By Kate Krader, Bloomberg News (TNS)
What’s the food forecast for 2025? If you like spice, there’s good news: A big cloud of peppercorns is on the horizon, happily rolling in.
The formerly humble seasoning pepper has become a not-so-secret weapon for chefs, in a range of colors, shapes and provenances, from the renowned black Tellicherry from Kerala state in southern India to red Sichuan peppers from China and rare Mac Khen from northern Vietnam. The fad has prompted countries to promote their pepper credentials. One of the world’s major producers, Vietnam, is expanding deliveries to countries such as the U.S. and United Arab Emirates and forecasting exports of $2 billion for pepper and other spices by 2025.
And 2025 will also be the year of temaki, also known as Japanese handrolls. The conical dish features rice and just about any topping you’d put on sushi, from bluefin tuna to lobster with seaweed hollandaise, enveloped in crisp nori (seaweed). It often figures in an omakase meal, handed across the counter by a chef. Now restaurants are opening places dedicated to the dish. “They’re a casual and more affordable entry point into sushi,” says Jeremy Truong, co-owner of Kira, a new temaki bar in Houston. Among the places to look out for: a burgeoning chain backed by singer and designer Pharrell Williams, where the temaki is served taco-style in custom-made stands that show off fillings such as scallops with XO sauce.
But before we get to our full list, let’s look back. How did last year’s predictions go? We predicted the rise of hot cocktails that are used to being cold, like negronis; the preponderance of regional open-fire grilling seen at places like the Basque-focused Mountain restaurant in London; and more and more aged seafood, which were all on the money. Our wine bar forecast has also had strong legs — even Major Food Group, the empire built on Carbone dining rooms, announced that its next project, Vino, has a focus on bottles and glasses. A trend that’s taking a little longer to become reality: small plates being swept off restaurant tables. (But look around, you do see more first courses and main courses and fewer snacks.)
One note: The trends below principally focus on New York and London, the two food cities I know best, with nods to such other places as Miami, Houston and even Tokyo. But keep your eyes peeled, your local pizza shop might soon be topping pies with tandoori chicken. And the hotel you’re booking? A star chef might be running the place, and not just the dining room. Here’s to all the exciting food we’ll see in 2025.
Pepper Will Heat Up
Starring in spice cabinets everywhere, peppercorns have become a one-ingredient shortcut for chefs who take advantage of the seasonings’ fire and often inherent fruitiness. (They are, after all, technically berries.) Countries such as Indonesia are expanding their exports of peppercorns in a bid to increase revenue. Ethan Frisch, founder of the world-roving spice company Burlap & Barrel, says 2024 was a banner year for peppercorns, and he expects 2025 to be even bigger. “We scaled up our purchasing by 30% over 2023 and 2024, and are planning for an even greater expansion for next year.” He’s seen particular growth in the company’s specialty peppercorn lineup — “demand is up almost 200%,” he notes, for dreamy-sounding varieties like vine-ripened purple peppercorns.
At the elite fine dining sanctuary Ikoyi in London, chef Jeremy Chan makes spices a priority on his £350 ($444) tasting menu. He now has around 30 kinds on hand, including hard-to-get ones like Gola peppercorns that come from a Sierra Leone rainforest. “The world of peppercorns is vast, with the flavors that can be harvested from them even vaster,” says Chan, approvingly. Other restaurant pros are putting the spice center stage in nonclassic au poivre preparations. At the Otter in downtown New York City, chef Alex Stupak features two kinds — Tellicherry and Madagascar green—in his exceptional swordfish au poivre. Hawksmoor has installed a short rib au poivre on menus at its locations in the UK. And in New York, there’s a martini au poivre on the cocktail list at Le Rock.
Handrolls Will Roll Out Everywhere
As more people travel to Japan — in October, a record-breaking 3.31 international million visitors arrived — there’s ever more appreciation for a well-wrapped sushi roll. Temaki, which usually features some kind of seafood wrapped in a crisp nori cone with rice tucked in, is powering new restaurants in cities such as Austin, where chef Paul Qui’s Top Roe features fresh and aged fish. “I see handroll bars as the future of Japanese cuisine in western markets. It has opened the evolution of sushi culture to the most basic of beginners on how to experience high-end products at a low entry-level price point,” Qui says. In Houston, Kira’s temaki ranges from ocean trout with tofu cream to scarlet crab with aioli. In New York, the Temakase Handroll Bar, which has a long list of its namesake specialty including salmon with yuzu scallion, has just opened a second location in the NoMad neighborhood. And Nami Nori, which serves its well-made rolls like a taco in a customized stand, has just launched in Miami, with 2025 plans to open in Virginia Beach, the hometown of its new business partner, Pharrell Williams.
