The 2012 StarChefs.com Trends: Food Culture

It’s hard to identify a major national culinary trend without sounding grandiose, but we’re gonna risk it because we’ve been tasting all over the country for years now and have witnessed an evolution that just shouldn’t go unspoken. American restaurants are among the best in the world. Need more specifics? Well, first there’s the fact that we have three of the top 10 restaurants in the world on the San Pellegrino list. And then there’s evidence we’ve tasted. At this point we’ve awarded hundreds upon hundreds of Rising Stars awards, seen chefs evolve from students to mentors, and watched as one generation of chefs bequeathed greener, lusher, more independent pastures to the next. The end result is that now more than ever American cuisine not only keeps pace with global cuisine, but inspires it. We’ve seen trends like micro-regionalism, the Southern pantry, and nostalgic American comfort foods surge with popularity. We’ve watched as American chefs joined the international ranks in global trend-setting, using influential platforms to change the way we think. The result this past year was a strong, vibrant state of the culinary union. And we intend to celebrate that with a national ranking of the top 100 restaurants in the country. We’re calling it the StarChefs.com 100, and we’re unleashing it into the myriad ranks and measures of culinary culture next year.