What Was Trending At Winter Fancy Food?

0:10Hello and welcome back to the Nosh podcast. This is Adrienne DeLuca, a reporter for Nosh. I'm here at the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas for a special dispatch episode with managing editor Monica Watrous. Hello, hello. Hi, Monica. So in case our listeners haven't heard, with the new year, we're also introducing a new nosh that expands our coverage beyond the natural channel. Monica, rumor has it, this refresh is also going to extend to what we do here on the podcast. That's right. We are introducing a new format that delivers the latest insights and news from across the food and beverage industry.

0:46So stay tuned for more updates on these changes throughout the next month. Monica, what are we doing today? Who are we going to talk to? Well, we are here at the Winter Fancy Food Show on day three with two of the Specialty Food Association trend spotters, Jen De La Vega and Jonathan Deutsch. Why don't you each tell us a little bit about you before we get into the conversation? Jen? Hello, I'm Jen De La Vega. I am a Brooklyn-based caterer and cookbook author. I also run the hot dog menu at a Bushwick bar called Wonderville. And so I love enjoying specialty products and seeing what I can put on my next hot dog.

1:21And I'm John Deutsch. I'm a professor of culinary arts and science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. There I teach food product development. So staying on top of what's happening in food trends is a key part of my job. And I also run the Drexel Food Lab, which is a good food product development and culinary innovation lab where students can work on their own projects, projects for industry, or earn a certificate in food entrepreneurship or food innovation. So you both have been coming to the Fancy Food Show for a while as trend spotters. How did this show strike you as different from years past?

1:58This is my first rodeo on the West Coast. I'm pretty much a regular at the New York edition at the Javits Center. And I don't know, the vibe and collection of products is different. I think it's because of its location to Asia, which was great to see. Yeah, I agree. The show seems a little bit bigger this year than in past years. I don't know if it's just my impression. I don't know the real numbers in terms of square footage of exhibits, but I know anecdotally I'm fuller and it took me longer than usual to walk the whole show. Usually I can get it done in two days and I need this third day to finish up.

2:41I'd say range of global flavors at this show specifically was definitely caught my eye. We saw a lot of, I think, different formats and new iterations of how those global flavors are distributed. which Monica and I were discussing earlier, very excited about. What did you guys see that really drew your attention? Yeah, for sure. I mean, yuzu everywhere. Yes, yuzu everywhere. In and out of the Japan pavilion. If I were a yuzu grower, I would be very happy right now. And not just yuzu, but other citrus from Japan. That's been a big theme. Also staying in the Japanese product space, wagyu everywhere.

3:24Again, both in and beyond the Japan pavilion. So Japanese Wagyu. And then throughout the show, Japanese, American, Australian, other Wagyu branded products from jerkies to salamis and so on. So I'm seeing that a lot. I'm seeing a lot of ghees and flavored ghees, which I really like because I love cooking with ghee. And there's really interesting variations on that. And then chilies, I guess, nuanced chilies. Calabrian chili was a theme last year. I think it's gone far beyond that, where there's a lot more nuance. When I was coming up in the industry, it was sort of a hot or not question with chili.

4:01And now it's, you know, do you want something fruitier like a Calabrian? Or do you want something roasted and robust, more like a chili crisp kind of flavor? And there's something spicy and aromatic like a berberet. So there's a lot more happening in that space, I think. Yeah, a fun chili that I saw was peri-peri. on cashews, and I'm going to work backwards on the trends that you just mentioned. I did see yuzu everything. There was yuzu ranch dressing, candied yuzu peels, so many drinks, so many drinks, splashes of yuzu in infused soy sauce. So it's really expanding beyond just the fruit itself, which is very, very exciting.

4:46It's incredibly versatile. I noticed a nostalgic throwback to just strawberry. Lots of strawberry in beverage. And I saw a strawberry popcorn, strawberry kettle corn, which was delicious and not too sweet. What else? What else? Lots of boba, lots of bubble tea. Not just relegated to Asian countries. We're seeing boba inside of chocolate. I saw boba jelly beans. There you go. Look at that. I was disappointed they weren't actual boba pearls, but that's a topic for another day. I also saw a lot of collagen and aloe drinks and magnesium. I think it plays into a general post-COVID life. I want to feel good.

