When gastronomic historians look back at the second decade of the twenty-first century, there’s a decent chance that it will be labeled as the era in which cultural food norms lost their way it was the epoch of fusions for which nobody asked (Vietnamese-Welsh street food, anyone?), headline-grabbing concoctions featuring lists of eye-wateringly expensive – and yet tasteless or clashing – ingredients, and perhaps worst of all, trendsetting dishes seemingly designed to be Instagrammed rather than eaten. However, while we can happily talk at length about the positive aspects of a globalised food culture, there is plenty to say about the flipside. Indeed, much of the international cuisine we all enjoy on a regular basis is a product of trends which, although may now have passed, left us with a multitude of new flavours to familiarise ourselves with, and more colour and dynamism on our high streets.

This is by no means always a bad thing: as much as some of us enjoy grumbling about the fripperies and transience of certain trends, food fashion has historically had as many hits as it has had misses. Like everything else in our society, it flows to the beat of what’s in and out, of what’s hot and what is most decidedly not. Food and gastronomy has always been at the mercy of the whims of fashion.

Rainbow raindrop cake