Hot Foodstuffs: Trends for 2008 Include Bite-Size, Junk-Free, Ethical, Artisanal

By Karen Herzog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 2–Downsizing doesn’t apply only to corporate America.

If you want to eat trendy in 2008, say hello to bite-size desserts joining small plates and tapas; “junk-free” foods with artificial additives removed; ethical foods produced locally, organically or sustainably; and foods and beverages handcrafted in small batches such as artisan cheeses, specialty beers, and microdistilled or artisanal liquors.

Add foods fortified with healthy bacteria known as probiotics, and you’ve got a full plate of trends for the new year.

“Junk-free” and “gastro-travel” (tourism focused around food) are the buzz words you’ll be hearing, while “fresh,”"local” and “sustainable” will continue to be part of the foodie lingo, according to several surveys, trend spotters, and local chefs and restaurateurs.

Look for 2008 to be a rough year for high-end restaurants that have not built a loyal clientele, as Milwaukee’s booming restaurant scene possibly “corrects itself” after some overbuilding, one prominent restaurateur predicts.

Small is big, but for how long?

Bite-sized desserts and small plates, tapas and mezze (the Middle Eastern version of tapas) are among the top trends noted by the National Restaurant Association, based on an Internet survey of 1,282 members of the American Culinary Federation, mostly chefs. The chefs were given a list of 194 food and beverage items, cuisines and preparation methods, and were asked to peg items as “hot,”"cool/passe” or “perennial favorite.”

The trend toward smaller plates is driven by diners trying to control weight with smaller meals, said Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at W. Walter Thompson, the largest advertising agency in the United States. She calls it “tapa-ification.”

Tapas-style restaurants also have proved popular with customers who prefer to mix and match and try new things.

“This trend will gain steam in the year to come with more eateries abandoning the traditional entree in favor of a more worldly style of eating,” Mack predicted in a news release.

Scott Shully, chef-owner of Shully’s Cuisine and Events in Thiensville, chuckles at the thought of bite-sized foods being trendy.

“We’ve been doing that for 10 years,” Shully said, referring specifically to desserts.

Mini-portions generally reflect a desire for variety and quality in smaller portions, he said.

For his catering clients, that may mean 1 to 2 ounces each of Kobe beef or mother’s-milk-fed veal — small portions of a few items to create a full meal.

Keep that in mind as you’re planning your next home party.

“The Spanish had it right when they started doing tapas,” Shully added. “I love to eat that way — go out to dinner and share three to five appetizers.”

Not everyone agrees that “small” is here to stay, though.

“The small-plates phenomenon keeps on rolling — especially mini-desserts — but tapas-style restaurants in a handful of cities have reverted to conventional menus as customers discover they’re actually spending more and often getting less,” says a report by Baum & Whiteman Co., creator of restaurants around the world for hotels, restaurant companies and major museums, including the Rainbow Room and the late Windows on the World in New York.

The next ‘-free’ trend?

Americans are increasingly concerned about what’s in their food and how it’s grown.

“Junk-free” food tops Mintel’s International Group’s 2008 food trend predictions. The consumer market researcher predicts that food companies will continue to remove artificial colors, preservatives and flavors from products next year so they can make “junk-free” claims on food labels.

Ingredient lists “will read more like home recipes than chemists’ shopping lists,” Mintel notes in its projections.

Mintel also predicts that manufacturers will put more information on their labels, such as where ingredients come from, how they are manufactured, and how they are packaged in an effort to be more “transparent” and cater to interest in local sourcing and product origins.

“Indeed, ethical and environmental concerns also figure high in the predictions, with manufacturers changing the way they talk about their carbon footprint,” the Mintel report concludes.

Bottled water is part of that debate, and what happens to the plastic containers once the water is consumed is at the core of a backlash against trendy waters. Mintel predicts that despite innovations in bottled waters, “if a consumer is just thirsty, they will go to the kitchen sink, not the supermarket.”

Baum & Whiteman Co. takes it one step further and predicts that not only will bottled water become passe, but restaurants also will begin charging for filtering local water.

How food is produced

As part of the backlash against “unnatural” foods, high-end restaurants will be “talking the talk” about buying locally produced products, humane slaughter of cattle, sourcing fair-trade coffee and chocolate, serving whole grains and reducing their energy footprint — all with higher menu prices, Baum & Whiteman Co. predicts.

Seasonal cooking — using only produce that’s in season — will be a growing byproduct of the green movement, notes Mack, the trend spotter in New York.

Environmentally conscious diners say another benefit of seasonal eating is fresher food.

Chef Tory Miller, co-proprietor of the upscale L’Etoile restaurant in Madison, believes in supporting Wisconsin farmers and showcases locally produced foods on nightly menus there.

“We want to do things the old school or Old World way,” he said. “It comes natural to us. We go backward to go forward.”

Eating local, sustainable foods is more than a trend, Miller added.

“Our customers who have never had grass-fed beef or organic chicken, once they have it, they want to know where they can buy it,” he said. “What it boils down to is flavor, and what you’re doing for your local economy and ecosystem.”

The cost of buying locally produced food may make it cost-prohibitive for some, Miller said, but even if every grocery store had one section of such food, it would be a choice that many people prefer.

“I would love to see fewer semi trucks and more pickup trucks bringing food to stores and restaurants,” he said.

So would French-trained chef Jill Prescott, who returned to Wisconsin last year after a stint in Napa Valley to open Jill Prescott’s ecole de Cuisine cooking school at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake.

Prescott realizes, however, that eating locally grown foods in season is a challenge in Wisconsin.

“I believe in the concept of eating seasonally and within 20 miles of where you live,” she said. “But for us, that’s road salt and road kill a good part of the year.”

Spending time in Napa Valley and France before returning to Wisconsin drove home that point.

“Availability and quality were never issues there,” she said.

Caterer Shully said he supports sustainable seafood — fish that is raised and caught in a humane manner and isn’t over-fished. He just started buying fresh fish from Hawaii that comes tagged with the name of the boat and the captain that caught it, along with where it was caught.

“When I talk about food, I like to have a personal association and tell a story about it,” Shully added. “That brings people closer to the food they’re eating.”

Restaurateur Joe Bartolotta, co-owner of five area restaurants and a catering service, said price will dictate whether local, sustainable trends continue.

“Organic is 20 to 30 percent more and it’s very ’boutiquey,’ ” Bartolotta said. “It’s really expensive to buy groceries now — even basic groceries like eggs and milk.”

Bartolotta is excited about burgers.

Yes, burgers.

He just returned from New York, where he visited a number of burger bars — “very simple hamburger concepts that tend to be a little more expensive with higher quality ingredients.” One place offered a whole New York strip, rib-eye or porterhouse steak ground into a burger for $28.

Nevertheless, Bartolotta, whose restaurants include high-end Bacchus and Lake Park Bistro, acknowledges that diners are moving away from fine dining prices.

Fine vs. casual

He predicted that at least a handful of fine dining restaurants would go under in the first part of this year as the market “corrects itself” after a period of overbuilding.

“There’s also a fine dining crowd that doesn’t want to dress for fine dining,” he added. “They want to eat well, but be comfortable.”

Prescott is part of that crowd.

She said she would love to see more restaurants invest in simple foods prepared well with the freshest ingredients available, and served in a casual setting.

“I’d be happy to go to a restaurant with five things on the menu, all perfectly prepared that day with bright, fresh ingredients. And it doesn’t have to be tremendously fancy if all the components are done correctly. It could be simply meatloaf with mashed potatoes — casual elegance,” she said.

“White-tablecloth dining doesn’t have to mean getting all dressed up.”

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