Restaurant trends for 2014? The predictions are in

Would you like some spicy chorizo scrambled eggs with your coconut-milk pancakes? You will if the restaurant predictions made by the 1,300 members of the American Culinary Federation in October and November come true. One of the bigger trends for 2014 will be ethnic-inspired breakfast items, ethnic-inspired children’s dishes, hybrid desserts, and deconstructed desserts.

The 1,300 chefs were polled by the National Restaurant Association, which asked each of the members to rate 258 items as a “hot trend,” “yesterday’s news” or “perennial favorite” for 2014.

The results were tallied and released last week by the National Restaurant Association, which listed locally sourced meat and seafood as the top menu trend for 2014, followed by locally grown produce, environmental sustainability, healthful kids’ meals, and gluten-free cuisine for the top five 2014 trends.

A few trends from recent years that have taken a dramatic drop from the “hot trend list”? Greek yogurt, sweet-potato fries, grass-fed beef, organic coffee, bacon-flavored chocolate and foam. Good news for Midwestern diets: fried chicken, barbecue, Italian cuisine and eggs Benedict are still in. 

“So essentially, it’s the same trends they’ve been talking about for the last 10 years,” says chef and restaurateur Colby Garrelts of Bluestem and Rye. “It’s ridiculous. The problem is that the media has so over-hyped every new culinary trend that they’re old before they get to be a trend.”

Beth Barden, chef-owner of the Succotash bruncheonette, says the 2014 trends list “is so tired, it’s like saying the 1980s are back. What on this list is really a trend? I think anyone who is ethically responsible already knows that there’s a movement for locally sourced meat, produce and seafood. Why should making it a trend give it more value?”