Unilever’s Future Menu Trend 2024 Report Unveils Eight Influential Culinary Directions
In a landscape marked by escalating ingredient costs and labor scarcities, chefs globally are confronting a myriad of challenges. According to Kees van Erp, Unilever Food Solutions’ (UFS) global executive chef, the constant evolution of menus to align with diner preferences presents a formidable task.
The Future Menu Trend 2024 report from UFS emerges as a beacon amidst this culinary flux, offering practical insights and recipes aimed at helping chefs navigate the swiftly changing gastronomic terrain.
Derived from research involving 250 in-house chefs and feedback from over 1,600 food service professionals across 21 markets, the report identifies eight pivotal global trends steering the food industry’s trajectory in 2024.
Evolving Gastronomic Trends for 2024
Each of the identified trends encapsulates shifting diner preferences, economic realities, and sustainability imperatives, furnishing opportunities for culinary innovation and menu adaptation within the food service industry.
1. Flavour Shock: Catering to Gen-Z’s appetite for singular culinary encounters, this trend champions unexpected flavor marriages and culinary experimentation, advocating techniques such as smoking, pickling, and fermenting to craft surprising flavor profiles efficiently.
2. Plant-Powered Protein: Addressing the burgeoning demand for plant-based fare, this trend not only caters to vegetarians but also entices non-vegetarians with novel culinary experiences centered around plant-derived proteins.
3. Nutritious Indulgence: Striking a delicate balance between health and indulgence, this trend champions dishes that are both flavorsome and health-conscious, highlighting ingredients like beans, pulses, whole grains, leafy greens, and nuts.
4. Local Abundance: Championing sustainability and local produce, this trend resonates with diners eager to support locally sourced, sustainable fare, thereby fostering a connection with their culinary origins.
5. Low-Waste Menus: With sustainability at the forefront of consumer consciousness, this trend advocates for maximal resource utilization, urging chefs to minimize kitchen waste by creatively repurposing overlooked ingredients.
6. Irresistible Vegetables: Celebrating the versatility and nutritional bounty of vegetables, this trend spotlights innovative, vegetable-centric dishes that captivate diners’ palates and embrace sustainable dining practices.
7. Modernized Comfort Food: Blending nostalgia with innovation, this trend reimagines classic comfort fare through contemporary lenses, offering diners familiar yet reinvented culinary experiences.
8. Feel-Good Food: Nurturing holistic well-being, this trend underscores chefs’ role in promoting healthier eating habits, advocating for wholesome, flavorful dishes crafted from locally sourced, plant-based ingredients.
Empowering Culinary Innovation
As a stalwart in professional kitchen solutions and a division of Unilever, one of the globe’s foremost consumer goods conglomerates, UFS leverages the report as a strategic instrument to engage with the food service industry. It enables UFS to glean valuable insights into market trends, chef requirements, and industry challenges, thereby informing its product offerings to better cater to evolving consumer demands.
Driven by the burgeoning demand for culinary experimentation encapsulated in the ‘flavour shock’ trend, Knorr, a Unilever brand specializing in cooking aids, reported a 15% surge in sales for bouillons and seasonings in 2023.
Strengthening Chef Partnerships
UFS endeavors to fortify its bond with chefs and food service professionals by furnishing them with recipe inspiration, insights, and practical counsel. “UFS is a business of chefs for chefs,” affirms Star Chen, CEO at UFS, underscoring the company’s commitment to understanding and addressing the needs and pain points of culinary professionals, thereby delivering superior products tailored to their requirements.
