Tips & Tricks
Food Trends for 2012
According to London-based market research company Mintel Group ‘Slow Food’ will be one of the key restaurant trends for 2012, with restaurants moving back to more time intensive, home-style fare.
It seems ‘house-made’, ‘slow-cooked’ and ‘home-style’ will be the buzzwords on restaurant menus for 2012, although they have been buzzwords in my kitchen since the year dot!
Ylla Wright, Editor of ’Open House’ says that “In Australia, many consumers and chefs are already getting behind the Slow Food movement”.
If I want home-style food I will cook it myself at a fraction of the cost of restaurant meal, but what about those people who are not adept in the kitchen. Will they go to a restaurant for a meal reminiscent of food ‘like mother used to make’! Is this return to more traditional methods of cooking and ingredients a backlash against complex Master Chef type recipes?
Or has someone woken up to the fact that comfort food (now trendily called slow food), is just that, a comfort to cook and a comfort to eat! And let’s not forget that cooking for one can be the ultimate in comfort cooking and eating as it is all about YOU.
One of my all time favourite comfort foods is Beef in Red Wine, followed by the warm indulgence of an Easy Apple Crumble (served with a dollop of good quality vanilla ice cream or gelati).
What are some of your favourite comfort foods, and do you have a recipe for one you would like to share?
