Key Insights From Our Autumn 2025 Seasonwatching Report

With the crunch of leaves beneath our feet and the scent of bonfires in the air, we dive head-first into the season to see what's been making waves this Autumn.

Here are three key takeouts from our Autumn 2025 seasonwatching report:

1. Think Fish: Hot on the heels of a surf 'n' turf renaissance, creative kitchens are turning to seafood where they'd classically employ meat. Sea-based swap-outs see classics such as steak-frites and tournedos Rossini re-imagined with fish playing the starring role. Why? Well, it could be cost-driven, or possibly a response to demand for lighter menu options, but most likely it's both, blended with a social media-driven desire for constant reinvention.
2. Beurre Noisette: Brown butter has emerged as a superstar ingredient of the season. By lightly burning their butter chefs create an umami-packed nutty flavour powerhouse that can be used across sweet and savoury applications. Any bakery worth its salt has at least one brown butter infused cookie, cake or traybake on offer, while restaurant and café riffs see it blended through mayo, stirred into coffee and rippled into soft serve ice cream.
3. Fighting Fatigue: The calendar's barely flipped over to autumn when ubiquitous 'pumpkin spice' latte (aka PSL) influence starts hitting… well, everywhere. That flavour, along with hot honey and toffee apple, are so widespread during the autumn season (and beyond) that operators and producers are having to think outside the box in order to be noticed in a saturated market. Cue wasabi honey, pumpkin spice sausages, toffee apple ale and many, many more besides; we do, however, draw the line at PSL dog biscuits (no, really, it's a thing!).