Unilever launches Future Menus 2025, highlights rise of Asian flavors

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) recently launched its third annual Future Menus, highlighting four key food service trends for 2025. In depth research shows Asian flavors are overtaking traditional European culinary strongholds like France and Italy. Chinese and Japanese cuisines now rank in the top five global favorites across all age groups, while Korean and Mexican flavors are also increasing in demand.¹  

A bold, modern take on global food trends – this vibrant stacked dish showcases the fusion of richly braised meat, creamy cheese, crisp greens, and indulgent toppings, embodying the Future Menus 2025 vision by Unilever Food Solutions. Highlighting culinary innovation, this image represents the evolving landscape of foodservice, where tradition meets creativity to inspire the next wave of chefs and operators worldwide.

The big culinary shift from West to East and North to South is influencing this year's four distinct global menu trends:

Street food couture – Traditional street foods are being elevated to gourmet offerings with chef expertise in every food service channel, including fine dining. Gen Z is a major driver of this trend, with 65% seeking value for money when it comes to food and dining experiences.² Mexican, Indian, Korean, and Filipino street foods are surging, with Filipino cuisine gaining the most traction in the U.S. and Asia.³ To support chefs, UFS offers products like Hellmann's Real Ancho Chipotle Sauce and Spicy Mayonnaise – favorites in the U.S. - and  ideal for tacos, burritos, spring rolls, dumplings, bao buns, and Korean corn dogs.  

Borderless cuisine – Globalization and migration are blending diverse food traditions as chefs honor their multicultural origins. Travelers eager to expand their palates are driving this trend—76% of tourists are keen to explore local food cultures.⁴ The growing integration of Eastern flavours into Western cuisine is being enabled by key ingredients like Knorr Professional's best-selling Chicken Powder, which delivers an authentic umami boost. This helps chefs blend traditional flavours to create something unique. For example, bringing Southeast Asian spice to classics like pasta, stews and burgers.

Culinary roots – Chefs are reviving culinary heritage by uncovering lesser-known and forgotten recipes, ingredients and hyperlocal cuisines like Hunan, Emirati, Basque, and Oaxacan.⁵ UFS' international team of 250 in-house chefs empower customers in their regions to embrace and promote indigenous food traditions with creative recipes and technique inspiration.

Diner designed – Growing demand for personalised and immersive dining experiences is driving this trend, with 47% of people now preferring to spend money on experiences over material goods.⁶ UFS supports businesses with training, menu engineering, and the easy integration of menu trends. 

"Future Menus ensures chefs are prepped to meet evolving diner demands by tapping into the top menu trends," said Star Chen, CEO of Unilever Food Solutions. "We provide more than 3 million customers worldwide with expert insights, recipe inspiration and professional products to satisfy growing appetites for the Asian and South American flavours identified in this year's research. Future Menus is going from strength to strength each year, helping chefs to stay on trend and contributing to double digit growth for our business. In fact, 7 out of 10 customers say they would recommend UFS to others today."  

The Future Menus trends book will be followed by locally tailored editions on ufs.com throughout the year, showcasing top dishes and recipes designed to meet specific diner demands in the countries where UFS operates.