Top Food Trends For 2025
By Holly Thomson
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October 25th, 2024
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At Sous Chef, we spend all day every day thinking about the world's finest ingredients, flavours and products.
Every week, we're speaking to the top chefs and artisans who are writing the menus and creating the products that will make headlines.
Here's our top pick of the food trends we'll be seeing in 2025.
Snails Are In!
Recently heralded by CNN Traveller and Hot Dinners as "having a moment", we're expecting to see snails crop up in many more guises over the coming year. Traditionally seen as a preserve of the French, snails are a fantastically versatile ingredient. Think beyond garlic herby butter and use them in ragu and rich sauces.
Sabarot’s extra large Burgundy snails are meaty and beautifully presented in their shells. Simply rinse, drain and then prepare them however you like. They’re perfect for making the classic French escargot with white wine and crusty bread. They make a simple but delicious dinner party starter.
It's 'Omakase' Everywhere
It was reading a spoof post by The Fence about Omakase menus that we knew the phrase was trending. Confirmed by a piece in Eater about 'Michelin's obsession with Omakase", and Square Meal's announcement that London is loving Omakase.
Omakase means “I’ll leave it up to you, the chef” in Japan. And this is our Sous Chef take on the trend. A selection of mouthwatering Japanese-style crackers.
We had a hunch that a really good mix of Japanese-style snacks would be popular, and it's been exciting to see this bespoke mix become a staple over the last 12 months.
Mogu Mogu
One of the most searched for terms on the internet, Mogu Mogu is taking the world by storm. Have you heard of it yet? A little like tapioca-based boba tea, Mogu Mogu contains chewy chunks of nata de coco. It’s like a drink and a snack all in one! Nata de coco is made with fermented coconut water.
The jelly-like cubes are sweet and chewy, adding a fun texture to the fruity drink. Lychee juice has a sweet, refreshing flavour with floral undertones. It’s a perfect match for the milky, nutty taste of coconut.
Vermouth
The Negroni has dominated for a few years, and in its wake a really interesting trend in more bitter, botanical flavours has blossomed. Enter vermouth! Giusti's artisanal vermouth is made from a mixture of red and white wines. It is aromatised with 19 different botanicals including rosemary, lavender, thyme, black pepper and vanilla. Saba - cooked grape must - is used to sweeten the drink.
The vermouth is aged in barrels that once stored Giusti’s balsamic vinegar. This rounds out its flavour, creating a complex and aromatic fortified wine.
The Cult Cherry
Fabbri Amarena cherries have long been a favourite at Sous Chef. But we've been blown away by the appetite for these dark, delicious steeped cherries over the past few months. And the demand is still growing! We're calling it: 2025 will be the year Fabbri moves from being a much-loved chef ingredient to a truly iconic brand.
Amarena cherries are small black cherries that grow wild in the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena. They are commonly gently cooked and preserved in sugar syrup, then used as a dessert topping.
Biodevsity and Polyculture
A key agenda point at COP29 conference this year, biodiversity is coming to the forefront of food security issues.
One of our favourite vanilla brands has been pioneering a biodiverse farming method for over a decade. LittlePod Vanilla, have created a truly sustainable model for farming vanilla vines. One that enriches the environment with a mixed planting of vanilla alongside cacoa plants, and the rainforest habitat.
Their REAL vanilla is a world apart from artificial replacements. Certainly worth seeking out, once you learn that 97% of vanilla eaten in the West is artificial flavouring...
Cuckoo Rice Cookers
Cuckoo is one of the household names in rice cookers, that many Korean, Singaporean and southeast Asian families have grown up with. And they're having a moment! Featured in the Telegraph as 'Best designed rice cooker', the Cuckoo brand is loved for its total simplicity. It really does cook perfect rice, with zero fuss, every time.
And the retro design is prefect for mid-century kitchen worktops!
Luxury Vegan Swaps
Cavi-art was a breakout ingredient this year, and we're expecting to see a lot more of it going into 2025. This year's Great British Menu winner, Kirk Haworth, used Cavi-art to finish his fishless banquet dish, to which judge Tom Kerridge concluded: "first rate, magical, unbelievable". It's really starting to get noticed...
Cavi-art’s black seaweed caviar is made from sustainably sourced kelp which has a savoury, umami-rich flavour. The kelp is dried and turned into a powder which is then mixed with salt, water, spices and citric acid. The result is tiny black pearls that will transform everyday dishes into something very special.
Beans Are Big!
It's all about Judion butter beans. The 'Rolls Royce' of beans have incredible silky texture with a mild, mineral taste. These come form Navarra in northern Spain and are popular either on their own as a pinxtos dish - or eaten in stews and as part of a main meal. Wonderful with roast lamb.
These beautiful beans are also hearty and filling in meat-free recipes. For example, use them in Ottolenghi and Helen Goh's recipe for Butter Beans and Roasted Cherry, from their latest cookbook, COMFORT.
Stripes - The New Splatter
Splattered ceramics are still a big favourite, and a foodie calling card. But 2025 will be the year of the stripe! These tactile, rustic plates are hand-decorated with brush stripes, you can see the artist's hand.
"Not only gorgeous, but they're super hefty - giving you plenty of space for a gloriously sized pasta portion." is Giovanna Ryan's verdict. We quite agree!
Bronte Pistachio
The Bronte pistachio is a different beast to the smaller yellow and khaki nuts most of us are familiar with. Sicilian Bronte pistachios are only harvested every other year - in even years. And have a shocking bright green colour, almost neon. Plus a much more elongated shape. You'll never find Bronte pistachios salted, but instead celebrated in some of the most luxurious pastes and oils on the market.
