Consultants Baum+Whiteman, New York City, say that concepts of luxury thread through top dining trends: tasting menus running US$1,000 for two; haute chicken priced like steak; upscale food halls; bespoke spices.

　　Consultants Baum+Whiteman, New York City, say that concepts of luxury thread through top dining trends: tasting menus running US$1,000 for two; haute chicken priced like steak; upscale food halls; bespoke spices; and even theatrical and science-fiction effects changing the global dining scene by bombarding customers’ senses.

　　Restaurants in retail stories

　　Thirty years ago, American department stores kicked out their restaurants (“too messy; unproductive”). Big mistake. Now retailers, large and tiny, are mainlining food, discovering the magic of “dwell time.”

　　Proliferation of tasting-only menus

　　A three-year bull-market is fueling a proliferation of tasting menus around the country. Great for restaurants’ economics, guaranteeing a specific average check along with pre-costed, highly controlled inventory. Examples: US$270 at French Laundry with US$175 supplement for white truffle pasta; US$185 for the all-vegetarian menu at Grace in Chicago.

　　Chicken: No longer humble

　　The humble bird is going haute. Rôtisserie Georgette , a new upscale chicken-focused restaurant in Manhattan, is no mere takeout joint. Run by Georgette Farkas, Daniel Boulud’s former right hand, it has grand space, two rotisseries and a French-accented menu with occasional fried chicken specialties.

　　Goodbye food courts, hello food halls

　　Rebalancing their portfolios, real estate developers want attractions like The Plaza hotel’s food hall drawing enormous crowds, where food is better, fresher, memorable, pricey – and perfect for today's customers seeking products they can trust. New York is getting at least three more biggies like the Plaza’s. Chicago has a 15,000 sq.ft French Market.

　　Fishy fish

　　The no-no of Caesar salads has become respectable, and people are ordering anchovies, especially Spanish salt-packed ones called bocquerones, and even fresh ones. You’ll find them on Nicoise salads and fresh mozzarella, or tossed with breadcrumbs atop pasta. They are ordering fresh, warm sardines, too.

　　Bubbling, fizzing beverage trends

　　Tea: With Starbucks committed to converting America to tea, look for others to amplify the attention. Teavanna opened a tea bar/cafe in Manhattan, with more to come and discovering people are more likely to buy food with tea than with coffee.

　　Vermouth: Latest fixation of artisan bartenders making bespoke vermouths and stocking dozens of branded items, mostly obscure.

　　Sodas: SodaStream contraptions have consumers experimenting with sodas at home and even making carbonated cocktails. Restaurants also crafting sodas using house-made fruit syrups and infusions.

　　Sour beer: Innoculating beers with wild yeasts and aging them in wood, craft brewers are turning out fragrant but sour beers. Not for everyone, but catching on among sophisticates. With the acidity of pinot noir, they’re great with bbq.

　　Pressed juices: Juice bars are no longer for health nuts and body cleansers. Lots of investors pouring into cold-pressed juiceterias now that millions of people, too busy to eat an apple or carrot but willing to pay someone to juice it for them, are demanding fresh fruit and vegetables in profuse combinations.

　　Bar culture trendlets: Mixologists, mostly in hotels, bottling their own small-batch carbonated cocktails. Flavored ice cubes. Misting flavored essences over finished cocktails. Gin connoisseurship. Hard cider will take off next as beer brewers enter the market to protect their businesses.

　　When butter’s not enough

　　Chefs litter your table with creative spreads. At The Pass, Houston, you get black garlic mostarda, vanilla tapenade, tomato jam, salted butter. Other places offer whipped lardo, rosemary hummus, roasted garlic butter, smoked ricotta, whipped beet butter, porcini oil, jalapeno oil, smoked eggplant dip, salsa butter, whipped chicken liver butter.

　　Green is the color

　　Healthy food investments finally are paying off as a niche market rolls into the mainstream. More than one factor propels this profound market change: the gluten-rejecters, Paleo people, diabetics, weight challenged, vegetarians, vegans and two decades of hectoring by nutritionists. Sweetgreen, a 20-unit chain based in Washington, established beachheads in Boston and Manhattan, where lunchtime lines snake out the door until mid afternoon. The chain specializes in salads and wraps heavy on greens and grains with modest quantities of animal protein, cold-pressed juices, and frozen yogurt.

　　Popups, food fairs and the single-item restaurant

　　Weekend popup markets make room for wacky food creations that often graduate to brick-and-mortar restaurants. Examples: Meatball shops around the country, Mexi-sandwiches, waffle shops, dumplings, Belgian frites, cross-cultural eggrolls.

　　I lost my dinner in the funhouse

　　At the Casino de Madrid building, star chef Paco Roncero built a 9-seat, invitation-only techno-dining room experimenting with relationships between food and perception. Diffusers control temperature and humidity, occasionally wafting aromas of mushrooms or grassy wetness; a ceramic table heats or cools plates and vibrates on cue; and the audio-visual environment is tightly scripted.

　　New wave of Asian flavors

　　Friday’s offers sriracha aioli and kimchee’s gone mass market – on pizza, burgers and oysters, in grits and tacos. A new wave of Asian flavors (and menu items) is upon us. Better learn about gochujang, a sweet-spicy Korean amalgam of fermented hot chili paste and soy.

　　Look again at Mideast cooking

　　The south side of the Mediterranean and the Levant are where new tastes and dishes are coming from: Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Iraq, Iran. Israel exports not just high-tech but its innovative “New Israeli” cross-cultural cuisine, absorbing ideas and techniques from all over the region. Families fleeing turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran and Iraq are bringing their splendid food here. Syria’s displaced people may provide another wave of culinary excitement. Explore Turkish street food for ideas. The cookbook “Jerusalem” is flying out of bookstores and you need to read it.

　　Buzzwords for 2014

　　Boneless lamb neck

　　Filipino food

　　High-proof spirits

　　Sweetbreads make a comeback

　　Buckwheat is grain of the year –even if it’s not a grain

　　Fluke is fish of the year with octopus second and trout third

　　Kale still rules but cauliflower’s working forward

　　Consumers’ newfound protein obsessions

　　House-made fruit vinegars for vinaigrettes and cocktails

　　Teres major (look it up)

　　High-priced vegetarian tasting menus

　　More beer and wine in fast-casual chains

　　House-fermented food

　　New uses for pretzels

　　Banh mi makes it onto Western menus

　　Chicken skin

　　Crackdown on food waste

　　Rose wines all year long

　　Hipster Asian restaurants

　　Drinkers rediscover gin, gin bars and gin-tonic bars

　　Jewish fusion

　　Coconut everything

　　Mexican sandwiches such as tortas and cemitas

　　Sweetened and flavored whiskeys – smoked, mapled, honeyed – prove most Americans don’t like the real taste of booze

　　Made-to-order liquid nitro ice cream

　　Jerusalem artichokes

　　Paleo dieters add to gluten-free demand

　　Delivery, high-priced and fast food

　　Sorghum becomes a trendy sweetener