What’s in Store for 2022

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2022: Food and Beverage Trends

BY LINDA GARSON

f the last two years have taught us anything - it’s not to make predictions! I

We’ve learned, as Robbie Burns so aptly put it in his poem, To a Mouse: “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley (go awry)” and as a result, many of us are just taking life one day at a time for a little while longer.

We revisited our trends from last year to see how clear our crystal ball was – and I’m delighted to report that our twelve predictions for 2021 were all completely accurate. Everything from pizza and tacos to donuts, agri-tourism to vertically farmed produce, was spot on – so what’s our crystal ball showing us this year?

Two topics are going to dominate the news:

Rising food costs and climate change

… and in many ways, they’re linked. Last summer saw the extreme weather patterns of severe heat and drought, and fires and floods, beyond anything most of us have experienced - which means smaller crops. Everything is affected, from grapes for making wine to durum wheat to make pasta; in Canada, our durum wheat harvest was only twothirds of previous years and prices rose by 90 percent. Will there be a shortage of pasta or a rush on pasta machines as we all start making our own at home?

Supply chain issues have been in the news a lot, and once they’re resolved we can expect easing of some inflationary causes, but unfortunately we’re going to have to budget for higher food costs, and expect to pay more for our groceries, our libations, as well as meals out at restaurants.

Beef or Bison

The cost of beef has risen enormously for many reasons: demand is up but there were processing plant shutdowns and labour shortages, the cost of grain to feed the cattle is higher, there have been increases in transport costs and packaging materials, the list goes on – so what are we doing about it? We’ve seen far more bison and yak on our menus recently (yes, there are five yak farms in Alberta!) and we’ll be talking about more plant-based products later here.

Kitchen Gardens

Were you lucky enough to find an indoor garden in your stocking or under your tree these holidays? Many of us had a little more time for gardening and growing our own herbs and veggies last year, and this year we think that many more of us will take it up too, but also gardening inside with our salad greens and herbs at arm’s reach.

More grocery stores will be adding their own indoor vertically farmed products too and becoming “Growcers”, for all-year round freshness, sustainability, and to do away with transport costs.

Better for you or better for the planet?

A divide in generations is becoming more apparent, and as our boomers (born 1965 or earlier) age, they’ll be looking for food and beverages to support wellness and healthy aging, and may be willing to pay more for them. On the other hand, our Gen Next (or Z, born 1997-2008) will be looking for food and beverages that support the health of the planet.

Plant-based foods and beverages

Now that plant-based foods are mainstream and our choices are increasing by the day, we’re examining how healthy they are and the ingredients

in them, far more closely. Are processed meat alternatives healthier than the meat they are replacing? We think we’ll see more nutritional value in our plant products and embracing their plant bases instead of mimicking meat or dairy. Hopefully they’ll start telling us what they are, instead of what they’re not. Is 2022 the year we see them branching out into plant-based desserts and baking too?

Some things never change

We still love our comfort food - that’s the food we grew up on that our grannies and parents made at home for us; we need comfort now more than ever before - and we love it now more than ever before! Whether that’s congee or curry, fish and chips or sushi, fried chicken or chicken soup, we’re reaching for it, especially in the winter months.

But...

Wherever you live in Alberta, we suspect you have more choices now for pizza, burgers, tacos, chicken wings, fried chicken, and BBQ than ever before. Midweek suppers for you and the kids have never been so easy, cheap, and tasty!

More Fusion

But again… with the vast array and availability of these casual fast foods, restaurants will need to come up with weird and wonderful ways of differentiating their dishes, so we expect to see more fusion of cultures. While traditional pizza choices are plentiful, it no longer belongs solely to Italy - we have pizza toppings from all over the world; and while we have plenty of terrific birria and carne asada tacos, tacos no longer belong solely in the realm of Mexican food.

