Back to culinary roots

In my last week’s article, I put the concept of quiet luxury on top of my list for the upcoming culinary trends of 2026. Within the same line, we can say there will be a comeback of classics in many fields. Classic, in a way, equals comfort. It is time-tested, endured fads of all kinds, remains thrust worthy and meets the needs. A classic Chanel lady’s suit is never out of fashion, so are Babette shoes. We fell once again in love with retro furniture after watching Mad Men and rediscovered how well-designed and comfortable they were.

In culinary terms, the ultimate classic for everyone across the world must be the home cooking they grew up with. Nothing matches the food our mothers or grandmothers have prepared for the family. It was not only nourishment, but it was also psychological nourishment. The food of mothers and grandmothers also bears the loving care reflected upon us. But home cooking cannot only be explained in these nostalgic terms. In every cuisine, home food consists of time-tested, rational recipes that aim at bringing the best of ingredients out in the most economical way. Be it a simple pasta dish in Italy, or a curry in India, or a Sunday roast in Britain, home cooking is essentially tasty. Sometimes it is not elaborate at all, but only very few ingredients that is put together in the most palatable way. The recipes also bear an accumulation of knowledge transferred from past generations, possessing the wisdom and smartness of experience. That is why home cooking is simply the best. We long for home-cooked foods not just because of a craving for nostalgia, but home food stands for the classic in our own pasts.

Will old recipes survive?

But what is the future of home recipes in our ever-changing, wildly transformative world? Do young generations have the time to cook? Do they have the knowledge for it? Or, even worse, do they want to cook? It seems that the last question contains the answer. In the old times, one would learn not only to cook daily food, but also to bake a cake, to mend and sew, to knit, to embroider, to fix and repair; practically anything needed to run a house. It was the way of life. One needs to be able to self-care with one’s own needs. Needless to say, as we humans are dependent on food, we need to be able to feed ourselves. Of course, feeding oneself is possible in countless ways; the young generations do not necessarily concur with making what their mothers have put on the table. Maybe it is still this escapism from adulthood, resisting taking responsibility, or simply seeing those home-cooked dishes as mothers’ or grannies’ fare. Afterall, it was their duty to make those dishes, a kind of attitude. On the other hand, there is this trend of chefs blabbering about their mother’s this or that dish. Good story, but whether that mom’s recipe really reflected in that foamy, gelled, showy plate is questionable. In most cases, what ends up on the plate is an unrecognizable interpretation, pretty much like blurry images of a dream we try to remember from last night.

Resurrecting home dishes

When making predictions for 2026, I noticed that I’m not alone in thinking about the problem of safeguarding traditional home recipes. There are new projects popping everywhere about collecting and archiving mom’s and granny’s recipes. My own panic started when I noticed that my 29-year-old daughter asked ChatGPT for a recipe. Shocked by this, my hair stood straight up. Maybe it was my fault; I had assumed that my cooking knowledge would be naturally transferred to her. But then, I recalled she has previously murmured more than once, “Write these down for me before you die!” That was said jokingly, but it reflected the stark truth. Sharply clear, unpleasantly true, these are the alarming signs showing that our culinary knowledge is not inherently transferrable.

The good news is that it is not only me panicking with the fear of losing traditional recipes. My friend Regina from San Sebastian always keeps me posted about interesting food articles, and one particular article from The Guardian by Stephen Burgen was totally reporting on the very topic, titled: “No gels, no foams: Catalonia turns to grannies to teach traditional cooking.” Even the title clearly indicated that it was all about the urge to go back to the roots. Catalonia has been the birthplace of molecular gastronomy in Spain. Many avant-garde chefs have created revolutionary plates playing with new culinary techniques, decorating their plates with gels and foams, sperification wonders and liquid nitrogen clouds. While fine dining is playing with surprises, the streeets are offering fast choices ranging from Asian food to kebabs, pizzas and Argentiniean empanadas. The Catalan government felt the urge to safeguard the traditional Catalan cooking and intiated a project titled Gastrosàvies, a double play on Catalan words for wise and grandmother. The project records recipes of grandmothers, already more than 300, compiling an archive of traditional Catalan cookery. Similar initiatives are carried out by the Slow Food movement in Italy, slowly spreading to other countries. The knowledge of classic home dishes is also our culinary cultural heritage. In the pace of our fast-forward world, we need to preserve our culinary heritage, which defines our cultural identities. We need to write, record and videotape our family recipes. So, that is my motto for 2026: Write down!