| What's
New
Fancy Food Show Digest
 NASFT
Fancy Food Shows take time to digest, both conceptually and
literally.
That’s because 2,390 members of the National Association
for the Specialty Food Trade produce, manufacture, import, distribute and
retail more than 180,000 specialty food products. And each year, thousands
of these products are shown, and tasted, at the Spring (Chicago), Summer (New York), and Winter (San Francisco) shows.
The array of temptations boggles the mind. Chocolate, new
cooking oils and seasonings dominated the trends this year. Health benefits
and flavor variety continue to grow in importance.
Chocolate
for Health
Dark chocolate is growing
in popularity, partly because it’s America’s
favorite candy flavor, but also because, it,
too, has been found to be a rich source
of antioxidants.
Guittard Chocolate
Company introduced its new single origin tasting kit
of assorted bars of Sur del Lago, Quevedo,
Chucuri and Ambanja
varietals, complete with an E. Guittard
Chocolate Education Booklet.
 Schokinag
Chocolate of North America debuted two
new drinking chocolate flavors to increase its lineup to nine.
The latest are Moroccan Spice Drinking Chocolate and Chocolate
Mint Drinking Chocolate. Other top choices are Triple
Chocolate (dark and milk chocolate microchips dusted with cocoa powder),
Chocolate Mocha (milk and white chocolate microchips with Columbian
coffee), and Extreme Dark™ (79% cocoa microchips dusted
with cocoa powder).
Dagoba
Chocolate Origin Tasting Squares
Dagoba Chocolate is now bringing the
first Certified Organic single origin chocolates
to consumers nationwide. These feature cacao from Costa
Rica (Pacuare), Ecuador (Los
Rios) and Peru (Milagros).
They’re also packaging
several intriguing “Art of Chocolate Alchemy” kits
to acquaint connoisseurs with the full range of their intriguingly
flavored organic chocolates.
The finest-tasting, in our opinion, of all fine chocolate at
the show was the Domori line.
Altogether, Domori produces 18
different products, but the highlight of the show was their
new Hacienda San Jose selection estate-grown
criollo clones from Venezuela. More about Domori’s
story later.
New Cooking Oils Come With Health Claims
Since trans
fats have become culinary pariahs, new cooking oils are gaining
ground, with many making health claims. Carotino,
a blend of canola and red palm fruit
oil,
promises weight loss, as well as reduced risk of cancer and heart
disease. Salute
Santé Grapeseed
Oil. citing various medical journals,
says it “magnifies the properties of Vitamin E,
contains valuable antioxidants and essential fatty acids, has
zero cholesterol or
trans-fatty acids, has a high smoke point .
. . “, while
Mac Nut Oil,
pressed from macadamia nuts in Australia, touts
that “finally doctors & chefs
agree.” Claiming
to be highest in monounsaturates, rich in antioxidants,
low in pro-inflammatory omega-6, it is certified by the Australian
National
Heart Foundation.
Sensational Seasonings
Other
enhancements turn ordinary foods sublime as well.
To
begin, you can simply spice things up with some interesting seasonings.
Starting with a splash
of O
Olive Oil’s newest flavored champagne
vinegar, the sublimely berry-delicious O Cassis Vinegar.
Salt
Works
Or,
add one of the Salt
Works’ artisan
sea salts to your cooking: a
smoky Fumee de Sel, a Murray
River or Himalayan sea salt,
perhaps. A sampler set is available.
Spices from Nirmala's Kitchen
Or, add
Nirmala’s
Kitchen spice
or rice blends to globalize your culinary repertoire. Australian
wattle seed or lemon myrtle, Ethiopian
berbere, Guyanese masala or Peruvian
Inca aji, for example, will heighten the flavor profile
of any meal and make any dinner more memorable.
Nando’s South
African-style spicy sauces will add zip as well. Based on peri-peri chile peppers,
originally popularized by the Portuguese in their African
colonies, the sauces
and marinades are new to the U.S. market. Nando’s
Chickenland restaurants are found throughout Africa,
the U.K., Australia,
New Zealand, Israel and the Mideast and are famous
for their Peri-Peri Marinated flame-grilled chicken.
Another unique seasoning is rather an invention that
everyone at the booth wondered why they hadn’t
thought of: Callison’s
Seasoned Skewers. These sticks are infused
with essential oils and flavors, to be pierced directly into any
meat that you want to season for barbecuing. Flavors include Honey
Bourbon, Thai Coconut Lime, Citrus
Rosemary, Mexican Fiesta, Garlic
Herb and Indian Mango Curry.
Last but not least, Torani,
masters of the art of flavorings, has a new culinary line for foodservice
use. Torani
Pure Flavor lets you
create signature sauces, soups, dressings, desserts
and beverages with the natural flavor of fresh herbs, spices and botanicals.
Flavors include Ancho Chile, Basil, Cilantro, Garden
Mint, Lemon Verbena and Thai
Ginger.
More than simply a trade show, the NASFT Fancy Food Show is a combination
of culinary inspiration and a testimony to human ingenuity.
For
beverage trends from the NASFT Fancy
Food Show, Tea
Time Updated and It's Cocktail Time—somewhere
in the world!
|
