This is a twist on the theory of decadence//great stagnation: all the low hanging fruit for innovation and cultural change has been picked and so society has hit a new plateau where change occurs at a much slower pace. The broad forces that produced innovation have been spent.
We will get dishes that are trendy of course but not really new. Notice how many restaurants there are now serving deep fried brussel sprouts?
There probably is another boomlet of innovation coming once various local South Asian cuisines become more accessible to the masses. There just aren't many non Chinese who have mastered making authentic regional dishes of China to the point where they can experiment with brand new flavor profiles but this will happen. Same thing with Laotian, Malaysian and Indonesian dishes many of which would taste very different to an American palate.and are not even available outside of a few coastal cities. Even Indian is relatively new in much of US.
Think of a phenomenal spice cocktail like Old Bay which is an unlikely combination of nutmeg, cardamom, bay leaves and a whole lot else. It starts in Chesapeake and ended up on Navy ships all over the US. There's undoubtedly more like that to be discovered
I like the provocative twist at the end. Will we see other types of evolutions (in cooking or elsewhere)? Time will tell—but as with any good recipe, the best surprises come when we least expect them.
This is a twist on the theory of decadence//great stagnation: all the low hanging fruit for innovation and cultural change has been picked and so society has hit a new plateau where change occurs at a much slower pace. The broad forces that produced innovation have been spent.
We will get dishes that are trendy of course but not really new. Notice how many restaurants there are now serving deep fried brussel sprouts?
There probably is another boomlet of innovation coming once various local South Asian cuisines become more accessible to the masses. There just aren't many non Chinese who have mastered making authentic regional dishes of China to the point where they can experiment with brand new flavor profiles but this will happen. Same thing with Laotian, Malaysian and Indonesian dishes many of which would taste very different to an American palate.and are not even available outside of a few coastal cities. Even Indian is relatively new in much of US.
Think of a phenomenal spice cocktail like Old Bay which is an unlikely combination of nutmeg, cardamom, bay leaves and a whole lot else. It starts in Chesapeake and ended up on Navy ships all over the US. There's undoubtedly more like that to be discovered
I like the provocative twist at the end. Will we see other types of evolutions (in cooking or elsewhere)? Time will tell—but as with any good recipe, the best surprises come when we least expect them.