Italian Cuisine

Alberta’s love of Italian food knows no bounds, it seems! Just about every page of Salutes & Shout Outs, featuring new restaurant openings, has included at least one, if not two or three new Italian restaurants every issue. They’re not all Italian-owned or with Italian chefs in the kitchen, but the quality and taste is all there, and we’ve been excited by many of them.

Caprese Salad

Talking of Italian food, is there a restaurant that doesn’t have Caprese Salad or a variation of it on the menu? Last year beet and goat cheese salad was riding high, and now we’re happy to see so much burrata on menus, and come to think of it - whipped ricotta too in salads and on crostinis.

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More Indian Food

Well, Chicken Tikka Masala has been the British national dish for many years now, so of course it’s a fave for me, but we’re seeing more Indian restaurants popping up and Indian flavours appearing on menus of other cultures. We’re happy for it; as much as we love it, we know there’s so much more to explore than Butter Chicken!

End of celebrity chefs?

We know that restaurants are still suffering staff shortages, and there’s plenty of room for anyone who’d like to work front of house or back of house, but we’re hearing less about the names of the chefs in the kitchen and more about the menu, food, and drinks we can expect. We’re thinking that just maybe the crown of celebrity chef stardom might be slipping…

Cocktails

On the other hand, there’s more interest in cocktails both at home and dining out. More bars and restaurants than ever before are offering traditional cocktails and their own creative concoctions too, and we know some people were experimenting at home while there was nowhere ‘out’ to go. Could this be the year where we hear more about bartenders and mixologists, and could they be the next celebrities?

Ups and downs of Spirits

Some signs are showing that gin is no longer ‘in’, or maybe not quite as much as the last few years. Maybe we’ve reached saturation point? A quick search of liquorconnect.com showed 492 gins currently available in the Alberta market. Meanwhile, rumours are that vodka is creeping up in popularity, and maybe we’re in for a resurgence – with 746 vodkas in the Alberta market, we’re certainly well served!

Coffee… Martinis…

We love our coffee, and we’re drinking better quality coffee at home now too. We also love our martinis – and these two come together in the cocktail of choice for very many this year, the espresso martini! We’ve had some pretty outstanding ones recently, and now we’re mastering making them at home – shaken until we think our arms will fall off, for that frothy top!

And finally…

Here to stay

- gut-healthy fermented foods, such as kimchi and kombucha

- tonic water was always clear and flavourless, to add a spritz to our highballs, and we’ve seen the growth of flavoured tonic waters over the last few years. They’re probably here to stay, but we’re not sure we’ll be seeing too many more new flavours.

- local, local, local. We’ve talked endlessly about it, and the importance of supporting our communities, for good reason. Not only do those locally made ice creams help our local economy, they’re likely to be made with real ingredients that are probably bought locally too, and you can talk to the person that made it and hear their stories. - restaurants have been offering far more than dine-in menus for quite some time now. First, most created takeout menus or food kits for curbside pickup or delivery. Then they were allowed to offer alcoholic beverages to take out, and then many used their downtime to create ready meals, prepackaged sauces, relishes and condiments. We don’t think these supplemental offerings are going to disappear soon – quite the reverse. We can see these value-add items becoming more upscale, more diverse with more choices, and more readily available. Why buy a big brand, mass-produced jar of pasta sauce when you can have sauce made by your favourite restaurant to use in your home cooking?

On the up

– spirulina and chlorella, aka microalgae: high protein, nutrient-dense, antioxidant, and easily farmed in tanks

- boards. We’ve been showing off local cheese and charcuterie boards for the last two years, and they’re still in demand at home, but we think we’ll see these becoming more creative to include themed boards, appie and crostini boards, cookie and cake boards, and dessert boards. Keep those platters handy!

Coming fast

– who’s serving you when you’re dining out? Robots are already here in the service industry, and there’s more to come. Edmonton’s Buddy Wonton Seafood Restaurant, Calgary’s Clay Pot Rice and Happy Lamb Hot Pot restaurants all employ robotics – they’re cute; they greet you, and carry and deliver food to your table. But how much do you tip your robot server?