Food

Flavors poised to pop in the year ahead

Flavor exploration brings customers into restaurants, but what will tempt them in the months ahead? We zeroed in on the top trends to put on operators’ radar.
Chili Crunch Fusions are one of the trends cited by the Kimpton Culinary + Cocktail Trend Forecast. | Photo courtesy of Kimpton Hotels

It’s no secret that sweet heat dominated the flavor front last year, with hot honey the major player. Menu mentions surged for wings, chicken sandwiches, pizzas and cocktails drizzled or infused with the flavor.

So will sweet heat continue to trend in 2025? Most probably, but new iterations will arrive with more complex flavor profiles. 

The next hot ingredient

“Harissa hot honey, habanero hot honey and candied jalapeños are gaining traction,” said Lizzy Freier, director of menu insights and research at Restaurant Business sister research firm Technomic. “We’re also seeing more chili-based sauces from around the world.” 

One of these is salsa macha from the Mexican state of Veracruz. The condiment, a blend of toasted dried chilies and garlic in oil, often includes peanuts, sesame seeds and/or pepitas for added crunch. It’s quickly breaking through on U.S. menus, said Freier, drizzled over bowls, topping tacos and adding a shot of heat and crunch to other items. 

Salsa macha is kind of like the Mexican chili crisp, and its Asian counterpart is also evolving. Chili Crunch Fusions is one of the trends cited by the Kimpton Culinary + Cocktail Trend Forecast. “Chefs will blend ingredients like fennel seeds, peppercorn, oregano and Marcona almonds for new fusions of chili crunch, combining its roots with global flavors to create variation,” said the report.

Simon Dolinky, director of culinary development and support for IHG Hotels & Resorts, parent company of Kimpton, shared some applications appearing on his menus. At Tre Rivali, a modern Mediterranean restaurant at the Kimpton Journeyman in Milwaukee, the chef serves grilled octopus topped with harissa crisp, and Saverina, an Italian concept in The Kimpton Claret in Denver, flavors chili crisp with fenugreek and fennel and spoons it over fresh mozzarella, along with heirloom tomatoes, charred scallion puree, purple basil and balsamic.

Kimpton Hotels ingredients

Chili Crunch Fusions pair the condiment with ingredients like fennel seeds, ground almonds and oregano. | Photo courtesy of Kimpton Hotels.


Chili crisp is also trickling down to mainstream chains—and not just the Asian ones. “We first featured Mike’s Hot Honey back in 2019, and in fall 2024, we cranked it up a notch with our Honey Bacon Brussels Hash featuring chili crisp,” said Shane Schaibly, corporate chef for breakfast-lunch chain First Watch. “Hot sauce became mainstream, then Sriracha … and now, chili crisp, along with the rise of very authentic brands, especially Mexican brands like Tajin or Valentina becoming more and more accessible.”

But Technomic is also seeing an uptick in more nuanced peppers that deliver more than straight heat. Freier singles out spicy, fruity and smoky moritas and fresno chiles, and fruity-spicy aji amarillos. Mike Kostyo, vice president of Menu Matters, a food industry consulting firm, confirms this trend and predicts operators will “have more fun with chiles” in the coming year. 

Fire-free peppers are worth watching, too. Technomic believes varieties like gypsy, Jimmy Nardello, olly and cascabel chilies will be celebrated for their robust, fruity, smoky and/or earthy flavors. 

Eggs break out of their shell

Chefs are using different techniques to infuse eggs with flavor and introducing global flavors into popular egg dishes. 

Technomic predicts that the egg is ready to take center stage in 2025, starting with salted egg yolks. The prep, which involves curing egg yolks in salt and sugar until they lose their moisture and develop an umami-rich flavor and cheesy texture, originated in China. Thanks to going viral on TikTok, salted egg yolks have skyrocketed to fame and made their way onto mainstream menus. 

Fermented egg yolk

Salted egg yolk grated over a Caesar salad boosts umami. | Photo courtesy of Kimpton Hotels.


Kimpton chefs are grating the intensely flavored yolks over Caesar salads and creamy pastas, while other restaurants are using salted egg yolks to give appetizers and vegetable dishes an umami boost. 

Egg dishes with Asian influences are showing up on menus, too. Dolinky noted that one Kimpton property is serving Kimchi Eggs Benedict and Eggs Baodict, eggs in a bao bun with hollandaise. And showing up on Technomic’s radar are Japanese slow-poached onsen eggs served in dashi broth, ajitama soft-boiled eggs and tamago egg salad sandwiches. 

The flavor of the year

The AF&Co. + Carbonate 2025 Hospitality Trends Report called out pistachio as the “flavor of the year.” “It rose above the rest,” said Andrew Freeman, founder of AF&Co. and co-founder of Carbonate, the companies that compile the report. 

Freeman traces the rise of pistachio to the Dubai Chocolate Bar, which Google Trends reported accounted for 80% of pistachio-related searches in 2024. The confection consists of dark or milk chocolate filled with creamy pistachio paste and threads of katafi, a crisp, phyllo-like pastry.

Pistachio Latte

Coffee cafes are spotlighting pistachio in lattes and other espresso drinks. | Photo courtesy of AF&Co. + Carbonate.


Pistachio as a flavor and ingredient is now showing up in diverse applications. Pistachio martinis and other types of cocktails are trending at bars, pistachio lattes at coffee cafes, and pistachio is enhancing everything from flatbreads to salads, mezze platters and seafood dishes. Pistachio za’atar garnishes marinated beets at Ajja in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Pistachio Pie Pizza at Rollati Ristorante in San Jose, California, is spread with pistachio butter, and Aged Pekin Duck at Press in St. Helena, California, is prepared with shallot, Asian pear and Sicilian pistachio butter. On the produce side, pistachio oil and pistachio milk are available for purchase.

Bursts of flavor

Michael Whiteman, author of Baum + Whiteman’s annual Forecast of Food & Beverage Trends, also points out “lurid pistachio martini concoctions” as generating buzz now and in the months ahead. On the food side, he cites everything “au poivre,” a preparation popularized with steak that has now expanded to swordfish, pasta and lobster, he said.

Here’s a sprinkling of five more flavor trends on the upswing:

• Green or black tahini

• Strawberry gochujang

• Miso lattes

• Black limes

• Fig leaf infusions

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