Five food trends that need to stop in 2023 (and five that should flourish)

So long, 2022. Overall you were a good year for food and booze, one that saw Australians gravitate more towards the bitter, fermented, fiery and ferociously flavoured. More dirty martinis, more anchovies, and more split prawns boosted by spreadable salami.

However, many other food trends are in need of instant dismissal. Here are five that need to stop and five the Good Food team are happy to see flourish.

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Butter boards

Video platform TikTok is responsible for the year's most ridiculous food trend: smearing butter over a board so it looks like a deflated Women's Weekly duck cake (you know, the one with Smith's chips for a beak).

The butter is topped with ingredients that have no business being on the same slice of sourdough (sea salt, strawberries and bacon, say) and photography ensues before everyone goes back to eating crackers and French onion dip like they wanted to do in the first place.

Edible flowers

Violas, marigolds and snapdragons, oh my. Edible flowers have been topping cakes since Roman glutton Gavius Apicius was gorging on grapes, but even he would probably admit the dianthuses were just there for show. While three-hatted restaurants such as Quay in Sydney and Victoria's Brae have long tweezered flowers with aplomb, the trickle-down effect means more chefs are whacking pansies on desserts to disguise sub-par cooking. Enough.

Lotus Biscoff cookies

This Belgian biscuit is out of control. It's a fine-enough cookie with caramel gingerbread flavours, but it doesn't need to be crowning every second cupcake at every cafe that considers social media to be more important than quality baking. Meanwhile, Woolworths released a Biscoff cheesecake in 2022 and "Biscoff lasagne" went viral on Instagram. There are other biscuits, people, and many of them are less grainy.

Nacho tables

Junk food-loving Jackson Pollocks cover a table in foil and top it with guacamole, corn chips, grated cheddar and other ingredients native to the Guzman y Gomez bain marie. The end result sits somewhere between a butter board and one of those green slime physical challenges on Double Dare. Just empty some Doritos in a bowl and be done with it.

Conspicuous consumption

There's a cost-of-living crisis, but you wouldn't know it by dining in several new restaurants where diners can lick caviar off their skin like cats to condensed milk. Then there's all the truffles, lobsters, wagyu and burgundy. Sure, we're still craving something fancy after the comfort cooking of COVID, but the indulgence is getting a bit gross – especially when it's ordered by guests who care more about photographing their food than eating it.

… AND MORE

Korean flavours

When the local pub is spruiking "gochujang aioli" with salt-and-pepper squid, Korean ingredients have crossed over to the mainstream. Kimchi has enjoyed a rise to fermented cabbage stardom over the past decade, but now we're seeing gochugaru (chilli powder), ssamjang (spicy dipping sauce) and tteokbokki (rice cakes) on more menus too. Bypass the pub for a ferment fix though and head to any of the great Korean barbecue and hot-pot spots to recently open.

Negroni sbagliato

Demand for this Italian cocktail reached fever pitch in October when actor Emma D'Arcy namechecked it on TikTok while promoting House of the Dragon. It's a rare exception of a TikTok trend that's actually delicious: a negroni of vermouth and Campari, with prosecco instead of gin. Italian restaurants have served sbagliatos in Australia since the late 1980s, and we're pleased to see more bars on the bittersweet bandwagon.

Russian Honey Cake

With a gravity-defying 12 (or so) layers of cake and honeyed cream, this is the kind of dessert you need a pandemic lockdown to perfect. Many homecooks and pastry chefs rose to the challenge, and Russian honey cakes have been increasingly spotted on sweet trolleys around the country. Check out The Charles Grand Brasserie in Sydney or Northcote's Gray and Gray for a slice.

Vitello tonnato

Italy's great gift to the pantheon of surf-and-turf involves cold ribbons of lush veal teamed with a mayonnaise-ish tuna sauce. Capers, anchovies and lemon also regularly feature, and the Piedmontese dish is super refreshing on a summer afternoon – something more restaurants are noting as the relative humidity rises. Try it with a glass of chilled arneis at Bar Vincent in Sydney or in sandwich form at Rocco's Bologna, Fitzroy.

House-made XO

You can make it with charcuterie offcuts, you can make it with fish guts. You make it with dried scallops. carrot tops, or unwanted cover crops. As a matter of fact, a lot of chefs are making it right now. XO – that flavour-thumping condiment of Hong Kong origin – enjoyed tremendous popularity in 2022 with many restaurants honing their own versions using odds and ends of food otherwise destined for the bin. Sustainability is the mother of invention.