The Grocer – 20 July 2019

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at home by nine in 10 adults in the three months to
November 2018, according to the same report. ‘Chinese
and Indian cuisines stand notably ahead of the pack in
usage, with Mexican and Thai making up the top four
of the nation’s favourites.’
So why this surge in popularity? For one, people
are travelling more. The World Tourism Organization
found 46 million more overnight visitors travelled inter-
nationally in 2016 than in 2015. “Historically, consum-
ers were more familiar with a westernised take on
or ie nt a l c u i s i ne ,” s ay s E n ne vor Yap, d i re c tor at C h i ne s e
supermarket Wing Yip. “However, people are travelling
further afield, looking to recreate holiday favourites on
their return to the UK.”
The media is broadening our horizons too. “Increased
media coverage is encouraging people to think about
the source of their food, with trends for more authen-
tic cuisine developing and consumers putting more
research into the dishes they eat.

At the same time “TV chefs are championing authen-

tic, exotic dishes and consumers are becoming far more

interested in new flavours,” adds Yap. “These factors

combined are putting international cuisine well and

truly on British menus.”

Asian cuisines

Off the back of this popularity, stores specialising in

Asian cuisine, especially lesser-known cuisines such

as Korean and Vietnamese, are thriving.

Yap says Asian cuisines way beyond well-known

Chinese and Indian are showing “particularly strong

growth”, with consumers “looking past traditional

favourites to discover authentic dishes from countries

such as Korea, Thailand and Vietnam”.

“Once confined to small stores in local Chinatowns,

many Asian supermarkets in the UK are now going

mainstream and offering a much larger selection of

goods in response to increasing demand from

World food aisles have

become a common sight in

UK supermarkets