01 Extreme catering
Pioneer diners are enjoying extraordinary and refined food
Diners are looking for unusual food experiences, including fantastic menus, exaggerated cooking processes and extreme dining places.
Bompas&Parr is a design studio based in London, famous for its multi-sensory experience design works. In February 2022, the studio held a dinner party in the historic AlUla region of Saudi Arabia, providing diners with dishes cooked with lava - the region has a famous sandstone canyon and a black lunar volcanic plateau. Lava technicians poured out lava in a wonderful performance, and then professional chefs cooked local ingredients on the lava stream heated to 1350 degrees Celsius.
Swedish airline OceanSky Cruises will provide advanced dining experience on the Arctic exploration airship in 2024. In addition to enjoying delicious food in the air, travelers can also experience the outdoor dining experience in the snowscape during the 38-hour adventure trip.
According to Christie's auction house, the aged wine collected in space has a unique taste. Last year, connoisseurs bid for a bottle of Petrus 2000, which has been stored in the orbit of the International Space Station for 14 months, matured under zero gravity conditions, and has traveled nearly 180 million miles.
Why pay attention to this trend:
Consumers are getting rid of the mundane life through the extreme dining experience and experiencing the unforgettable experience beyond the conventional restaurant situation.
02
Virtual taste
What is the taste in the metauniverse?
The universe is influencing the food and beverage industry, providing people with new flavor inspiration and building new catering experience.
In May 2022, Coca-Cola launched a new soda flavor, which has an unusual source of inspiration - the Metauniverse. This "Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte" drink was originally released in Fortnite and is said to have pixel taste. Ouana Vlad, senior director of global strategy of the brand, said: "We hope to create an innovative taste, inspired by the fun of pixels, which is rooted in the experience brought by games. Just as pixels promote digital connectivity, 'Coca Cola Sugar Free • Byte' has also shortened the distance between people."
Other brands are also making articles around the theme of reunion to re-construct the dining experience of the universe.
Rojkind Arquitetos, an architectural firm based in Mexico, and Bompas&Parr, an experimental design studio, created a virtual winery for Jose Cuervo on the Decentraland platform. Harry Parr, the co-founder of the studio, said that it "brought the multi-sensory experience of the real world into the infinite world of Decentraland".
This design studio is reinterpreting the role of food and beverage in the future digital life, and its focus is on the connection function of these products.
Rojkind Arquitetos said: "The inspiration of its structural form is the root of agave. If you carefully observe it, you will find that the essence of this plant is that it can evoke a sense of protection and peace of mind. The virtual brewery named Jose Cuervo Metadistillery aims to become a center for all people to establish close ties and create an inclusive community."
Why pay attention to this trend:
Eating and drinking is an obvious reality experience - but brands are exploring how to introduce it into the virtual world and how to guide the design of physical food and beverage products through virtual experience. With the development of virtual lifestyle, people are expected to see the future metauniverse reinterpret food and drink in a more creative way.
03
Zero alcohol lifestyle
The rising sober generation wants to experience excitement without drinking
An article published in September 2022 by Vice magazine pointed out that alcohol has "lost its charm", bars and restaurants provide more and more alcohol-free products, and some consumers even completely abstain from alcohol.
The origin of this trend is that more and more people (especially Generation Z) choose a zero-alcoholic lifestyle.
The Guardian reported that the group aged 16-24 in Britain is a generation of drivers who do not drink, and 26% of them even do not drink. Jay Richards, co-founder of Generation Z research institute Imagen Insights, told Weimen Zhiwei: "People's health awareness has increased, which means that many people have recognized the negative impact of alcohol. The society has also become more tolerant of the groups who refuse to drink."
The number of temperance bars that can improve the drinking experience while reducing alcohol content is increasing.
NoLo, officially opened in July 2022, is the first non-alcoholic bar in Dubai, serving healthy handmade cocktails.
In the same year, the Temperance Bar opened in San Francisco. It is an underground bar that is only accessible by invitation. It provides more than 100 kinds of non-alcoholic spirits, mixed liquor and beverages.
In Melbourne, Brunswick Aces Bar, which opened in April 2021, is Australia's first alcohol-free bar. In addition to bars catering to non-drinkers, liquor stores also began to supply a variety of refined alcohol products.
