New Top Food Trends # 1: The Well-Stocked Pantry

The flailing economy gave many people a extra helping of reality, so we're spending less. We don't rush out to get the newest electronic device like we used to, nor are we dining out as often. Our firmer grip on our wallets – or purse strings – has spread to our eating habits as well. We're eating home more often and as such are keeping our pantries filled with all the basics. Convenience foods are out and fresh, locally grown foods are in, and since we have greater knowledge of food and an increased awareness of health and nutrition, we're retuning to cooking from scratch with simple ingredients, and that requires the well-stocked pantry.

It's not all that surprising, really, as it is likely where we were headed anyway. We just got there faster, pushed along by necessity. With all the cooking shows, foodie blogs and professional chefs taking their 15 minutes in the spotlight, we know more about food and cooking than we ever did before. In many ways, the trend is a survival mechanism, and instead of reaching for the boxed macaroni and cheese or a frozen thing calling itself cuisine, we're going to our pantries and building our meals ourselves. In short, we're digging in as we prepare for the long road to recovery.

It makes sense that if we're eating so much more at home, we have to have the ingredients for those meals. In turn, this will increase the flow of food information even more, particularly as it pertains to what we need stocked in our pantries and refrigerators. On-line purveyors of products on the Internet will jump on the band wagon as well, and will offer less luxury items and focus more on the basics. People will be looking for better value and less waste and sellers will cater to them.

Don't get this confused with the items your grandmother stocked. No, we have new basics. Different types of olive oils and vinegars, types of pasta you cant pronounce, and ingredients that grandma never heard of will be part of the new pantry, a pantry that we are now creating.

We are already stocking our shelves more and more, and that's not going to change even when the economy improves. As our cooking knowledge increases, our tastes and expectations change, and we stock the ingredients necessary to bring our new creations to our plates.  We will have discovered that good food, home-made, is the stuff that enriches life, and it will come from the well-stocked pantry.

(The top ten food trends for 2010 was based on research conducted by The Food Network, Culture Waves, and International Food Futurists.)

PHOTO CREDITS: Pantry, Irish Typepad, flickr, Fair Use Rights,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irisheyes/120356637/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Olive Oils, avlxys, flickr, Fair Use Rights, http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/4696156838/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Backyard Chickens Baugher Webmaster Services, flickr, Fair Use Rights, http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbaugher/4018292622/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Vinegar, AndyRob, flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/2416411306/sizes/z/in/photostream/