"By the time a trendy food becomes mass produced, it is usually on its way out," says Dana Cowin, editor in chief of Food & Wine magazine. While it is true that the culinary world leads in food trends, the staying power of a trend can be best determined by its overall contributions to a society's culinary habit.

For instance, roasting - a popular classic cooking method - is making a strong comeback in Americans' food fare and has the potential for much more than a passing fad. Roasting develops desirable flavors within a food product. In addition, it provides other benefits such as healthful cooking, convenience, and simplicity. The result is a cooking method that is likely to become more popular within our cooking culture.

Grilling is another cooking method that provides the same benefits. However, "Trends start and stop whether we think they should or not," says Cowin. One might have assumed that the lowfat food trend would have stayed forever, but it has lost some of its initial steam. This may eventually happen to the roasting and grilling trend as well.

Other trends in the food world include more regional ethnic foods. For instance, Italian food has been big for years, but now food magazines and cookbooks feature Umbrian, Tuscan, and Sicilian food. Food manufacturing companies are starting to jump on this bandwagon as well.

Before developing products to match a trend, the industry considers many factors. According to corporate chef Matthew Walter's experience, food manufacturing companies are looking to develop products that will be around for the long haul. Western foods that typically require less preparation time and slower cooking methods are easier to mimic in a manufacturing setting.

However, trendy Asian foods such as Thai traditionally require greater prep time and shorter cook times to retain flavor and color. Thai tends to be more difficult to duplicate because the types of cooking methods and large batches produced do not match traditional preparation methods.

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