Hungry for the new

[00:00.61] What did you eat for lunch today?

[00:02.86] Did you choose this dish because it was healthy, cheap or because it was just very tasty? Are you a fussy eater or an adventurous gourmet?

[00:12.38] I love exploring trends in food.

[00:15.14] 'Fusion cuisine' is not for everybody.

[00:17.65] My Italian grandmother would turn her nose up in disgust at the thought of tandoori pizza with mango topping but this marriage of tastes is perfectly fine in the 21st century.

[00:28.67] Chef and food writer Ching-He Huang, who presented a series on Chinese Food for the BBC, is a fan of the movement.

[00:36.70] She says: "Fusion has been happening for centuries, for as long as people have travelled, but with the internet, and global travel, the exchange of ideas makes the process much faster."

[00:48.97] Wolfgang Puck is seen by many as one of the chefs who made 'fusion' elegant.

[00:53.73] He cut his teeth in his native Vienna and made a name for himself when he opened his own restaurant in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

[01:02.00] This European delved into Asian cuisine and became one of the first in a long line of celebrity chefs.

[01:08.78] He said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that initially he got negative responses from traditional American-Chinese restaurant owners but he is not bitter.

[01:18.81] "I believe authenticity is about evolution, not repeating your grandmother's recipe," he explains.

[01:25.58] "Cooking is like painting or writing a song.

[01:27.58] Just as there are only so many notes or colours, there are only so many flavours – it's how you combine them that sets you apart."

[01:35.60] My granny's cup of tea would be the Slow Food Movement.

[01:38.61] Founded by her countryman Carlo Petrini in the 1980s and still going strong, it seeks to preserve regional cuisine and the use of ingredients that are grown locally.

[01:49.63] Petrini wants to see farmers connected more directly with consumers.

[01:54.39] All these trends give us food for thought.

[01:57.15] We might be wasting an exciting opportunity to wake up our taste buds when we scoff a sandwich at our desks.

[02:03.16] Tomorrow, why not find an exotic restaurant and enjoy a feast? You dress trendy so eat trendy!