News

Aug 27, 2023

At New York City food trade show, companies share Lancaster County cuisine

NEW YORK — Mary Myint runs a spoon through a pot of bubbling caramel sauce,

NEW YORK — Mary Myint runs a spoon through a pot of bubbling caramel sauce, preparing to spread it between the thin wafer cookies she is pressing flat in a hot iron.

She concentrates on cutting the cookies into heart shapes as the confections’ cinnamon scent wafts out into the din surrounding her.

Myint turns the cut-off edges of the Dutch "stroopwafels" into tasting samples at the Lancaster Stroopie Co.'s booth at the 63rd annual Fancy Food Show in New York City.

The massive event, sponsored each summer by the international Specialty Food Association, took place Sunday through Tuesday at the Jacob Javitz Center.

Stroopies were just one of 186,000 specialty food products displayed at hundreds of booths in the cavernous convention center — "six football fields worth," says Julie Stern, press consultant for the show.

The show attracts companies from the United States and 45 other countries that wish to introduce their specialty food products, from soup to nuts. It also attracts food company buyers and executives, along with food writers, chefs and others in the food industry.

As food company personnel wander by, spearing samples from booths and chatting in a variety of languages, some stop to talk to the Lancaster Stroopie Co. owners at their booth in the Pennsylvania section of the show.

"What we’re hoping to get out of the show is some bigger accounts that can help us to build a steady business all year round," says Jonathan Groff, who co-owns the company with his wife, Jennie.

"Most of our business happens between September and the end of the year, because we’re gearing up for Christmas," Groff says. Groff says he wants to be able to offer steady work to the refugee women the company hires and trains, including Myint, a Myanmar native.

"If we get hold of some larger accounts and rub elbows with the right people at the show, then we’ll have a way to keep the business going at a higher productivity level for the rest of the year."

There are a lot of elbows in the Javitz Center.

Lancaster Stroopie Co. Manager Adrianne Stutzman says she believes the aroma coming from the fresh-made wafers is helping the booth stand out.

From left, Brian Sowal and Mark Sauder, of R.W. Sauder Eggs, talk to people attending the Fancy Food Show in New York City.

Other companies with Lancaster County connections brought their products to the food show for different reasons.

R.W. Sauder Eggs, of Lititz, is a first-time exhibitor here. President Mark Sauder explains, "Today we’re focusing on our hard-cooked products, which is a new growth item for us."

Plenty of show visitors were sinking their teeth into his white, purple and orange hard-boiled eggs.

"We’re taking our shell eggs, sourced from about 120 small farms, and we’re cooking and peeling them," he says. "We’re putting them into consumer-ready packages and we also add flavors for some of them."

Those include a traditional red beet egg and one soaked in Buffalo hot sauce —hence the orange coloring and spicy taste.

Products from the R.M. Heagy Foods company, and its Lancaster Farmhouse brand, are on display at the Fancy Food Show in New York City.

RM Heagy Foods, a 64-year-old company headquartered in Lancaster, was promoting its year-old brand of artisan meats and cheeses, Lancaster Farmhouse — available at Lancaster Central Market among other locations.

"The best way to get ... in front of key distributors, key retailers and key food service people is to be at this show," says Rich Marston, RM Heagy's director of co-pack and wholesale sales. "Our expectation is that we’ll find a retailer who wants to put us in regional or national distribution.

"People have a perception of Lancaster as being wholesome and good and farm-to-table," he says. "That's the spirit we’re trying to create with the Lancaster Farmhouse brand."

From left, Evan Himes and Jason Heilman of Dutch Gold Honey present new honey varietals at the Fancy Food Show.

Jars of golden liquid line the booth for Dutch Gold Honey, of Lancaster, which has been bringing its products to the Fancy Food Show for the past 28 years.

"We have some varietal honeys" to promote this year, says Jason Heilman, general sales manager. "To have different honeys ... we get honey that the beekeepers get from different nectar sources."

The three new stars of the booth this year are avocado blossom, blueberry blossom and raspberry blossom honeys, the nectar for which comes from Mexico, New England and the Pacific Northwest, respectively, Heilman adds.

Sarah Lanphier, of Lancaster, founder of a York-based snack company, was using her company's appearance at the show, in part, to help introduce recent rebranding.

The company's three former brands — Nuts About Granola, Sarah's Savory Snacks and Forager — have been combined under the name Sarah's Snacks. The company makes sweet and savory granolas, with flavors including Jamaican jerk, vegan trail mix and coconut curry.

"We’ve also reformulated all the products so they have 5 grams or less of sugar per serving," Lanphier adds.

Robert Gatto, vice president for business development for US Durum, stands between transparent towers layered with multicolored couscous.

