IN & OUT : Nouvelle Cuisine Yields to a Style That’s More Red, White and Blue

“In” and “out” lists have always been out in my book. In my book, they’re more gossip than gospel. Made up things from the head of a single anonymous drone.

Yet, we found ourself comparing our list of ins and outs with the food-related ins and outs featured in the Jan. 12 issue of W, an East Coast fashion magazine, which, up to now, has reigned as supreme maker and breaker of the people, places and things singled out for its annual in and out basket.

We’ve noted (not surprisingly) that the food trends reported in their in and out list are not fully reflective of those on the West Coast. W, for instance, is just getting around to potatoes, creme brulee, corn on the cob, chocolate and breakfast parties, while these items have already had their run here. It is possible that many of the ins on our list may find their way onto W’s pages next year.

We’ve extracted from W’s full list a partial, food-related list of ins and outs. (The full list includes items related to fashions, people, places, as well as food.) For the fun of it, we’ve added our own in and out list. We did not single out individual restaurants, however.

OUR IN LIST:

Fresh lemon-flavored desserts

Sausages (all species and alligator, too)

Good, old-fashioned American cooking

Oriental noodles (preferably udon)

Kappo bars (gourmet Japanese appetizer bars)

Oatmeal with real maple syrup

Catered home dinners by great chefs

Ordering to go from a favorite restaurant

Lamb

Oyster shooters (hot and spicy oysters sucked out of a sake cup)

Lemon pasta

Peppers (no salt) on the table

Soup

Old-fashioned Italian restaurants (remember meatballs and spaghetti?)

Eating pasta with chopsticks instead of forks

Baby abalone

Caribbean/Latin restaurants

Black American cooking

Beautiful bistro food

Manhattans

Armagnac

Smoked seafood

Exotic, air-flown fresh fish

Game (smoked and otherwise)

Eggs

Milk

Olive oil tastings

Butterless popcorn

Good old American chocolate

Ginger ale

Rich coffee with cream

Extra creamy desserts

Turkey dogs

Spas and spa food

Unsalted butter

Cocktail parties

Midnight breakfast with friends

Quiet, dark restaurants

Korean barbecue

Decanters

Aussie milkshake

Vegemite

W’s IN LIST:

Potatoes (baked or mashed)

San Pellegrino (without ice but with lime)

Owning your own vineyard in Burgundy

The Connaught Grill

Chocolate

La Grenouille

Lutece

Good basic Italian food

Cocktails

Creme brulee

Indochine, the New York restaurant

Cafe Nicholson, New York’s most eccentric restaurant

American chefs

Being naughty at lunch

Fog City Diner

Breakfast parties

Spinach

Plain American food: roast chicken, waffles, corn on the cob

OUR OUT LIST:

Pasta salads

Croissants

Croissant sandwiches

The next Northern Italian restaurant

Being naughty at lunch

Ashtrays on the table

Getting too drunk

Cajun (anything blackened)

High-tech restaurant decor

Depression-era restaurant decor

Electric knife

Designer vegetables

Baby food (mousses)

Ultra nouvelle cuisine

American versions of European chocolates

Mass-produced chocolate chip cookies

Muffins wrapped in plastic

Catered delicatessen food

Grazing

Tapas

Thai-mania

Crash dieting

Trail mix

Chips and pretzels and bean dips

Sushi bars

Wine coolers

Frozen foods

Crepes

Margarine

Carrot cake

W’s OUT LIST:

Food at the Four Seasons

Smoking between courses

Chi-chi French food and sauces

Talking on the phone in a restaurant

Baby vegetables

Spago, the Los Angeles restaurant

The Napa Valley

Cajun food

Chi-chi restaurants where people go to be seen

Le Gavroche, the London restaurant

Pasta salad

Obsessively healthy diets

Lucas Carton, the Paris restaurant

The Carlyle restaurant (but the hotel is very in)

Mitsukoshi (food in, service out)

Wine coolers