written by Jan Davis and reprinted from The Mercury
ANOTHER year has come and almost gone. By now, most of us should be over the traditional Christmas food-induced coma and may have made it off the lounge, ready for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
While we’re still focused on food, however, it’s a good time to have a look at what was popular on our dinner tables in 2015.
The surprise of the year would have to be the appearance of Nutella on trendy tables around the country. While many of us have a jar of Nutella in the back of the cupboard, it has often been there so long that the use-by date is long past.
Yet, out of the blue, Australians couldn’t get enough of the stuff in 2015. It turned up in hot cross buns, in doughnuts, in frappes, and even in doughnut milkshakes (shudder).
Good Food magazine said that five of the top six most-shared stories on its social media channels this year were about the hazelnut chocolate spread. One of these stories was even about how our obsession with the spread had caused a shortage. Who’d have guessed?
According to Google, the most common recipe search during the year was for pancakes. Here’s one for your next dinner table trivia contest: the most commonly “how-to” question googled this year was “how to tie a tie”, followed by “how to cook pancakes”.
Pancake recipes were followed in popularity by recipes for slow-cookers, chicken, Thermomixes and lasagne.
How to make banana bread came in at number 10.
Comfort foods were also big on our cooking list this year. The goodfood.com.au website said its most-viewed recipes were, in the main, meaty. Celebrity chef Neil Perry’s chicken cacciatore was the most popular recipe, with nearly 350,000 views; and a classic roast chicken with bread and butter stuffing came in at number two.
Many Australians still don’t know how to poach an egg; and some step-by-step YouTube demonstrations were popular, according to Google. The trick is adding an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar to the boiling water before the eggs.
Quinoa was the top “how to cook” search ingredient in 2015, followed by rice, salmon, asparagus, pork belly, kale, beetroot, brown rice, steak and cous cous. Creative vegetarian dishes were popular, too, with a recipe for whole roasted cauliflower shared widely on Facebook.
And what do the crystal ball gazers see ahead for fashionable foodies for 2016?
Morris Miselowski, Business Futurist predicts that in 2016 Australians will be drinking more naked wines (wines made with minimal intervention) and embracing desserts that are more savoury than sweet (salted caramel, and dark chocolate with chilli).
We’ll be cooking over charcoal, and continuing to crave comfort food such as burgers.
International experts have been consistent in their predictions for broader food industry trends. Tech-driven delivery will be the big disrupter of restaurants and food service.
Aimed at the ultimate consumer convenience, we’ll see new services emerging with food brought quickly to homes, offices – wherever we want to eat. And the usual suspects are all racing for our doors. Already, in the US, uberEats will deliver a limited menu in 10 minutes and Amazon’s PrimeNow app promises entire menus at the door in under an hour.
Another disrupter gaining strength overseas is the meal kit: dinners-in-a-box containing exact portions of every ingredient and paint-by-numbers cooking instructions, often delivered on subscription.
People might start cooking again using trendy ingredients, without the bother of shopping. At about $14 a head, these may be cheaper than takeout. Look for celebrity chefs’ names attached to meal kits, restaurants developing their own dinners-in-a-box, and meal kits tailored for specific diets.
Pasta might soon be on the endangered species list. In the past five years, pasta sales have fallen by 8 per cent in Australia, 13 per cent in Europe and 25 per cent in Italy. Chefs will experiment with vegetable ribbons – zucchini, asparagus, sweet potatoes for example – replacing pasta. Vegetable spiralisers are selling like, well, hot cakes. Maybe spaghetti squash will have its limelight moment?
And last, but by no means least, the experts say vegetables are expected to push animal protein to the side of the plate or even entirely off it.

Rising meat prices, health-and-diet concerns, growth of farmers’ markets – all the stars have nicely aligned for our vegetable growers.
So there you have it – lots to look forward to. In 2016, may your table be laden with a veritable bounty of food to share with family and friends.