5:32I want to sleep well. I want to balance my mood. I want to reconsider my relationship with alcohol and caffeine. One of the trends that stood out to me that I feel like is a continuation of trends that we've seen in past shows is this idea of elevated convenience. And I'm seeing more shortcuts that are really culinary driven, chef crafted, globally inspired. One of my favorite products that I saw on the show floor was Chutnify. Yes. What a cool idea. It's an instant, I think it's like a freeze dried chutney that you just add water and ready in five seconds. Yeah. And the black garlic version of it.

6:19And I was so shocked at how flavorful it was because that vinegar taste is not easy to replicate. Right. Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite products in that category were these poke spray oils. Did you see those? Ooh. From Mantova. So they're basically, picture like a silly string canister. And one is soy sauce and one is, wait for it, Jen, yuzu avocado oil. Of course. And the idea is you could take something that's a little bit, I think, challenging to get your head around if you're not a skilled home cook, like making poke. And you just take, you know, your fish or tofu or whatever you're working with and just just spray it on and get sort of like it's delicious, like restaurant quality application.

7:10So I do see that. I think there's some pushback with inflation, with labor shortages in the restaurant industry, hot dogs aside, where I think people are saying, you know what, for a family of four, we go out and we, you know, order something like pasta and it's it's 100, 150 bucks. maybe we could just get some like really nice product and cook it simply and you know for for a quarter or a third of the of the cost and so you're seeing a lot of things like um we we called it upscaling the everyday and the trend report um things like truffle zest and restaurant quality soups um from mirth we're seeing things that are just like a little step above what you get in the in the mainstream supermarket, but still much more accessible than a restaurant meal.

8:02So it's somewhere in that in-between space. Yeah, absolutely. I'm seeing consumers invest in that flourish, that finishing touch. So a few things that I saw just the last couple days, like black Modena vinegar pearls. It's like bringing the molecular gastronomy home, you know, so you don't have to go through a 14-course tasting menu, but you could do it at home. You could sprinkle it on top. I saw sakura-flavored sesame seeds. What else? In the spray category, we saw last year there was duck fat. This year, there's yuzu whipped cream. There's spray oils. All sorts of different machinations for spraying and moussing things onto your dishes.

8:43Yeah, I saw soy sauce foam. That's right. That's really cool. Picture a nigiri sushi with a little dollop of brown shaving cream, soy sauce looking stuff that just makes things fun and accessible. Truffle salts from Sabatino, same kind of idea where you can just elevate something so simply and really make something that you would want to pay money for. Did you try that brown butter, the brown butter spreads from Black and Bolliard? I didn't see that. Oh, yes, I saw that last show. Yes. Well, they were at the summer show last year, and they're back this year. And that's another one that I had to go back and try it again just to remind myself of how great it was.

9:27But it's another thing that's, you know, super easy for home cooks. And that was a product that they were positioning as an alternative to ghee. So it was kind of interesting, you know, talking about ghee earlier. I think they were calling it butter from another udder or something like that. So I love that. I think another product I saw was crystallized shoyu. So I think it was one sixth less sodium than actual soy sauce. And I think it's part of that fun sprinkle on at the end sort of practice. But I thought that was just so cool. Was there any I know we've talked a lot about meals and culinary innovation.

10:04Is there anything you guys saw specifically in like the snack category or those grab and go items that really caught your eye? Yes. Among cheese products and snacky products, there are a lot of really cool cross-cultural pairings. And even cheese is being packaged with something you're supposed to pair with, which I think is a really great guide for people who are not familiar with all the cheeses of the world. So you buy this pack and you know this one pairing and you can extend that knowledge to other products and in the line, you know? So I thought that was so smart. In the snacking sort of light meal space, I think another trend that we're seeing is for plant-based global foods.

10:49Yes. So, for example, Sunday Supper has plant-based fried mozzarella sticks that I thought was just kind of mind-boggling. Absolutely delicious. Sobo has pork and chive dumplings, pork in quotes, you know, plant-based pork. Aki Foods had some same thing, pork in quotes, tonkotsu ramen. And so just ideas of these like dorm room staples, freezer staples, convenience food, but plant-based and super convenient. Yeah, those plant-based soups are harnessing the power of soybeans, other beans, fermentation, mushrooms, which is another huge trend that we had. And I don't know, the flavors are comparable to their meat, you know, origins.

11:39I agree. Fermentation and health related to fermentation is another big theme. I think folks are demystifying it a little bit. So I love there's a company called World Kombucha that's selling the actual SCOBY. So instead of selling the kombucha, you can make your own kombucha to anything. prime roots, using koji to make plant-based meats. I thought that was great. A lot of emphasis on rice malts and misos and things like that that are health-promoting, delicious, and I think a little bit demystified for the mainstream consumer. There's another trend for sure is things that are charcuterie board friendly.

