The Biggest Food Trends in the Next 25 Years, According to the Experts

Trends may come and go, but there's no doubt that what we wear, watch, andwhip up at a certain moment in time can leave a huge cultural mark. When Allrecipes was founded in 1997, the dish du jour was one we all now recognize as a classic: the molten lava cake. In the years since, we've seen countless other foods and drinks go in and out of style. Crab cakes, avocado toast, and rainbow-colored everything were all once the rage — and eventually all over social media.

Today, we turn to platforms like Instagram and TikTok for inspiration and find ideas for everything from easy dinners (hello, baked feta pasta) to buzzy drinks (remember when everyone was making Dalgona coffee?) to show-stopping party tricks (love it or hate it, butter boards are a thing). So what does the future of home cooking look like? In honor of Allrecipes' 25th anniversary, we tapped some of our favorite voices in food to predict what we'll be eating, drinking, and shopping for in the next 25 years. Here's what each of them saw in their crystal ball (jars).

Tiffy Chen

Blogger and recipe developer

• TikTok: @tiffycooks
• Instagram: @tiffycooks
• Website: Tiffy Cooks

New Heat in the Kitchen

The 'it' spice will be Sichuan peppercorn, featuring its spicy and numbing flavor profile. It's traditionally used in Chinese cuisine and adds another flavor to spicy dishes. There are many ways to incorporate Sichuan peppercorn into recipes, but one of my favorite methods of cooking with them is to infuse oil with them. To do it yourself, just add whole Sichuan peppercorns into oil, slowly heat, strain, and you're ready to go. This is perfect for dishes like chili oil, spicy noodles, and hotpot soup.

Shrooms Will Bloom

The next iteration of plant-based meat will be care of the shiitake mushroom. They have a meat-like texture and are excellent at soaking up flavors. You can deep fry, pan fry, bake, and even grind them up to use as a meat substitute in dumplings.

Eitan Bernath

Author of Eitan Eats The World: New Comfort Classics to Cook Right Now

• TikTok: @eitan
• Instagram: @eitan
• Website: Eitan Bernath

The '70s Make a Comeback

Retro food will come back in the same way the '90s and '00s fashion came back in the last few years. I predict a resurgence in classic recipes from the '70s like fondue parties, Watergate salad, and even homemade versions of boxed meals like Hamburger Helper. Nostalgia for those older recipes always cycles through and I see the comfort foods and the dinner party classics from the '70s becoming popular again!

Jocelyn Delk Adams

Author of Everyday Grand: Soulful Recipes for Celebrating Life's Big and Small Moments: A Cookbook

• TikTok: @grandbabycakes
• Instagram: @grandbabycakes
• Website: Grandbaby Cakes

Plant-Based Meats Go Luxe

I think plant-based food is going to go super high end. We have plant-based burgers and chicken, but what about steak and lobster? For those who are looking for a super luxurious experience, this will be the next step in elevating the vegan adventure and taking it to new heights.

Ramona Cruz-Peters

Allrecipes Allstar and author of 30-Minute Instant Pot Cookbook: Quick and Easy Recipes for Every Meal

• TikTok: @fabeveryday
• Instagram: @fabeveryday
• Website: Fab Everyday

Do-It-All Devices

From what I'm seeing the younger generations cooking, I predict convenience gadgets like the air fryer to continue growing in popularity. Look for these devices to get even quicker and more high-tech to make it worth the counter space.

Plants Au Natural

I see the trend for plant-based foods and sustainable eating to continue. I hope we see them becoming less processed and using more natural ingredients and meat-free substitutions, such as jackfruit.

Nadia Caterina Munno

Author of The Pasta Queen: A Just Gorgeous Cookbook: 100+ Recipes and Stories

• TikTok: @the_pastaqueen
• Instagram: @the_pastaqueen
• Website: The Pasta Queen

More Cooks and Whole Foods

Considering that history repeats itself, I think people will be going back to basics, cooking simpler foods, using fresh herbs from their home gardens and diving into whole foods instead of packaged preserved foods. Social media has made cooking accessible and is teaching a new generation to cook for themselves instead of opting for fast foods. I see a much more balanced diet without the exclusions of key food groups. I see a renaissance in food and a renaissance in health.

