It seems British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has jumped on the obscure food trend wagon. Forget about avocado, acai, chia, and the like. According to Nigella, the next big trend is not a superfood, it’s a little more exotic – it’s the sweet leaf pandan. And she reckons we’ll be seeing it all over Insta in no time.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival recently the celebrity chef called the Asian ingredient “the new matcha.”

For those not familiar, pandan leaf is known as the vanilla of South-East Asia. It’s typically used to flavour desserts and drinks, as well as infuse savoury dishes, though it is not a common addition to the typical Australian pantry. Until now anyway.

Nigella claims that America (following Asia of course) has been the first to embrace the ingredient. England is currently lagging a little behind. “It’s not in Waitrose. I don’t know where it is in this country yet,” she admits, “but I notice more and more people in America baking with pandan essence. Which comes from that leaf.”

So do you think Nigella is right? Or is she just panda-ing to the ‘gram?