Fancy Food Show… Again? Oh Yes!

My feet and my belly are have just about recovered from a full day at the bi-annual Fancy Food Show. Since living in San Francisco, attendance at this B2B show has become an annual ritual for me. The east coast show is typically held in New York every summer and is about three times larger than its west coast counterpart held in January. With nearly 2,500 booths showcasing food and beverages from around the world, meandering through the aisles tasting samples can produce equal amounts tantalizing delicious “omg” and nauseating “eww” moments. No spitting allowed that would be simply rude; the trick is to have plenty of tissues on hand!

Lists of what’s hot and what’s not are popping up across the Internet from mainstream media like CBS , and the New York Post to blogs like National Eater. The folks at epi-log  cite the dubious presence of bacon in everything, unnecessary semi home-made products and flavored waters on their worst list. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds, cheese crackers, chocolate for wine, ecological honey, natural ketchup, gluten-free chips rank among their new favorite things.

Well, everyone has their preference and everyone’s list will vary – which is why there were over 180,000 products exhibited at the show in the first place! If we all had the same palettes there would be no food industry to speak of or blog about. There’s such a vast array of foods – the idea of making a list is a tad overwhelming. For me I try to ascertain the overall trends – the big picture stuff!

Before I ventured into the halls, I looked at the floor plan and was amazed to see the size of the Italian Pavilion (companies can choose to be assigned to booths along their compatriots under a national banner); despite the emergence and growing popularity of food and wines from Spain; Americans are still  enjoying their love affair with Italian food. Of note too was the increased presence of their Mediterranean neighbors from the Middle East (Cyprus, Jordan, Palestine) and North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco). Indeed Africa had quite a large pavilion while Australia and New Zealand were absent at least on the national level.

(credit www.i-italy.org)

This year, the overwhelming take-away was that if your product is not all natural, organic, gluten-free, whole grain, vegan, zero trans-fat, sustainably produced, anti-oxidant rich or any combination of the above then you might as well close up and go home! Florence Fabricant in her weekly New York Times column agrees makes a similar observation and comments on how the divide between ‘healthy’ and “fancy’ food has become blurred. Maybe they need to rename the show “Healthy Food Show” or better yet “Silly Food Show.” Seriously? It’s food people…food that we eat because of how it tastes! Yes there are people who have serious food-related illnesses but the amount of non-taste claims on packaging these days makes you wonder what has become of real food.

This year I noticed an absence of the “mom and pop” style brands – the down-home, made in my kitchen products that despite their hokey branding taste great and the folks behind them inspire you with their passion. Did the recession get the better of these companies or have they upgraded their branding?

On the quirky side, there were a lot of toothpaste-like tubes showing up in surprising places. Cocktail anyone? Make mine a gin and tonic please. Almond butters, cheese spread, Korean sauces  and umani paste, were a little less weird uses of this “bathroom” packaging.

Finally one noticeable trend (I saved the best for last) was that exhibitors were saying attendees were placing orders! The world of specialty food is very susceptible to economic down turns so if retailers are buying, it suggests that consumers are loosening their purse strings and that’s good news for all us! And good eats too!

PS Okay so I gotta share my new favorite find; John Kelly truffle fudge bars – rich, creamy tuffled chocolate bars in scrumptious fresh flavor combinations.  The long bars are a novel format; made for sharing, sliver by decadent sliver. Go to www.johnkellychocolates.com to see for yourself. They are based in Los Angeles and I wonder how close to our LA office they are and will I have time to shop when I visit next month.