“Through a glass darkly”

Fine Food with

Charles Campion

Food writer and critic

• It’s time to go left field rather than safety-first
• “Fashion or for keeps?”
• “New year and new possibilities”
• “What is in a name?”
• “The art of shopping”

Towards the end of December, the editors of large newspapers start to fret about what stories they should be running in their New Year editions

News of the shortcomings of actresses and the latest scandalous behaviour of over-paid footballers can only fill so many of the pages. Food writers, the gardening correspondent, restaurant critics and the lady who writes about books and the opera will all get a terse email asking what are the hot trends going to be for the year to come – and all these worthies have one thing in common, nobody has the faintest idea what will be the next big thing.

About a decade ago I got the call, “What is the next great food trend?” Resisting the temptation to steer the great British public to a few classic horrors – salted puffins, donkey milk cheese, those duckling embryos still in their eggshells – I proudly proclaimed that the next great dining breakthrough would be Mexican. This was a logical and sensible choice, we Brits are fond of chilli; Mexican food is not expensive and has plenty of carbs; it sounds accessible. Strangely nothing happened, the world of food turned gently, while ignoring my suggestion. The next year I nominated Mexican once again. And the next year. And the one after that. Finally my nerve broke, and after half a dozen years singing the praises of Mexican restaurants whenever the editors dreaded “next big thing” query arrived in the inbox, I switched and confidently recommended Moroccan restaurants as the food to follow.

You’ve probably guessed that this was the year when Mexican food took off big time: the year 79 Mexican restaurants opened in London. It’s a dangerous idea that anyone in the food and drink business could steal a march on his or her competitors by predicting the next big thing. For a start, a genuine trend has to gain a foothold before it is noticed, it doesn’t become a trend worth following until it is established, and once established it has arrived and is no longer a trend.

Look back at 2015 and its trends. The restaurant sector had a good year (the Harden’s 2016 guide blurb says that 179 new restaurants opened while 56 closed) and that reflects the public’s interest in everything foodie continuing to build. Last year a barbecue smoked in every back garden – unless they were of the high ticket Green Egg variety, in which case they achieved blast furnace-like levels of heat and just the right amount of smokiness. Britain’s obsession with pulled pork and smoked ribs filtered down to the High Street as people returned to the humble hamburger again and again. Toward the end of last summer, Mary Berry and company had the nation glued to the television set while those brave home bakers created a jaw dropping succession of cakes. Iced fancies, the cupcake, huge multi-storey showstopper cakes and industrial quantities of royal icing. Never have so many viewers dribbled over sponge cake.

Would it be unfair to say that the Great British public were happier watching “Bake Off” than stepping into the kitchen and knocking something up for themselves? None of which gets us any closer to the vexed question – what is the next big thing? What is going to be the fad or craze that defines 2016 first in the shops and then in the kitchen? Personally, I lean towards a Moroccan spiced hamburger that has been slow-smoked and then finished with swags of pink icing… But will probably have to make do with a fistful of fajitas once again.