated, under-valued alcoholic drink there is.
At last it seems the world has caught up with me; sherry sales are booming, and a much wider and more interesting selection is widely available. Forget Granny’s Bristol Cream, and enjoy a crisp Manzanilla, a nutty Palo Cortado, or a lusciously sweet Pedro Ximenez.
10. Red, white and rosé wine
You might think this is not an earth-shattering trend, but what I really mean is that 2021 looks like being the year when we finally see through the abomination that is ‘orange wine’.
If you’re not familiar with it (count yourself lucky), it’s white wine made in such a way that it also contains phenols, pigments and tannins, which are as appetising as they sound.
The big ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ trend of the last couple of years, we are finally seeing sense, and 2021 will be the year we return to tried-and-tested winemaking techniques.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here