][1]Last year, this blogger took the foolhardy step of trying to predict some of the trends that would influence the restaurant scene and what we would eat over the coming year.
It’s here if you want check back.
I must have been on form when I wrote that blog because a fair number of my predictions turned out to be more or less correct; a skill which sadly still refuses to play ball whenever I visit the bookies.
Admittedly, some of them were odds-on favourites. First up, I wrote that ‘The recession will end but more and more value for money restaurants will continue to open long after unemployment falls back and house prices stabilise. Bling interiors, luxury ingredients and big bills are off menu for a while yet.’
Apart from stabilising house prices and indeed falling unemployment, the recession has, technically, ended but, offhand, I can’t think of any big ticket openings in the Central Belt over the last year. However, there have been plenty of small, value for money places which opened their doors.
Secondly, I reckoned that the interest in nose to tail eating would continue. That one worked out OK as well but then my MasterChef-addicted ten-year-old nephew would probably have made the same call.
Next up was my prediction that restaurants were going to become a lot more environmentally friendly and would be shouting about it a lot more loudly. Well, the Sustainable Restaurant Association launched in the UK in March which would seem to help prove my theory.
On the other hand, Pickledgreen, the new Edinburgh restaurant that really tried to operate as ethically as possible seems to have gone very quiet of late. So much so that their phone number no longer works and their website says that they are temporarily closed.
I also said that there would be lots more pop-up restaurants appearing in Scotland. They haven’t. I was wrong.
Tomorrow, I’ll make some equally dodgy predictions about what I think/hope might happen over the next twelve months.