Gourmet News

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!

SFA Honors Gourmet News as Lifelong Member

Published June 13, 2022

2022 marks the first in-person Summer Fancy Food Show since the pandemic as well as the association’s 70th anniversary. SFA honored four lifelong members, including Gourmet News, in its award ceremony June 12.

“Founded in 1952, the SFA (formerly known as the National Association for Specialty Food Trade, represents members involved in the specialty food trade, according to the association.

Gourmet News Publisher Kimberly Oser accepted the honor after the first day of the Summer Fancy Food Show.

Other lifelong members honored were Chipurnoi Inc., Liberty Richter and Roland Foods, LLC.

The 100 sofi Award winners were announced in May, though the top two honors, Product of the Year and New Product of the Year were announced last night.

Sterling Caviar‘s Royal Grade White Sturgeon Caviar was named Product of the Year and Tait Farm Foods‘ The Original Shrub – Lime Mint was declared New Product of the Year.

Leadership Awards were given to Kathrine Gregory of The Entrepreneur Incubator Space LLC won the Business Leadership Award, Joe Hanni of PS Seasoning won the Citizenship Award and Tom Simmons of the Supplant Company won the Vision Award.

Since the Summer show wasn’t held last year, 2021 Hall of Fame inductees were honored: Becky Renfro Borbolla of Renfro Foods, Inc.; Sandra Jackson Ford of Ford’s Foods, Inc.; Lorenza Pasetti of Volpi Foods; Donato Cinelli of Universal Marketing SRI; Lou Foah of Foah International LLC, and Greg Hinson of O Olive Oil & Vinegar.

2022 Hall of Fame inductees honored were Marygrace Sexton of Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company; Pierluigi Sini of Forever Cheese; Ted Dennard of Savannah Be Company, Inc.; Caryl Levine and Ken Lee of Lotus Foods; and Dariuish Soofer and Jamshid Soofer of Sadaf Foods.

Lifetime Award winners for 2021 honored were Trish Pohanka of WaterBox LLC and Sotiris Kitrilakis of Big Picture Foods.

Lifetime Award winners for 2022 honored were G. Michael Grazier of Busseto Foods and Rex Howell-Smith of Central Market – Texas.

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2022 Summer Fancy Food Show, Day 1

Published June 12, 2022

The Specialty Food Assoociation’s Summer Fancy Food Show opened on Sunday, June 12, with many expressing how happy they were being back to the show in person. Here are some snippets from today’s floor:

SNAX showed up with its variety of Cookie Pops (I’m munching on the newest flavor, Nutter Butter, as I write this). It all started with a Butterfinger/popcorn combo and grew from there. I’m saving my bag of Butterfinger popcorn for the plane ride home. The packaging includes the logo of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (soon there’s be a QR code) and there are several flavors especially made for the foundation and SNAX to give to kids who learn about broadcasting and new media in the Seacrest Studios set up in pediatric hospitals. SNAX donates to the foundation and encourages individuals to donate, too.

The snacking company also has gluten-free Penne Straws, made from lentils and white beans, in various flavors such as Marinara, Cinnamon Churro and Mac ‘n Cheese.

I stopped by O’Food‘s booth with its first frozen food offering, Mandu, Korean dumplings, and Jongga products. Jongga makes the most popular packaged kimchi in Korea and is breaking into U.S. distribution. They were serving up Kimchi Grilled Cheese Sandwhich. It was maybe a bit early in the day to be eating kimchi, but it’s delicious.

Keep an eye out for De Nigris‘ newest import, which ironically is its IGP certified Balsalmic Vinegar of Modena, honoring a strict tradition of quality balsamic.

I was honored to meet Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods, and her daughter (and CEO in training) Misha. Julie has an extraordinary story of fleeing the Soviet Union (in what is now Ukraine) with her parents, going through Rome before landing in Chicago with little money, no home and speaking no English. With the help of refugee settlement groups, the family eventually settled into American life. Her mother began importing Slavic foods (and Nutella!) when she realized there were few homeland foods here. It was her father who realized that American had everything but kefir. He built a plant while Julie’s mom imported the kefir used to create Lifeway. I tasted the strawberry Lifeway Kefir (yum) and the company’s newest oat milk (the Peaches and Cream was delicious).

Julie has launched a special package of Charity Relief Kefir cultured whole milk in blue and gold packaging, to raise funds for Ukraine relief. You’ll be reading more about Julie and her amazing journey in the August issue of Gourmet News.

It was great to see our friend Patrick Ford of Ford’s Foods behind the counter at the Bone Suckin’ Sauce booth, dishing out the company’s newest sauces, Sweet Southern in original and (my favorite) hot. Later, he represented his mother, Sandra Jackson Ford, who was inducted into the SFA Hall of Fame, 2021 class.

Our friends at Stonewall Kitchen had many of its family of brands on display. I tasted ther Bloody Mary Mix — what a great way to fit all your veggies in (it was a “virgin” version).

I was eager to meet the sibling team, Diana Hecht and Tony Rabinovich, whose family has been making perogies for decades in Canada and now is launching Holy Perogy, frozen ready to heat packages of perogies. Diana swears they taste just as good as the family recipe served in restaurants. Unfortunately, due to all the restrictions on serving food at trade shows, they weren’t offering samples. Diana is the extroverted face of the product, too.

Chef Mario Carbone of Carbone Fine Food offered to show folks how he made meatballs and the booth quickly filled with eager students. I couldn’t hear him, but I got to taste the meatballs (melt in your mouth, which makes them a tad dangerous because that only makes me want to eat more) and … I got the recipe and coupon!

Crispy Filled, Inc. launched the rebranding of its Rösti brand of crispy filled potato products, under the new brand name, Rösti Stuft Spuds. The change in brand name, accompanied with a re-design of the carton graphics was made in response to market research data and consumer feedback received during the brand’s first full year in the market. I mean, hey, potatoes and cheese – what’s not to like? I loved them.

One of my favorite products so far is Jordan’s Skinny Syrups in the Mermaid flavor (it actually is tropical citrus and bright blue, like blue curacao). With no calories or sugar, it makes water taste like a cocktail. They encourage people not to be shy squirting the concoction from the plastic bottle, but not TOO enthusiastic like the poor guy in white pants who walked away from the booth with blue-streaked white pants. The company also makes no calories/no sugar mixes, too. I tasted the Margarita mix, which was lightly sweet and would be perfect with a splash of lime. I love the woman-owned company’s tag line, “Strong Drinks, Strong Women.

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