2017 Winter Fancy Food Show Trends
Well the 2017 Winter Fancy Food Show (FFS) in San Francisco is a wrap. With 3 showrooms full of great food, ingenious concepts, and wild fusions, picking just a few to highlight will be difficult, but I think I’m up to the challenge.
So let’s look at the 4 items that popped up the most and were used diversely at the FFS.
1. Harissa
The heat is on, and you’d know this is true if you were anywhere near the FFS last week. Chile peppers, hot sauces, and spicy rubs were prevalent, but none shone quite as bright as the humble harissa. This complex North African chile paste made the rounds with applications in cheeses, simmer sauces, dry rubs, hummus, and even butter! So, it looks like harissa is here to stay and I say bring the heat!
2. Yuzu
Photo Credit: thesweetartlab.com
A yuzu is a small, wrinkled citrus fruit that looks similar to a lemon used popularly in Japanese cuisine. The fruit itself hails from China originally and has become quite popular in Korean dishes as well. Yuzu creatively made its way into powdered seasonings, teas, infused shoyu sauces, and candies. With a complicated sweet, citrus, and sour flavor profile, and the proliferation of Eastern cuisine in the U.S., I imagine we’ll be seeing yuzu flavored items a lot more on menus and grocery shelves.
3. Umami Pastes
This is a product that really excites me. Umami pastes activate our 5th taste by masterfully combining umami flavors like porcini mushroom, tomato, anchovy, and tomato and concentrating them into a rich paste that can be used in sauces, gravies, and pastas, or as rubs for meats. The pastes add a rich savory flavor that really takes you where you want to go. There are also miso based Asian versions with varieties such as ginger or togarashi pepper.
4. Hummus
The mighty chickpea continues to drive forward. There were more than a few new hummus flavors popping up at the Food Show, including some using the other trends we talked about above, but I was pleased to find black garlic among the troves. With its tangy richness and bold aroma, black garlic marries perfectly with a bright, smooth hummus. Another supremely unique product was the shelf-stable hummus developed by Hummustir. This clean label product comes with the ingredients in pre-portioned pouches that are shelf stable for up to 18 months. You simply stir the ingredients together and presto hummus. It’s darn good too!
For the sake of accuracy, coconut was also widely popular this year being found everywhere from water, paste, and ice cream to crisps, simmer and hot sauces. I only don’t mention it above because coconut has proved itself widely popular in the past. It’s a trend that’s not fading anytime soon.
That’s it for this week. I certainly hope you enjoyed reading about the FFS because I certainly enjoyed visiting it.
Cheers!