Slices of Pizza Will Carry New Responsibilities
This year in New York, hot bagels elbowed pizza out of the way as the viral social food of choice, especially when served photogenically open-faced. But pizza hasn’t been left too far behind, and now operators see the chance to give it toppings that might be the entrée at a restaurant down the street, like butter chicken. At the new shop Onion Tree Pizza Co. in New York’s East Village, there are options such as saag paneer and coriander-spiced chicken tikka masala pies, either Neapolitan or Roman style. “Indian toppings lend themselves to pizza seamlessly,” says Jay Jajeda, the chef and co-owner, who also has a location in Sea Cliff, New York. Offerings at the new Caribbean-themed Sebastian’s Spices and Slices in Brooklyn include jerk chicken and braised oxtail. On the West Coast, the California-based Curry Pizza House, whose name says it all, is expanding east, with a location opening in Georgia this year and Texas outposts planned for 2025. The craze has even hit Tokyo: At Pizza Studio Tamaki, one of the popular orders now is the butter chicken pie.
Humble Focaccia Will Reign
Buttery laminated dough treats such as croissants and pain au chocolat have been on an unstoppable run in the baked-goods world. But now the principally French pastries are finding competition from an unassuming Italian staple: focaccia. From breadbaskets to sandwich shops, it’s simultaneously imposing to look at but also nostalgia-inducing. Even if your grandma didn’t make it, it feels like she might have, with its dimpled top and salty, soft crunch. And, crucially, it doesn’t require a pricey, steam-injected oven for baking, like a restaurant-quality baguette or sourdough loaf does. Among the new places you’ll see exemplary versions in London is Morchella, where the thick slices are laced with seaweed, and the wine bar Wildflowers, where it’s crowned with whipped garlic and the namesake wildflowers. In New York, at the downtown wine bar Demo, it’s a point of pride for chef Quang Nguyen. He shouts out focaccia’s versatility: It’s a bread but also a vehicle for other ingredients. “We change up the toppings weekly,” he says. “And at the end of the day it is more cost-effective. The cost of flour, water, salt and yeast is always going to be cheaper per portion versus buying a loaf from one of the great bakeries in the city.” Meanwhile, in Spain, it’s inspired dedicated outlets such as Focacciamo in Madrid and Forno Bomba in Barcelona — pushing the national newspaper El Pais to ask, “Can focaccia dethrone pizza?”
Star Chefs Will Expand Outside of Food
Some of the world’s most famous chefs are exploring worlds outside a restaurant. The Gordon Ramsay x HexClad Academy, opening in February at 22 Bishopsgate in the City in London, will offer classes like pasta making and the art of beef Wellington. The famed chef might even stop by for a critique. At John Lewis & Partners, Oxford Street, the flagship Jamie Oliver Cookery School launches in the spring with classes like perfecting gravy. On the other side of the Atlantic, chefs are putting their names on hotels and residential property businesses, following the success of Nobu Matsuhisa, who currently has 18 eponymous hotels and more than double that on the way. Save-the-world chef José Andrés has announced the opening of the Bazaar House, a hotel, in partnership with Thor Equities. The 67-room property, which will also include a membership club, is scheduled to open in Georgetown in Washington, DC, in 2027. Opening around that time is the branded property Jean-Georges Miami Tropic Residences, a 48-story tower with 329 condos in collaboration with developers Terra Group, dining rooms available only to residents, plus the opportunity for in-room catering from chef Vongerichten.
The Impermanent Restaurant
Not so long ago, the expectation was that a restaurant was built for the long haul. Take Le Gavroche, in London, a dining room run by generations of chefs with the last name Roux. In January it closed after 57 years. Now, that kind of dining room seems like a memento from the past, says one of the UK’s most famous chefs, Jason Atherton. He posits that the financial pressures from labor to ingredients, plus the challenge of keeping the public interested over the course of many years, have led to a need to rotate concepts. In the future, Atherton says, restaurants might exist for a few years before finding a new identity in the same space with the same ownership. He opened five restaurants in the second half of 2024, including the ambitious Row on 45, after closing three.
“Now you might run a place for five years, then see what else it might be,” he says. It’s a model that’s been useful to Roni Mazumdar of New York’s celebrated Indian food empire Unapologetic Foods. His dining room Rahi wasn’t working; he turned it into Semma, with a singular focus on the cuisine of Tamil Nadu state, and has scored a Michelin star. René Redzepi echoes that sentiment when he talks about the future of his renowned Copenhagen restaurant Noma, which will exist as a series of pop-ups after it closes in 2025. “I want to operate a restaurant with pop-up energy, where you spend a year in preparation,” he says. “You go there to feel something, but then you can’t feel it again — it’s gone. I’m excited for the restaurant to operate like that.”
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