The Summer Fancy Food Show, the largest since it was first presented in 1955, is drawing strong reviews from exhibitors and attendees alike.
The sold-out exhibit halls, filling 361,000 square feet, featured more than 1,400 US exhibitors and 1,291 from around the world.
The trade-only event took place from 29 June to 1 July at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in New York. Amid record demand for specialty food, the show drew more than 22,000 attendees from top names in US retailing and restaurants, including Whole Foods, Dean & DeLuca, Kroger and Le Pain Quotidien, and buying delegations from Europe and countries as diverse as Uruguay, Paraguay, Albania and China.
“There was optimism and positive energy in every aisle,” said Ann Daw, president of the Specialty Food Association, owner and producer of show, the largest marketplace devoted exclusively to specialty foods and beverages in North America.
Show highlights included the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Awards, honouring five pioneers in the specialty food industry including Harold Anderson, founder of Haddon House Food Products, and Max Reiss, founder of Reiss Finer Foods, both honoured posthumously, whose sons accepted their awards.
Also honoured were Tony Matthews, president of Food from Britain, who helped build the presence of imported British foods in the US, Russ Vernon, a pioneering specialty food retailer who opened the venerable West Point Market in Akron, Ohio, and Mario Foah, who helped launch the introduction of Italian food products in the US and who was a founding member of today's Specialty Food Association.
Dominique Ansel, the acclaimed pastry chef and creator of treat sensation the Cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid, delivered a keynote address on innovation, and announced the winners of the 42nd sofi Awards for the outstanding specialty foods of the year. The contest drew a record 2,737 entries across 32 awards. Lentil Rice Crispbread with Sesame and Pink Salt from East Hampton Gourmet Food, in East Hampton, NY, won Outstanding New Product.
Chef Ansel, who said he faced hunger as a child in France, donated his speaking fee to City Harvest, the Summer Fancy Food Show’s long-time anti-hunger charity. At the end of the show, exhibitors donated seven and a half tractor-trailer loads of cheeses, hummus, produce, meats and more to City Harvest, which delivered it to 12 emergency food programmes in New York City. The donation was covered by the Associated Press in a story that was picked up all over the world.
The Specialty Food Association is a thriving community of food artisans, importers and entrepreneurs who bring craft, care and joy to the distinctive foods they produce. Established in 1952 in New York, the not-for-profit trade association provides its 3,000 members in the US and abroad with the tools, knowledge and connections to champion and nurture their companies in an always evolving marketplace. The association (formerly the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc.) owns and produces the Winter and Summer Fancy Food Shows, and presents the sofi Awards, honouring excellence in specialty food. Learn more at specialtyfood.com.
