Technomic just peered two years into the future of restaurant menus, and I'm always curious what these forecasts say, even when I can't see the whole picture. Their Top 50 fastest-growing predictions, rounded up by Nation's Restaurant News, covers the menu trends expected to keep growing over the next two years.

What I can't give you is the ingredient-by-ingredient rundown, because the summary doesn't name specific trends, and I'm not going to invent a shopping list of chiles and citruses and fermented things and pretend Technomic said it. Trend writing is full of that stuff, someone confident listing guajillo this and miso caramel that, and half the time it's just vibes. I've watched this pattern play out in a bunch of countries now: something interesting shows up at one trendy spot, and before long it's in a national chain's vinaigrette. The timeline varies, but the direction never really changes. So whatever is actually on that list of fifty, my bet is it follows the same path.

The framing itself is worth something, though. A "fastest-growing" list isn't about what's trendy in the fancy-food bubble, it's about what normal people will actually be ordering in a couple of years. Fast food is one of the purest expressions of local taste we have, and I'd wager that whatever flavors Technomic is tracking, at least a few of them eventually end up trickling down to casual chains everywhere. That's my speculation, to be clear, not Technomic's, but the trickle-down has never once failed to happen.

Trend lists are a mixed bag, honestly. Half the fun of travel is eating something no forecast predicted in some tiny stall I couldn't find again if I tried. But I get why people read them. They're a decent weather report, even if they can't tell you about the rain.

And my standing advice, regardless of what's on the list: don't wait for the 2028 menu. Find the nearest restaurant run by people from wherever a trending ingredient is actually from, and taste the original first. The trend version is never better than the source, it's just easier to park near.