Gluten-free, vegan-laden, or made-with-millets, the food trends for 2023 are exciting and with a bent towards sustainability. Renowned chefs give us their culinary predictions for the year ahead.
The Indian culinary industry — already a bubbling cauldron of exciting and eclectic influences from across the world — will witness a spate of innovative trends in 2023, say leading Indian chefs. Reflective of changing consumer preferences and an augmented focus on health and sustainability, these trends will dominate hotel and restaurant menus in a big way. In addition, super foods will reign supreme; think avocado, millets, kale, mock meats, vegan and gluten-free dishes. Indulgence with a conscience towards Mother Earth and climate and global sensitivities at large will be the overarching sentiment, say experts.
In addition, Indian and Asian food will continue to rule the roost along with plant-based dining. All restaurants, in fact, will need to have some vegetarian dishes to cater to a growing tribe of conscious diners. Flavours will play a big role rather than just elevated presentations even as chefs will be required to push boundaries, develop novel creations, and innovate with responsibility.
Here’s what some pioneering chefs think about the defining food trends in the year ahead:
Chef Varun Totlani, Head Chef at Masque restaurant
We will continue to see the rise of regional and hyperlocal cuisines being showcased in the F&B (food and beverage) space – not just in India, but across the world, entering the same space as more “commercialized” cuisines.
We’ll also start seeing more FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) products by chefs and restaurants on shelves around us, either in tandem with food tech companies or as extensions of their own brands. As we see home cooks expand their repertoire and get more experimental, this will also become a way forward for chefs and hospitality groups to get a foot in the door and bring their signature flavours into home kitchens.
Pop-ups, collaborations, and experiential dining overall will grow exponentially. Consumers are on the lookout for new experiences, especially after the fatigue of the last three pandemic years, and hosting guest chefs and one-off dining and bar events are not just a great way to offer that to your patrons, but also good sources of revenue and to build regular clientele.
Chef Abhishek Gupta, Executive Chef, The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel & Residences
Sustainability will be big as the world moves towards reducing carbon footprints, supporting farmers, trying to whittle down waste, and save energy. So, in a larger hotel format or restaurant innovation, sustainability will be considered as an initiative from all chefs and entrepreneurs. Vegan, gluten free, sugar free, Keto mock meat, will remain and rise further as people become more inclined towards plant- based meals than meats, sugar substitute like monk fruit syrup, jaggery and palm sugar.
Millets will be big, as 2023 is also a ‘Millet Year’. So, we will see a major shift in the usage of millets in different forms and formats by restaurateurs. Usage of indigenous ingredients will further rise and more restaurants will get inclined towards putting them on the menu. The use of hydroponic vegetables, plants, and herbs will accelerate. The Leela Gurugram was one of the first hotels to launch a ‘Hydroponic Moving Salad Bar’ in 2021 for our guests on New Year’s Eve and then at all our brunches at our all-day dining, Spectra.
Chef Arun Sundararaj, Director of Culinary Operations at Taj Mahal, New Delhi
A strong focus on fresh and seasonal food, local, and some global influences and ingredients will be prominent this year. As diners get more inquisitive about local and regional cuisines, we’ll see them being accepted more. There will be an amplification of everything local, seasonal, and sustainable, as people have become more sensitized towards global warming, reduction of carbon footprint and supporting the local ecosystems.
One trend that is continuing from the last couple of years is of an increasing number of people preferring vegan fare. This can be attributed largely to the meat-eating world moving towards plant-based food, especially in the form of meaty textures.
Chefs are becoming a lot more conscious about the calories that they’re loading on a plate. They are increasingly adopting healthier practices by way of sourcing ingredients responsibly or even substituting white sugar with natural sugars, reducing the quantity of butter by adding olive oil, and so on. While millennials are definitely adopting healthier lifestyles and eating habits, there is also a yo-yo effect where cheat meals are being celebrated. After making conscious eating choices, there is often a swing to the other extreme where they want to simply indulge in food without thinking of calories or health benefits!
Chef Ritu Dalmia, Founder, Diva chain of restaurants
I don’t believe in trends, so I don’t follow trends. Having said that, its most important for me — as well as for some other chefs I’m sure — to use the best ingredients possible to give diners, delicious, fresh, and well-cooked meals. And I reckon this trend will be reflected at a macro level in India and across the globe. This year, a lot of my time and research will be focused on finding local vendors, whether they are farms growing vegetables and herbs, or local cheese makers or even organic farms doing poultry and meat to source the best possible produce we can. The idea is to put out food that’s not only pleasing to the palate and the eyes but the stomach as well.
Chef Manish Mehrotra, Culinary Director, Indian Accent, New Delhi
Nostalgia food will be big this year. The love for familiar flavours and aromas — especially from one’s childhood — is going to play a robust role in menu planning. In the last two pandemic years, people have experimented with their family recipes at home and so they will appreciate a similar sense of homey warmth even when they dine at a restaurant.
Chefs are returning to nostalgia cuisine the world over, because the last two to three years have been so difficult for all of us. That’s why childhood foods that take us back to our childhood or our happy place will rule the popularity charts. This is something we’ve done at Indian Accent for years, but it is picking up as a global trend now and that’s a good thing!
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