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Honey Lime Cilantro Chicken and the 2026 Food Trends 🍗

(Double) Suicide in Karuizawa by Nobuyoshi Araki, 1996.

Welcome to Secret Breakfast / The best place to feel trendy for using beef tallow, because - in a landscape of infinite digital choice - recipes survive only if they seduce

Hi there!

We have the 8 Biggest Food Trends for 2026, according to Whole Foods.

A few caveats: Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, so this is essentially marketing. But I have a weakness for food predictions (I've also written a book about them).

So, what's on the list?

The 8 food trends are: better freezer options for meals, brighter flavors thanks to vinegar, instant foods, better-for-you sweets, good food with great design, female farmers growing food, fiber-rich products, and beef tallow as a cooking fat.

Beef what?

Piero

✹Matthew McConaughey, actor and expert in good-looking, in his book Greenlights.

We Are All Consuming Now

This one deserves our attention. Ruby Tandoh's book, All Consuming, won't teach you how to cook better, or which dishes are trending this season. It will tell you something truer instead: that the way you eat is not a choice.

Yes, we already knew that after The Devil Wears Prada lumpy blue sweater monologue (video) performed by Meryl Streep years ago.

Back to food now.

It's the effect of systems we don't see. It's not the famous chef deciding what ends up on your plate, but that person in an office writing code, or migration legislation, or the algorithm rewarding a recipe titled "crispy, cheesy, crunchy" because those words generate clicks.

The algorithm doesn't describe the dish; it generates it.

And while you think you have personal preferences and refined taste, you're actually breathing air saturated with pre-digested recipes and anonymous feedback loops.

Don't be that guy.

Bacon Fat Shokupan by Zai • Oishi Mate (ok, this one is a bit too strong for me)

🌾Make couscous, but do not follow the instructions on the couscous box 🇲🇦Moroccan Msemen, always (★recipe) 🍪Some perfect Butter Sablé (★recipe) 🍩Smelling Like a Doughnut Became the Latest Body Care Craze 🍋Some Super Sticky Cake au Citron (★recipe) 📖Noma has a new book coming out in Spring 🇳🇴Why the Norwegian 4x4 Workout Is Everywhere Right Now 🍸Greta Lee Makes Six Cocktails Inspired by Her Six Favorite Movies 🍗This Honey Lime Cilantro Chicken & Rice Bowl is Everywhere (★recipe) 🥕A Carrot-Pumpkin (★recipe) 🎻This is not about food but is deep: Can cellos remember?

What Makes a Recipe Craveable?

Ruby Tandoh / book excerpt on Eater

Internet recipe culture has evolved into a visual, sensory art form engineered to bypass rational thought and trigger cravings—driven by developers like Ottolenghi and Mob who treat recipes as endlessly remixable modules rather than fixed formulas. In a landscape of infinite digital choice, recipes survive only if they seduce: through strategic naming, saturated photography, ASMR sound design, and an ingredient palette drawn from a "global pantry" that promises perpetual novelty.