12:23I can't tell you how many times I tasted I did anything, and people would say, it's great on a charcuterie board. And I'm getting to like, okay, what isn't? I did see chocolates that were specifically shaped for charcuterie boards. You wouldn't have to break up a whole bar. They were already the squares and ready to go for the boards. Oh, speaking of chocolate, I mentioned a boba flavor earlier. I saw one from Kesho, which was lamb skewer. I tried it. I really liked it. Me too. It surprised me in a good way. Yeah, and it's goat milk and kind of towing that line between sweet and savory. And I think we should go there more often.

13:03I like that place. Yeah, chocolate is so great in savory cooking and has been used for so long that way. And I think people are comfortable with that. And so I like the opposite, right, which is taking a confection and making it savory. Absolutely. anything else you guys saw in the sweet space or sweetener space that really caught your eye stuck out from past shows yeah i do think sugar levels are coming down which is a welcome trend both for health and i think also for palate the the kind of vibe that's also said derisively by europeans is well the american palate is so sweet they just want everything to be so sweet and i I think there has historically been some truth to that, but I'm not sure that that's true now.

13:51And one of the things I love, I want to send a note, an open letter to food producers. Don't dumb down your products from so-called mainstream Americans. I was so happy to get spicy, bitter, intense flavors. I think one of the most exciting parts of the show floor for me is the new now next area with all of the incubators and accelerators, as well as the included pavilion. Yes. And I thought there were some really interesting innovation in those spots. One of the things that I really loved was the powdered aguas frescas, 2EO. And what a great idea. Yeah. And back to the commentary on sugar. They use agave.

14:40They're not afraid of it. They thoughtfully chose this sweetener as something that people still want. They don't necessarily want a high-intensity sweetener. They want something that they can really enjoy. But it's a lower sugar product. Right. It's not as sweet as a typical powdered drink, Max, I think, which makes you feel better about... I think there is a trend to people wanting real sugar and just less of it than artificial everything. I also love that there's kind of a generational shift that's happening. And I'm really excited about the Agua Fresca in particular. So it's like, how can we take this cultural heritage, these great flavors, and make them convenient and make them accessible?

15:30And I'm seeing a lot of products like the Agua Fresca that I would put in that category. So as you think about the last two days at the show, are there any specific products that stood out to you as your favorite bite or sip? I'll take this one because it's BevNet. One of my favorite sips was the Waiski from Wayward Spirit, which is upcycled. Wayward Spirit's been around for a few years and they make white spirits, which are great in cocktails. but frankly not super sippable to me. But they're now barrel aging it into a whiskey, which is made from whey, distilled from whey. I think it is delicious.

16:09And it actually tastes like sort of whiskey, but also that kind of dairy. So that was one of those sips that I'm like, ooh, I am going to go home and make an old-fashioned with this. And that's something I'm literally and figuratively taking with me from this show. Nice. I have a lot of favorite sips from the show and I'm all over the place. Me personally, I love anything honeydew melon flavored. There was moshi with the honeydew and cream sparkling water. I loved it so much. I have pictures that I'm like scrolling through right now. I have the aloe sparkling aloe vera juice drink that had mango and mangosteen.

16:52So refreshing. Not necessarily a drink, but Noble Handcrafted had Raju, which is a pretty hard to find condiment. I try to find it, and I can't get it, but now it's in Canada. This is great. And then, I forget, Mizu, I think it was called Mizu Bijin, is test-driving Sancho Shouju. Sancho pepper shouju. That is hard to say. but bringing in that savory quality to a spirit was pretty amazing well and because this is nosh we uh also can't ignore all the great food brands that were on the show floor so not to put you on the spot but any particular bites that stood out i'm a huge fan of eggs i i have three tattoos of eggs and i saw a chinese brand uh it's i you say it, I think Zero Egg.

17:48It's stylized as the letter O, capital O-Egg. And they do a salt-baked soft egg that you can eat. And they also have an abalone sauce marinated soft egg, which is refrigerated. And I thought that was such a good snack. I'll give you my favorite bite, which is chili crisp from Chili Royale, which I am also taking home and will be a big part of my meals for the next couple weeks. I will say one of my favorite bites was also a chili crisp. It was like a coffee-infused chili crisp. Oh, I have to try that one today. Delicious. So many possibilities with chili crisp. So many. Absolutely. Well, I think that wraps up this special episode of the Nosh Podcast.

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