Top Chefs Talk Trends - 2011

"Top Chefs Talk Trends" originally published in The Gourmet Retailer Magazine, January 2011

http://www.gourmetretailer.com/article-top_chefs_talk_trends-1427.html

Jesse Cool has published seven books, including "Your Organic Kitchen," "Toast: Sixty Ways To Butter Your Toast & More," "The Honest to Goodness One Pot Cookbook" and "Simply Organic." She also has written numerous magazine articles and appeared on the "Today Show" and Food Network. Cool is very active in her local community and taught cooking classes at Draeger's Culinary Center for 10 years. She also has been an instructor at Sur La Table, A Southern Season and the Second Harvest Food Bank. For more than 30 years, Cool has been working with local farmers, fisheries and ranchers, running restaurants and speaking out.

What are some notable trends you have noticed at the restaurant level?

Having had restaurants for 35 years and still buying from some of the farms from near beginning, appreciation, care, respect for where our ingredients come from and how they are produced is not radical fringe, but accepted mainstream with the young and old.

From a flavor perspective, what's popular now?

Simple, ingredient-driven, yet bold, full-spectrum excitement from variety, and eclectic.