11 Food Trends That Need To Die In 2017

2016 was a year full of food trends, some weird, some amazing. But, just because it was trendy last year, does not mean that we should bring that trend into 2017.

1. Foods posting as different foodstyles
2. Frozen booze
3. Putting an egg on it
4. All rainbow/ unicorn/ tye dye foods
5. Foods cooked in things that weren’t intended for cooking them
6. Avocado roses
7. The quest for decadent paleo desserts
8. S’mores for every occasion
9. Incredibly large sandwiches
10. Food hybrids that don’t make sense and/or are poorly executed
11. Asking, “But wait, could you make that with cauliflower?”

Confession: I’m a little late with publishing this list. Conventional wisdom says I should have done so at least week ago, but here we are. I don’t usually care to write an article that’s already been written (and this one has), but in this case, even if only for selfish cathartic reasons, I was compelled to do so. Because most of the 11 items listed below have already shown up, in some form or another, on various other trends lists recently. I’m not referring to other lists comprised of trends that should meet their inglorious demise, but lists of projected trends for 2017. As in, the trends I’m saying I want dead… those very same trends are ones that someone else “predicted” will come to life this year.

That bothers me. Because as silly as it may sound, these foodish fads and phases that the Internet moves through have a legitimately massive impact on my daily life as a digital food editor. I love food deeply and my career—from working in private home and restaurant kitchens to sitting behind a screen writing about ways to build confidence in one’s own kitchen—has blossomed from a sincere, unfading passion to serve people through that love. And sometimes, I feel like getting caught up and carried away in these food trends, which is a neccesary evil of the industry, distracts from the real point—serving others through the lens of food.

The various lists of projected 2017 food trends that you’ll find floating around the Internet right about now are constructed through educated, but arbitrary, guesses, common sense assumptions, and sponsored priorities. Largely, they’re a good refresh of what’s already hot and getting hotter, with a few amusing randoms thrown in for good measure. The things that actually take off—like really become “things”—are often trends no one could have seen coming. (Correct me if someone predicted the “unicorn” invasion prior to the first rainbow smattered recipe showed up on Instagram). For example, over the past couple of weeks, babka has erupted across my feeds—it seemed like some sort of conspiracy, at first. It started with a flicker of a few posts (some of us joked that it must have been an obscure holiday “challenge” we missed the boat on), then spread like chocolate rippled wild fire. This week, FWx posed the question, “Is it too early to declare 2017 the year of babka?” and yet, babka sure didn’t show up on any of the 2017 trend forecasts I’ve seen.

Eater did a nice job of concisely summing up how these trend predictions come to be in their recent compilation of all such 2017 lists published to date. And as I scroll through these lists from various outlets, even just seeing mention of certain topics that have been trending consistently over the past year makes my eye twitch. With that being said, I’m gonna go ahead and own it right now, you’re about to witness me being a grade-A hater. But try to remember my spiel above, the frustration stems from love. I just happen to strongly resemble a senior citizen who’s unhappy with life at the nursing home when it comes to matters I find to be blatantly moronic, so my love-fueled frustration can translate as harshness. Do know, I say all of these things with warmth in my heart, as a number of my dearest friends and colleagues, who I respect, admire, and value to no end, have wildly different opinions than some of those I express here. But I love them no less and sincerely appreciate the fact that we can’t see eye-to-eye on certain food topics solely because we’re incapable of talking about them without rolling our eyes at one another—this promotes stimulating conversation, which is important. So take a deep breath and accept that the following was written in good humor.

Read full article http://www.foodandwine.com/fwx/syndication/food-trends-that-need-to-die-in-2017?xid=NL_FWx011017

­