We Predict The Top Christmas Food Trends For 2016
Posted by Lockhart Catering
on 16 November 2016
While Christmas dinner is a meal that’s steeped in tradition, it’s certainly not immune to the whims of wider food trends, and every year we see chefs pushing the boundaries with their festive menus. Last year shared our predictions on the biggest Christmas food trends of 2015; now we’re looking forward to what we expect to find on our plates this festive season, from exciting new flavours to inspiring and inventive dishes incorporating old favourites, and creative food presentation too.
Christmas Sandwiches and Burgers
The ‘Christmas sandwich’ is a craze that’s been growing bigger every year, with every vendor from supermarkets to cafes competing to create the most delicious festive sandwich, bap or wrap. The Daily Mail even rated over 30 of this year’s Christmas sandwiches from best to worst, which saw Aldi, Asda and Co-Op emerge victorious in the sarnie stakes, as well as plenty of imaginative flavour combinations including butternut squash, beetroot and pomegranate, and turkey, maple bacon and pumpkin.
However for restaurants that want to go one better, the Christmas burger looks set to be a popular menu addition this year, with all the traditional trimmings stuffed inside a bun and finished off with a variety of unexpected twists. KFC launched their first ever Christmas burger this year (with chicken in place of turkey, of course) but many restaurants across the UK have already revealed their festive burgers – just take a look at 10 of the best Christmas burgers in London to see how restaurants like MEATMission and Burger Shack have already got ahead of the trend.
Mashed-Up Mash
Every good Christmas dinner needs a hearty dollop of mashed potato, but for Christmas 2016 chefs will be experimenting with their root vegetables and serving up more exciting twists on the roast dinner staple.
Potatoes will be pureed with roots vegetables like butternut squash, sweet potato, celeriac and leeks, given a green twist with kale (which has continued to be the leaf of choice this year), or even sweetened with mashed apple. We’re even expecting to see cheesy mash hitting Christmas menus, with piquant flavours such as stilton and camembert to prove that cheese shouldn’t be left on the cheeseboard!
Tapas-Style Festive Feasts
Christmas food has always very much been about sharing, but with street food and social dining experiences being one of the biggest food trends of 2016, we believe that this will be emphasised even further. We expect that many chefs will eschew individual meals in favour of Christmas sharing platters or even festive tapas, making the challenge of feeding large parties even easier and encouraging those group bookings to keep rolling in.
Young’s have introduced Christmas sharing menus in many of their pubs, comprising of sharing boards adorned with the likes of venison and chestnut sausage rolls, parmesan fries, duck, juniper and coriander croquettes and scotch eggs. They make an exciting and crowd-pleasing alternative to traditional Christmas dinner service, whilst still serving up all the favourite festive flavours.
Pop the Prosecco
Sales of Prosecco in the UK increased by 33.9% between February 2014 and February 2015, and as we’ve seen throughout this year, there’s no signs of that slowing down. A affordable alternative to Champagne, as well as an easy-to-drink light sparkling wine that pairs well with Christmas party foods, Prosecco will filling all the festive flutes this year and we’re looking forward to seeing a variety of Proseccos on the wine lists, as well as Prosecco cocktails that offer exciting new ways to enjoy it.
Prosecco can replace the Champagne in most traditional Champagne cocktails – how about a Prosecco Royale? Bellinis with Christmas flavours such as pear and ginger will also complement the festive fayre, or add Prosecco to bourbon, citrus juices and crushed ice to whip up a wintry whiskey sour that’s perfect for after-dinner.
Copper: The Must-Have Metallic
Silver and gold are the ubiquitous Christmas colours, but copper has been THE metallic trend of 2016, and it looks likely to reign supreme over the festive season too. From the decorations to food dishes and drinks, we expect everything to have a touch of warm copper this Christmas.
Festive cocktails will be served up in copper martini ‘glasses’ and copper mule mugs, side dishes will arrive at the table in copper chip pots and Christmas buffets will be elegantly arranged on copper display slabs; every aspect of your restaurant’s food presentation can be enhanced by copper this festive season and you’ll find everything you need to unwrap the trend at Lockhart Catering Equipment.
Which other festive food, or food presentation trends are you expecting to see over Christmas 2016? What have been your favourite food trends from the past year, and what are your predictions for 2017? We’d love to hear your thoughts – leave us a comment below or tweet us @BunzlLockhart now. Merry Christmas!
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