Top Food Trends For 2024 - Ingredients, Tableware & Gadgets To Watch Right Now
By Holly Thomson
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December 4th, 2023
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The Sous Chef 2024 Trend Report reveals our top predictions for the ingredients, ideas and dishes we'll be seeing in 2024. Carefully gathered from our team of experts, our friends in the chef and food industry, and many conversations with top suppliers from around the world.
What's going to be hot in 2024? You heard it here first!
1. Mushrooms
Mushrooms and fungi are top of our 2024 trend list! We've been watching a steady increase in affection for mushroom motifs on tableware, glassware and textiles. PLUS, an ever-growing appetite for mushrooms in meat-free recipes, and even condiments.
TRY THE TREND:
One of chef and author Denai Moore's go-to Sous Chef ingredients, preserved cooked fungus is an outrageously good mushroom condiment. When we first tasted them in the office, a pot was devoured almost instantly. Along with the Sichuan chilli pepper pickles from the same producer, these are one of the team's firm favourites - stirred into soup at lunch, with instant noodles, or even just to eat alone with white rice when in a hurry.
2. No-Frill Gadgets
This year, one of our stand-out products has been the super-simple Chef's Press. The demand for this clever chef's tool has been enormous since the day it first launched.
TRY THE TREND:
Find out for yourself exactly why the Chef's Press is one of our most-wanted products of 2023. It's top-rated by all the American cooking magazines, and comes direct to us from San Francisco chef Bruce Hill.
It's super-simple and it really works.
Which is why its reputation among fellow chefs and food-lovers is steadily growing...
3. Sesame!
Sesame seeds are moving into the spotlight, as a seasoning in their own right. Hugely popular as the necessary 'crunch' in cult favourite LGM Chilli Oil, and White Mausu Rayu, we're also loving the huge variety of dry sesame seasonings that are popping up every week.
Clockwise from Top Left: Kimchi Roasted Sesame Seeds, Terre Exotique Yuzu Sesame Seeds, Dashi Flavoured Sesame Seeds, Japanese Gomasio ( sesame, umeboshi plums, bonito), Furikame Nori (seaweed sesame)
TRY THE TREND:
Scatter flavoured sesame seeds over rice or noodles to add crunch, nuttiness and earthy flavour.
Sesame seeds have a natural sweetness, and a richness that acts as a great way to draw out other flavours.
4. Cult Collaborations
An ingredient collaboration you didn't know you needed, until you saw it? Top of the 2023 list has been the exclusive Flying Goose Sriracha flavour, created by Wu-Tang Clan frontman RZA. It's a blend of his favourite tangy hot sauce with Ballantine's whisky.
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ShortList Media says: "This collaboration ticks EVERY box for us. Ballantine's x Flying Goose is a hot sauce that's been created in collaboration with Rza from the Wu-tang Clan. The rapper brought the whiskey distiller and original sriracha chilli sauce maker together to "break the mould of what incredible flavour should taste like". We've tasted it and it's a delicious spicy treat that has nods to Ballantine's ripe pear and creamy caramel notes, mixed up with a whole lot of heat."
5. What's Hot In Baking?
2024 is the year of the precision bread gadget! Take the guesswork (and room for error) out of your next loaf of sourdough with the KneadAce SourDough Jar, which tracks temperature and the exact quantities of each mother feed. Or try the 'Goldie' by SourHouse, which is picking up a cult following already...
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The Goldie provides a gentle heat, to keep your sourdough starter active and healthy - even through the coldest winter months. Average room temperatures can make your starter sluggish, but Goldie will keep it in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ of 24-28ºC.
With a steady warm temperature, your starter will rise faster and more consistently so you can easily plan your baking schedule. Equally, you can add a cooling puck to the base of the bell jar, for hot summers!
6. Stripes... the next Splatter?
We're calling it. 2024 will see an evolution of the splatter trend into even more painted patterns on our tableware. Stripes are having a moment!
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Hand-decorated in Puglia, these wonderful tactile plates are decorated with a splash of teal. In distinctive ink-blot style stripes!
We love the movement in the free-hand patterns, so similar to best-selling splatter range. But we also love that they're something we haven't seen elsewhere.
Choose whether to style your dinner plates all at a neat 90 degrees, or whether to have them at fun angles around the table.
7. Gourmet Pets
Our Sous Chef team dog Mika will be pleased to see this trend continue...! We're seeing a huge boom in foodie products for pets. From beautiful water bowls for dogs, to cookie cutters shaped like your favourite hound. 2024 is the year to spoil our pets with some home-baked treats!
Bake healthy, additive-free treats for your dog, and shape them in super-cute bones!
Using wholesome ingredients, you can create healthy, homemade snacks that are free from additives and designed with your dog’s favourite flavours in mind.
As one happy customer says "My Labrador is delighted"!
8. Iconic Cherries
Excitement for our Fabbri cherry panettone this year suggests that these iconic cherries are heading for a moment in the spotlight this year. And Stylist Mag recently included the cherries as one of their 'cult brands for 2024'...
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The Amarena is a variety of sour cherry that was developed by Gennaro Fabbri in 1869. His wife, Rachele, slowly cooked the cherries and semi-candied them. Gennaro liked them so much, that he bought a white-and-blue ceramic jar to thank her. Rachele then had the idea to sell the cherry syrup in the decorative jars, and in 1905 the Fabbri company was born.
These small, dark semi-candied cherries in syrup are divine – and are one of our bestsellers. We’re always hearing about new ways to use them. Cocktails, brownies, ice cream, porridge, trifle, meringues, cheesecake, Greek yoghurt… the list goes on!
9. Drinking Vinegar / Alcohol-Free Cocktails
The benefits of a teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar have long been celebrated. But 'drinking vinegar' is also fantastic for alcohol-free cocktails. Watch Sous Chef founder Nicola and chef Jen Greenhalgh discuss the many uses of verjuice for example:
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The ume ‘vinegar’ is actually the juice that’s extracted from ume plums when they are pickled to make umeboshi. By itself this juice is often very salty, so it is combined with rice vinegar, apple vinegar and honey to turn it into this refreshing drink. You can also dilute it in hot water for a more comforting drink in the colder months.
In Japan vinegar has been drunk for centuries, as it is considered to have many health benefits. The samurai were among the first people to popularise the drinking of vinegar, as they believed it helped them to live longer. In small amounts it can aid digestion, boost the immune system and counter fatigue – so it would have certainly helped!
10. Adventurous Snacking...
The Aperitif 'nibble' is becoming a fixture, and customers are branching out beyond crisps and nuts. We're seeing a huge appetite for rice snacks and Japanese Senbei. Keep your eyes peeled for some exciting snack news coming soon from Sous Chef in 2024. And in the meantime, discover a few of our customers' favourite rice cracker snacks.
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The sweet-salty combination makes these crackers a great store cupboard ingredient as well as perfect snack with a pre-dinner drink.
Rice cracker snacks are popular all over Southeast Asia and Japan – try serving with a cold beer for a change from the usual bar snacks, or even enjoy with a cup of roasted green tea (hojicha).
To stay ahead on the hottest new arrivals at Sous Chef, be sure to check our New In collection each month.
And sign up for Sous Chef emails for the newest trends straight to your inbox.
