Comfort food as we know it is changing. Where once we saw comfort food as dishes that were familiar and safe, we’re making way for new recipes that reflect the heritage of the chef and the restaurant’s locale. Through rich culinary storytelling and the chef’s genuine emotional connection to the dish, diners are presented with new and fresh food experiences that feel and taste special. Think classic and rustic ancestral recipes to be shared and enjoyed creating the new comfort food.

History is full of lost culinary treasures

Chefs, restaurateurs, and recipe creators around the world are re-discovering local traditions, and reimagining dishes by looking to history for fresh ideas in an industry that increasingly demands authenticity. This, coupled with the demand for local, sustainable sourcing, means ingredients that had been resigned to the long-lost past are back on our plates.

Reimagining ingredients

These artifacts of tables past are reappearing and rebranding with impressive deftness. It’s now possible to get mead at music festivals, offal is being sold as a delicacy and honey has never left. Chefs are fermenting and pickling all sorts and combinations of vegetables, fruits, and spices.

New trends are wonderful and coupled with a historic relevance they’re even better. It was great when quinoa hit the scene, but it can be hard to import and water-intensive to grow. In seeking something that fulfills the quinoa demand in a local, sustainable way we can look back at what our great-great grandparents, and their friends were eating. Welcome back, ancient grains! Spelt and rye-based bread is more expensive than ever, farro is appearing all over the shop, pearl barley sounds exotic and does what quinoa does so well (making chickpeas look passé).

In the quest for originality, it might sound ironic to look to the past, but what better way to show a new ingredient, a fresh concept, or a sophisticated technique than to apply it to a classic. There’s a simple joy in being served a familiar dish in a bright new way; it’s the best of both worlds.

For more modernized comfort food as well as the other 4 trends identified by Unilever Food Solutions, download the full Future Menus report here.

Content courtesy of Unilever Food Solutions