Last year at this time, optimistic trend forecasters predicted that the cork would burst from the bottle by summer.
With vaccines in arms, food culture would vibrate in a robust economy.
American menus would be full of innovation driven by waves of international travel, and a new generation of digital-native cooks would rewrite the rules.
But so what if things didn’t turn out like everyone thought they would?
(Kudos to those professional prognosticators who in recent years nailed the mainstream rise of quesabirria, soufflé pancakes, delivery-only restaurants and CBD.
And a special citation for those who saw early on that those ripples of veganism would become a plant-based tsunami.).
The year is starting with a surge of a highly contagious variant of Covid-19 that is only adding to the economic uncertainty. »
