We’re looking back at the biggest food trends of 2023. There were stacks of sandwiches, bountiful bagels and gildas galore. Here were the plates that dominated in 2023.
Steak and chips, but make it fancy. What was once a Friday night special at the pub has become the signature dish at some of the country’s best restaurants. It’s hard to beat a perfectly cooked sirloin with crisp, golden fries on the side. Best of all, you’re off the hook with the salad. Instead of the usual gravy, you can choose from an assortment of mustards or a fancy French sauce like bearnaise or bordelaise.
From TV snack to dainty indulgence, the humble chip has busted out of the bag and onto the restaurant and bar scene. Just don’t expect the usual cheese and onion. Chefs are ditching the Smiths for upper-class crisps, imported from France, Spain, Italy and beyond. Naturally, there’s dip – perhaps a whipped cod roe or fancy French onion – and sometimes cured meats, tinned fish or even caviar on the side. Pictured: Jamon Iberico and crisps at Gildas.
Yes, sandwiches have made the cut. This year, we’ve traded up the Vegemite-filled variety for big, gorgeous glamwiches, jam-packed with rainbow salads and brimming with deli meats. Chefs have pushed aside the classic combos for creative fillings that you would never have thought of yourself. Best of all, even the most splurge-worthy sarnie will only set you back $20 or less.
We couldn’t wrap up the biggest food trends of the year without mentioning the birria hysteria. Three years after taking over our TikTok feeds, #birratacos has hit the streets. The cult-worthy dish combines a soft, slow-cooked beef stew with shredded cheese between two crispy grilled tortillas. The star of the show is a cup of beef consomme for dunking on the side. Pictured: Birria tacos at Smoking Gringos.
We’re pinpointing this popular pintxo as the unofficial appetiser of the year. The skewered snack comprises just three ingredients: a Spanish olive, guindilla pepper and slippery anchovy. Eat it all at once for a burst of salty, briny, pickle-y goodness. The tasty trio is so popular, Lennox Hastie even named his Sydney wine bar after it. Pictured: gildas at Bar Vecino.
For a long time, there was a hole in the market for great bagels. Now, it’s become a staple on the brunch scene with new shops popping up schmear, there and everywhere. Not content with the traditional fillings, Aussie bagel makers are using the golden rings like two slices of bread. Along with pastrami and lox, we’re embracing all kinds of flavour combinations, from meatloaf and pesto to schnitzel and Swiss cheese. Pictured: Bagels from Hank’s Cafe and Bagelry.
If you didn’t mix your own steak tartare at the table, did you even eat out in 2023? We don’t mince words when we say this classic French bistro dish is really having a moment. Chefs are ditching the traditional recipe and going rogue, adding all kinds of surprising ingredients to the mix. Horseradish cream (Armorica), coconut and star anise (Raja) and crispy onions (Poetica) are just some of the add-ons you might find on the menu.
Neapolitan-style pizza might be the ‘big cheese’, but Roman-style pizza available ‘al taglio’ or ‘by the cut’ is on the rise. While it’s not quite a reinvention of the wheel, pizza al taglio is famed for its fluffier base that’s soft in the centre and crisp around the crust. The best part? It’s available by the slice, so you can have a pizza party all on your own. Pictured: Pizza by the slice at Oti’.
With its extensive crust and fancy floral form, the fougasse is shaping up to be one of the hottest trends of the year. A close cousin of focaccia, the fougasse is a flatbread from the south of France that has been artfully scored and shaped to resemble an ear of wheat. In its simplest form, it’s sprinkled with salt, but you can also find it layered with lardons, olives and anchovies, or showered with herbs and cheese. Pictured: Fougasse at Loulou.
Hot honey is so hot right now (sorry). The combination of sweet honey and spicy chillies results in a more-ish sauce that tastes so good, you can eat it on anything. Chefs are drizzling it on fried chicken, but the most popular place to find it is on pepperoni pizza (My Mother’s Cousin, Ciao, Mate!, Deep End, we’re looking at you). Hot honey also works on hard and soft cheeses, cured meats, ice cream, bacon, you name it. Pictured: Pizza at My Mother’s Cousin.
