Archive for January, 2012

My Winter Fancy Food Un-trend List

By Susie, 20 January, 2012,

As someone who anticipates the day there’s a store called “Off Season” where you can buy perennial favorites (what the Gap used to be), after seeing all the trend spotters’ lists*, I decided to wrap up my favorite food twists from the January Fancy Food Show. I don’t see these as trends but good foods that are here to stay! Read ‘em and eat:

CRUNCH: Interesting chips – Loved the Wailana cassava chips, Mediterranean Snack lentil chips, and Simply 7 chips, which often had that “pop chips” style of composition, similar to rice crackers. A soft kind of fluffy crunch.

Healthy crunch – Fresh Sonoma Brinery pickles with fun, new branding and a whopping fresh crunch. (Sold in refrigerated sections, mostly on the West coast.)

CHEW: Lots ‘o salt caramel – Soft, firm, dippable (from Amella), uncoated, coated, mixed into ice cream. Well I had to taste them all. I’m one who will not mind if this trend entrenches itself alongside traditional unsalty caramels.

Savory chew pick – Kwik’Pak Fisheries salmon. Superlative lox, strips, and salmon bites, supporting traceable, wild caught salmon fishing in Alaska.

SOFT BITES: Fell madly in love with Bacetti ice cream bites from San Francisco. How did they choose pine nut / vanilla as the third flavor after chocolate and vanilla? Inspiration from Tuscany.

Tasting Jeni’s Ice Cream for the first time inspired a little video after I learned about her from-scratch process. (Many of the best, small ice cream makers start with an ice cream “base” made by a dairy or company because of onerous USDA dairy regulations.)

Yogurt in liquid, solid, frozen, and dips scattered the show floor. You’ve known Stonemill Kitchens for their artichoke dips. They’re now making Greek style yogurt dips in Oregon, I learned at Jeff Davis’ Food Fete. (I need to hear the backstory on the S.K. naming.) I could live on tzaziki and welcome any natural yogurt developments.

ZING: And salts – The Day After my eyes were puffy, not from crying or allergies, but the copious salt (and caramel) tasting. In the Real World you wouldn’t eat so much salt, but if you’re going to, naturally flavored salts like those from Eat Well farm and other favorites like Allstar Organics’ celery salt (found at Ferry Building Farmers Market) are where you should place your salt budgets (both consumption and monetary).

SIP: What more water? I continued to be surprised that the desire for new and different continues demand for new bottled waters. Let’s un-trend this!

What the Trend Spotters Saw

Denise Purcell at NASFT and their team of trend spotters

New Hope 360

Food experts like Amy Sherman, Margo True, et al

Gourmet Retailer

Procure: You very well know that many of the brands you discovered at the show are available for wholesale orders in a one-stop-shop format through Buyer’s Best Friend, distributed and billed by the manufacturer. You communicate directly with the company so it’s similar to emailing or calling them, only more convenient.

Good Food Awards + Fancy Food Show Celebrate the Makers

By Susie, 14 January, 2012,

It does not bode well that I somehow justified eating Xocolatl de David‘s Raleigh Bar that Foodzie is featuring in their Tasting Box at 5:30am. After all, though, it does include bacon in the caramel, and that isn’t so different from having a sticky bun with a side of bacon. Maybe even healthier. They say “life is short; eat dessert first.” And so I did. And it was good. Very good.

Super soft caramel, delicate pecan nougat, ample salt. The perfect breakfast.

So begins my favorite time of year–a celebration of incredible foods, entrepreneurship, and people connecting in person.

That is–the NASFT’s Fancy Food Show and the Good Food Awards, which took place last night and features the award-winning food crafters in a marketplace at the San Francisco Ferry Building today along with the Saturday farmers market.

Some choice tidbits from the awards ceremony speeches:

Coffee roasters must collaborate and be passionate, patient, and methodical.

Beer makers all want to see each other succeed even though we’re competitors.

Clear Creek Distillery wanted to start making eau de vie in the 80s for a multitude of reasons: to provide jobs, save watersheds, avoid losing the farm, and offset bad crop years. Steve McCarthy said:

Spirits makers have to make stuff that wows sommeliers. Forget about the branding. Make good products and the brand will follow. We can’t get support from buyers unless they know exactly what they’re getting. The labels should say who made it what is in it, not some puffy language that conceals it was unloaded from a truck and bottled as an artisan product.

Clear Creek bought more than one million pounds of Oregon fruit this year to make its eau de vie.

It was good.

Teaching Your Craft – Do Food Products & Classes Compete ?