Cheesy Bakes Get a Fresh Makeover

We will go back to home-cooked meals with very simple ingredients, like potato bakes with fresh herbs and farm fresh cheeses, just like in Ancient Rome, where they made very thin layers of wheat and baked it with spices such as cinnamon and cheese. And when I say cheese, I'm not talking about Velveeta! I'm saying cute little goats and sheeps that make the most delicious fresh cheese in your backyard. I'm envisioning a renaissance of lasagna bakes and creamy cheese bakes with freshly-rolled out pasta to layer with fresh produce from your garden.

Yumna Jawad

Blogger and recipe developer

• TikTok: @feelgoodfoodie
• Instagram: @feelgoodfoodie
• Website: Feel Good Foodie

Mediterranean Modernizes

Dinner bowls will grow in popularity, but instead of quinoa bowls and grain bowls, we may see more savory yogurt or labneh bowls, for example, that are topped with different ingredients inspired by Mediterranean cuisine. Mediterranean ingredients like za'atar, dates, and labneh grow in popularity every year, and I expect to see them becoming more mainstream in the future, like hummus.

Justine Doiron

Blogger and recipe developer

• TikTok: @justine_snacks
• Instagram: @justine_snacks
• Website: Justine Snacks

Embracing the Crowd

I think it's nearly impossible to predict the next "viral" trend, but I have a feeling we'll see a huge shift towards more communal-style recipes in the coming years. After so many turned to cooking as a solo activity during the pandemic, you can tell we're starting to see a huge swing towards cooking as connection again. I'm excited to see this manifest in more family-style recipes, big platters of fun creations and of course, baking. Lots of baking.

Amanda Rettke

Author of Surprise-Inside Cakes: Amazing Cakes for Every Occasion – With a Little Something Extra Inside

• Tiktok: @iambakerofficial
• Instagram: @iambaker
• Website: I Am Baker

Baking Returns to the Classics

Baking trends come and go but the classics are classics for a reason. Fresh bread, made from scratch, is one of the most satisfying recipes a home baker can master. I hope the next trend in baking is a newfound love of pure ingredients, using all of your senses in the preparation, and the satisfaction of knowing the delicious beauty you have created.

Nicole Keshishian Modic

Author of "Love to Eat: 75 Easy, Craveworthy Recipes for Healthy, Intuitive Eating"

• Tiktok: @kalejunkie
• Instagram: @kalejunkie
• Website: KaleJunkie

Calling All Carbs

We're continuing to move away from the anti-carb movement and we're going to see a lot more easy dishes that include carbs because carbs are not the enemy! I think we'll see more potatoes—the viral crispy Parmesan potatoes started the trend and there'll be more like it.

Home Cooks Get Scrappy

There's going to be a lot more "scrappy" cooking. As the cost of groceries continues to soar, we are going to get more inventive and come up with creative ways to use all parts of our fruits and vegetables that we would formerly discard.

Nichole Aksamit

Editor in Chief of Allrecipes Magazine

• Instagram: @nichole_aksamit

Happy Rebellion

The pandemic and TikTok ushered in a whole new era of invention and discovery in the kitchen. Lockdowns, ingredient shortages, necessity, sharing, and boredom gave us all new permission to break the usual cooking and baking rules: Turkey and apple pie at Easter—hey, why not? Cocoa bombs, but make them cocktails? Yes, please! Burnt-on-purpose cheesecake or two-ingredient pizza dough. Bring it!

That rebellious, creative, why-not approach will ripple forward for decades to come. Cooks will find and embrace clever shortcuts and new flavor mashups and let go of anything that's too fussy (unless it is also truly fabulous). I can't wait to see what we cook up.

Flex-ibility

Economic forces, environmental concerns, and diet-experimentation trends mean more of our favorite recipes will need to be flexible to suit everyone at the table. I expect we will see more meaty dishes that flex vegetarian or vegan, and more vegetarian dishes that flex vegan or meat-optional.