EXPERTS CHEW ON THE FUTURE ROLE OF FOOD

Most nights when I leave the office heading for another fancy restaurant, I think how lucky I am. But on nights when I am tired or lonely or feeling sorry for myself, the same picture always comes to taunt me. Just as I step into my car, the image of a family sitting down to dinner at a big round table floats before me. They are laughing and passing platters of meat loaf and roast potatoes and buttered spinach. They are talking about the day that’s past, and making plans for the weekend. And I say to myself, “Everybody else in America is sitting down to a family dinner, and here you are, going out again.”

At one time, everybody in America did sit down to a family dinner. Not anymore. The biggest surprise of the American Institute of Wine & Food’s Conference on Gastronomy held in Boston two weeks ago was the picture that the speakers painted of America. As people from the business community got up to speak, one after another they described a new and unrecognizable country. The very fabric of American life has changed radically over the last few years--and nowhere is this reflected better than in the way that we eat.

“There are no longer any rules for the family meal,” says Gordon McGovern, president of Campbell Soup Co. “Dinner at 6 is a thing of the past. Families don’t eat the same thing, and they don’t eat at the same time--today there is one continuous meal from 4 until 10 p.m.”

As McGovern described the kind of food that his company is now making, he painted a picture of parents and children, each with his own particular agenda, running into the house, sticking what he wants to eat into the oven and running out. This individual eating has become so pervasive that the food companies are getting ready to “roll out” their latest product--desserts in single-portion servings. The kind of cake that we once put candles on may soon be an anachronism.

The “soaring medium of microwave,” as one speaker called it, has done a lot to foster this new way of eating, and the speakers all mentioned the speed with which microwave ovens are selling. About 10.5 million of them will be sold in America this year--many in Southern California. For while 40% of the households in America have opted for this convenience, 60% of Southern California homes are already prepared to heat and eat.

Working women have also done their bit. And there are more women working all the time. In 1970, there were 31 million women in the work force; by 1990 there will be 56.5 million. These women demand food that is not only convenient but of high quality. Because of this, says A.S. Claussi, vice president of General Foods, cost has become less of a consideration than ever before. Ten years ago, 90% of the shoppers considered cost of primary importance; now only 75% do--and the number is decreasing. Meanwhile, health and taste are becoming increasingly valued.

“Seventy million baby boomers are reaching their peak earning period,” said Claussi, classifying them as “the most indulgent generation this country has ever known.” To feed them, purveyors are trying to figure out how to get fancier and fancier products onto the shelves. Says one fish purveyor, “Everybody wants the top of the trip” (the fish that was caught last, just before the boat comes in to dock). He added proudly, “I’m known for the world’s most expensive fish.”

But even more startling than the changes that are taking place within the family, are the changes being wrought on the family itself. Most of us still think of a typical American family as being one father, one mother and 2.2 children--but we’re wrong. Very wrong; any day now, the typical American family may be just one person. Already, says McGovern, 20 million people live alone, and by 1990 the single-person household will be the largest household type in America.

Part of this is because we are living longer than ever before; today, old people outnumber teen-agers. The implications are profound. According to William McGuire, a Wall Street analyst, there will be a “flattening of demand for fast-food establishments through the 1990s.”

Nobody expects, however, that there will be a flattening of demand for restaurants. To the contrary; 40% of all food is already being eaten outside the home. And there is no reason to believe that this will change, for all these developments make the reasons for eating in restaurants even more persuasive. The more solitary our homes become, the more we will go out--if only to be able to consume our food in the presence of other people.

And with the decline of the family meal, restaurants will become the one place where we actually take the time to talk to each other. These days. we go out to be entertained, but we will soon start going out for comfort. Restaurants will become quiet once again, they will become welcoming. And what we eat in these cozy places will change as well. In fact, it is already starting to do that.

At a meeting of female chefs from France and the United States, the French chefs mentioned that their restaurants have never sold so much cassoulet. “That’s odd,” replied the American restaurateurs, “ we have never sold so much meat.” Despite all the talk of light food and healthy food and the wonders of fish, chef after chef stood up to talk about the amount of heavy food that she is starting to sell. The verdict? Expect to see the renaissance of steak houses any day now.

But I will go even further. If all these food companies are correct--and they must be, they’re selling the stuff--what we go out to eat will change dramatically. Why go out for fast, light, healthy, expensive food when you can eat it at home? We will all go looking for the reverse.

We will, in fact, go out for the kind of food we used to find at home. The food that Mama used to cook--when she was cooking. For if Mama is serving good cheese and fine caviar and pasta salads, the craving for beef stew and pot roast and country fried chicken will have to be satisfied elsewhere. And we will turn to restaurants for the slow, heavy, delicious foods of our past.

There was a time when restaurants bragged that their food was “just like your mother makes.” Say goodby to that phrase. In this microwave age, the restaurant of the future will have a big sign that says, “Nothing at all like what you’d eat at home.”