After a lazy, drifting summer spent in pub gardens and back gardens, drinking craft ciders, English wines and Negronis and snacking on chicken skin popcorn and big butch salads, Autumn always heralds a bit of a snap-to; a finger on the reset button as foodies, chefs and restaurateurs all look to pull people back inside with hot new dishes and/or "concepts" (depending on whether the very concept of a concept makes you want to beurk or not...). So here's our smorgasbord of things to look out for before the slog of the turkey dinner.
Marriott Hotels have just teamed up with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage to roll out their new concept as 'sustainability leaders.' Beginning with hotels in Cardiff and W Yorkshire, Marriott have taken great pride in announcing their NEW commitments to - wait for it - using local suppliers, free-range chicken, organic meat, increasing menu change frequency and creating dishes in collaboration with the Cottage. Big hotel groups = fingers ON THE PULSE of food trends, no?
Talking of chainification, it will be of no surprise that if you even wanted to go to the new Gordon Ramsay/David Beckham venture in South London, you have no chance of getting a table between now and February 2015 unless you're prepared to take an 11.30am table on a Monday and even that's a push. The Union Street Cafe took over 2500 bookings within 4 hours of opening in mid-September. In fact, there is a veritable restaurant BOOM in the capital right now, with new joints hot and popping all over. Whether it translates to the rest of the country is a wait and see, but we live in hope... #trappedinmarriottland
Food trends to check out in the next few months: Nikkei - a fusion between Peruvian and Japanese cuisine. Actually it's not quite as mad as it sounds: Peru has the second largest Japanese population in South America and their respective passion for similar flavours - clean, citric, a love of fresh and raw fish all happily hold hands - make this potentially a match made in heaven. The first restaurant to specialise in this sort of food will be Chotto Matte, meaning 'please wait a minute' (we're not sure what that augurs in terms of service but we're prepared to be patient), and will obviously be in London, but we look forward to other cities getting their Nikkei groove on.
Asian continues to dominate: it's fast, cheap and brings no expectations of long, drawn-out dining making it a favourite of kids and restaurateurs alike. The brilliance is in the separating of the various elements, so pho continues to be popular, but look out for noodle bars differentiating themselves as well as banh mi joints and the dying-to-be-copied Flesh and Buns, specialising in soft doughy pork buns.
You might think there'd be nothing else to contribute to the burgeoning pizza market but dudes like Pizza Pilgrims and their brothers are suddenly making pizza hot again by reversing the Franco Manca-based trend for simply-does-it and going topping crazy. Chinese, curries and even genius twists such as that italian fat, lardo, are all making their way aboard the pizza train. Don't turn your nose up - you might miss out.
Finally, summer may have up and gone, but barbecue and meat are tucking in for winter. MEATEasy, MEATmarket, the Pitt Cue Co, Ribstock, Grillshack are all big names right now. Perhaps not the most environmentally-friendly trend going on - how on earth can we manage 2 meat-free days a week with this lot in our face - but it's certainly guaranteed to stay the course. The upside is there's a lot of focus on the slow-cook cheaper cuts, the downside is there's only so much to go around. Race you...
