Bounty from a food market. (Amber Hildebrandt/CBC)

When epicures look back on the first decade of the 2000s, they will likely remember it as a time when everyone became a foodie.

Love it or hate it, the term went mainstream mid-decade as restaurant-quality gadgets and appliances became a household must-have, chefs rose to celebrity status and artisanal products became regulars on grocery store shelves.

While globe-trotting gourmands drove a push for more authentic ethnic fare throughout the decade, there was also the rise of "local" as consumers combed farmers' markets for vegetables grown within a 100-mile (160-kilometre) radius, shopped for pasture-raised chickens and took up spades to dig up potatoes in their own backyards.

Oxford American Dictionary anointed 2007 the year of the word locavore. Wal-Mart embraced the lucrative organic sector, which saw a nearly 60 per cent jump in the number of Canadian organic farms over five years. And it's an industry that shows no signs of slowing in the coming decade.

"The fastest-growing segment of the food industry is organic food. The rest of it is pretty stagnant," says Marion Nestle, an American food and nutrition expert who wrote Food Politics.

Carbon footprint in kitchen

The farm-to-fork trend also took root as residents ordered CSA grown boxes stuffed full of in-season veggies from community shared agriculture, or CSA, the world watched Michelle Obama dig up the White House lawn and shoppers snapped up canning supplies to preserve their homegrown bounty.

Snack food maker Frito-Lay even jumped on the bandwagon in 2009 by offering locally grown spuds in its Lay's potato chips.

Environmental awareness suddenly had a seat at the kitchen table, spurring consumers to shirk wasteful bottled water in favour of the tap and pay attention to each product's carbon footprint.

"We're looking for foods with less or better-for-the-environment packaging and we're considering eating meat one day less a week … to help reduce our carbon footprint," says Ontario-based food trends expert Dana McCauley.

Companies also sought to cash in on the appetites of health-conscious consumers by offering up so-called functional foods, products that make claims to health-promoting qualities such as herbal supplements, probiotic yogurt and foods boosted with nutrients.

Unabashed calorie consumption

Michelle Obama breaks ground for the garden on the White House's South Lawn. (Ron Edmonds/Associated Press)

But for every wellness trend, there seemed to be an equal anti-health craze.

"So, while we have more people asking for … products that make them healthier like omega-3 enhanced eggs, we also have a counter trend of people gorging themselves on as much artery-clogging bacon as they can," says McCauley.

Bacon Explosion — a recipe by two bloggers for a football-sized hunk of sausage meat encased in woven bacon — hit barbecues around the world in early 2009.

Unabashed calorie consumption also took on new meaning with the American fast-food chain, Heart Attack Grill, where patrons can order "quadruple bypass" burgers and customers weighing over 350 pounds eat free, McCauley noted.

Other trends in the 2000s

• Allergies: Rising awareness about food allergies and disorders such as celiac disease forced chefs to adapt, says chef John Higgins, head of Toronto's George Brown College culinary school. But, he notes, the great chefs rose to the challenge. "It's mind over matter," he says.
• Portion control: Gone are the days when Sunday brunch equals a large buffet, says Higgins. Nowadays it's more common to find people ordering individual plates, which he adds is much more "normal dining experience."
• Screw-cap wine bottles: What in 2001 seemed radical has become common. McCauley notes even higher-end wines feature screw caps now.
• Blending sweet and savoury: The mix of flavours took off in kitchens and store-bought goods alike. "Salted caramels and bacon-flavoured chocolates are de rigeur at chocolatiers and coffee houses," says McCauley.
• Convenience: "We have wanted more and wanted it faster since World War II, when our housewives became Rosie the Riveters," said McCauley. "Convenience is still king." Today it takes the form of prewashed and cut vegetables, frozen desserts promising homemade qualities and coffee drive-thrus.

Flavourless fads we'd rather forget:

• Foaming sauces: Molecular gastronomy brought this thickening method to the common kitchen. "You see it and it looks great, but a lot of the times there's no flavour, and food is all about the flavour," says Higgins.
• Bubble tea: In the early part of the decade, shops devoted to the Taiwanese drink filled with tapioca pearls began popping up across North America.
• Krispy Kreme doughnuts: "One of the trends I'm glad is gone," says Higgins. The U.S. chain began its international expansion in the early 2000s, bringing its signature glazed doughnuts to far-flung locations.