Food trends | Is it the end of caviar and truffles?

For decades, the luxury dining scene operated on a simple, universal metric: cost and scarcity. The prestige of a plate was measured by its weight in wagyu, scent in truffles, its spoon-load of caviar or its slice of foie gras. These were the undisputed champions of extravagance.

That metric is changing fast. The new status symbol in high end gastronomy isn’t the most expensive item; it’s the one with the deepest story. Today’s chefs are elevating the humble, the local, and the seasonal proving that authenticity, time, and patient technique are the true currencies of culinary opulence. This global shift is perfectly captured at Joontos, a Michelin Guide restaurant inside Dar Tantora The House Hotel in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. Here, chef Jaume Puigdengolas extracts extraordinary flavour from ingredients that carry cultural significance. For his take on chicken mandi, a slow-cooked baby chicken is infused with charcoal-smoked desert basil and wild sage, lending the traditional chicken and rice dish a deep earthiness and aromatic complexity. Similarly, his vegetable kabsa features vegetables coated in a paste of native arak leaves before roasting. Puigdengolas states, “The luxury here comes from time, patience, and the interplay of spices rather than from any expensive ingredient.” He believes today’s diners value food that conveys a sense of place, heritage and time. “The new luxury reflects something deeper, like ingredients tied to local history, produce available only in micro-seasonal windows, ancient techniques that require patience and skill. For me, the pinnacle of luxury is authenticity, not opulence.”

The Sunset of Ostentation

The change is palpable. While truffles and caviar remain treasured, they no longer automatically command the conversation. The new status symbol is the ingredient that only a chef can procure, transform, or understand. It is a reflection of the chef’s artistry and their dedication to sourcing the unparalleled, not just the expensive. “Luxury in gastronomy is no longer about price or rarity alone. Today, it’s about the ingredients, the care in their cultivation, the story behind them, and the creativity in their transformation. A humble, locally sourced product, when treated with respect and technique, can be far more luxurious than some high value product,” says Ana Ro, chef and founder of Hia Franko a three Michelin starred restaurant in Slovenia. Ro proves this point with a standout dish on her tasting menu: a potato cooked in a hay crust, a single tuber for which she pays a full one euro. “I’ve been called crazy for using a potato that I pay 1 euro for,” she admits, “but when we can pay a handsome sum for wagyu or oysters, what’s wrong with shelling out for a truly great potato?” The prized potato comes from a local farmer on the entvika Plateau, a forty-minute drive from the restaurant, who returned to his roots to cultivate perfect produce. Ro didn’t hesitate when told the price. “I accepted the price because I believe its value and flavour surpass any piece of fish, meat, oyster, or caviar. This potato is grown with care, and the farmer picks it when it is the exact size I need for my restaurant.”

New Luxury, Defined by Depth

The process of drying, concentrating and extracting flavour is becoming the ultimate show of technical virtuosity. A simple dried fruit becomes ‘luxury’ when a chef selects a rare varietal, controls the temperature to the precise degree and achieves an unprecedented intensity of flavour unique to their kitchen. At Central in Peru, rated the World’s #1 restaurant for 2023, chef and founder Virgilio Martnez often incorporates meticulously dehydrated Andean staples like tubers and rare corns as complex flavour additions to high-end dishes. The ultimate example of elevating simple elements is Martnez’ use of over 120 varieties of salt. Sourcing meticulously from diverse Peruvian ecosystems—the Andes to the Amazon, Martnez selects each salt for a specific flavour profile that matches the origin of other ingredients in a dish. For example, high-altitude tubers may be seasoned with crystalline Andean mine salt, while Amazonian fish receive a smoked river basin salt. This method transforms a simple mineral into a complex tool, where the luxury lies in the scientific and geographical precision of its application, not its cost.

Fermentation, once a humble method of preservation, has exploded from a niche trend to become the very backbone of modern luxury gastronomy. Top chefs now run high tech labs, using patience and ancient techniques to craft bespoke miso and garum that unlock complex umami depth. Gaggan Anand in Bangkok utilises lactic fermentation to introduce complex tartness into contemporary Indian dishes. His signature dish ‘Yogurt Explosion’ is an amuse bouche consisting of mango chutney in a spherified yogurt bomb. The dish creates a ‘firework-like pop’ in the mouth, a playful and multi-sensory way to begin a meal.

This blending of the local and the luxurious is powerfully evident at Olive Qutub New Delhi, where Executive Chef Dhruv Oberoi combines desi ingredients like amla, sea buckthorn and jamun with artichokes, asparagus, truffles and caviar. One popular item is a salad that pairs caviar with fermented amla, sour cheese, and a special dressing made of amada (mango ginger). He also elevates the humble gourd with truffles. “People laugh when they see lauki paired with truffles but when they taste it, they love it,” says Oberoi. “The idea is to not go completely berserk with luxury ingredients but find a balance between luxury and something local while being seasonal. It has to make sense and ultimately it has to pass the taste and flavour test along with a comfort factor.”

The crucial link for sourcing these elusive ingredients for high-end restaurants is Pallavi Chaturvedi, founder of Courtyard Memories. She procures specialties like red tamarind, now a rarity due to rampant development; sea buckthorn which is exceptionally difficult to harvest, pre-harvest ginger from a particular belt in Himachal Pradesh and herbs from the high altitudes of Ladakh. “Chefs are looking for that ingredient which has a story and one that elevates the final dish to something memorable,” says Chaturvedi. This dedication to the difficult and the unique confirms the new culinary mandate. Ultimate luxury is no longer measured by price, but by the rarity of the ingredient, the taste of terroir and the technical skill used to transform the forgotten into the unforgettable.