Kale: The Prada of the Food Runway

Kale, sriracha, and chia seeds, all three food items you probably heard that have been hot in the grocery store this past year. Just like fashion has it’s trends, so does food. In the New Yorker’s May 5, 2014 issue, Sophia Brickman’s piece “What She’s Having” discusses food trends of various restaurants throughout New York City. Her piece explores this idea with David Sax, the author of the book The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue. Brickman’s piece summarizes Sax’s concept that food trends reflect what’s going on in society at the given time.
The article opens up with a description of a line wrapping around the block corner of the SoHo “Dominique Ansel Bakery,” with people waiting to get their hands on the infamous “Cronut”. Brickman’s description of the trademarked “Cronut” is similar to a concept that has already been explored in several other countries.

“…the lines stretch around the block for a Cronut — the croissant-doughnut hybrid, trademarked, to distinguish it from the copycat Singaporean “crodos,” British “dosants,” and Venezuelan “Mister Cronuts” (Brickman).
Brickman then goes on to describe some more food fads from the craze for buttercream frosting at Magnolia Bakery to the pork buns at Momofuku. Our generation is one that is centralized around the individual. We Instagram photos of our food because if we show others that we’ve had the latest and greatest food item it is simply satisfying. People are constantly seeking out ways to be different or unique. Brickman’s example of the bakery capitalizing on the idea of a “Cronut” to set itself apart from its “copycats” reflects this idea of our generation.
The rest of Brickman’s piece follows David Sax on his journey around New York to locations where these various trends take place. He makes a stop at a specialty store “Agata & Valentina” on First Avenue near Seventy-ninth Street where the shelves are stocked with balsamic vinegar and wasabi peas, both items that wouldn’t be considered trendy food items today but at a time once was. Balsamic vinegar was mostly unknown in the United States up until it emerged in the early 90s where it thrived as a food fad of that generation. Wasabi has been replaced by sriracha which is now seen and integrated into numerous kinds of dishes today. Sax makes a statement relating location to food trends.
“There are certain neighborhoods where trends filter out to, and where they’re less volatile once they’re established,” he said, referring to the Upper East Side (Brickman).
I agree with Sax’s statement that neighborhoods can really determine the turnover on food trends. Looking at neighborhoods in Manhattan, you notice that each one is very different and the people living in those neighborhoods often reflect how it is characterized. Anything uptown is considerably where families live, it feels more residential and the streets are quieter at night. Greenwich Village is populated with a younger generation, many of whom are students. The streets are lined with bars and restaurants and often times can get very rowdy at night. The newest coffee shop, bakery, or food trend at the time is most likely going to thrive in a neighborhood downtown. “Wasabi won’t sell a product today the way sriracha would” (Sax). Although a true statement, the grocery store selling an abundance of balsamic vinegar and wasabi peas can stock their shelves with these outdated not so trendy items because of its location on the Upper East Side.
Sax then talks about the evolution of yogurt. In the sixties it was a food item for the hippies where it became popular during the boom of health food culture. By the nineties, they accommodated yogurt to every audience mainly targeting kids. There were now squeezable kids packs of not so healthy and highly processed “Go-Gurts.” The cycle restarts after the emergence of Greek yogurt. In 2007, Hamdi Ulukaya introduced the first ever line of Chobani Greek yogurt to a grocery store in Long Island. “Greek yogurt went from being 1 percent of yogurt sales in 2007 to capturing 44 percent of the market in 2013” (Tuder). The sky rocket popularity of Greek yogurt led to its evolution as a product, a common process that often happens to many of these food trends as stated by Sax.
“A trend spreads its tentacles out,” he said. “So you have not only all these brands but frozen Greek yogurt, Greek-yogurt cereal bars, until it becomes this sugary, blown-up thing” (Brickman).
Sax’s octopus-like description of a trend is exactly how I picture it in my mind whenever I see these food trends expand and become incorporated into dishes, sometimes combinations that seem a bit absurd. For example, the sriracha trend has been ongoing for a few years but more recently you see this food item being used in dishes that range from sriracha Chex mix to sriracha beef jerky. Buzzfeed, a journalistic website notoriously known for their lists, has created one on “28 Mouthwatering Ways To Put Sriracha On Everything” (1). The craze for sriracha doesn’t end there, a documentary on the history of sriracha along with its hype is available on Netflix. Businesses and restaurants have hopped on the sriracha bandwagon and have created numerous food items that integrate this ingredient. Sax states that the overuse of these trends lead to them blowing up and being overly saturated. The question I raise is one that wonders if the exaggeration of these food trends leads them to fall off the food fad because people are sick of seeing them everywhere, or rather increase the popularity of the product?

