Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

What's cooking next year?

Do we really only have four days left to wring out the rest of 2011 and ring in the start of 2012?
We'd better get started. We went through the year in food and picked our favorite recipes. We put together some sources of information and cooking help, too.

But first, we looked at the predictions for the 2012 food trends. More meatballs and fewer food trucks? Cooking dads and kimchee?

Is any of it likely? We assembled a list of six trends that sounded interesting. Then we took them to two trendwatchers: National restaurant consultant Clark Wolf and Peter Rose, senior vice president of The Futures Co., headquartered in Chapel Hill, which releases the yearly Yankelovich Monitor of consumer attitudes.
So, gentlemen: Hot or not?

1. Round appetizers, from arancini to meatballs. Rose loves arancini - fried risotto balls - while Wolf dismisses them as a "fadlet." Both say meatballs are definitely coming on, as part of two trends: An interest in affordable, easy-to-use ground meats, and a desire for small servings. Rose calls it "life in bite-size quantities."

2. Hot food countries: Korea or Scandinavia?
"Scandinavian food is only hot in Scandinavia," says Wolf. But they agree on Korean food such as kimchee, above. It's exotic but easy to eat. "There's a trend around experimenting with a culture, but in a safe way," says Rose. "We're risk-averse." Who doesn't understand Korean-style fried chicken?

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THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Our national culinary identity is all wrapped up in meat.

Meat has taken on such a prominent role in the American diet that it’s become so ingrained into our national identity that most Americans, when eating a steak or biting into a juicy cheeseburger on any given day of the week don’t give this delicious luxury a second thought.

But it’s worth some consideration as evidenced by the fact that restaurant consultant Clark Wolf recently convened a whole panel of experts to discuss this very topic. Wolf notes, “The drought in Texas causing prices to rise, a greater basis of sustainability in animal practice, a strong interest in community husbandry, and the start of the holiday season make this [American’s consumption of meat] an important timely topic.”

He continues, “In a different economy our iconic protein warrants discussion. Our job is to highlight the many viewpoints not always addressed.

Wolf led the spirited discussion titled “The Changing Center of the American Plate” at New York University’s Fales Library. Joining him was Jenifer Harvey Lang, food journalist and Managing Director of the renowned Café des Artistes in Manhattan, Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, writer and self-proclaimed Semitic Swinologist, Mark Gilman, cheese maker, and Betty Fussell, Food Historian & Author of Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef.

Full article here