Development Chef Andrew Hunter tells Prepared Foods about translating on-trend tastes and textures into finished products.

Which emerging culinary forms and flavors will become tomorrow’s popular foods? Which trending tastes and textures will make it to the home dinner table? Prepared Foods discussed these and other topics with Chef Andrew Hunter, head of culinary development for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, executive chef for Niman Ranch, global development chef for Kikkoman, and the culinary innovation partner for The Mushroom Council.

Hunter’s Los Angeles business focuses on menu and operations development for restaurant groups; translating commodity crops into foodservice products for farmers; and product commercialization for industrial clients. In this exclusive podcast, he discusses …

… the top five culinary trends: including spicy (hot) foods, fermented and cured foods, alternative proteins, mushrooms, and zero-proof spirits.

… surprising / emerging trends: including continued demand for high protein and more nutrient-dense protein sources; the quest for greater authenticity; Asian fish milk (made from dried, powdered fish flesh); and still-rising popularity of Lion’s Mane mushroom.

… fading trends: charcuterie meat boards and butter boards.

… trending sauce and seasoning flavors in 2025: Hunter sees growing interest in Levant Region (Middle Eastern) foods and flavors; along with those from Greece and India.

… new waves of foods, flavors from Korea and Japan: Although it’s more diverse in reality, Korean cuisine appeals to US consumers with its meat-centric appeal of beef and pork and barbeque preparation. Hunter adds that he appreciates the balanced “intensity of flavor and heat” in Korean kimchi, which combines fermented cabbage and gochujang sauce.

Meanwhile, Hunter believes Japanese cuisine continues to evolve in the United States. What started with exposure to sushi hand rolls has evolved to ramen, udon, Japanese curry and katsu. Just as US consumers now identify Mexican dishes by more specific regions (such as those from Oaxaca or Baja), foodies are more closely associating certain Japanese dishes with Kyoto, Tokyo or other areas.

… trending food forms and textures: Hunter says hand-held concepts remain important and on-trend. Popular in Spain and Italy is the panet dessert, which features frozen ice cream in the middle of a freshly heated outer shell of brioche. Savory applications are common as well.

Hunter addresses texture and champions the related sensory attributes of sight and hearing (product appearance and particularly how a product delivers sound related to its texture). He points to Wolfgang Puck’s well-known vertical Chinois Chicken Salad, which features various textures of cabbage, nuts (cashews), carrots and “super crunchy” crispy wanton strips.

… on-trend color: Hunter confesses a current fascination with monochromatic, single-color plates. “It can be a gorgeous, colorful plate but then when you look it—you realize that it’s all shades of green,” he says. A dish might feature four or five different shades of the same color and Hunter appreciates how they all can work together.

… creativity and inspiration: Hunter recalls when food trends generally transitioned from white table cloth restaurant offerings all the way over to the grocery shelves. Next, food truck cuisine captured the culinary imagination and launched new ideas. Since COVID, he acknowledges that digital social media provides endless new food images and ideas.

He adds that grocery stores—and particularly new potato chips—offer more ideas. He says the category constantly evolves as chip and snack processors experiment with so many ethnic, regional and alternative flavors (everything from Chamoy to Chicken & Gravy). It’s an approachable form of food with unique flavors and at $1.99 to $2.50 a bag, consumers are willing to take an adventurous risk.

From Inspiration to Innovation

Development Chef Andrew Hunter tells Prepared Foods about translating on-trend tastes and textures into finished products.

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