Figuring Out What's Behind Seven Recent Food Trends

Culture Study Podcast

Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 789 Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I love talking about food as culture — and like all parts of culture, food has trends that ebb and flow. We asked you to provide us with food trends you’ve noticed (and/or confuse you) — and then we asked the great Evan Kleiman (chef, cookbook author, and longtime host of KCRW’s Good Food) to come unwind them with us. Want to know what it takes for a dish to show up at every corporate catering event? Why every restaurant in the U.S. (still) has a brussels sprouts dish? How hot chicken got franchised? WE’VE GOT YOU. This episode is filled with delights (and will make you want to browse expensive tinned fish online).Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at https://www.oneskin.co/Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to ZocDoc.com/CULTURE to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor todayRight now, get 15% off your first order by going to Blueland.com/CULTUREGo to https://zbiotics.com/CULTURESTUDY and use CULTURESTUDY at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probioticsShow Notes:Learn more about Evan Kleiman’s storied career hereListen to GOOD FOOD on KCRW!Follow Evan on Instagram:An example of the “recession meal” TikToks:The hot chicken Bitter Southerner piece I referenceThe Amanda Mull piece I reference (and summarize poorly): The United States is Southern NowA good background piece on the tinned fish boomMangos are the world’s most popular fruit!!!!“Meet SoCal’s Premier Mango Seller”A great overview of the rise of CrumblWe’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:Running a Small Business — and How to Make It Sustainable & Survivable (with Jen Hewett!)All things Love is Blind with Audie CornishDifferent Modalities of Hanging Out (aka, best ways to hang out with different people) with Mary HK ChoiBaseball Culture (with Ali Liebegott and Melody as additional co-host!!!)The history/utility/culture of OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE GEAR with Avery Trufelman (of Articles of Interest)What an actually family-friendly society would look like (with Elliot Haspel)An ADULT HOBBIES crossover episode with Forever35!Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) hereFor this week’s discussion: What food trend are you STILL curious about?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I find it kind of fascinating looking at trends.
0:03.4	For example, I was thinking about lava cakes.
0:07.2	Oh, right.
0:08.7	So, you know, lava cakes were an invention of this French chef, Michelle Bra.
0:13.3	He invented it in 1981.
0:15.9	And it ended up being on the menu at Chili's in 1998.
0:21.2	Wow.
0:22.7	Which is so...
0:23.6	That's like trickle-down effect, right?
0:25.3	It's so interesting.
0:26.1	That's how long it takes.
0:33.3	This is the Culture Study podcast, and I'm Ann Helen Peterson.
0:37.2	And I'm Evan Klyman.
0:39.1	I'm the host of Good Food, a podcast, former restaurateur, cookbook author, and chef.
0:46.0	You've been hosting Good Food since 1997.
0:50.1	How has the show changed over time?
0:51.8	Wow.
0:54.0	When I first started doing Good food, it was actually possible for our team to read everything in the media about food.
1:04.1	Yeah.
1:05.1	I mean, you can't even imagine that now.
1:08.4	And when I started, it was so nerdy.
1:11.9	I mean, even the head of our station, I remember, she once said, how did you find, to my producer,
	...

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