The burger revolution is no longer televised, the dirty-food genre is no longer a revelation, mono-dining restaurants neither unique or unusual. They are all an accepted norm of life, firmly established as mass market dining options, for friends, for families across the nation, and certainly not just hip, bearded urbanites.
But, what comes next? What is the next food-stuff that can grip the market? What food has universal appeal, enormous flexibility and is an easy sell to you, to me, to friends and to family?
I'll tell you what. The answer is a four letter word - Rice.
Yes, the humblest of cereal grains, reinvented, repackaged and re-imagined.
You have just read the food scoop of the year, right here.
Without any doubt, rice should be the next big thing.
The more I think about this, the more genius it seems. Rice truly is the universal food. It feeds nations, continents, millions of people everyday, from those who have little else to sustain them, through to those who can afford to eat anything they wish.
A complex carb, as happy dressed in any Asian flavours as it is in Mexican or Indian. It has amazing flexibility and can happily take on the personality of any nation.
So, we have a low cost food stuff, that is adored by millions of people, young and old; that satisfies every mainstream religion and is almost allergy free. Jeez, rice truly is the dream ticket. I can boil it, fry it or bake it. I can make it savoury or sweet, eat it hot or cold. It can be simple and humble, sitting back and letting other food groups take the glory, or it can step up and claim some table fame, sitting happily alongside more glamorous partners.
I can eat it in a restaurant, easily sharing it with all those I love, or eat it on the go, on the street, walking with it. I can get it delivered, and eat in just about any vessel. In bowls, in bread, in soups, in broths, in sushi. Is their nothing rice cannot do?
I've been designing restaurants for over twenty years, working with food brands that span the globe and serve millions of meals every month, but never, ever have I ever had such a brilliantly lucid and lateral idea.
Ha, I love it. Rice, rice baby, indeed!