Zero Co is the first alcohol-free liquor store in Atlanta. The store opened in December 2022, meeting the growing demand for low-alcohol and zero-alcohol products. It has more than 300 bottles of non-alcoholic spirits, red wine and beer in its inventory, and there is also a wine tasting space.
In September 2022, the flash store S è chey opened a permanent store in the West Village of New York. Founder Emily Heintz is committed to introducing healthy wines to people, so that people can get rid of hangovers the next day, and at the same time, they can drink good wine in front of the wine tasting table.
In Singapore, Free Spirit, which opened in 2020, is the country's first alcohol-free liquor store.
Why pay attention to this trend:
Zero alcohol content is a new fashion.
In the past few years, as beverage brands began to produce more refined alcohol-free alternatives, more and more people sought low-alcohol or alcohol-free beverages. Now, due to the promotion of modern liquor stores with wine tasting tables and completely alcohol-free fashionable bars, these products are gradually becoming people's new partners in social occasions.
04
Wilderness survival catering
The wild food materials collected by people are building a new type of wilderness survival dining experience.
People are tasting the excitement brought by the scavenger-style menu.
Chefs vs. Wild is a new reality show launched by the streaming media broadcasting platform Hulu. Each episode has two world-class chefs appearing on the stage. The program team left them in the wilderness far away from the city, and let them collect their own ingredients and make exquisite dishes. This program was first broadcast in September 2022. Each chef will team up with an outdoor expert and survival expert to ensure that they will not accidentally ingest toxic animal and plant ingredients, or get injured in the process.
During this period, chefs must have the experience or knowledge of foraging and slaughtering. After being selected, they must collect, hunt and catch the necessary ingredients by themselves. Using the ingredients collected from the wild, they cooked a special meal for the two hosts of the program, the adventurer and professional chef Kiran Jethwa and the wildlife expert Valerie Segrest, in a "wilderness kitchen".
Why pay attention to this trend:
This reality show shows that people are increasingly concerned about the diet culture and lifestyle of being close to nature and self-reliant. From the phenomenon of collecting cocktails last year (the 41st trend in the "100 trends in 2022"), consumers not only want to advocate a sustainable lifestyle, but also increasingly yearn for a return to nature.
Note: In China, this trend is not inferior to that of foreign countries. We can see the flow of UP main videos of various wild food on station B, which shows this.
05
Membership restaurant
The exclusive catering club is providing people with new super elite catering experience.
Private member clubs are merging with restaurants, providing highly personalized concierge services and top food in the "pay wall" restaurant, which is only open to members.
Haiku in Miami is an invitation only restaurant. Members must pay an annual fee and promise to book at least four 12-course dinners each year. ZZ's Club opened its first store in Miami. Now it has brought the concept of membership restaurant to New York. It has a three-floor, 25000 square foot site in Hudson City Square. It includes the latest popular Italian restaurant Carbone, a Japanese restaurant and several bars. These places are only open to members who pay annual fees, and their annual fees will only be displayed when applying.
Flyfish Club will open in Manhattan at the beginning of 2023. It injects technology elements into this membership business model to attract elite customers in the encryption technology circle. It is a seafood themed restaurant project launched by VCR, a hotel and restaurant group, which includes two restaurants. People can use Flyfish NFT to purchase their membership on the blockchain.
Casa Cruz, a senior restaurant brand in London, launched a four-storey store in New York, which further mixes the concept of membership restaurant. The main restaurant and lounge are open to the public, but only investors who pay 250000 US dollars can enter the restaurant and roof terrace on the fourth floor.
Why pay attention to this trend:
The premium catering brand provides a new elite catering experience for the upper class - it gives priority to membership and exclusivity, and caters to the needs of people in the encryption technology circle.
It should be noted that this kind of restaurant is different from the VIP service in the past and pays more attention to technology.
06
Web3 Winery
Traditional wineries are undergoing a round of Web3 upgrade
The time for change in the wine industry is ripe, and new enterprises are beginning to explore innovation supported by Web3.
