While you won't find lichen winning any beauty contests, cushuro, on the other hand, possesses an otherworldly allure which has seen its popularity rocket in recent years. It is, as Lima's Robert Ortiz described it, 'natural caviar' and is found in Peru where rainwater from the Andes solidifies in the cold air before hitting the ground. Through this process the balls absorb plant proteins and striking colour from the grass and ground, meaning no two cushuro look the same. In Peru they are often used to add nutritional might to vegetable stews, although it is arguably their aesthetic qualities which appeal to chefs. Ortiz recently featured cushuro on the menu at Lima in a dish celebrating the Peruvian landscape, with cushuro, kiwicha and edible flowers creating an earthy base for toasted ants to sit on.

Like so many food trends, tinniruma lived a long and peaceful life as a cheap and plentiful ingredient favoured by Sicilian families before chefs discovered its potential. The sturdy green stalks come from the Sicilian vegetable cucuzza (a word which also means 'useless person' in Italian slang, so avoid bellowing it across a supermarket if you can) and work beautifully in soups, stews and pasta dishes or simply served as a side dish with a little hit of garlic and chilli. Pino Cuttaia, one of the earliest advocates of tinniruma as a gourmet ingredient, pairs the leaves with onion and ricotta to create a creamy filling for his elegant seafood ravioli.

While seaweed has formed a staple part of cuisines around the world for centuries it's a relative newcomer in the world of fine dining outside of Japanese cuisine. Making up for lost time, seaweed has been hailed as one of this year's major food trends and dishes garnished with a liberal dusting of powdered nori is a not uncommon sight on dishes in fine dining establishments around the country. To make your own, simply blitz two sheets of nori in a food processor to form a fine powder and use to add a dramatic hit of colour to canapés, salads and seafood dishes.

Agretti, the so-called 'land seaweed' native to Italy, looks a little like a sleeker, less knobbly samphire. The two plants are, in fact, related, but the comparatively mild taste of the former means it is widely used beyond merely seafood dishes. While it has long been considered a delicacy in Italy, increased exposure on television and restaurant menus has resulted in rocketing demand from both chefs and home cooks alike. The traditional Italian way of preparing agretti is simply paired with lemon juice and olive oil – Cristina Bowerman tops her agretti salad with a juicy veal fillet for a vibrant, oh-so-Italian supper.