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Butter and cheeses with flavor
Gee Cuyugan, head chef at Mercat a la Planxa, a Chicago tapas restaurant with Catalan influences, predicts that artisanal butter, infusing butter, and other cheeses like feta and goat cheese would become more popular in the upcoming year. Compound butter and goat cheeses are aesthetically beautiful and provide a flavor boost without a lot of effort or additional ingredients, so it makes it obvious that they would naturally evolve from the butter board to something more useful. Put your flavored butter and cheeses over toast, sprinkle some on top of just-cooked steak, or simply use a butter candle as decor.
Ube Ube
A purple yam used in Filipino cuisine is becoming more popular, in part because of its photogenic hue. Even an ube spread is available at Trader Joe’s! Ube can be used in pastry recipes and mochi since Chef Cuyugan has seen an increase in Southeast Asian ingredients being used in cross-cultural recipes. It’s also a fantastic purple scoop of ice cream addition!
Kombu
Japanese ingredient kombu, or dried kelp, is becoming more and more well-liked; in fact, Brooklyn’s Dashi Okume store is entirely devoted to kombu and the dashi (broths) it is used in. The head chef at Graduate Nashville, Chef Angeline Chiang, uses kombu to give a meaty texture to a variety of dishes. The chefs and proprietors of Brooklyn’s Shalom Japan, Aaron Israel, and Sawako Okochi are also ardent supporters of kombu. They advise using two square inches for each quart of soup. It gives the soup a little bit more body and texture in the mouth.
Sunchokes
Get ready to find more sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, in supermarkets and CSA boxes. Chris dos Rois, the executive chef at Town House in New Rochelle, New York, predicts that sunchokes will be present in far greater quantities than in previous years. “The key element, in this case, is market-driven trends, which are enjoying a prosperous farming year. Because potatoes didn’t perform as well this year and became more expensive, they were put in the background. Nonetheless, sunchokes are still in demand at [the Union Square Green] market and their price has dropped as a result of the high yield, which also means chefs and home cooks will be drawn to them. Using sunchokes in a variety of textures, chef dos Reis creates a surf and turf at Town House.
Sun dried Tomatoes
Yes, just like many other trends from that storied decade, those 1990s home entertainment idols are back. According to Francesco Bonsinetto of Cucina Migrante in San Diego, “I think ingredients with a lot of umami will be the secret weapon of many home cooks. Sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies, sardines, and capers are flavor-boosting items that are also incredibly adaptable, allowing you to keep them in the cupboard and quickly prepare a classy meal. Bonsinetto advises combining anchovies with sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, and balsamic for a speedy tapenade. Make a dish like Sun-Dried Tomato Romesco Chicken or serve pasta with a jar of Rao’s Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto.
Dates
According to several chefs, dates will be a popular ingredient in 2023. They’ll be “massive,” according to Chef Boettcher. Dates can be used in a variety of dishes, from appetizers to sweets. Try them sautéed with some fresh garlic and lemon, recommends Chef Bonsinetto. Furthermore nutrient-dense, medjool dates can be eaten as a snack right away. Dates are becoming more often utilized as a sweetener and sugar alternative in delicacies like a Creamy Date Shake. Silan, also known as date syrup, will become more popular; try substituting it for honey or sugar. Individual organic date syrup sachets are available from Joolie’s to carry around and drizzle into anything.
Hyperlocal Substances
When inflation costs are daunting, big-box retailers are less alluring. Chef Donald Young, the proprietor of Chicago’s Duck Sel, predicts that local farm ingredients will be among the most popular ones to use in cooking. “Prices for our essential daily necessities have soared as inflation has badly affected the entire nation. As these prices climb, they increasingly begin to resemble the pricing set by your neighborhood farmer at the farmer’s market. We’ll start to see chefs employ higher-quality items when they expand into more grocery shops because the prices will be at least comparable. You can get access to local, organic ingredients at a discount by joining a CSA, or local farm share.
Mint Andean
Another advocate of utilizing regional ingredients is Peruvian chef Virgilio Martnez, who sees the foundation of the country’s cuisine as existing relationships between chefs and farmers, fishermen, and other suppliers. “We’re still in touch with the producers. A sweet potato farmer can be found 30 minutes from my home, and a fisherman who works two blocks away can inform me about the state of the ocean. It is therefore not surprising that Martnez uses several locally grown ingredients in his newest restaurant, Estero, which aims to combine Mexican and Peruvian cuisines with plenty of natural components. One of those elements is Andean mint, also known as mua, which the Incas employed and is said to have medicinal benefits. Andean mint can be used to decorate fresh fruit or sweets with a fruity focus to give a touch of brightness. Steep it in boiling water to make a calming tea. For a cool dessert at Estero, Martnez combines fresh mango and Andes mint.
Peppers are aplenty
These days, it seems like every chef owns a jar of canned chili crisp, and according to Kale Walch of The Herbivorous Butcher, more varieties of peppers are finding their way into household recipes. In the past, he has experimented with using different peppers since he has “always been a lover of making tiny modifications to dishes I’ve been preparing for years,” he adds. Try switching your table shaker from black pepper to white pepper for a month; white pepper’s subtlety serves to enhance the flavors of a dish more than black pepper, which adds a lot of its flavor. Walch also anticipates Sichuan peppercorns becoming more prevalent in Western cooking and expects that Habanada will be popular for adding a little more heat.
Advances in Plant-Based Proteins
According to Adriano Paganini, owner, and founder of Back of the House in San Francisco, there are now more plant-based protein options than ever before due to the growing trend of people wanting to make healthier decisions for both themselves and the environment.
Eating plant-based is “no longer a fringe practice—and with our three plant-based restaurants, we find that a lot of our visitors are not ardent vegans, but they want to make a variety of dining decisions during the week,” he says. “I only see this trend growing, especially as plant-based components and substitutes become more accessible and delectable,” the author says. What new plant protein should you be aware of in 2023? Seafood, according to Chicago restaurateur Carmen Rossi of 8 Hospitality.
