If you are an OFW planning to start a business in your host country, perhaps the best route to go is to open a Filipino restaurant and serve Filipino delicacies such as adobo.
For years, the world has gotten accustomed to Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese delicacies. Filipino cuisine has always been an unknown quantity among the Asian cuisines. But now things are beginning to change and the Filipino cuisines are getting into the spotlight internationally. World’s top chefs and gourmands now contend that Filipino cuisine is the next big ethnic food trend around the world.
The New York based trendspotting consultancy Baum + Whiteman has produced an annual trendspotting report that predicts the next big foods and dining concepts that will grow in popularity and become the hottest trend in 2018.
According to the report, the Filipino cuisine is finally getting the spotlight that it deserves. This is driven by the OFW phenomenon. Tens of millions of Filipinos have immigrated throughout the globe in places such as the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Australia, East Asia and the Americas and they are carrying with them their culture including their gourmet culture. They work in diverse fields ranging from nursing to engineering, hospitality, oil extraction among many others. This global dispersal of the Filipino Diaspora has given rise to an interest in the Filipino cuisine.
From 2018 onwards, you can expect to see a strong trend in international dining to bring the Filipino cuisine into the mainstream. This will follow the same past trends that led to the culinary revelations in the Thai, Vietnamese and Korean cuisines.
According to Baum + Whiteman, Google searches for Filipino cuisines have doubled since 2012 showing an increased global interest in Filipino dishes.
Another factor that has contributed to the popularity of Filipino cuisines is the expansion of Filipino food multinationals into previously uncharted territories such as the US and Canadian markets. An example of this is the Filipino biggest food chain Jollibee which has expanded into the US and introduced American diners to Filipino delicacies such as Palabok Fiesta, pineapple-topped burgers, tinapa flakes, sautéed pork with slices of egg and many other delicacies. The Filipino chain Jollibee currently has 35 chains across the US, Qatar, Hong Kong, Brunei and many other countries with a large Filipino diaspora.
Increasingly, the Filipino cuisine is getting recognized in the top echelons of gastronomy. Editors of some of the world’s prestigious food magazines such as Bon Appetit have ranked a Filipino restaurant, Bad Saint, as one of the best new restaurants in the US. That means windows are opening to introduce more audiences to Filipino cuisine.
It is not just the Filipino cuisine that is trending globally. Others include Indian street food and fast casual. In 2018, the Korean cuisine is going to shift from K-street and become more high-brow as chefs try to replicate its success in NY into other American cities, according to Baum + Whiteman.