Kathy Herring (left) and Linda Twining of Princeton, proprietors of Twin Hens, Inc., a producer of top-quality chicken pot pies, made their first appearance at the 49th Summer Fancy Food Show and added West Coast distribution to their existing local network.
An estimated 24,000 food industry professionals attended the show - chefs and restaurateurs, food retailers and specialty shop buyers, food journalists including Yours Truly - where we sampled from among the roughly 60,000 gourmet items displayed at the booths of 2,300 exhibitors. Anything you can think of (and many you couldn't begin to imagine) are there for the tasting, from duck bacon to yuzu rice vinegar to porcini wild mushroom spice rub -to name just three of my favorite new finds.
But first things first. Hearty congratulations are due Doris and Ed Simpson of Muirhead of Ringoes, Inc. The newest product in their line of specialty mustards, fruit butters and other condiments is Green Tomato Mincemeat, and it was a finalist for the show's most coveted award, "Outstanding New Product, 2003." To give you some idea of what an accomplishment this is, it was one of only seven finalists in its category, in a competition which netted almost 3,500 entries in 20 categories.
Being a finalist is nothing new for Muirhead. A few years back, their Pecan Pumpkin Butter was similarly honored and led to, among other things, shelf space at Williams-Sonoma stores.
The Simpsons have developed a number of recipes for using the green tomato mincemeat ($5.90 for a 14-ounce jar). They can be found on their Web site, www.muirheadfoods.com. Among them is a pie (some might call it the quintessential Thanksgiving pie) that incorporates a layer of mincemeat and a layer of pumpkin, but the green tomato mincemeat is also good spooned directly over pork chops or made into chewy bar cookies.
Another local food business, Twin Hens, Inc., exhibited at the show for the first time. For several years now Princeton residents Linda Twining and Kathy Herring have been making chicken pot pies from free-range chicken and eggs, using only organic ingredients. Their frozen pies are carried by Wegmans, Nassau Street Seafood, Terhune Orchards and the Whole Earth Center. However, the reception they received from buyers at the show was so positive that just days after it closed, Twin Hens was shipping pallets of pies to Thriftway stores on the West Coast.
Linda Twining had never so much as attended the Fancy Food Show before, much less exhibited at a booth, so she and Ms. Herring had no idea what to expect. "We had a sparse booth - just our sign and our pot pies. I think it actually worked to our advantage, because it was obvious we were new," she reports. Twin Hens plans to expand its line in the fall to shepherds pies made with buffalo. They have already reserved a booth at next year's show.
Speaking of pot pies, Hancock Gourmet's Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pies won in the category of Outstanding Meat, Pate or Seafood. The pies of this Massachusetts-based company are expensive, but even Linda Twining admits they are delicious. They contain no fillers, such as potatoes or vegetables, just Maine lobster meat in sherry cream sauce with puff pastry in the shape of lobsters perched on top. The pies come in four individual white ceramic ramekins, which can be reused. Which is a good thing because the cost is $59.50 plus shipping. They are shipped, frozen, directly from the company's Web site, www.hancockgourmetlobster.com.
The booth of D'Artagnan, the Newark-based company that has become the country's largest purveyor of foie gras and game birds, brought together representatives of their top suppliers. Among them was George Rude of Griggstown Quail Farm & Market, who has been supplying pheasant, quail and other birds to D'Artagnan for years, and who, in turn, carries D'Artagnan sausages and other products in his Canal Road market.
Also on hand was Lee Urbani of Urbani Truffles & Caviar, which got its start in Lawrenceville. One of the firm's more humorous offerings is its new black truffle chocolates. Yep, chocolate truffles dusted with hazelnuts and filled with bits of black truffle - the fungal kind, that is. They cost $11.50 for 100 grams on www.dartagnan.com.
Among D'Artagnan's other attention-getting new products were lamb prosciutto and duck bacon from Niman Ranch, known for its premium meats from naturally raised animals.
Every year one can detect clear trends in the fancy foods displayed. Among those I spotted were products featuring wasabi or ginger, and both sweets and savories that combine chocolate and chili peppers.
Annie Prizzi, who teaches culinary arts at Mercer County College, took a group of students from its Hospitality Club to the show, and they noted the wide variety of new products featuring tea, especially green tea now that it is touted as having health benefits. Soon shelves everywhere will be laden with bottles of green tea soda and green tea lemonade. Tazo has a new line of "tea lattes," which are teas meant to be combined with milk. Also white-hot is white tea, made from the delicate tips of unfurled tea leaves.
Herewith more noteworthy finds for 2003:
- O Olive Oil of California is well known for its flavored oils. This year it introduced a line of rice vinegars; its Yuzu Rice Vinegar was a finalist in the new product category. Yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit, is currently the darling of chefs across the country and its sweet-and-sour lime flavor makes this vinegar go especially well with greens and seafood. It won't be available until August, but then you'll find it at Williams-Sonoma and specialty food stores that carry the O line.
- Robert Rothschild Farm of Urbana, Ohio, took away the grand prize this year - Outstanding New Product for 2003 - with its Ginger Wasabi Sauce. McCaffrey's and Wegmans already stock Rothschild Farm's other sauces, including raspberry wasabi and lemon wasabi. I got myself a jar of the latter and fell in love with this creamy sauce when I used it to make lobster rolls. But these sauces have many uses, including sushi dipping or as a spread with crab cakes, chicken tenders, salmon and roast beef. A nine-ounce jar sells for $5 at McCaffrey's.
- Since I am not a snack food devotee, and especially not a pita chip devotee, I was pleasantly surprised by the newest flavor in the Stacy's Pita Chips line: Cinnamon Sugar. They are even relatively healthy, being made from all-natural ingredients and baked rather than fried. Stacy's Pita Chips are available at Costco, Bagel Barn in Montgomery, Wild Oats in Princeton, and Black Forest Acres in Hamilton.
- Another sweet surprise was the latest offering from the Jelly Belly people. "JBz" have a milk chocolate center inside a Jelly Belly shell and come in 20 flavors which blend deliciously with chocolate, such as Very Cherry and Sizzling Cinnamon. About that Porcini Wild Mushroom Spice Rub: It comes in a can and is sold by Palette Fine Foods of Canada. For a list of where Palette's products are sold, visit www.palettefinefoods.com.