The annual Future Menus report (download the 2024 version here now) is put together by Unilever Food Solutions to guide the food service industry on how to keep menus on trend over the coming years. Informed by hundreds of hours of research by industry experts, as well as input from over 100 chefs worldwide, it not only provides insight into the rationale behind each trend but also guidance on how chefs can easily introduce them into their menus.

The 2024 report highlights six trends in particular that are expected to play an increasingly important role in restaurant menus over the next year: Flavour Shock, Irresistible Vegetables, Feel-good Food, Plant-based protein, Low-waste Menus and Modernised Comfort Food. We’ve taken a closer look at what each of these trends entails in our guide to the 2024 report, but understanding what they mean is a very different thing from knowing how to build them into your menus. That’s why below we’ve included a recipe relating to each of the six 2024 trends to provide some inspiration on how the report could guide your dish development. Whilst some of these recipes have been directly extracted from the report, others which embody the spirit of the key trends come from existing chefs on the GBC website.

Future Menus’ Irresistible Vegetables trend explores the idea that vegetables should be put front and centre on the plate to bring vibrancy to a dish, and that’s exactly what’s been done in this caramelised butternut squash tostada recipe. The bright orange squash immediately catches the eye while the addition of the hot honey demonstrates how vegetables can be elevated to stay trendy and exciting.

The Flavour Shock trend is all about breaking the rules with your cooking and creating surprises for your diners. This may be through unusual flavour combinations or could be a case experimenting in terms of fusion. This torched pork neck recipe from UFS chef Chris Zhong sees him use creative yet classic cooking methods to give the pork an amazing texture. The combination of spice and fresh pickled lotus root gives the dish an easy-to-create yet surprising flavour contrast.

People are more focused than ever before on how food makes you feel in terms of health, as well as how it tastes. Feel-good food captures this idea perfectly. Lentils are a fantastic example of an ingredient that is packed with flavour but also with protein, carbs and fibre. This makes them a great addition to recipes such as this squash and fennel salad from Louise Robinson – if you like this, find similar recipes in the Feel-good Food trend in the report. 

Although diners are always on the look out for something new and interesting, this needs to be balanced with things that are comforting and familiar. That’s where the Modernised Comfort Food trend comes in. This focuses on the idea of bringing new twists to classic dishes, such as this lamb shank fatteh from UFS chef Sherif Afifi, which turns a traditional dish on its head by encrusting it in pastry and using a dramatic shank as the centrepiece. For further inspiration, take a look at Unilever’s recipe for shrimp-topped squid rice, an elevated take on a classic paella, which is also part of the Modernised Comfort Food trend in the report. 

Reducing waste in restaurants is still something that should be at the forefront of chefs’ minds, as the Low-waste Menus trend points out, but doing so in an effective yet still delicious manner can require you to think creatively. Take these vegetable peel pakoras from Victoria Glass – they are a wonderful example of the trend, showing how something that would so often be thrown in the bin can instead be used to create a delicious plate of food that would sit well on many restaurant menus.

As more and more diners towards flexitarian, vegetarian and vegan diets, people are looking for new culinary experiences revolving around plant-rich proteins like beans, pulses and legumes. This braised butter bean recipe from Henry Freestone is an example of a simple way of making beans the star of a dish and can be made totally vegan by removing the goat’s curd. For more recipes like this, see the Plant-powered Protein trend in the report. 

These recipes all illustrate how, with a bit of creativity, chefs can easily incorporate the latest trends into their menus. It's simply a case of having the trends from the Future Menus report in mind when developing new dishes. Download the full report here for further recipe inspiration and information on each of the 2024 trends.