Napoleon said that an army marches on its stomach. How about
startups? Or even Technology?
In a strange way they do and if you were at the Fancy Foods
show, the bi-annual specialty foods festival at the Javits last week, you would
see world business trends expressed in the food forward concoctions.
Health, in the gourmet world today, is all about allergy
avoidance, gluten-free, non-GMO, heirloom style goodies. Global mashups are key
– especially Asian spices – and everywhere there is a search for authenticity.
The good news is that acai berries, yerba matte, cambogia garcinia
were barely in evidene suggesting that our spam filters will be spared a new
miracle health food onslaught.
You would know that world food producers are grouping around
signature dishes – hoping to use the claims of terroir to define their emerging markets.
In the US, Indian food has arrived in the form of
Chicken Tikka Marsala which was in
evidence everywhere. Some of it was too sweet, some too sour but everywhere
Indian food was served, including American food company knock offs, this is the
signature Indian combo: Tandoori BBQ, combined with mild sweet curry and yoghurt.
Can we expect a Weber
tandoori grill,
a line of marinading yogurts and sweet curry simmers next to Heinz gravies
someday soon? Thai flavors continue their onslaught as they show up everywhere.
The public’s love for spicy
peanut sauces have not gone unnoticed in Virginia
where their addictively crunchy peanuts have long graduated from plain to all
kinds of spicy combos. Even Africa, which does not show up much at gourmet food
shows (remember Pepadews?), found its way in with a classic West African peanut
sauce by Kitchens of Africa. Perhaps the spicy peanut sauce craze will open a new
door on African cuisine.
The other spices of the day are ginger and the new star,
cardomum which showed up everywhere from chai
teas to ice cream and chocolate.
The Food show is organized with big brands and national pavilions
upstairs and independents and startups mostly downstairs. When countries
organize, the smarter ones, like Peru or Spain, try to establish their terroir.
The Peru Pavilion, showed its international quality standards but focused on their
role a sourcing alternative for known foods like peppers and salsas. No one
tried to convince you to drink chibcha or eat beef heart and guinea pig. A
little ceviche would have gone a long way - but that probably doesn’t travel.
Spain organized around
jamon
iberica, the $150-a-pound ham cured from acorn-eating wild black pigs that
had been banned here until a few years ago. Everywhere were entire pork legs
attached to silver stirrups with an authentic hoof poking out as an expert carver
shaved slivers of this heavenly ham.
What better way to sell Spain than with an authentic ham product
rather than one more cheese or olive oil? And once the public gets a taste for the
ham, they become more interested in Spanish olive oil. Or tapas.
Italy is still the home of pasta, award-winning sopressatos, and everything pesto. Even
the Argentinians have given up on describing parsley chimuchirri as anything other than a kind of gaucho pesto. Even so, European foods tend to be receding behind
this barrage of spices and global mashups. In the show’s Sofi award-winning foods
the top picks invariably had – wherever possible – a spicy winner or finalist.
Chile, chipotle, cardomum, curry, ginger, habanero - you pick.
Even regular spices and foods need a true home. Vanilla has
to be Madagascan, black beans have to be Cuban and yogurt now has to be Greek.
Coming next – Russian Kefirs and regular cheeses made from something other than
a cow to signal better flavor or higher snobbishness. But if you ask me, the
best cheeses are still the soft, smelly expensive French cheeses. They can melt
a hard heart……. And the British, through Somerdale, have finally figured out how
to make a real cheddar that appeals to Americans – and yes it has many spicy
mashups but somehow the finish remains creamy and smooth.
When it comes to American gourmet foods – judging by the
lines, the key is comfort foods with global flavors and spices. People
flocked for Macs and cheese, barbecues and pastas - but they all had a twist.
Mac and Cheese had chipotle, porcini or goat cheese. BBQ had habanero, artisinal
honey or best of all, bourbon. So did the best cakes. Yum. Pizzas need lobster
or pesto and pancetta. Expect more of these hybrid flavors to show up at
MacDonalds……oops, they already have!
As for terroir, the South still claims BBQ, N’Awleans gumbo and all things Cajun, but what can
you say about Jersey? And Maryland want to be known for more than crabs as they
go after clam chowder via sub-regions like Chincoteague,
the island area famous for its wild horses by the sea. California vies to be
our Mediterranean homeland, olives, cheeses, nuts but nothing exotically new.
Imagine that, a maturing California no longer home of the new!
Packaging has gotten smarter if not always eco-friendly. Better
refrigerated packaging and shelf-stable features mean that specialty
internet/mail-order food has extended nationally for more kinds of goodies.
That brings us back to the bigger picture for startups.
World supply chains are fully functioning. Countries with food or source specialties
can easily supply our hungry market. So Turkey, Mexico and Peru offer to supply
commodities – or where they can with their own specialties. So real Turkish
finally comes with a chocolate coating, every
tequila or
mezcal has a
cool-looking bottle and Peru’s Pavilion looks as corporate as a division of
Kraft Foods.
As countries and regions claim authentic terroirs many are
happy to settle for products that become legitimizing ingredients for other new
unknowns. So, if you have a new cookie, it pays to advertise that it has Madagascar
vanilla, or perhaps a touch of smoky
mezcal
flavoring from Oaxaca. Pizza isn’t regular pizza anymore if it has
jamon iberica or at least, Italian
pancetta. If you have a new chocolate – and there were many – you need to source
your beans from the mountains of Peru. Even New York city has its own
sensation, improved ketchup and mayonnaise by Sir Kensington in
Chelsea that looks
British but claims non-colonial spices and flavorings. Only a hip New Yorker
would think of agave nectar, and vine ripened pear tomatoes for their “dipping
ketchup” and cage-free non-GMO eggs with mustard from Dijon for their high-end
mayo.
Food breakthroughs were few, the mood was much more about worldwide
quality demonstrations and global flavor pairings.
If you had to draw the connection between foods and startup
innovation you might argue that the market is signaling a return to core,
useful products that show a global or territory-specific dimension. Our appetite
for the “all-new!” is muted while our desire for comfortable diversity appears to be the flavor of the day.
© 2013 Alan Brody
A few months ago we did a visualization and case study of Monsanto's litigious approach to "viral marketing" where they used the natural spread of their seeds as a reason to sue "infringers" (neighboring farmers) with patent violations. (See Monsanto story here)
Now, however, Florida is facing a major blight that has felled as much 25% of their orange trees. They believe that some type of genetic engineering is necessary to save their industry. Their application to the FDA already exposed them to a storm of public criticism thanks to the bad publicity. If they find a genetic solution, will it still be "all natural"? Will OJ be Frankenjuice? Will Monsanto and GMO's continue to be vilified. Can any of these reputations be restored?
