Taste of tomorrow
Cooking has become almost as trend-driven as fashion. We’re constantly on the hunt for the new. New ingredients, new ways of cooking and new ways to plate our dishes.
For us at AEG, looking for trends is natural. What if we could find the next big thing, just before it gets big and enable people to master the tastes of tomorrow?
Taste of tomorrow
The trends
Go purple
When it comes to eating veggies, purple is the new green of 2018. We see it in beetroots, violet sweet potato, and hibiscus flower – each rich in anthocyanins, a natural antioxidant. Not only healthy, but also packed with flavour.
Puffed and popped
What’s popping in 2018? Quinoa, amaranth, and sorghum is. It’s grains like these that will be popping on heated pans. Puffed grains have been made for centuries with the simplest methods, like popping popcorn for example.
Umami
It’s big in Japan, and in 2018 it will be big everywhere else. Savory and simple, it’s one of the five basic tastes of the human tongue. Umami exists naturally in a lot of ingredients, such as tomatoes, miso, meat and mushrooms.
Ancient grains
Ancient grains are nothing new, but they’ll certainly be trending on people’s plates this year. Unlike the more modern corns and rice, these grains are largely unchanged over the centuries and include rye, spelt, quinoa, barley, black rice, kamut, and buckwheat.
Sous vide
Sous vide will be big in 2018. But what is it? The short answer is it’s a method of cooking by vacuum sealing and steaming food to the perfect temperature. It’s the technology used in the most high-end restaurants, giving unmatched texture to food while also preventing overcooking.
Zero-Waste Cooking
Waste consciousness is rising! Not only a trend in 2018, but a long-term shift of mindsets. Nose-to-tail and stem-to-root, how can we take and make use of all parts of the produce? Using modern tech and a bit of creativity, you can create amazing taste experiences from the otherwise wasted parts.
Meatless meat
Are plant-based proteins taking over? If you’re looking at social and searches, they most certainly are. More and more people are looking for healthy substitutes to meat without sacrificing flavor or texture.
Other trends to watch
There are even more delicious trends on the horizon. Black is always big in style. And in 2018, it’s also going to be big when it comes to cooking. Black-coloured foods will be a thing. Classic techniques like fermenting and confit will make strong comebacks while Instagram will be overflowing with cloud eggs. Taste of tomorrow will bring you all the latest trends as they break.
About the project
We’ve teamed up with a group of experts to predict the food trends of 2018. Our team of experts – ranging from a data scientist, trend hunters, a journalist and chefs – have been mining the internet and conquering every about-to-trend taste in our kitchen. The result was 15 mouthwatering trends of 2018, ranging from cooking with new techniques and trending colours to flavours and dishes.
Who knew that Purple would be the color on your plates this year? Or that popped food would pop into kitchens around? Out of these 15 trends, we’ve narrowed them down seven that we won’t only help you prepare, but master in new and exciting ways.
With AEG, we invite you to master tomorrow’s tastes today.
Trend selection
Google Trends and Social Searcher have been used to provide deep insights into population behaviour and give indications of the potential rise of a food trend.
Google Trends
Based on the relative volume of interest in the topic keyword(s), Google Trends was used to identify the potential of a trend. By analysing a portion of the 3 billion daily Google searches, with particular focus on the prior 12 months, 15 trends were chosen to represent the tastes of tomorrow.
Social Searcher
Social Searcher’s “Social Buzz” tool served as a confirmation of the trend by providing social media usage data. It uses open API access for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Daily Motion, Tumblr, Vimeo, VKontakte and Flicker to examine mentions of specific keywords over time.
The expert panel
Together with deep dives into data analytics, our experts have played a big part in researching and identifying the tastes of tomorrow. The experts – ranging from data scientists and trend hunters to journalists and chefs – selected the tastes based on a wide range of values like search behaviour and social media mentions.
THE JOURNALIST
Marti Buckley Kilpatrick
Buckley is originally from the US, but based in Spain. She is a journalist and the founder of the blog Travel, Cook, Eat. She has written for international magazines such as The New York Times, National Geographic, and Elle.
THE DATA SCIENTIST
Lillian Piersson
A leading expert in the field of big data and data science. Lillian equips professionals and students alike with the data skills they need to stay competitive in today’s data-driven economy.
THE CHEF
Heiko Antoniewicz
Heiko is a German chef who specializes in advanced culinary techniques like molecular gastronomy as well as sous-vide. Practically cooking royalty, this chef has cooked for Crown Prince Harald of Norway, Queen Elisabeth II, and Angela Merkel.
THE FOODIE
Nina Olsson
A creative mother from The Netherlands, Nina invites her thousands-upon-thousands of followers to watch her in her digital kitchen every week. Her recipes are vegetarian and vegan, but also encourages and inspires her more carnivorous followers.
THE TREND EXPERT (AEG)
Sofia Andreasson
Sofia is a trend research expert at Electrolux. She supports projects across the design teams, is responsible for leading and conducting trends research, translates, and applies said trends into the different stages of the design process.
