THE recent Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024 in Singapore brought together over 5,000 chefs and cross industry innovators for a four-day forum to transform the gastronomy community.
Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) was among them, launching an hour-long activation that previewed the future of food, demonstrating new recipes and ingredient suggestions operators can use for their menus.
Anchored on the theme of Culinary Infinity, the UFS activation presented four of the eight trends identified in the US Future Menus Report 2024, introducing four menu items that reflect the future of culinary by four UFS chefs.
No rules experience
Focused on pushing boundaries, the Flavour Shock menu seeks diners looking to challenge their taste buds. In an era where sensory overload is the norm, culinary creations must tear up the rulebook, crafting dishes that are experimental and extraordinary.
UFS Philippines executive chef Kenneth Cacho took up the challenge, elevating the diners’ experience with unexpected but undeniably good pairings. The Filipino chef paired tempura with matcha sauce, chocolate with golden egg powder and truffle balls with cassava filling – all served on lava rocks and glossy obsidian.
Celebrating local flavours
While Flavour Shock focuses on experience, the Local Abundance menu highlights the importance of sustainability and local ingredients. The menu aims to show the possibilities that can come from incorporating sustainability in mind and on our plates while nourishing ourselves.
UFS Indonesia executive chef Gungun Chandra spearheaded the station, coming up with his tempeh sando dish, made up of local and sustainable produce from his homeland.
Diners even got to participate in a “forage” sourcing ingredients such as candlenuts, tamarinds, galangal and fingerroots, taking away a shared sense of responsibility in nurturing of the planet while nourishing themselves.
Maximising creativity
The Low-Waste menu touches on the more serious side of the sustainability conversation. This trend helps chefs use ingredients and resources wisely while saving money and pleasing diners’ appetite. Since the culinary world relies heavily on produce, this trend encourages chefs to maximise every ingredient they use to prevent waste.
Hence, the trend took on the guise of a barren desert landscape, which served as their provocation on how to transform what is “unusable” into flavourful delicacies.
UFS Singapore executive chef Eric Chua achieved this by coming up with his Spent Grain Detroit-style ocaccia dish, made up of leftover ingredients.
Delicious ventures
With many diners seeking comfort in their food, the trend for home food lingers strongly as diners long for the familiar. But, they also want something new – this phenomenon inspired the Modernised Comfort Food menu.
The Modernised Comfort Food menu by UFS Thailand executive chef Jiraroj “Pop” Navanukroh takes the classics and enriches them with culinary storytelling, heritage and a touch of nostalgia.
Jiraroj gave his rendition of the trend with his fish & chips with salted eff mentai sauce, giving diners hope there is much to explore and experiment with the familiar and unknown.
Though the future of the culinary world is uncertain, UFS expressed hopes that these trends will open and enrich conversations surrounding it. UFS Southeast Asia regional marketing director Vangie Hu said the future of food could go so many ways, possibly infinite.
“In fact, the innumerable possibilities are exactly why our industry should be excited to sink our teeth into the future,” she said.
With the chefs at the congress spearheading into the future of food, the culinary industry recognises the paramountcy of staying contempo while enhancing familiar flavours via innovative and sustainable practises.
