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N.A.S.F.T Fancy Food Show NY 2010

Published: 06/28/2010 by Charles J. Di Bartolo

» Restaurant Trends

The N.A.S.F.T Fancy Food Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center is the Food Event of the year. Everyone in the industry is there. There are over 2,400 exhibitors from 80 countires. There are thousands of food and beverage samples.  Italian food products seemed to be almost half of the show. We stopped in on Colavita USA. They had a large inviting booth on the 800 aisle. It was beautifully set up with an espresso bar.  The entrance allowed you access into the area, then gave you a private browsing and tasting experience at the espresso bar or in a private meeting area. The design of the display area was well done. Colavita's olive oils were prominantly dispayed along with their premium pastas, sauces, marinated vegetables and dishes of Bache Perugina chocolate was readily available for snacking. One of the items we found interesting for restaurants was the Colavita antipasti and marinated vegetables. The fruits and vegetables are marinated in a delicious blend of  Colavita's extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, white wine vinegar and herbs.  Some of the newer mixes were grilled eggplant, classic basil pesto and sundired tomato pesto. They're all natural, contain no preservatives and the samples were delicious. I was told they have food services packaging that is perfect for restaurants. Colavita is located in Linden, NJ and they can be contacted at 908-862-5454. Any restaurant not using Colavita's Olive oil is missing out on quality and flavor..

Getting back to the make up of the Fancy Foods Show, it seemed like one third of the show was made up of Italian food products. about twenty percent seemed to be occupied by French food products. We visited and sampled from pastas and cheeses from Italy, Wine, Jams, Cheeses and appetizers from France, a variety of foods from Greece, figs and dates from Turkey, specialty foods from India, a wide variety of cheeses from Holland and many more.

One thing I noticed was a lack of distributors for new and different products at the show. There were a lot of new faces with inoovative and great tasting foods, but they were looking to be discovered by importers and distributors. There seemd to be very few distributors and importers looking for new products at the show. It seems to be a sign of the times. There are alot of new food companies trying to bring new specialty items to market in america, but there don't seem to be enough food importrs and distributors available to handle the new products. I also noticed that many of the companies firmly embedded in the market have not introduces many new products. The question is have distributors decided not to promote new products, or have consumers stopped asking for them?

We stopped in the japanese section of the food show. Two companies that caught my interest were Iron Chef and Baycliff Sushi Chef Company. Iron Chef was promoting their Iron Chef sauces and marinades which are excellent. Some of their sauces include Sesame garlic, General Tso's - a hot and spicy selection, Orange sauce, Mu-Shu, Tai and Teriyaki.  Baycliff Sushi Chef has a larger selection of products.

We also perused the India pavilion, Turkey, Greece and many hundreds of vendors. Too many to mention.

We ran into a company called Corsica Gastronomia, founded by Charles Antona in 1991  Charles Antona Corsican Specialties. They were sampling their jams and jellies. Corsica Gastronomia doesn't use coloring preservatives or artificial flavors in their products.  They also have an organic line. Corsica Gastonomia sampled jams, jellies and chutneys. We tried delicious fig jam they recommended with goat cheese that was excellent. Their orange marmalade was also very good They were looking for a distriibutor in America for their products. I am not a fan of jellies or jams but these products were extraordinary. combining these jams with the right cheeses could be a new trend in appetizers for the restaurant industry. 

We sampled pounds of cheese at the Fancy Food Show. There seemed to be a glut of Reggiano Parmiagiano for sampling. Many varieties were sported by dozens of companies. Most of them were very good. We ran into a few excellent cheeses distributed by DCI Cheese Company. We sampled a Pesto cheese, a sharp white cheddar and a sharp white cheddar spread. The two cheddars were excellent. They were manufacured by the Vandersterre Group International. The brands carried by this company were Prima Donna and Landana from Holland. The flavor of the two cheddars we sampled were top notch. The pesto cheese was OK. I thought the two cheddars were excellent though.

 

We only had one day to view the whole show. It definitely was not enough time. My family was in the food business for 40 years and you cant just spend thirty seconds at each booth. I couldn't give all of the booths at the Fancy Food Show their due credit, but if you're in the business you should be there every year. This show is the place to get ideas, find new companies and trends, and get a leg up on the competition. 

I found a shortage of restaurant owners at the show this year. In my opinion in an economy like the one we're in. A good restaurantaur should be coming to shows like these to look for new reasons for their customers to try new dishes. Today people need a reason to visit your establishment and a new and trendt dish or something different is the best reason of all. It creates a buzz.