1. Local/Farm to Table
As with all of these lists for the past several years, use of local ingredients is the trend the American chefs who are most respected by their peers cited most often. Many of them specified farm-to-table ingredients, which often are sold by local farmers directly to restaurants.
Some restaurants even have their own farms, such as Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, Pa., pictured here, which raises its own Scotch Highland cattle.
2. Sustainable
As a growing number of consumers express concern about the environment, they’re asking more questions about the origins of the food they’re eating. Among those questions is whether the food was grown or raised in a way that had minimal impact on the environment.
Earlier this year McDonald's became the first restaurant chain in the U.S. to use the Marine Stewardship Council blue "eco-label," pictured here, which certifies the chain's fish as sustainable.
3. Sous vide
Vacuum-sealing ingredients in a bag, either to cook slowly and gently or for other applications, such as compressing fruit or quickly infusing proteins with flavor, remains top-of-mind with many chefs. The pears in the curly mustard and sorghum salad pictured here, from Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn., were sprinkled with salt and dressed in grapeseed oil before being vacuum-sealed to thoroughly impregnate them with the salt.
4. Food trucks
Whether they’re an inexpensive way to get into the foodservice business, a literal marketing vehicle or a tool for catering, chefs see food trucks as an enduring part of the dining landscape.
Culver City, Calif.-based Coolhaus, which sells handmade, customizable ice cream-and-cookie sandwiches, got its start using a repurposed postal truck. The concept won a
2012 Hot Concepts award from Nation's Restaurant News.
5. Heirloom vegetables
People love to hear the stories behind their food, and if a vegetable was sprouted from the seeds that someone’s grandmother stored in the attic or is part of an obscure planting from a remote hill in Umbria, that story adds immeasurably to its romance. Pictured here are varieties of heirloom kale for sale at a Portland, Ore., farmers market.
6. Charcuterie
Chefs say the appeal of cold cuts remains on track as more chefs cure their own meats and the supply of excellent domestic and imported products expands. Pictured here is a charcuterie presentation from chef Adam Sappington of The Country Cat Dinnerhouse & Bar in Portland, Ore.
7. Radishes
Fresh and bright tasting, and appealing to consumers’ growing interest in foods that taste bold but aren’t intimidating, radishes have been a surprise breakout vegetable.
Photo: Andrew Cebulka, courtesy of Best Chefs in America, LLC
8. Micro-greens
Chefs across the country say micro-greens have enduring appeal since they're small and delicate, yet flavorful, and an easy way to add freshness cues to a dish.
Photo: Andrew Cebulka, courtesy of Best Chefs in America, LLC
9. Local honey
Delicious, distinctive, and increasingly available as more and more hospitality venues — particularly hotels, such as the Brown Palace in Denver, pictured here — start keeping their own bees, local honey is becoming a popular sweetener and pastry ingredient.
10. Restaurant gardens
Farm-to-table meets do-it-yourself in this trend, in which either chefs or other dedicated employees, like those pictured here at the Inn at Dos Brisas in Washington, Texas, take hand to trowel and grow their own produce.
