About six months ago The Food Channel released its annual Top Ten Food Trends picks. The forecast usually gets a hefty amount of play in the press, typically in the first few weeks after we post it.
But here we are more than halfway through the year and along comes Matthew Jacob, co-author of What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame
Back in December, we talked about this trend being about the rise of the individual, and part of the reason why more of us are making our own cheese, smoking our own meats, and making our own specialty desserts.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Mr. Jacob notes several examples of the ‘I, Me, Mine’ movement he’s seen recently, including upscale restaurants’ willingness to accept substitution requests from diners. He cites Dallas chef-entrepreneur Charlie Palmer who says, ‘In Texas, we’re going beyond free range. We’re into free will.’ He asks, ‘Why shouldn’t we let people choose sides?’ Why indeed.
Jacob even references one of our all-time favorite movie scenes where Jack Nicholson tells an uncompromising waitress in Five Easy Pieces he wants her to hold the chicken ‘between her knees.’ Nowadays, an eager-to-please restaurant might be willing to at least consider such a request.
His commentary goes on to discuss how restaurants are trying to be more accommodating to solo diners, and traces a precursor of ‘I, Me, Mine’—Burger King’s offer to ‘Have It Your Way,’ which originated back in the ‘Me Decade’ of the 1970s.
It makes for good reading, and includes a good story about Paul Newman that we hadn’t heard before.
We’re glad the Mr. Jacob and the Huffington Post picked up our train of thought. Looks like the 2010 forecast was right on at least this trend. Wonder if he’s checked out our more recent Top Ten Dessert Trends for 2010?
