| Chef Colby Garrelts |
So what do you think that a survey of over a thousand American chefs might reveal about dining out in 2011? Here's a clue: nothing surprising.
Wednesday's article in Nation's Restaurant News reported that the National Restaurant Association had polled 1,527 chefs -- all members of the American Culinary Association -- about "what they expected to be top of mind in 2011."
The top three answers? Locally-sourced meats and seafood, locally grown produce, and sustainability.
Those are trends? Aren't most restaurants already there?
Yes, according to Bluestem's Colby Garrelts, a frequent James Beard Award nominee. "That's why I hate seeing things described as 'trends,' as if they were fads," said Garrelts. "Sustainability? Locally-grown produce? That's the way things should be now, not something to aspire to adopt in the future."
The other trends on the National Restaurant Association list were:
"I think trends are completely irrelevant," said Garrelts. "You can call things like using microgreens or creating dishes with foam to be trends, but going back to the Earth is not a trend. Or, at least, it shouldn't be."
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