A look at world flavour food trends

The report, which was from AAK Foodservice, surveyed more than 650 diners from the US, UK and Sweden to discover their preferences about world food.

According to the research, more than 80% of consumers were likely to try new cuisines when eating out.

It showed that while diners were very interested in opting for Caribbean or Greek food the next time they eat out, the most popular food types currently enjoyed were Asian flavours.

Chinese and Indian food were very popular but newer cuisines such as Thai and Korean were also noted as favourites by those surveyed with the research suggested south-east favours would be a big hit in the coming months.

Other trends to look out for included hot and spicy foods as well as barbecue foods. While these aren’t new, regional variations of hot sauces and barbecue sauces and applying them in different ways is set to be popular such as Korean-fried chicken.

Top cuisines

Elsewhere, it also stated this year’s top 10 global cuisines from experiential online travel guide TasteAtlas.

At number one was Italian, followed by Japanese, Greek, Portuguese and Chinese making up the top five.

Indonesian was number six, Mexican seventh, French at eight, Spanish ninth and rounding off the top 10 was Peruvian.

The report also provided advice on how to include world food onto menus including using trend tools to discover current flavours and researching recipe ideas.

It also suggested swapping parts of dishes such as adding a barbecue sauce to mac and cheese or introducing an Asian-inspired dressing to salads.

Similarly, fusion could be used to add world flavours with examples including adding Indian-inspired flavours in a vegan burger.

Current trend

Utilising the specials menus was advised as a way of trying out different dishes before they become a permanent fixture.

Furthermore, the current trend of small plates and sharing dishes could also be an option for operators looking to change up the menu by featuring antipasti, paella and platters alongside dipping sauces.

AAK Foodservice managing director Rachel Neale said: “The popularity of street food has hugely influenced the kinds of foods enjoyed by diners.

“At street food events and markets, people can all pick and choose from very varied kinds of cuisines and increasingly customers are looking for this kind of diverse taste experience when they eat out.

“This includes dishes inspired by world flavours as well as foods from different places across the world in starters and desserts alongside main dishes.

“The preference of diners have become really varied – everyone loves something different and diverse menus can help to cater for more varies tastes and dietary needs.”