San Francisco Fancy Food Show – Fancy That!
My friend Jeff Davis, founder of Food Fete, knew that I am a big foodie, and thought I might be interested in attending this show. Plus, I was looking for a reason to go to San Francisco. This was my first experience of the Fancy Food Show, and I was very excited to see what the show was all about. I had been told how large this event was, but when we walked into the event, I was overwhelmed with the thousands of specialty food products.
The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade holds 3 Fancy Food Shows per year, one in winter, one in spring, and the largest one in summer in NYC.
I didn’t realize this until I started researching the event, but not everyone can attend the Fancy Food Show. It’s an industry trade event, which means you need to work in the Food Industry to attend. Luckily for me, I received a pass as a food consultant with Food Fete.
The cost to register is usually around $35, and the price of admission is well worth it. What your get for your money is access to thousands of gourmet food items to sample, hundreds of vendors to interact with, over a dozen countries promoting their food products, and the opportunity to schmooze and network with industry peers. There are even cooking contests and seminars on how to better position/brand food items or businesses.
So basically you get to sample your way through almost every type of cheese, meats, seafood, desserts, chocolates, dips, chips etc. almost everything you could imagine. It’s like attending the largest food festival you’ve ever seen. I even spotted some vendors from my former hometown of Austin, TX. Stubbs had a huge booth with a walk-in trailer pushing their sauces and other barbeque goods. Also there, from my home state of Mississippi, was the Mississippi Cheese Straw Factory. I think they have the best cheese straws and it’s what I remember having when I grew up in Mississippi.
Please note that if you are not part of the Food Industry and manage to attend the event, to be mindful that many of the vendors are small mom and pop operations trying to network and get their food distributed. They pay thousands of dollars to participate and you want to make sure that they have the chance to talk to retailers.
There is so much food to sample that 1 day is just not enough to cover everything. And unfortunately I only had one day to attend the event.
Personally, I just zeroed in on the seafood, meats, cheeses olives, and of course chocolates. Even though I tried to pace my sampling carefully, it was still taste bud overload. Fancy Food veterans recommend not eating too much before attending the show, and after experiencing my first show, I can see why. I have lost 35 pounds in the past four months…yes even through the holidays, so I was really trying to pace myself. But I did not deny myself while at this event or at San Francisco restaurants.
There was also an international section at the show that consisted of vendors from Chile, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and various other countries. When you went to booths in these “countries,” there was a noticeable difference in the lack of interaction with attendees. I guess Americans tend to “sell” more when presenting their goods. I did taste some fabulous Parmesan cheese in the Italy section that was topped with balsamic vinegar infused with truffles. Delicious!
One of the best and most unique “samples” was from Lucini, an Italian company, who had a dish that was a chic pea mixture that you cook in a cast iron skillet. Its draw to me was that it was high in protein and not high in calories. I guess it also drew my attention because I knew how many calories I was taking in with all the other samples. You top this with their wonderful marinara sauce. The vendor said this dish was popular years ago when sailors would come into port and looked from something cheap, but full of protein. They have not yet started distributing this, so I look forward to seeing this in the market soon.
There was also a large section of cheese suppliers, and I was like a kid in a candy store! There were cheese makers from California to Oregon, to Vermont, and all over. I strolled through and sampled every cheese you could imagine. One was even flavored with lavender. Samples of foie gras, prosciutto, were available on a limited basis at some booths.
I was advised to skip breakfast and lunch to walk this show. I spent over three hours to walk the entire show. They were right… I didn’t need breakfast or lunch. For press folks and retailers, it really takes some effort to seek out what is new and different because after going by booth after booth, everything starts to look the same. But, I had a great time tasting my way through the event.
