Cooked in a cultural melting pot

If what an international consultancy group portends is true, a devil-may-care attitude among restaurateurs is poised to send diners on a global culinary trip next year.

If what an international consultancy group portends is true, a devil-may-care attitude among restaurateurs is poised to send diners on a global culinary trip next year, with flavours from around the world colliding into each other and thrown willy-nilly onto a single dish.

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Gastronomically, “everything goes,” says New York-based Baum + Whiteman in its annual food trends report for 2012. Dishes will no longer be easily identifiable by their place of origin and ethnicity but will instead be thrown in a proverbial high-speed blender where nothing is sacred. Irreverent attitudes towards authenticity and tradition will birth new foods. Or, what Baum + Whiteman dubs “multi-culti” zucchini pizzas dabbed with hummus and crunchy wasabi peas — dishes that are from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. “Cooking is at a crossroads where everything collides,” the report says.