9 Food Tendencies that Will Dominate in 2022, In accordance to Cooks and Bartenders

Espresso martini at Poka Lola
Espresso martini at Poka Lola. Photograph by Brittany Anas

Consume and Drink

Great news: The espresso martini most likely isn’t going anyplace.


You really do not need a crystal ball to forecast some of the traits that will carry on to dominate Denver’s food items and beverage scene in 2022. The QR codes are listed here to continue to be and we’re warming up to year-round outdoor dining. But what about the micro-traits that chefs and cocktail artisans are rooting for—the substances they’re hoping we’ll bite at and the drinks that they’re betting will garner enjoyment in the new 12 months?

We posed the issue to community cooks and bartenders: “What traits do you expect will acquire off in 2022?” Here’s what they have to say.

Mezcal…as an Ingredient

You’ve found tequila-lime shrimp or whiskey-braised small ribs on cafe menus before. Future up are mezcal-spiked dishes, predicts three-time James Beard Award nominee Dana Rodriguez, who is opening Cantina Loca, a Mexican road meals location, on January 12 in LoHi. There, she’ll have a tasting home for her premium mezcal, Doña Loca. But the smoky agave spirit will also increase complexity to dishes like the cantina’s salsa borracha (a drunken salsa). Mezcal, she claims, is ripe for culinary experimentation. As an example: Previous fall, she donated some of her modest-batch mezcal to “Hispanic Top Chef,” a culinary opposition held at Metropolitan Point out University by the Colorado-based Hispanic Restaurant Affiliation. Employed as a “secret ingredient,” one of the contestants developed a delightfully sweet and smoky pork marinade.

Plant Energy

Pizza, French fries, fried hen, and mac ’n cheese were a portion of the wonderful convenience food comeback of 2020 and 2021. Now, it’s time to try to eat your veggies. “I assume 2022 is the year of vegetables—or just balanced taking in in common,” predicts Jeff Osaka, owner of Osaka Ramen and Sushi-Rama dining places. Osaka, for the 1st time, place a vegetable-centered ramen as the seasonal distinctive on the menu at his RiNo ramen spot. Loaded with roasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms and produced with squash broth, sage-miso butter, and tofu, it is been a well known purchase in December, even ahead of the healthy taking in New Year’s resolutions.

Fermentation (But Make it Speedier)

Ahead of there have been freezers and canned food items, fermentation was the way to protect food. Within the previous several many years, even though, the hundreds of years-aged process has manufactured a comeback, with kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir reaching star standing, thanks in element to the prospective gut wellness advantages they have.

Derek Simcik, the director of culinary operations for Sage Cafe Principles (City Farmer, Kachina Cantina, and a lot more), says he expects equipment like OCOO to get started generating their way into kitchens. “Think of it as a tension cooker for fermentation,” he says. As an example, black garlic—which is clean garlic that is been aged and fermented—takes 3 hours instead of three months, he suggests. The kitchen area instrument can get ready very long-fermented pastes like Korean Gochujang or soybean paste in a make any difference of hrs, alternatively than months.

Speaking of fermentation, Simcik says koji paste (a Japanese fermentation starter) is possessing a moment. “I appreciate rubbing a very little bit of koji on beef and letting it sit for a bit prior to services, as it delivers a gamey or funky flavor, similar to what you obtain in dry-aged, grass-fed beef,” he states.

A Concentration on Asia

A pair of a long time back, coconut milk obtained recognition in the United States as a functional and dairy-no cost choice to milk, suggests chef Taylor West, proprietor of Denver-centered GetFed Principles and a non-public chef who leads sushi and dim sum pop-ups. West predicts miso and turmeric are about to be between the following “it” substances to just take off stateside. He’s been using miso a large amount in his dishes, with the fermented paste including umami to almost everything from starters to desserts.

“Miso caramel is something I’ve been making use of on my modern tasting menus and it is been a really fun way to introduce the component to persons,” he claims. As for turmeric, the golden spice has been used for generations in Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medication, and it has been well-liked in the United States in golden milk lattes and in complement form. But the spice is becoming extra mainstream (count on it in dishes and cocktails!) and Full Meals set it on its record of best 10 foodstuff tendencies for 2022.

Experiential Dining (At Property)

To-go has been a go-to in the last couple of many years, and the next iteration of this trend is a much more experiential takeaway experience, predicts Denver restaurateur Frank Bonanno (his ideas consist of Mizuna, Luca, Osteria Marco, and other individuals). “I can see general supervisors beginning to appear at these orders as a way to recreate the restaurant knowledge at property,” Bonanno claims. “More to-go cocktail possibilities? Probably a regionally created candle to insert some flare? A complimentary dessert? Themed menus? There are so several strategies to get inventive.”

Cocktails with Big Flavors

The spicy margarita will maintain its popular cocktail crown and extra variations of it will emerge in this agave-loving city, predicts Drew Stephens, bar supervisor at Inexperienced Russell near Union Station. He also expects dirty martinis with different brines and washes and infusions will get some momentum. The espresso martini could go on to go potent as its a person that can be produced with liquors other than vodka (feel: tequila or amaro) to distinction the strong espresso and chocolate notes.

A thing these beverages have in prevalent? They are no shrinking violets. Individuals bevvying up to the bar are craving “big, bold flavors and subtle, nuanced flavors have fallen out of the limelight,” Stephens claims.

Sustainable Cocktails

Absent (with any luck ,) are the times of juicing a lime or zesting a lemon and then tossing the fruit’s carcass out. Stephens claims bartenders are having much more creative, and executing so in the name of sustainability. “I hope we see things like scrap cordials created with expended fruits and fruit skins alongside with repurposing outdated crimson wine, like Green Russell does with our cranberry cordial,” Stephens says. One more sustainability case in point at his bar is the acidulated pink wine that is built by including citric acid to oxidized red wine to give it the very same punch as lemon or lime in a cocktail. It can be applied in area of a lemon in some thing as basic as a whiskey sour, Stephens claims, and tastes excellent.

Take care of Your self Mentality

Just after saving cash by cooking at dwelling, friends are ready to make some splurges when they dine out, according to chefs from Hai Hospitality, the team driving RiNo’s Uchi. That usually means patrons will go for those people higher-conclusion items like caviar, A5 wagyu, and specialty fish and get prime-shelf Japanese whiskies and sake.

Whiskey Cocktail Revival

We will need not depend the methods in which Coloradans appreciate whisky (and whiskey-forward bars). But whiskey cocktails are all set for a shakeup. “Bartenders and guests have so a lot to experiment with when imagining about whiskey,” says Cooper Smith, celebration supervisor at Seven Grand Whiskey Bar on the Dairy Block. Alongside the classics (Old Fashioneds, Sazeracs, and Manhattans), hope to see a lot more believed getting poured into whiskey beverages. For instance, Smith suggests: Which cocktails perform finest with a rye vs. a bourbon? Can peated scotch be applied outdoors of beverages like the Penicillin? Could the caffeinated Revolver be the future cocktail to make a comeback?

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