Nostalgia Dining - exemplified by Chain and the hipster obsession with Hillstone (not impugning Hillstone fans so much as food media types who are letting you in on a secret by hyping this restaurant group). Feels regressive, like saying The Monkees are better than The Beatles.
Elevated Comfort Food - pretty sick of expensive takes on burgers, pizza, mac and cheese.
“Have You Dined With Us Before?” - as others have mentioned, the scripted openings are tedious and contraceptive to a fun, exciting meal.
Natural Wine breaking containment, as @PeonyWarrior mentioned. Has become a parody of itself.
Restaurant as Private Club - thinking Horses, Frog Club, and a few others. With Tik Tok, I guess restaurants need to create mystery and intrigue.
Caviar - I quite like caviar, I buy a good amount of Astrea, but I’m sick of the caviar bump thing.
Sure chawanmushi isn’t part of old school sushi per se, but you will find it in sushi meals in Japan here and there for sure. That wasn’t copying Urasawa or Mori, at all. Also, a grilled fish serving appears in many good sushi course menus, even if it isn’t “part of sushi” in a strict sense.
Off the top of my head, I’ve had great chawanmushi in sushi meals in Japan at:
Nihonbashi kakigaracho Sugita
Kurosaki
Sushi Hashimoto
Ginza Saeki
In fact at Kurosaki, which is an elite sushiya, chawanmushi is one of the highlight and mainstay courses.
One of the best chawanmushi I’ve ever had was in a tempura meal.
The reliance on Japanese dishes and names (e.g. fish names or the “omakase” descriptor) at non-Japanese restaurants is another issue for another thread. But generally, while borrowing dishes or techniques is fine, it always comes down to execution. I’ve had many poor “chawanmushis” here, even at Japanese restaurants, but I know that chawanmushi can be an amazing dish when it’s done right.
Maybe not a food trend, but these cooking reels on Instagram and Facebook are the most moronic things I’ve ever seen. Talk about complicated, and absolutely fucking ridiculous.
The complicated stuff is even more amusing.
"I saw this trick performed at a restaurant, and now I only prepare 8 oz of water this way.
"Put 16 ounces of water in pitcher. Pour 4 ounces each into four separate mugs. Then, prepare the glass you would like to drink from by taking it out of the cupboard.
“Take two of the 4 ounce mugs and pour them directly into that glass. Discard the other two mugs. And enjoy your 8 ounces of water.”
Food “influencers” on social media posting the same obnoxious reels . “Guys I just discovered this place in…xxx…they do the best…, OMG it was so good!”
A lot of those are just made to be long to add commercials or to drum up engagement and plays, all of which gets them money. They are the food version of rage bait. So just like the old internet adage says… don’t feed the trolls.
Not food related, but I seriously hate the timbre and cadance of voice used by many (seemingly) 30 yr olds on social media and esp in one particularly commercial that freq plays on social media.
I just want to slap them to say, “SNAP OUT OF IT!!! USE A REAL AND UNIQUE VOICE!!!”
We once had an influencer shoot her sponsored content for some tequila brand that we don’t even carry (I think The Rock’s?) at Salazar without notifying us or tagging us in said ad. It extensively featured our space, food, drink etc all without so much as a mention of where she was. She did however take it down at our lawyer’s request.
That being said… most broadcasters do have and cultivate their one air voice. It’s good to be mindful of your tone when relaying the news or interviewing people. Recently I watched a newbie interview a celeb and he got too comfy and straight up asked her where she lived… She’s like… NO…
Good point. I know I certainly have one “professional” voice (partner can always tell when I’m making a business call just by my tone of voice).
Maybe it’s just a generational thing, but I feel like journalists sound “professional,” whereas I feel like younger folks using that voice are trying to hypnotize me into an upsell. It’s a visceral reaction.
I shall try to think of food trends I wish would go out so that I can be on topic when I post here.
. “Guys I just discovered this place in…xxx…they do the best…, OMG it was so good!”