Monday, July 11, 2011

Best Bites of the 2011 Fancy Food Show


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Imagine a giant cocktail party – an event so big you’d need a map to find your friends. Everywhere you look, people are nibbling things off toothpicks and licking stuff off spoons. You can’t turn around without someone waving a squeeze bottle of hummus at you.

Oh, what fun Hieronymus Bosch would have painting the Fancy Food Show, a carnival of eats that takes place twice a year. The event brings new products to the attention of retailers, but it’s also a chance for the press to put on badges and gorge.

I have so many wheels and wedges to show you and so many celebrity cheese visages to honor that I will split this post in two. First, an overview. For my next post, the complete cheese redux.

Trends & Observations

It’s certainly the Year of the Goat. Everywhere I turned, someone was waving a goat’s milk caramel. I must have sampled a dozen kinds. The best was Happy Goat caramel spiked with Scotch.
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Bacon is still hot, and now you can find it in popcorn and chocolate. I think I am hitting my limit, except for a new Skillet Bacon Spread. It was terrific with cheese on a cracker.
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Cherries are the new pomegranate.
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The rice cake is not dead. Everywhere I looked, machines were spewing out popped grains and pressing Styrofoam-like cakes into forms. Say no to rice cakes drizzled with chocolate and topped with streusel.
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Purple sweet potato ice cream exists. And fyi: it’s delicious.
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Cheese and artisanal chocolate will take over the world. I sampled nib after nib and wedge after wedge. Beware: Lots of new chocolate packaging looks like Vosges knock-offs. Vosges debuted a chocolate-chip cookie mix, and the samples were bank.
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Bye bye chai, hello boxed hot chocolate. No loss there.
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Crackers are undergoing a renaissance. So are cheese straws.
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Bamboo. Bamboo. Bamboo.
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Adult sodas, with less sugar and labels that call to mind bath salts, are the new Snapple.
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Behold boozy jams and savory spreads that pair well with cheese and charcuterie.
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On the fringes: buffalo-based snack bars, grow-your-own-mushroom kits, and honey in handpumps.
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Best Bites

Best Blue Cheese: Flora Nelle, Rogue River
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Best New European Cheese: Lord of the Hundreds
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Best New American Cheese: Reading Raclette
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Best Cracker: Pan Forte Crostini from Rustic Bakery
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Best cheese combination: Halloumi with Meyer Lemon Relish, Bella Cucina
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Best pickle: Lavender White Asparagus, Brooklyn Brine
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Best Spread: Fruit Caviar, The Fine Cheese Co.
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Best Chocolate Novelty: Askinosie Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
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Best Cheese Display: Cypress Grove's “Cheese Cake”
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3 comments:

  1. Fancy indeed!
    That Lord of Hundreds....
    That Askinoise spread....
    That cookie mix...
    Tell me you brought a hamper home!

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  2. I miss the FFS being in Chicago so thanks for a terrific overview! Nice to see some favorites and to double check my trendy savvy. I didn't do too bad!Looking forward to the cheese overview!

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  3. Thanks for sharing your faves - I missed this one! The new Fine Cheese toasts in particular look scrumptious!

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