Over the last couple of years, you may have had a go at making your own sourdough, baking banana bread and maybe even trying a TikTok-famous recipe or two. But what food trends are in store for 2022? From the hot new condiment to the cookware everyone will be investing in, we've rounded up the trends that'll be taking the food world by storm, with the help of data from specialist online food shop Sous Chef.

It looks like we’ll be turning up the heat in 2022, with many of us reaching for a bottle of sriracha to spice up dishes. According to Sous Chef, sales of Flying Goose Sriracha were up 153% in 2021 compared to 2020, while variations including Extra Garlic Sriracha (up 26%), Green Sriracha (up 18%) and Sriracha Mayo (up 259%) were flying off the shelves. The well-loved hot sauce, which became popular under the Huy Fong brand name, is made from chilli, sugar, salt and garlic.

The hero ingredient set to make our dishes sing this year? Balsamic vinegar. This one-of-a-kind Italian condiment is traditionally made using freshly-pressed grape juice that is concentrated, fermented and aged in wood barrels – only balsamic produced in the Modena and Reggio Emilia regions of Italy is recognised as authentic. Sous Chef reports that in 2021, sales of balsamic were up 80% with aged vinegars from Italian producers selling particularly well.

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Using fire is the world’s oldest way to cook food and it’s certainly not going anywhere. While many of us practised our barbecue skills during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, others are looking to go a step further, investing in high-end smoking equipment to achieve that perfect flavour. Three out of Sous Chef’s top 10 best-selling products last year were barbecue smokers – which create a temperature-controlled environment for cooking food. Sales of the Complete Hot & Cold Smoking Set were up more than 900%.

Turns out punchy flavours won’t be limited to food in 2022. A Chinese spirit called baijiu, which is made from distilled wheat or rice and has a history dating back more than 5,000 years, is set to enter our drinks cabinets. Sous Chef sells a range of flavour variations: a savoury, soy sauce version, strong, light, rice (with a sake-like flavour) and mixed. According to food trend forecaster Kara Nielsen, makers of the liquor will target a new global audience, especially those with Chinese heritage who may already know about it.

While the internet may sometimes win in the convenience stakes, for many home cooks, nothing beats the feeling of thumbing through a well-loved recipe book. In fact, in the US, cookbook sales were up 42% year-on-year in October 2021, while Sous Chef reported a 236% increase in cookbook and ingredient set sales last year. The recipe book and ingredients bundle from UK-based Indian restaurant chain Dishoom was a bestseller, with sales up by an impressive 366%.

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What exactly is umami? It seems few can completely agree on what this complex flavour actually tastes like, although many definitions suggest it’s a savoury, meaty, rich flavour found in foods such as Parmesan, miso, anchovies and soy sauce. According to Sous Chef, products with an umami flavour will fly off the shelves in 2022: sales of miso, fish sauce and Korean gochujang (a red chilli paste) are all on an upward trajectory.

Filling your pepper grinder with ordinary black pepper? That’s so 2021. This year, we’ll be turning to a range of global varieties to add nuance to our cooking, from Sichuan (also known as Szechuan) pepper, grown in China’s Sichuan province, to Cambodian Kampot pepper and Ethiopian passion berry pepper.

The DIY trend that started with sourdough in 2020 is set to continue this year, with home cooks becoming even more ambitious in their creations. Sales of cheese-making sets, vinegar-making barrels and beer-brewing kits all boomed last year according to Sous Chef, while many customers were searching for how to make their own kimchi.

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One of the star ingredients set to see us through 2022 is San Marzano tomatoes. Owing their name to the region of southern Italy from which they come, this tomato variety is famed for its well-balanced flavour with the right mix of intensity, sweetness and acidity. The tomatoes have a Protected Designation of Origin Status (DOP), which means they can only be grown in a specific area around Naples. Typically sold in tins, they were Sous Chef’s top-selling item by unit in 2021.

Famed for its vibrant red colour and spicy-sweet flavour, Aleppo pepper has become a hit over the past few years among chefs, bloggers and foodies. It owes much of its unique flavour and fragrance to the way it’s prepared: after being picked, it is left to dry in the sun before being ground and mixed with salt and olive oil, then it’s left to dry again, turning into red flakes. According to Sous Chef, sales of the spice were up by 125% last year.

The global cookware market is set to grow by £3.9 billion ($5.3bn) between 2021 and 2025, with many of us opting for premium products made from durable materials. Sous Chef reported a whopping 670% increase in sales of De Buyer’s Copper Frying Pans, while sales of hand-held tools including pasta rolling pins, pestle and mortars and handheld spice grinders were also up significantly.

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An ingredient that should be on all good cooks’ radars this year is pistachio paste. Aside from their gorgeous green hue, pistachios are famed for their unique flavour, which is intensified when ground into a paste. According to Sous Chef, sales of its Sicilian pistachio paste were up 39% in 2021.

A citrus fruit grown in Japan, Korea and China, yuzu tastes like a mix of lemon, lime and grapefruit. The tart fruit can be used in everything from condiments such as vinaigrettes and mayonnaise, to seasoning blends, cocktails and desserts. According to Sous Chef, sales of its yuzu products were up 57% in 2021, with pure yuzu juice and yuzu kosho some of the top sellers.

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