HANG ON ...
did we miss something? Whatever happened to the Cronut? The doughnut made from croissant-style dough and invented, or so the ferocious international trademark apparently says, by American celebrity chef Dominique Ansel.
Thousands queued in New York for them. International imitations called the Dosant, the Crodough, the Crodo and even less catchy the Greggsnut seem to have popped up, but if they made it north of the Border I never saw one. Surprising that considering they seemed a sure fire guarantee to make a lot of dough from, er, dough. Ansell makes a limited 350-a-day in New York with a monthly flavour - milk and honey with a hint of lavender anyone - and sells out at $5 a pop according to his website. Yet he has apparently, no seriously, moved on to the Waffogato, a waffle shaped ice cream with maple coffee syrup.
Was the Cronut really was as hard to make as he claimed - a three day process - and did their very limited shelf life put people off? Or was it simply trademark terror? Imagine what a favour Ansel could have done the world if he had trademarked the donor kebab, the hamburger, the cupcake?
Time magazine called the cupcake "a sickness", and New York Magazine the bakery equivalent of "crack cocaine", it has swept the world. Embroiling the US in multi-million dollar cupcake wars as litigious bakeries became corporations, gameshows were even based on the pretty yet tasteless fripperies. And it all erupted from one 20 second clip from one episode of Sex and the City Season (season III, episode V) outside the Magnolia Bakery in New York. There are still cupcakeries (as they are often tweely called) all over Scotland, not just because they are cheap and easy to make yet sell at a premium price. Are their twinkling little fairy lights fading though? I ask because it seems that the gas under another food craze is finally being put at a peep.
If Sex and the City really begat cupcakeries then Man v Food unleashed the great early 21st century burger rush creating fortunes for some. There is now barely a restaurant or cafe in town, whatever it's ethnic origins, which doesn't boast an authentic burger. It's an understandable bid to get a share of a whole new restaurant market: the under 30s. Over-saturation has happened and some burger joints are closing down. A vacuum will emerge.
So what next for the young dudes? Southern US style slow smoked meats? Widely available but show me a genuine barbecue pit. Pizza cooked in genuine wood-fired ovens? A smash hit in the States right now. But there ain't many genuine solely wood ovens in Scotland. Our restrictive planners may have something to do that and also with difficulties transferring the US craze in artisan food trucks. These at least are said to raise food standards by challenging restaurants. But do they damage or encourage restaurant going? What about David Chang's pork belly buns? Korean fish tacos? Fondues of all things? All these still hot in the states. Do we need a television show to kickstart them here? Or can't we innovate ourselves?
Time for the haggis kebab.
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