By Susie, 9 January, 2012,

Will teaching your craft compete with your own artisan food sales? Maybe, but the truth is people who want to learn to preserve are even more likely to appreciate your own foods. In the bay area, June Taylor, Happy Girl Kitchen, and Blue Chair Fruit are just a few of the crafters who supplement their product sales with classes ranging from $50 to several hundred dollars. Many chocolatiers take the approach of teaching skills to make candy at home, or writing a book–as Nina Wanat of the former Bon Bon Bar did for home confection making–without sharing trade secrets.

I had the pleasure of attending a marmalade class with Happy Girl. It impressed me how Jordan Champagne gave us the full scoop on how they make their marmalades. Much as when I learned how difficult it is to craft silver jewelry in a metal-working class, I now feel “closer” to their products with an affinity and more likely to appreciate the products’ pricing. That makes me happy.

Heard any “horror” stories of those who learned to fish?

Built to Last: 135 Marzipan Makers and Niederegger

By Susie, 2 January, 2012,

German Candy Industry Report: Part 1

Making candy is a centuries old profession, easy to start yet difficult to master and develop a cult following. If you think the environment for candy is competitive today, hearken back to the early 1800s, when the medieval town of Lubeck, Germany was home to 135 marzipan “companies.” Back then companies were likely a small storefrontwith the basics found in an old fashioned candy store–a kettle, marble slabs, some molds.

I recently learned about the region’s delicious history–a place where the museum features figures carved in marzipan rather than wax–on a tour of mid-sized candy and chocolate factories with the German Sweets association. Since 1996, “Lübecker Marzipan,” from Lübeck in northern Germany, has been protected by an EU Council Directive as a “Protected Geographical Indication” (PGI) much like Champagne.

Niederegger Museum Marzipan History Map

Who needs a wax museum when you can have a marzipan museum? (Niederegger Museum Marzipan)

“That’s the marzipan I get at Cost Plus!” a friend exclaimed. Sold in 40 countries and on all continents, Niederegger‘s 500 dedicated* employees churn out about 30 tons of marzipan paste per day. If Lubeck could solve its debt problems with marzipan, everyone would be happy. Despite tough times the company’s sales have done quite well. Much like the “sin” products, they’ve found a little marzipan makes life rosier.

*One just retired after 45 years!

niederegger marzipan

Our Factory Tour

It was an almond lover’s dream. After a steam blanching, winnowing to remove the skins, six women sit, pulling out any odd or unskinned almonds.

Overhead conveyors filled with almond paste dumped the mixtures into the vats. After roasting, the mixture cools in a 500-kilo capacity vat. Steaming dry ice does the job. We tasted chunks of freshly ground paste scooped out of the copper kettles, as well as the marzipan after roasting–which happens after the sugar is mixed with the almond paste. “Eat a lot,” our guide urged us.” We need to finish it all.” Sigh.

Through an extruder in which about 10 inch square logs of sugared almond paste squeeze through, chopped into 18 inch blocks, weighing about 15 kg, which are then wrapped to be aged in plastic cartons. There the flavor develops.

After aging, the special flavors such as a European rose water are added. Then it’s off to the enrobing lines where stamped out hearts take shape.

The seasonal-shaped marzipans are what’s really special. In December, Easter production begins. An army of standing bunnies emerged on a conveyor belt, destined to be torched–with a creme brulee style-and eyes added by bespectacled women holding tiny paint brushes. Dot. Dot.

Nearby, workers laboriously press molds with marzipan, just as in old times, for custom orders or as cake toppers. Consumers and businesses can order molds in any shape or saying, such as for corporate gifts. The company keeps the molds on hand for any future orders.

Some Business Best Practices

Niederegger handles export in-house to allow for quick decision making and personal relationships. They diversified with a series of German “nougat” products (which is similar to Italian gianduja), to reach non-marzipan loving candy lovers. The company does not private label and they would never entertain it due to their strong brand recognition and demand for their 300 products.

As with other factories we visited on this candy industry tour, employees at Niederegger are welcome to air any issues to management. Even broadcast news teams have visited the factory to see workers stretching and engaging in mini-workouts for ergonomic and overall health. Now a smoke-free company, it’s verboten to smoke during the workday. And production workers rotate roles for variety.

My Take

While it is a mystery as to how Niederegger charged ahead despite their 135 competitors two centuries ago, I can tell you today what impresses me:

Product: Less sugar means a more subtle refined flavor. It’s made simply with 70 percent Mediterranean origin almonds–the minimum percentage to be labeled “Lubeker marzipan”–along with sugar, a touch of rose water, and another secret ingredient. On the contrary many lower-priced marzipans have up to 50 percent sugar.
Packaging: A variety of packaging for personal consumption and gift giving (tins, souvenir boxes, adorable seasonal packs). Delicate sparkly vibrant foil wrapping and informational paper wrapped around each of the rectangular pieces. Old fashioned elegance. The thin foil just feels good on your fingers.
Price: All of the above allows the company to charge a sustainable price.