2022 Summer Fancy Food Show, Day 2

Published June 14, 2022

Foot traffic ramped up for the second day of the Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show. Though the entire show was contained to two floors, more than 1,800 companies came to exhibit products at the Javits Center in New York City. Another thing that people noticed:

“The energy,” said Jack Acree, EVP of Saffron Road, which wasn’t exhibiting.

Here are some notes from the second day:

I chatted with Richie Schiff of Acme Smoked Fish and tried the new sofi award-winning Togarashi salmon (so tender with a perfect blend of pepper and citrus that doesn’t overwhelm the smoked salmon). Richie has been with the four-generation family company (his childhood buddy brought him into the fold) based in Brooklyn and is VP of sales.

Personal first! I had my first egg cream soda, freshly made with Fox’s syrup by Brooklyn Seltzer Boys, and loved it! So unexpectedly refreshing. Fun fact: no eggs were harmed in the making of the soda. Somewhere, my Brooklyn-born mom is smiling down on me. Also at the L&S Packing Company booth, I got to taste two new sauces from our friends at Paesana.

The reputation that St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis has for its meats is well deserved, but let’s hear it for the shrimp cocktail, which is the only appetizer, served with a sauce sinus-clearing amount of horseradish. St. Elmo offered samples of plump shrimp with the cocktail sauce and we agreed that the horseradish was the star of the sauce.

One of my fave tastes for the day was at Don’s Prepared Foods, the Street Corn Dip with sweet corn. They also served Korean BBQ-Style CHICK’N (plant based) Bowl and Vanilla, Walnut and Raisin Cream Cheese, but I went back for more of the Street Corn Dip. If there were a bowl of that in front of me while watching a football game, I’d have no problem scarfing down the whole bowl!

I had the opportunity to meet Randa Filfili, CEO of Zena Exoticfruits from Senegal. Filili is working with Denisse Caracappa of Caracappa Culinary Consulting to bring Zena products with Senegal-grown fruits to the U.S. market. Products from this family-owned business range from pepper sauce to raw honey to peanut butter to natural syrups and jams. Zena is dedicated to not only making top-quality food products, but make the lives of farmers and women in Senegal better.

You’ll be hearing more about these companies and more who were at the Summer Fancy Food Show in the pages of Gourmet News. Subscribe now so you don’t miss anything!