The Biggest Food Trends Of The 2010s

It's hard to remember what you ate a week ago, let alone a whole decade ago. Haven't we always been sipping on LaCroix, photographing our avocado toast at brunch and chugging kale juice as we run to SoulCycle? Nope. Those are just some of the food trends that defined the 2010s. Remember Sriracha-flavored everything? Activated charcoal? Naked cakes? As yet another decade comes to a close, we took a look through our article archives, Instagram feeds and Google trends to see how the food world has changed and the crazy trendy foods and drinks you enjoyed.

If rainbows and unicorns are too colorful for you, activated charcoal was here for you, infused in ice cream, breads and cocktails. Made from coconut husks, activated charcoal can give your food a cool, gothic look, but it also is medically used for the emergency treatment of certain kinds of poisoning, so when ingested, it can absorb the nutrients in your body. So know the best and worst ways to use activated charcoal before dining.

Some of us have been eating raw cookie dough out of the bowl since we were kids, but the late 2010s saw the rise of Instagram-worthy, edible raw cookie dough. New York City-based Dō was perhaps the catalyst for this trend. When it opened in 2017, lines wrapped around the block as people gobbled up their cookie dough in ice cream cones and in sundae form. Now, you can buy ready-to-eat cookie dough from Ben & Jerry's and Nestle in your grocery store's freezer aisle.

Plant-based diets and fake meats became all the rage in the late 2010s. Long gone are the days when black bean burgers and soy chicken nuggets were the only faux-meat options for vegetarians, vegans and those who want to eat less meat. Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Nestle, Dr. Praeger and more developed products that were meant to replicate the taste and texture of beef. Fast food giants like Burger King and Dunkin' added these fake meats to their menu.

Sriracha became a condiment sensation in the mid-2010s. Also known as rooster sauce because of the label on the Huy Fong Sriracha bottle, this spicy Thai chili sauce was not only used for adding heat to dishes but was also incorporated into beer, potato chips, nuts and other snacks. You can even wear your love for Sriracha on shirts, socks and boxers.

Ramen noodles and cheeseburgers have long been late-night staples for college students, but both those dishes were fused together and got a major culinary upgrade this decade thanks to chef Keizo Shimamoto and his original ramen burger, which was the thing to photograph and eat at Williamsburg's Smorgasburg. Often imitated but never replicated, the novelty of the ramen burger came and went in the 2010s. The restaurant based around this burger, Ramen Shack, closed in March 2019 after about three years in operation.

Milkshakes didn't have a monopoly on Instagrammable ice cream this decade. Rolled ice cream, also known as stir-fried ice cream, is a Thai dessert that is made to be filmed and photographed (and eaten, we guess). Unlike traditional ice cream, this dessert is made by pouring creme anglaise onto an extremely cold metal circular surface, instantly freezing it as cooks stir it around and eventually scrape it up, forming the ice cream into rolls. The process is fascinating and soothing, and the viral videos of rolled ice cream helped launch this dessert into the mainstream.

Once primarily used as a garnish, kale became cool in the 2010s. Like other healthy foods, kale made its grand debut thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow, who made kale chips on "Ellen" in 2011. The pop culture presence of kale didn't end there — Beyonce was seen rocking a kale sweatshirt in her 2014 music video for "7/11." This was no accident; the American Kale Association hired PR pro Oberon Sinclair to promote this vegetable, which admittedly is a superfood you should eat every day, rich in vitamins A, C, B6 and K. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 15,325 acres of kale were harvested in 2017, compared to just 6,256 acres in 2012.

When we take a look back at the biggest wedding trends of every decade, the 2010s will be defined by shabby chic, DIY weddings and the naked cake. These rustic cakes, with minimal frosting, flowers and fresh fruit are meant to show off the layers of cake. They took off like a rocket thanks to their ability to photograph well — #nakedcake has been hashtagged over 2 million times on Instagram. The trend was started in 2014 by Milk Bar's Christina Tosi, who thought that the cake should speak for itself, sans embellishment.

Led by Roy Choi and his Korean taco truck Kogi, which opened at the end of the last decade, these mobile mini-restaurants turned from a novelty to a trend to a staple of the culinary world in the 2010s. The best food trucks in America are also serving some of the best pizza, sandwiches and tacos in the country. According to IBISWorld, food trucks are continuing to grow as an industry, and as of March 2019, over 23,000 food trucks are operating in America, doing over $1 billion in business annually.

The 2010s were the decade of gut health, apparently, as fermented foods like kombucha and kimchi went from specialties to staples at health food stores in the final years of the decade. Kombucha, a fizzy, fermented tea, slowly rose in popularity throughout the decade and peaked in January 2018 thanks to its probiotic properties. Kimchi, fermented cabbage served in a spicy sauce, has healthy probiotics and also rose in popularity throughout the decade along with other Korean dishes, one of the biggest dining trends of 2019.

Chia seeds, farro and quinoa may seem like everyday parts of our diet at this point — who doesn't love a grain bowl or some overnight oats? But these so-called exotic grains started out the decade as obscure items buried in the health food section. Interest in chia seeds and quinoa rose at the start of the decade, peaking in 2014, while farro had a steadier rise and later peak, gaining popularity in January 2019.

The Whole30 diet, where you cut sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy and legumes out of your diet for 30 days in an attempt to reset your body and cravings, was invented by Melissa Hartwig Urban in 2009. It went largely unnoticed until January 2016 when it saw a spike in Google searches, which have increased every January since then (presumably for New Year's resolutions), peaking in 2018. Other trendy diets of the decade include the paleo diet, the alkaline diet and the Mediterranean Diet.

The rise of sushi and the rise of burritos are trends from another decade, but the fusion of the two didn't hit until the mid-2010s. Searches for "sushi burrito" were nearly non-existent until the spring of 2016, led by Hai Street Kitchen & Co out of Philadelphia, which opened in 2014 and billed itself as "sushi burrito specialists." Fusion, in general, was huge this decade, with Instagram-worthy foods like spaghetti doughnuts and cronuts making big splashes.

Gluten-free diets were typically reserved for those with celiac disease or a wheat allergy, but gluten-free diets and people claiming to have gluten sensitivity rose in the early part of the decade and continued. This is possibly due to the publication of a few books such as 2013's "Grain Brain" by David Perlmutter, which claims gluten sensitivity is to be blamed for an array of issues such as autism, infertility and schizophrenia. While many have adapted gluten-free foods into their diets, others have said these theories ignore science. Carbs have not had a good decade, also thanks in large part to the increase of those interested in keto and paleo diets and cauliflower substitutes for things like pizza crust and rice.

Poke, an old, regional Hawaiian dish consisting of raw sliced fish, vegetables and umami-packed sauces, emerged onto the national food scene in a big way in the latter half of the decade. Like the smoothie bowl before it, poke bowls live at the beautiful intersection of photographable, healthy and delicious, making it the perfect trendy food. It also has an Asian influence, one of the biggest restaurant trends at the end of the decade.

More from The Daily Meal:

The Most Anticipated Restaurants of 2020

The Best Restaurants of 2019

The 101 Most Iconic Restaurant Dishes in America

The One Restaurant You Need to Visit in Every State

101 Best Pizzas in America