He's touting the Lancaster manufacturer's varieties of private-label couscous — some of them infused with purple sweet potato and garlic flavors.

Representatives of Savencia Cheese USA, the new name of the U.S. branch of the international Savencia cheese company, is showcasing a new Parmesan basil cheese spread, says Mikhail Chapnik, vice president of marketing.

The spread is among the products made by Alouette in New Holland, many of which line the dairy case at the Savencia booth.

The dizzying array of foods available for sampling at the Fancy Food Show would test the resolve of the most die-hard dieter.

The thousands attending the show stroll up and down the aisles, grabbing chips to scoop up new flavors of nut butters, salsas, dips and hummus. Mountains of orange cheese cubes are paired with charcuterie trays of thinly sliced salami. The products hail from Turkey, Spain, France, Italy, Tunisia, Peru, Mexico, Korea and beyond.

If this show is any indication, gluten-free products are continuing their ascendancy.

Good Health Snacks, part of the snack portfolio of Utz Quality Foods in Hanover, won a Sofi Award — the prizes given to the best new foods at the show in various categories — for its sea salt gluten-free pretzels.

Watusee Foods of Washington, D.C., had a variety of chickpea products available for sampling at the Fancy Food Show.

Chickpeas as an ingredient seem ubiquitous, as well.

Watusee Foods, of Washington, D.C., had a lot of visitors to its booth filled with Chickpeatos crispy snacks in rosemary, tomato basil and cinnamon toast flavors. The company was also introducing chickpea crumbs as a high-protein replacement for panko in breading.

Coconut-based products are trending as well.

In fact, the Coconut Cashew Crunch with chocolate drizzle, candies from Anastasia's Confections, of Orlando, Florida, won the top Sofi Award for Best New Product of the Year.

Olives and other foods from around the world are part of the Fancy Food Show in New York City.

Food-related products also were part of the show.

Charles Chen, who has competed on the Food Network's "Chopped" show, greets visitors while promoting the YoMagic home yogurt-making machine of the Massachusetts-based Belle & Bella company.

Chen says he became a "healthy chef" after adopting a probiotic diet and losing 100 pounds.

A representative of Weight Watchers walks through the show, checking out new products for possible addition to the companies database of nutritional values for its members’ weight-loss plans.

Mod-Pac, a company that provides packaging for food, had a colorful display at the Fancy Food Show in New York.

And several companies specializing in fancy food packaging, such as Mod-Pac of Buffalo, New York, have their booths decked out with all the colorful and practical ways companies can present their products.

The show is all about product exposure and making valuable connections between purveyors and buyers.

"I’m really enjoying connecting with all kinds of people in the industry," says Groff, of Lancaster Stroopie Co., "from meeting other small businesses who are along the same growth path that we are — learning from them — and people who are ahead of us, along with brokers and buyers from different ends of the industry that we haven't even considered yet.

"We’ve gotten a tremendous amount of leads that look really hopeful," he adds.

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Lots of new combinations of flavors and ingredients underpin many of the products introduced at this year's Fancy Food Show.

Dozens of winners of the show's Sofi best-product awards served up samples of their food at a special reception Monday afternoon.

Here are a few standouts.

• Le Bon Magot, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, won three awards for its line of unusual chutneys and marmalades. The company's founder, Naomi Mobed, says her products are based on old family recipes and are filled with the flavors of the places she has lived — Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. This year, Mobed showcased a tomato and white sultana chutney with ginger and garam masala flavorings; a lemon marmalata with caraway and saffron; and a spiced raisin marmalata with smoked cinnamon and a ras el hanout spice blend from North Africa.

• Don's Food Products, a Schwenksville company, offered up a new option for starting the day — Melanie's Medleys ready-to-serve breakfast bowls. These little cups contain a creamy melange of ancient grains such as farro and quinoa, along with other ingredients such as nuts, coconut and chocolate in almond or coconut milk.

• Pumpkin seed vinaigrette is the latest flavor from the Aunt Dottie's Salad Dressing line, made by a South Carolina company. The company touts the Omega 3-rich oil in the dressing, and the pumpkin seeds bring an unusual, nutty flavor to the salad accompaniment.

• Among the many olive oil varieties on display at the show, the jalapeno-lime-infused olive-and-grapeseed oil blend from Extravagonzo Gourmet Foods of Boise Idaho, was a spicy, citrusy hit with visitors.

• In another score for ancient grains, Freekehlicious of Norwood, New Jersey, served up a moist, flavorful salad made of freekeh and red quinoa, figs, almonds, pecans, dried cherries and cranberries, embellished with a sweet fig sauce.

— Mary Ellen Wright

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