The New York Summer 2018 Fancy Food Show took place from June 30 - July 2 this year. Happening yearly, the Summer Fancy Food Show organized by the Specialty Food Association is the largest specialty food industry event in North America, with this year's show featuring 2,600 exhibitors from 54 countries around the world. Its winter counterpart is held every January in San Francisco.
We attended the show this summer and sampled specialty foods to our hearts' content. Here are our top 8 picks from the show that you just can't miss!
MilkBoy Swiss Chocolates
This chocolate maker has won various sofi™ Award ("specialty outstanding food innovation" awards) at the Fancy Food Show. The Specialty Food Association awards these every year to brands from 39 categories for being best of the best of their industries. This year, MilkBoy made sofi™ Award history, being the first to win three awards in a chocolate category: its Alpine Milk Chocolate with Crunchy Caramel and Sea Salt and Alpine Milk Chocolate with Roasted Almonds won Gold and Bronze respectively. The Best New Product Award went to its White Chocolate With Blue Potato Chips and Sea Salt.
My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream
You may be familiar with their classic mochi ice cream, but My/Mo Mochi launched two new product lines at this Fancy Food Show: Ice Cream (pints) with Mochi Bits and My/Mo Mochi Cashew Cream Frozen Dessert. The pints are perfect for entertaining and sharing, or for indulging yourself if you're mochi-ice-cream-obsessed (who isn't?). And for vegans and those with lactose intolerances, the plant-based ingredient list means you can now enjoy mochi ice cream.
Terrapin Ridge Farms
Terrapin Ridge makes some of the best-tasting bacon jams, and launched a couple of new products including a Garlic Kraut Mustard, Honey Chipotle Glaze, Everything Aioli Squeeze and Jalepeno Aioli Squeeze. The squeeze sauces make a great addition to sandwiches, scrambled eggs, tacos, and so on. The options are limitless.
Petit Pot
Born in San Francisco with French roots, Petit Pot makes some incredibly delicious pot de crème as well as rice pudding, which they now offer in a dairy-free version made with coconut milk. Our personal favorite flavor of the pot de crème is lemon curd, but you should absolutely try them all and decide for yourself. The coconut milk rice pudding is delicious on its own, or with different fruit toppings.
Les Trois Petits Cochons
Les Trois Petits Cochons began as a small charcuterie in Greenwich Village, New York City. They make pâté, mousses, terrines, sausages, saucissons, smoked meats and accompaniments such as mustard and pickles. Some of their products offerings including pâté, mousse, and caperberries now come in organic varieties.
EPIC
A leading meat-based snack bar company, EPIC operates through its partnership with Savory to demonstrate commitment to holistic land management and regenerative agriculture practices. They are working to sequester carbon from our atmosphere into the soil, leading to increased nutrients in the land and animals. Some new products from EPIC include a line of sweet nutrition bars with dates and egg whites as the main ingredients.
From the Ground Up
This company makes a line of cauliflower-based, non-GMO and gluten free crackers and pretzels that also feature cassava flour and vegetable blend powders made from real veggies. The crackers come in Sea Salt, Cheddar and Nacho; and the pretzels come in original flavor in sticks and twist shapes. And believe it or not, they actually all taste like cauliflower!
Let Them Eat Candles
What's better than eating birthday cake? Eating the chocolate candles too! Let Them Eat Candles make candles from milk or dark chocolate, and offers them in various designs to suit kids and adults. Plus, now you no longer need to worry about candle wax dripping onto your beautiful cake.
So what are you waiting for? Let's get the fancy food party started!