WONDERING what might be big on foodie wish lists this Christmas?

If the results of Food Forward, a new survey tracking trends for 2012, are on the money - it could be anything from a swish $2000 kitchen gadget called a Thermomix, to a block of designer hand-churned butter or even a primer on Korean food, predicted to soar in popularity next year.

Sous-vide cooking, which involves sealing food in a plastic bag and immersing it in water at a low heat, South American flavour combos and bitter greens such as wasabi leaves and cavolo nero (black kale) are also tipped to feature large in foodie culture next year.

Taste columnist and MasterChef presenter Matt Preston is backing the rise of Korean cooking, dubbing 2012 "`the year of kimchi'' .

Kimchi is a popular Korean fermented seasoned cabbage dish.

"US chefs like Roy Choi and David Chang are some of the most influential chefs in the world at the moment and there's a new generation of international chefs with Korean heritage also coming through.'' he said.

"2012 will be the year of kimchi but we'll see it used instead of sauerkraut on a dude food burger.''

Flavour pairings from the Americas and Korea are mentioned as being particularly on-trend by survey respondents.

Preston also notes specialty butters as an emerging fad and tips we'll see more of ancient grains like quinoa next year but doubts wasabi leaves will appear on supermarket shelves anytime soon.

``People cooking purple carrots at home - that's a definite trend because Coles has only just started stocking them,'' he said.

Preston also predicted the continued rise of shopping centre fine-dining in 2012 and says wild foods will be increasingly important.

Eclairs will score fans as the new macaron and anything smoked - from butter to ice cream - will also be hot.

The Food Forward survey was conducted by PR company, Weber Shanwick in a bid to feel the pulse of the culinary community.

Over 1000 foodies were surveyed.

Other results discovered cooks were keener than ever to buy products which allow them to make "semi-homemade'' culinary masterpieces.

And after years of fusion being a dirty word in the kitchen we are also ready to take a ``borderless'' approach in the kitchen, combining ethnic flavours and ingredients from around the world.

This week, Google also released its Zeitgeist list of top searches for the 2011. Along with Kim Kardashian, the top celebrity, and Justin Beiber, most popular image search, came a classic American recipe, red velvet cupcakes as well as cake pops, a novety hybrid of a lollypop and cake..

TOP 10 GOOGLE food and drink searches

1. red velvet cupcakes

2. cake pops

3. macaroon

4. massaman curry

5. anzac biscuits

6. pork belly

7. quinoa

8. pizza

9. ice cream sundae

10.scrambled eggs