WASHINGTON -- New research from the National Restaurant Association shows that alcohol is among the hottest culinary trends in restaurants. A survey of more than 1,000 American Culinary Federation professional chefs ranks craft beer, energy drink cocktails, martinis, mojitos, artisan liquors, organic wine and specialty beer in the top 20 trends.
In addition to cocktails and bar drinks, alcohol is also used as an ingredient in cooking and as part of meals and menus through food-alcohol pairings.
"While wine, beer and spirits have [image-nocss] always been part of the culinary arts and restaurant menus, specialty alcohol is increasingly popular right now. As American diners are growing increasingly sophisticated, adult beverages can be an important part of both recipes and meals. Alcohol tasting menus, or flights, are served by more restaurants, and pairing beer and wine with complementary flavors on your plate can very much enhance the dining experience," said Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the association.
"Specialty alcohol, craft and specialty beer in particular, is a very hot trend," said Chef John Kinsella, CMC, CCE, AAC, president of the American Culinary Federation and senior chef instructor at Midwest Culinary Institute in Cincinnati. "Organic wine is also very popular now, and ties into the overall growing trend of organic foods. I'm also seeing additional, innovative culinary uses of alcohol now, including flavoring items with alcohol essence, like we currently are developing with chardonnay-, cabernet- and merlot-flavored iced teas for example."
The overall top trends in culinary uses of alcohol are signature cocktails, closely followed by deglazing/reductions/sauces, food-beer parings and beer sommeliers, as well as food-wine pairings and wine sommeliers.
In this second annual survey, types of alcohol that ranked high on the list of cool/pass a itemsitems that used to be hot trends, but are not anymoreincluded fruit/flavored wine, vermouth, mescal and rose/blush wine.
For full 2007 "What's Hot* What's Not" survey results, click here.
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