Evinco is a wine company based in California. Inspired by cryptocurrency and metauniverse, Evinco has established a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). This distributed leadership model distributes ownership and decision-making power to the entire winery community, which means that each NFT holder is a shareholder, and they have equal voting rights on the future development direction of the company.
Joy Pathak, co-founder of Evinco, told Weimen Zhiwei think tank: "In the past, there has been no change in the winery except for brewing wine and directly facing consumers. There has never been gaming in the wine and spirits field. The winery has never allowed consumers to gain ownership of its supporting brands. We are pushing brand loyalty and community to a new level."
Evinco NFT holders can also gain access to exclusive products and activities. Other wine companies are also exploring the use of NFT to provide additional benefits, as well as seamless and transparent experience.
Cuv é eCollective is an NFT-based wine club that provides VIP experience and concierge service of California Wine Hometown for its holders of tokens.
The luxury NFT market BlockBar and WiV (claiming to be the world's first blockchain-based wine investment club) are selling their own NFTs, which are digital clones of their real bottled wine and wine boxes. NFT supported by blockchain can verify the authenticity and source of real products, and also allow wine connoisseurs to realize friction-free digital transactions.
Why pay attention to this trend:
We predicted the rise of DAO in the 100 major trends in 2022, and explored how the Web3 economy provides an alternative enterprise recruitment model.
Now, people are using DAO to break through this boundary and reshape traditional industries through decentralization, democratization, transparency and community ownership.
07
Three condiments
Local flavors and authentic cooking methods will become the main characteristics of the top ingredients in 2023.
(1) Carmine seed
Carmine seed is a popular cooking material among Mexicans, and it has many forms. The word "achiote" comes from the "achiotl" in the Nahuatl language of the ancient Aztec language. This seasoning is described as having earthy taste and strong and pungent taste, which can dye orange and red for chicken and fish, and enhance the flavor of dishes. Its origin is controversial, but it is mainly produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.
The recent popularity of this condiment reflects the growing interest in local cuisine and cooking. Some emerging chefs and restaurant owners are using this condiment, and they intend to incorporate traditional cooking methods and dishes into their menus. In August 2022, Chipotle announced that it would launch a new chicken dish and use carmine seed as one of its special ingredients to enhance the flavor level of the food.
(2) Pepper
Pepper is a popular seasoning in Japanese cuisine. This kind of seasoning has the characteristics of increasing flavor and flavor, and has a variety of uses, and can be added to all kinds of cooking dishes. The new condiment brand Cabi launched a series of Japanese ingredients and flavorings in September 2022. Its three products include Zesty Sansho pepper miso. According to the recipe on the brand's website, it can be cooked with salmon and minced meat.
Generation z is the most diversified generation so far. They have promoted the rise of multicultural catering, and the recipes produced by ingredients with historical and cultural significance will continue to add features to various menus and kitchens.
(3) Tea holly
The tea holly is made from the holly shrub native to the United States, and is the only natural caffeinated plant in the American continent. It is characterized by its sweet and earthy taste, and was once made into herbal tea and used in purification ceremonies by American Indians.
This condiment is brewed by tea companies such as Yaupon Brothers in Florida, Yaupon TeaCo. in North Carolina and CatSpring Yaupon in Texas. BBQ Ramen Tatsu-ya is a new restaurant located in Austin, Texas, which opened in October 2022. It added tea holly and lily sake, Japanese plum wine, aperitif and plum salt to its Melo-Byrd cocktail. It is expected that in 2023, there will be more shelves and menus to replace tea holly.
Note: There are great opportunities for all kinds of new consumer drinks in China, such as wine, tea, soft drinks and fruit juice.
08
Cell culture dishes
As the ingredients of cell culture enter the grocery store from the laboratory, luxury food brands may become the first advocates to bring them to the table.
Cell-cultured meat or dairy products are a promising method of animal protein production, which will not cause animal pain or environmental deterioration. But until recently, people finally reduced the cost of this model.
This culture process involves extracting cells from living animals and placing these initial cells in the growth medium in the bioreactor so that they can grow into fat and muscle. In 2013, the cost of the Hamburg cultivated by the first laboratory exceeded 200000 euros, but the current cost has been reduced to less than 10 euros. According to Crunchbase, in 2021, nearly $1 billion will be invested in cell culture meat start-ups around the world.
