The next quinoa, sci-fi powdered meals and, inevitably, insects – what you will be served up in 2019.

Only a few years back, a powder meal would have been ridiculed as 1970s sci-fi imaginings. Today, it’s a consideration, as is dinner made by robots. While futurist eaters are turning to technology, in contrast, top chefs are embracing vegetables gently grown using horsepower and pre-industrial methods. Similarly, as veganism goes mainstream, we’re seeing a widening schism between vegans and carnivores (it seems eons ago when in 2016 relaxed veggies and meat-eating flexitarians lived in harmony). Food activism is pivotal for 2019, though thankfully, there’s a smudge of hedonism to indulge in, too. If you really want to keep up, just be sure to ingest the following comprehensive guide with a mushroom latte or preferably, a Greek wine.

Budge up quinoa – welcome fonio, the ethical West African alternative. Senegalese-born New York chef Mr Pierre Thiam is taking the grain to the international stage, distributing it via Amazon and Whole Foods. As the new food paradigm shifts to all things vegan, aquafaba – chickpea juice used as an egg white alternative – is soaring, used in everything from cocktails to cakes. Britain’s debut food-waste aquafaba mayo by sustainable food brand Rubies in the Rubble arrives this winter.

Growing global influences include unheard of spices and hyper regional dishes such as Hyderabadi jheenga poori and Tamil nadu idli from the Indian subcontinent. Herb-wise, it’s all cannabinoids, and unusual leaves such as shisito (a sweet, east Asian pepper) and holy basil.

The new pizza? Khachapuri, a podgy soft cheese-filled dough from Georgia. The botanical is the douglas fir – no less than The Ritz is a fan of its piney fruitiness. L’Enclume in Cumbria makes douglas fir milkshake, while Mr James Cochran’s 1251 in Islington does a mean spruce G&T.

For robotics, look up Moley Robot, a humanoid with steel hands which slices, whisks and cooks. The proliferation of queue dodging apps continues: Skip The Line, Clever Queue, and Qudini are leaders.

The latest high-tech meal? Huel powder is predicted to win over rivals, Soylent and Saturo. Irish chef Mr Richard Corrigan – owner of Bentley’s in Mayfair – conducted a taste test, deeming Huel acceptable over the “chalky flavour” of Saturo and the “soul-destroying blandness” of Soylent. For bakers, get milling your own flour for 2019. The electric grinder Mockmill 200 is the tool for the job.

Regenerative agriculture is gathering pace. Culinary A-listers such as Brat’s Mr Tomos Parry and St Leonard’s Mr Jackson Boxer like their veg from farmers using horsepower only – and ideally picked under the moon. Also, you really should be eating hyper-local – an antidote to intensively farmed veg flown across the planet – which means harvesting quite literally five metres to fork. Heatwaves in the UK are twice as long as they were 50 years ago, sub-zero days are fewer. So what’s to replace staple crops suffering from drought and disease? Step forward the humble turnip – Waitrose’s annual report reveals sales are rocketing.

Arrivederci turmeric tea. Buongiorno mushroom latte. Wine-wise, it’s all Greek. And Georgian for fashionable orange vinos. Sales of apple cider vinegar, booming in supermarkets, is attributed to the hot trend for fermenting, pickling and shrubbing. Time capsule cocktails are ripe for pickings, too. International bar darling Mr Ryan Chetiyawardana is making cocktails in bottles, left to lie down for one-to-five years. They’re available now.

Women chefs are challenging the status quo, from London’s Ms Asma Khan with her untrained all-female brigade at Darjeeling Express, to Hong Kong’s Ms Peggy Chan and her mission to promote plant matter, to Portland’s Ms Naomi Pomeroy. The wellness obsession has inexorably evolved to neurogastronomy. Gut health remains, but brain food in restaurants is here. On this note, celebrity diners are eschewing meat at a rate of knots. Among the vegan posse is everyone from Ms Natalie Portman to Mr Liam Hemsworth. Shedding its puritanical feathers, vegan is getting dirty: see NY’s JaJaJa, specialising in empanadas and nachos or try vegan cocktails at London’s Temple of Seitan.

Insects are no longer a fad but a serious option. At a party catering for Mr Justin Timberlake, Mr René Redzepi from Noma served guests fried ants slathered in black garlic and rose oil. A team from London’s King's College and Ningbo University in China measured calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc levels in various insects and sirloin steak. Insects beat steak hands down, even in iron. The insect start-up market is booming.

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