Dalziel Foodie Round Up 2025

Posted on December 8th, 2025

As 2025 wraps up in the foodie world, join us as we look back on a year of flavour inspiration and standout innovation from industry events!

Meatopia 

The ultimate celebration of live-fire cooking doubled the fun this year with a brand-new addition at Glasgow SWG3, alongside the London OG at Tobacco Docks.

SWG3 is one of Glasgow’s most distinctive independent venues, and just like London, it brought an incredible atmosphere with live music and foodie theatre. We loved the live fire cooking and watching chefs create their dishes right in front of us! Glasgow even hosted a quiz, which was a fun way to test our team’s meat knowledge. Here is a roundup of the events:

Glasgow

London

Key Food Themes

Fat is Back – After years of being demonised for their saturated fat content, animal fats are back in vogue (The Food People). From the aged mutton fat and bone marrow birria, there’s a confident return to indulgence.

Global Fusion with a Regional Soul – The boundaries between cuisines are dissolving, and that’s where the excitement lies! From sausage tacos with Scottish pork shoulder to bacon & aged cheeseburger sausages, the UK public is receptive to these innovations: 41% agree that dishes blending two different world cuisines are appealing (Mintel).

Acidity and Brightness as Balance – As dishes get richer and more indulgent, chefs are using acidity and punchy brightness to cut through the fat. Across the festival, we saw chimichurri, sumac onions, pickled cabbage, fermented flatbreads, and lemon mustard. Inspiring a new wave of fresh and flavour-packed sides, there is a clear shift toward layered flavour building (Food Manufacture).

Heritage Cuts and Mature Meats – Smoked and aged mutton and venison – heritage cuts made a strong showing as we see a move to gamier flavour profiles. It’s all about circular cooking, which not only reduces waste but also honours the benefactor with the sustainable nose-to-tail approach to cooking (The Food People).

Premium Street Food and Refined Comfort – Chefs are taking comfort classics and street favourites and elevating them with premium ingredients. As mentioned in our Winter Review, elevated everyday foods continue to trend as cooking takes familiar flavours and reimagines them with craft techniques and quality ingredients.

 

Wylam Brewery: Battle Royale Best of the Best, Lord of the Wings and Argie Bharji

Northern foodies know that Wylam Brewery’s Food Battles are always a guaranteed good time, and this year’s line-up absolutely delivered! Battle Royale brought genre-versus-genre showdowns, whilst Lord of the Wings delivered some of the best chicken creations in the North. To round off the year, Argie Bharji returned as the grand finale, showcasing even more foodie formats perfectly matched to the theme.

Key Food Themes

Multi-Sensory – As we highlighted in our winter review, “Eat With Your Eyes” was front and centre at both events! Social media and visually driven generations like Gen Z are demanding multisensory food experiences (Mintel).

Swicy and Tangy – Would it even be a food event without hot honey and pickles on the menu?! Consumers are drawn to these flavour profiles because they offer excitement and novelty without being overwhelming (Mintel).

Comfort – While adventurous flavours are very relevant at food events, there is a simultaneous desire for balance and comfort, especially during times of economic uncertainty, as they provide emotional reassurance and a sense of quality (Mintel).

 

Dishes We Tried

The Scranner Arms ‘Blue Star Chicken Burger’ – An impressive entry that took home the crown! Dripping with hot honey buffalo sauce from a pipette, it perfectly captured the sweet heat trend, balancing spicy and honeyed flavours with tangy pickles and creamy ranch. The combination of buttermilk crunch delivered bold American comfort food with a social media-friendly twist.

FEDS’ Sichuan Knuckle Sandwich – These guys tapped into the multi-sensory experience trend, pairing a spicy-dipped wing and Sichuan-coated knuckle with cooling ranch, tangy pickles and fresh chillies. A playful, standout format.

Twisted Chick’s ‘AI Chickone’ was a full showstopper with their waffle cone! This concept captured everything we love about social-first eating and standout handheld innovation

Square Pizza’s ‘Pep Talk’ – Square embraced the multi-cheese trend highlighted by The Food People… why top your pizza with one cheese when you can top it with three! Ricotta, pecorino and mozzarella offered elevated comfort with premium cues.

The O Co. Mobile Oyster Bar – This entry captured the Big and Bold trend from our Winter Review perfectly, with a maximalist, fresh and flavour-forward approach. Oysters layered with buttery korma sauce, crisp radishes, bright pomegranate, toasted coconut and a finishing touch of peanut dust created a bite that truly lived up to its name. As texture continues to gain importance in foodservice innovation (Mintel), our marketing team remains focused on developing products with layered flavours and textural interest. With finishing dusts and sprinkles, like coconut, trending across both sweet and savoury applications, we create bespoke additions that boost flavour, texture, and standout appeal for any concept!

Scot and Wilson showcased Chicken Tikka Nachodoms, a format popularised by MOB Kitchen and Twisted, highlighting that this trend is only gaining momentum. Consumers are seeking more sensory and interactive food experiences (Mintel), and poppadoms deliver exactly that by offering crunch, versatility and a built-in scoop for piling on dips and toppings.

If you are looking for culinary trends, insights or inspiration based on the above blog, please get in touch: jessica.kane@dalziel.co.uk