Happy New Year!
My 2024 food trend predictions
It’s (day 2 of) 2024! How’d that happen!? Cue thinking about the relentless march of time. We spent all of the weeks of December crawling towards the end of the year, waiting for those elusive ✨Christmas Holidays✨ to come, only for it to be completely done and dusted in one week and somehow you’re back at work wondering how you didn’t find time to paint your laundry like you planned.
That all sounds a little bleh and actually doesn’t reflect my thoughts, especially with the turn of the page of a brand new year. I’m an optimistic, eyes forward kind of person. I love a vision board! I love goals! I plan to hydrate and exercise this year same as everyone else!
I’ve been seeing a trend of Ins & Outs happening on Instagram and TikTok and I wanted to throw my two cents in, but more in the form of trend predictions. I’m keeping them food and drink focused, because I have no faith in myself to predict other things like beauty or fashion or the like. I’m staying in my lane, you know.
Here are four of my food trend predictions for 2024!
The return and hype up of the Club Sandwich
The humble Club is an absolute classic, and I think it’s overdue to have another go in the spotlight. If you haven’t eaten one before, you are in for a treat!!! The Club Sandwich is traditionally three (!) slices of lightly toasted white bread with fillings of chicken (sometimes turkey), bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. It’s cut into triangles, and then presented all lined up on the plate with a cocktail skewer shoved through it.
This past year we’ve seen maximalist Italian sandwiches all over socials, chop salad sandwiches, fancy fillings like cured meats, pestos and burrata, but I think 2024 is where we go back to our roots. We go back to basics. Chicken and bacon will be re-acknowledged as a superior sandwich filling combination, and we will all nod our heads in agreement at how nothing hits like a sandwich on good ol’ plain white bread. The Club gives diner energy, 24-hour cafe in the casino energy (this is specific to me, because one of my early jobs was working in said 24-hour casino cafe and they made a banging Club and I think about it often).
I also predict adaptations and fancy versions in this Club Sandwich era, a natural progression I suppose.
Tuckshop chic
They say that quiet luxury is out and loud budgeting is in, and I think our taste in desserts and baked goods will reflect that. I’m calling this Tuckshop Chic. As in the Australian school lunchtime hotspot. Think homemade chocolate crackles, party pies, pikelet sandwiches with jam, if you will.
There will be classics and there will be elevated versions of course. Someone will come out with a slow cooked beef cheek ragu mini pie but at it’s heart its the faithful party pie with a touch of class. Cornflake honey joys made with hot honey, brown butter and walnuts or something. We’re leaning into primary school bake-sale but with a modern edge. Give me jelly cups, chocolate slice, oversized single serve cookies and ham and pineapple pizzas. If you want to serve it on a five day cold-fermented pizza dough, I would not oppose.
The continued rise of zero proof drinks
Ditching alcohol has become a lot more popular in these past 12 months and we’ve seen increased availability of non-alcoholic wine, flavoured sparkling waters and 0% ABV beers. I’m about it! And not just because I’m pregnant and haven’t been drinking anyway, but because it feels nice and inclusive to be able to enjoy drinks without alcohol that create the same drinking experience as what you’d expect when sitting back with glass of red at a wine bar.
While non-alc drinks are becoming more available for private purchase, my prediction for 2024 is that we will see a greater selection available in bottle shops, yes, but mostly in bars. It will be far less common to see only one or two zero-proof options on the wine list. Instead, there will be a decent selection of wine alternatives, non-alc aperitifs or mocktails available, ideally one that shows that a sommelier or bartender has put some actual thought into the menu and not just thrown some artisan cola at the end of the drinks list and called it a day.
Along the same lines, I predict less juice A + juice B + soda = mocktail, and more culinary experimentation and creative techniques in the drinks world. Mocktail ingredients won’t just come out of bottles, we’ll see homemade syrups being created and mixed with some kind of vegetable water or centrifuged coconut milk or whatever. I hope non-alc drinks get to experience a similar passion to that of a chef trying out molecular gastronomy. And while one person sips their sexy martini, the other can sit alongside and feel the same luxury with their drink that just so happens to be sans booze.
Fancy snacks become normie
Another one that’s already on the rise and will not only continue in 2024, but become the norm outside of just dinner parties where people tie bows to their candlesticks.
We’ve seen potato chips and caviar hit a new high, and I think this type of snacking will infiltrate our day-to-day eating habits. E.g. what are you having for afternoon tea? Why I’ve curated a selection of dips and crudités to enjoy at my desk while I dial into the meeting!
The aluminium bento box, which was peak office lunch flex in 2022, is now being repurposed exclusively as a snack box. I predict slices of toasty sourdough topped with whipped ricotta and Spanish anchovies all separated into ingredients in said snack box, ready to be assembled and devoured while you answer emails and schedule meetings.
And so that’s my 2024 food predictions! Perhaps I’ll pencil in a time in December to reflect on these and see if any of them came true.
What are your food predictions for the coming year? I love discussing this type of thing, so please add a little comment below and let us all know what you foresee as the next trend in the food world!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I think 2024 is going to be even more special a year and I’m looking forward to being able to continue to create food and cooking content for you all! Will this be the year I become more consistent with Midnight Snack? Well you’ll just have to subscribe and find out!
If you haven’t already, connect with me over on Instagram and TikTok, and find my recipes on my website Eatnik. I’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up soon, and I’d love to be able to share it with you!
Andrea 💖