Drama and stories to fire up food in 2025

Chefs have emerged as the face of dining out with a focus on local ingredients, a trend that is likely to continue next year

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

In 2024, food dominated conversations and social media feeds with some trends like the Dubai chocolate bar and butter boards making headlines. Creativity—in terms of culinary experiments, use of ingredients and food presentation—and collaborations among Indian and international restaurants were some dominant themes. Chefs, restaurateurs and culinary experts tell Lounge about the food trends that stood out in 2024 and what to expect in the new year.

"For me, this was the year of chef collaborations. Almost any event that came up was either a collab-cook-up or a collab pop-up," says Nooresha Kably, chef-owner of modern Japanese restaurant Izumi in Mumbai and Goa. O'Pedro and The Bombay Canteen in Mumbai and The Indian Accent in Delhi and Mumbai were some of the popular restaurants that hopped on to the trend.

"We did some incredible collaborations from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo, Bangkok, and Perth, along with an exciting series of partnerships across India. Each collaboration has been a unique and rewarding experience," says Rijul Gulati, head chef, Indian Accent Mumbai.