KEY POINTS:
Trans fat is out, nuts are in and downsized desserts are the meal of the moment.
Food trends are just as tricky to predict as fashion, and there's always a new product on the global marketplace. Have you tried the new reindeer cheese?
But then traditional fare is always poised to make a comeback.
Spanish cuisine is flavour of the moment, although only real foodie pioneers are trying traditional paella made with rabbit, chicken and snails.
There's no doubt we're getting more obsessed with healthy diets.
Sabato's co-owner Jacqui Dixon has just returned from a food fair in Milan and says there's "a big trend towards organics".
The health benefits of tea are spurring a revival in pot brewing. "People want a cup of tea like our grandmothers used to enjoy," says Ruki Ediriweera from speciality teamakers Teaz. "And there's a real desire to learn the proper method of brewing tea."
We'll also be adjusting to low-alcohol wines, predicts wine specialist Chris Telford from Pernod Ricard New Zealand.
"We're managing our vineyards to get the same ripe flavours but with lower levels of sugar."
Telford's team has already produced the Framingham Select Riesling with 8 per cent alcohol content, around 60 per cent that of a normally fermented riesling. As customers demand low alcohol, Telford says restaurants will have to re-examine their wine lists.
"Wine high in alcohol and full flavours are commonly known as fruit bombs. Most hospitality people are in awe of them but they neglect to look at the alcohol content for their customers driving home."
Grove Mill winery is looking after the health of our planet. Earlier this year, the Marlborough-based winery became the world's first vineyard to be certified Carbon Zero, introducing a series of sustainable practices aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and environmental impacts.
If worldwide sales of Omega 3-enriched foods are any indication, we're also becoming more consumed with dietary aids. And the baby boomers will increasingly demand healthier take-outs and convenience foods. The new teeny-tiny desserts are a sensible option for those diners who'd rather not be caught quaffing a giant mousse.
As our green consciousness matures, we'll think twice about buying any product that's racked up serious food miles.
Some will even banish contraband food from their fridges and larders.
The more serious-minded may go vegan, after a recent report in New Scientist confirms meat and diary production is causing massive environmental degradation.
Food wastage will become an issue: considering one-third of our food ends up in the bin, some will sensibly start recycling vege leftovers for hearty winter soup. But most consumers will take the middle road; occasionally breaking the budget for Prelibato white balsamic and buying seasonal, local produce when it suits.
Here's Viva's take on:
Drink Whizz
Sodastream's old slogan used to be, "let's get busy making fizzy". The modern day catchphrase could be "let's go green with Sodastream". This drink machine is making a comeback as householders embrace the idea of whizzing up sugar-free drinks and reducing the recycle clutter.
The range of 12 flavours contains less sugar and lower sodium than shelf drinks; 100ml of Sodastream lemonade has 4.5g of sugar compared with 10.2g in a bottle of Sprite. There are also zero-sugar flavours like cranberry and raspberry - although these varieties are made with artificial sugar substitutes and are an acquired taste.
You can opt to make your own designer water: carbonate tap water, add a twist of lime and serve in a stylish jug. Green-conscious families will be relieved to discover a reduction in the number of plastic bottles and aluminium cans cluttering the recycle bin, and the nation's landfills.
Steam-cooked convenience food
Thoroughly sick of being served over-plated dishes in expensive restaurants, but haven't got the time to whip up traditional fare at home? Convenience food manufacturers are increasingly cooking by steam (sous-vide) and sealing in the flavours in handy vacuum-sealed plastic pouches.
It takes hours to conjure up the same dish, but with these takeaway gourmet packs, the only inconvenience is microwaving or boiling. Harried hosts can make a lasting impression by serving dishes like slow-cooked lamb shanks in red wine and rosemary sauce. Just add green beans, mashed potatoes and never admit you weren't hovering over a hot stove for hours.
Spanish Flair
Hola, Spanish food is fantastico.
Spaniard Joaquim Gines from Barcelona Spanish Delicatessen, imports such delicacies as Piquillo pepper and white asparagus. At Stamford Plaza's recent Gourmet Cooking Weekend, he instructed a group of eager foodies on the right way to make paella.
Bemoaning the "strange ways" New Zealanders create this superb dish (usually drowning in tomato sauce), Gines added the rice using the traditional "cross" method. "It has to be one finger deep only and never, eveeer use Aborio rice." Gines prefers the traditional dish with chicken, rabbit and snails. He insists that the snails "make all the difference to the flavour".
Spanish artisans also make surprisingly good cheeses: chorizo cheese has a nice kick and the blue is deeply complex. Iberico ham, made from little black pigs fed on acorns, is heavenly. Ditto the Serrano ham.
Jacqui Dixon from Sabato also recommends Spanish vinegars: "Mix with a dash of olive oil and drizzle over a salad. It puts your taste buds on edge."
Foodie lessons
Treating your loved ones to a foodie tour or cooking lesson is a clever (and fashionable) way to spoil them rotten. In New York, kids are trading uniforms for chefs' aprons and taking after-school classes - and even a two-day teen baking camp (not to be confused with brat camp).
In New Zealand, you can spend the day mastering techniques for making fish stock or sampling artisan produce in the countryside.
The more entertaining the better: highly recommended are Stamford Plaza's Gourmet Cooking Weekends, which include five-star accommodation, degustation dinners and exotic cooking classes at the Auckland Fish Market's Seafood School.
There's also the Italian Food Lovers Tour at Al Dente, with host Raffaela Delmonte laying on a feast in her countryside home. Seated traditional style around wooden tables, you talk, eat, and marvel at the food demonstrations; highlights are learning how to make Bresaola beef prosciutto, mascarpone cheese and the morning espresso.
Time for tea
It's strange how coffee connoisseurs will complain bitterly about dud beans, but will happily dunk a musty teabag in over-boiled water and then blithely whip it out after a few minutes. Ruki Ediriweera from Teaz says there's a "world of difference between a well-made cup of tea and coloured water". Leave the blended teas on the shelf, and infuse only pure teas.
The revival in tea drinking is evident in speciality tea houses like Lynne Curry's acclaimed Brookview Teahouse in Matakana, where you can indulge in a tea-making ceremony with a lamington and club sandwiches on the side. With a choice of 35 teas, you'll never want for coffee again. The classic teas - black, white, green and oolong come from the camellia sinensis plant.
There are also plenty of herbal varieties but Ediriweera says it's important to get real herbal extractions not flavoured herbal tea. Root ginger is increasingly being sought after as a remedy for stomach and circulation problems.
Tea is soon to make headlines in popular fiction. In a departure from swigging champagne, author Sarah-Kate Lynch's next novel will focus on tea in her next novel.
A stickler for research, the popular foodie writer is in London mixing with the toffs and taking tea at the Ritz and Selfridges.
Exotic tempters
Forget the ordinary black balsamic, we're now pouring white balsamic and liberally spreading chocolate, peach nut and strawberry balsamic jelly. If Simon Gault's new range from his artisan food company Sous Chef is any indication, our tables will be groaning with exotic tempters.
Gault and charming Italian chef Tommaso Ruggieri cooked up a storm in a demonstration for foodies at the Neat Meat Company last week. Some of the more memorable dishes were king crab legs from Alaska, the size of small kittens and tasting remarkably like crayfish.
And the truffle paste was a treat on a helping of 90-day grain-fed Wakanui blue beef.
Forget the jokes about truffle oil, and indulge in some earthy pleasures.
