Next Year In Food And Nutrition
Forbes
Don’t Risk It; Eat a Biscuit
The Cronut has jumped the shark. Even as predawn legions line up outside Dominique Ansel’s New York patisserie and Ansel has trademarked the name of his cult-favorite creation, Dunkin’ Donuts recently rolled out (so to speak) a croissant-doughnut hybrid in 7,900 retail stores. And while the pastry’s runaway popularity spawned other imitators and new mashups like the cragel and the pretzel croissant (whose creator picked a public fight with Ansel, perhaps to get press), foodies have moved on to a more classic flaky comfort food: Southern buttermilk biscuits. The move is both a backlash to the hybrid trend and a chance for chefs to experiment and put their own stamp on a food that isn’t claimed or trademarked. Restaurants like San Francisco’s Biscuit Bender sell biscuits in creative flavors including pumpkin spice chocolate chip and also sour cream and sage, and the Maple Street Biscuit Company out of Jacksonville, Fla., and Biscuit Head in Asheville, N.C., stuff them with everything from fried chicken to goat cheese to brisket.