Posted on Tuesday, 22nd April, 2025
When planning winter menus, chefs and operators are turning their minds to the dishes they hope will bring customers through the door during the colder months.
At Unilever Food Solutions, we’ve been researching the local and international casual dining markets, analysing global trends and talking with chefs to uncover what we believe are the big culinary opportunities for this year’s winter menus.
Here is a summary of the top five winter dish topics that are dominating current conversations!
A craving for new dining experiences combined with a hankering for nostalgic dishes of yesteryear continues to be popular among chefs and diners alike, driving the modernised comfort food trend further forward. A seemingly unlimited supply of new twists on familiar dishes are set to capture the mood of the moment this winter.
While some chefs bemoan turning out winter standards like lamb shanks year after year, others are digging deep into their imaginations to find new ways of presenting old favourites, with exotic spices and eye-catching formats currently trending.
Elsewhere, stroganoffs, Wellingtons and pasta bakes are being reinvented, with lighter sauces, alternative proteins and vegetarian versions modernising these traditional favourites.
Price, versatility and flavour are driving demand for slow-cooked dishes, supporting the popularity of braises, stews and pies. More and more chefs are discovering they can achieve spectacular results with cost effective secondary cuts.
For example, the likes of birria taco, slow-cooked barbacoa, sauerbraten and Italian pot roast are anything but ordinary and make delicious use of great-value beef chuck.
This winter, we expect an upswing in demand from diners looking for healthier and more affordable dishes, with fresh approaches to building a satisfying salad coming to the fore.
Dense salads could be the headline act, with plentiful inclusions of beans, legumes and seeds set to satiate the hungriest of diners. These dishes are part of the so-called ‘better for you’ movement that also encompasses the greater use of functional foods like mushrooms, salmon, honey, juniper and grains.
Diners are getting social over food for a variety of reasons: they enjoy the shared experience of eating with friends, relish for the informality of handheld food and, more than ever, want to evoke memories of happy times.
The sharing trend offers exciting new avenues for chefs to explore, with the likes of pulled meats, casserole, ribs and lamb shoulder presenting opportunities for chefs to create dishes for diners to bond over.
While it’s common knowledge that brisket is a great cut for shredding, it’s just the start of the endless ways brisket can be used. In fact, there’s an argument that says brisket is the most versatile of the secondary cuts: from pasta to patties, the only limit is your imagination.
Brisket is the perfect base for slow-cooked winter dishes, so it’s not surprising to see a new wave of creativity from local chefs. We expect an explosion in brisket-based inventiveness this coming winter.
Register now for low-and-slow inspo
At UFS, we’ve been researching the trends that matter, talking to chefs across the land and scouring hundreds of menus to create our latest Killer Classic guide: Slaying the Roast—The Low and Slow Edition. Launching soon, it’s your essential winter inspiration resource, packed with exciting new recipes and menu tips! Click here to pre-register.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is created for inspiration purposes only. It is not intended as clinical, medical or nutritional advice.