Sax’s book The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue, analyzes four different types of food trends.
“…cultural (Cosmopolitans), agricultural (heirloom tomatoes), chef-driven (Cajun spice, via Paul Prudhomme), and health-driven (“superfoods,” like acai berries) (Sax).
I thought it was very interesting how Sax identifies groupings of food trends and how he evaluates the effects of them. “‘A fad’ — food ‘foams,’ liquid-nitrogen ice cream — ‘doesn’t necessarily change the culture, but a trend does,’ he pointed out. While foot-long pepper mills in restaurants may be on the way out (they arrived in the early seventies, around the same time that pasta replaced spaghetti), they put their stamp on the way we season food; pre-ground pepper is as common these days as a sprinkle of MSG” (Brickman). I agree with Brickman’s statement that although fads may go in and out, they leave an overall impact on food culture. For example, the current trend of Greek yogurt may one day be off the hot charts of food but it’s left us with a healthier sour cream alternative. Also as I mentioned before, the popular 90s usage of balsamic vinegar now holds the same value to an ingredient as basic as olive oil. Food trends revolutionize how society’s perspective. Although the fads come in and out, the trends leave an everlasting impression on food culture, something that exceeds beyond shelf life.
Brickman goes on to describe Sax’s experience walking into a 7-Eleven, arguably the least trendy food chain in New York. Sax is described walking into an aroma of vanilla-hazelnut coffee and seeing “buffalo-chicken rollers” rotated. “Buffalo chicken,” Sax said. “It’s the Cronut of the poultry world” (Brickman). Brickman illustrates the numerous trendy food products that are lined around the store, filling the customers senses the second they walk in.
“Coconut waters and energy drinks packed the shelves in back, and, for a moment, Sax grew nostalgic for a beverage long past its prime. ‘Remember the great iced-tea craze from the nineties?’ he asked. “Snapple — look!’ He gestured at the bottom shelf ‘It’s down there in the ghetto, and only three flavors?’” (Brickman).
Here, the concept of relating food trends to a sense of nostalgia and identity is expressed through Sax’s overcoming of emotions after seeing that Snapple is on the bottom shelf of the store. Trends are associated with time and because of that we grow attachments to certain items that bring us back to those moments of the past. Kraft’s “Lunchables” and Hostess’ “Ho-hos” trigger a nostalgia that reminds me of my elementary school lunches. Surge, a popular soft drink in the 90s, became discontinued in 1996. A 12-pack can now be bought on Amazon for nearly $40 (2). Someone is willing to spend that much for soda because past food trends of a generation resemble a momento. They are tokens that defined an element of our past and as humans we gain satisfaction from these sentimental items.
Brickman ends the piece with Sax picking up his ten month old daughter and feeding her pouches of baby food making sure it had no chia seeds because she’ll end up spitting them out. People will continue to buy organic and eat gluten free because it gives them the perception that they are healthier. And Chia seeds, now one of the trendiest health ingredients, will continue to infiltrate every food item. Whether it be canned fruit from the sixties or Hubba Bubba “Bubble Tape” from the nineties, trends will go in and out and people will follow them through the process. Despite the movement of trends, we will forever be known as the generation of kale.
Works Cited:
Brickman, Sophie. “What She’s Having — The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. 5 May 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Tuder, Stephanie. “Charting Greek Yogurt’s Amazing Rise.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. .
Sax, David. The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed up with Fondue : (plus Baconomics, Superfoods, and Other Secrets from the World of Food Trends). Print.
(1) Harrison, Melissa. “28 Mouthwatering Ways To Put Sriracha On Everything.” BuzzFeed. 5 July 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. .
(2) “Surge Citrus Flavored Soda 16fl Oz. 12 Cans.“ Amazon.com : : Grocery & Gourmet Food. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. .
