EDMONTON — If you spent 2010 gobbling gourmet mac and cheese, and popping tiny, perfect macarons in your mouth, I have some bad news for you. Those foods are no longer trendy, and you’re going to have to stop eating them. If you are a dutiful foodie, it’s time to move on. (Wait, is that a cupcake I see in your hand? For shame. Those confections went out with skinny jeans.)

Yes, those who pride themselves on being directional and trending up must swallow a new set of culinary priorities for 2011. No longer content to merely spread fig jam on their goat cheese, the going-forward foodie is scanning blogs, poring over new cookbooks and setting the Food Network on permanent PVR to capture the hottest news. If you want to call yourself a slave to food fashion, here’s what you’ll be putting your time and caloric energy toward in the months to come.

Foraging:

This latest iteration of the local food movement sees more wild food on the plate. And no, not just fiddleheads or hand-picked chanterelles. All kinds of organic matter is finding its way to the cutting edge. I have spied Douglas fir-flavoured ice cream and salads made from lily pad shoots on the menus of trendsetting American eateries.

Whitehorse food writer Michelle Genest has also elucidated this trend in her new cookbook, The Boreal Gourmet, with a host of recipes that rely on things like fresh spruce tips and wild berries of all descriptions. You’ll have a hard time finding these items at the Italian Centre, however, so be prepared to root through local ravines and forests like the wild boar you truly are, in search of nuts, greens, even bark. When you come home all dirty and smelling like dead leaves, tell people you’ve been “wild crafting.”

Korean cuisine:

Food websites such as Epicurious.com have identified Korean food as the must-nibble nosh of 2011.

There’s been big buzz around Korean fusion, with a Los Angeles food truck selling kimchee quesadillas and short rib sliders.

Exotic food trucks:

Big foodie centres from Portland to Vancouver have reinvented street food with downtown carts selling much more than hotdogs. Here’s hoping local entrepreneurs will tackle some more inventive street foods in the summer of 2011. Kebabs? Fresh wraps?

Pies and tarts:

I’ve been predicting the cupcake trend is dead for quite some time now, but nobody seems to be listening. Indeed, there are no less than eight cupcake spots either open or threatening to do so in Edmonton, which I find disheartening not only because I hate to be ignored, but because I’m worried a whole bunch of people are about to lose a lot of money.

So this is my final warning: trendspotters have noted that pies are the new cupcakes. Hot and cold, sweet and savoury, pies are capturing the imagination of main course designers and dessert lovers alike. Allrecipes.com, the Seattle-based online recipe resource, notes that page views for its pie recipes in the past year were up more than 20 per cent from 2009.

The Family Meal:

In the last month or so, I’ve had a couple of cookbooks land on my desk geared toward eating together as a family, books with titles like The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with your Kids, One Meal at a Time, by Laurie David, and Family Meal, by American celebrity chef Tyler Florence.

This is funny in some ways, because many of us have long considered the Sunday supper somewhat of a sacred ritual. But these cookbooks say the family meal is under assault due to everything from divorce to minor hockey and are determined to teach us how to break bread together. Here’s tip No. 1: Put away the cellphones.

lfaulder@edmontonjournal.com

Which food trends do you expect to emerge in 2011? Please add your comments below.