Under the circumstance that investors have entered the market to explore alternative protein products cultivated in the laboratory, the appearance of such ingredients in the menu of high-end catering brands seems to be unexpected.
In 2021, scientists from Osaka University created beef with striped fat using 3D printing technology, while Dutch scientists cultivated caviar in the laboratory.
In September 2022, TurtleTree, a cell culture dairy start-up, hired Dominique Crenn, the star chef of the Netflix documentary Chef's Table, as its food innovation consultant. Crenn Atelier Crenn in San Francisco is a Michelin 3-star three-star restaurant, famous for its environment-friendly fish and vegetable dishes and poetic style menus.
Fengru Lin, the founder and CEO of TurtleTree, told the Sacramento Bee, "I really believe that we will create exciting and coveted food again - and then we can really start this change." TurtleTree has a factory in Sacramento, with its headquarters in Singapore.
At the beginning of 2022, Upside Foods (famous for its cell-cultured chicken), based in California, acquired the Wisconsin based Cultured Decadence (developing indoor cultured seafood products such as lobster) to enter the high-end market. Upside Foods has also reached a cooperation with Crenn. As long as the regulatory authority approves the sale of such products to the public, they will add the cultivated chicken to Crenn's menu.
Why pay attention to this trend:
The protein of cell culture has not yet been commercialized, and Singapore is the only country allowed to sell cell culture chicken at present. For some consumers, they are likely to taste the food of cell culture for the first time through the high-end restaurant (not the grocery store).
09
Energy-saving catering
The food and beverage industry is constantly promoting innovation to cope with the global energy crisis
Due to the soaring energy prices in Brussels, cooks and restaurants are trying to use cooking methods without stove and gas, using little or no electricity.
Brasserie Surreliste provides diners with cold dishes and light baked dishes. Only the burning charcoal grill is used for cooking, and candles are lit on each table for lighting. Its menu includes raw white tuna, roast pork with beans, charcoal baked fukasha bread and anchovy Chicken rolls with cream.
Francesco Cury, owner of Racines (whose employees are the waiters and chefs of Brasserie), said, "This idea is to return to the era of cave people. We prepared a series of dishes that only need to be baked for a few seconds."
In October 2022, a restaurant in Frodsham, England, opened without the main power supply, providing diners with a menu of nine dishes, and protesting the rise of electricity bills by lighting candles.
Next Door restaurant uses charcoal, smoking, pickling and fermentation technology to prepare dishes, and uses fire to heat tea, drinks and food. Instead of using refrigerators, it uses cellars to store food materials and only accepts cash. Its chef Richard Nuttall uses innovative methods to prepare every dish and store every ingredient. He told the BBC: "We use coal to roast onions and carrots, and fire to dehydrate herbs."
Why pay attention to this trend:
The food and beverage industry in Europe has felt the economic impact of the energy crisis. Now, chefs are taking extreme measures to create new dining experiences for diners while saving money and controlling energy costs.
50. Super cycle design - The restaurant is adopting the design concept of recycling resources.
The future catering environment will not only focus on reducing food waste, or using biodegradable materials——
The whole restaurant environment will be designed in an environmentally friendly way.
Vr š is a restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden. It uses furniture made of food waste and by-products. These furniture were designed by the local designer Carolina H ä rdh to help diners imagine the value created by the correct use of food waste.
The stools and side tables of H ä rdh are made of broken shells, rice starch and fish bones. They look like terrazzo - but they are actually bio-based rather than cement-based materials. She uses the remaining biological materials as fertilizer for the roof garden of the restaurant, or as a chopsticks rack for Japanese cuisine.
H ä rdh told Dezeen that she "selected the relevant materials based on her own investigation of the restaurant garbage bins". She hopes that sitting on and appreciating these furniture "can add some different experiences for diners, and let them understand the value of turning waste into treasure after the food goes off the table."
Why pay attention to this trend:
The sustainable development measures of the food industry are constantly developing, so brands can take more feasible measures besides reducing food waste. The circular design in the restaurant and social environment is another leap in the concept of environmentally friendly catering.