SIAL America Cross-Country F&B Show Returns in March
SIAL, the cross-category food and beverage industry network, announced that SIAL America, will take place from March 28-30 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The USDA-endorsed networking and lead-generation event will provide importers, food service companies, distributors, retailers, wholesalers and restaurateurs the opportunity to network with exhibiting food companies from around the world. Attendees will explore the latest in food products and technology via SIAL Innovation, and attend educational seminars devoted to the latest food industry trends.
This extensive how floor features product categories that include Organic & Wellness, Beverages, Grocery, Sweets & Bakery, Fruits & Vegetables, Seafood, Dairy Products, Frozen Foods, Snack Foods, Meats.
Last March, SIAL America made its debut welcoming over 4,600 industry professionals worldwide, delving into cutting-edge food trends such as plant-based alternatives, animal-product traceability, and chocolate and sweets innovations. SIAL will stage six months after the SIAL Paris flagship event drew more than 7,000 exhibitors in October 2022. Domestic and international exhibitors including Real California Milk, Supreme Crab & Seafood, and Haig’s Delicacies have already signed on to participate, along with USA Rice, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Godshall’s, American Beverage Markets, Skechers, Source Logistics and more to be announced.
SIAL America will again feature matchmaking services and VIP networking spaces to connect like-minded businesses. The show will take place next to Emerald’s International Pizza Expo.
Attendee registration for SIAL America is open,
SIAL America is presented in partnership with Emerald and Comexposium. The partnership leverages the respective strengths of Emerald’s leading live events footprint in the United States and Comexposium’s preeminent SIAL global food brand and network.
SIAL Network is the world’s largest network of food and drink fairs. Its 11 regular shows (SIAL Paris, SIAL Canada Montreal, Toronto, SIAL China, SIAL Shenzhen, Food & Drinks Malaysia, SIAL India, SIAL Interfood in Jakarta, Gourmet Selection, Djazagro and The Cheese & Dairy Show ) bring together 16,000 exhibitors and 700,000 visitors from 200 countries.
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Winter Fancy Food Day 2: Chefs and Cheese
By A.J. Flick
Senior Editor
The second day of the Specialty Food Association’s 2023 Winter Fancy Food Show was my day of meeting chefs and eating a lot of cheese.
The prsonal highlight was meeting Chef Stephanie Izard, who was the first woman named “Top Chef” (season 4) and one of my favorite Top Chef chefs. She also is from Arizona, as I am, so I was rooting for the “home chef.” Chef Izard has a new line of sauces, spices and add-ons developed out of her esteemed Chicago (and now LA) restaurant, This Little Goat. When I walked up to her booth, she was stirring a pan of halved Brussel sprouts, bathed in her Asian sauce. They looked good, but I’m not a Brussel sprouts fan. A friend of mine, Robert, loves them and so wants me to love them when he roasts them and slathers butter on them, but I just don’t like Brussel sprouts.
Until now. I have to break the news to Robert that I do love Brussel sprouts now, Chef Izard’s Brussel sprouts! She adds her new Everything Crunch puffed rice toppers on them for the contrast in textures that she’s famous for. I’ll have to make them for Robert now and show him how good Brussel sprouts can really taste!
I also was looking forward to meeting Chef Michael Tashman, who was a fabulous line of flavored butters. I was especially impressed with the Truffle Butter flavor, such a balance of truffle and high-quality butter. Chef Tashman is new to the CPG world, but he has plan to present more “chef forward” products to the specialty food market. He called it “chef to table.” (He didn’t coin the term, but likes calling it that.)
As for cheese, I stopped by a wine and cheese party thrown by the nice folks at Beehive Cheese. I tasted some of their cheeses last summer in Portland at the American Cheese Society Conference. Here, they presented a whole table of artisanal cheese at a Las Vegas wine bar, Garagiste. Beehive Cheese is a family business, not only the family who started it, but each Beehive team member I talked to spoke about how great it is to work there and how they are all treated life family. You’ll be hearing much more about Beehive in Gourmet News!
My second stop of the night was at the top of the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort, in the Foundation Room, UK in Las Vegas, held to celebrate cheese from the United Kingdom. Yes, there was everything from Stilton to a truffle cheddar (which was gone by the time I got there!). So I ended up having Utah cheese for appetizers and British cheese for the main course. I’m not complaining!
Earlier in the day, I stopped by to visit our friends at The French Farm. They’re excited to introduce an award-winning line of artisanal from Francis Miot from the southwest of France. Not only that, but The French Farm has added to its own Epicurian line of products, jars of tasty spring and summer veggies such as Zucchini & Ramp Spread, and some aiolis. Yum!
I also spent some quality time learning more at Le Gruyere, the fine cheese from Switzerland. And you’ll learn more, too, in our upcoming Spring Cheese Guide.
I had more time yesterday to do some wandering, I sampled chicken jerky from Brave Good Kind; Simply Animals, a better-for-you lightly frosted animal crackers; lemon and ginger Snaps from Stauffer’s, Pink Sauce from Dave’s Gourmet (you’ll be hearing more about that) and delicious dumplings from Chef Kim’s.
I had fun decorating (and eating) a little gingerbread man at the Signature Brands booth. I got a tour of the new Jelly Belly products – at long last, the Butter Beer jelly beans have landed! And, there’s another Harry Potter product on the horizon that fans will love (but I can’t say what it is yet!) Jelly Belly is expanding its reach into the greeting card market with a tasty new Easter greeting card, too. You’ll read more about it in the March issue of Gourmet News in our Winter Fancy Food Show roundup.
One more day to go – can we make it? Yes, we will!
Hayashi to Lead Team USA at Bocus d’Or Grande Finale
Hawaiian-born and Arizona-raised Chef Jeffery Hayashi will lead Team USA in the 2023 Bocus d’Or Grande Finale.
The 24 worldwide selected teams will compete Jan. 22-23 in Lyon, France for five hours and 30 minutes in two events: While the platter theme features monkfish and other seafood products, the second test, “Feed the Kids” takes the form of an entire menu based on squash, to raise awareness among children and, through this theme, educate them about healthy eating.
Hayashi left an architecture career after his passion for style and precision led him to discover cooking, landing an apprenticeship with chef and chocolatier Philippe Padovani in Hawaii. In 2014, he was the inaugural executive sous chef at Mourad in San Francisco, which received a Michelin star in its first year of operation. Hayashi qualified for the Grande Finale by winning the 2022 Americas Bocuse d’Or in Chile.
Hayashi is chef de cuisine at Senia Restaurant in Honolulu.
Each team will start at regular intervals beginning at 8 a.m. on Jan. 22. Hayashi is scheduled to start Jan. 23 at 9:57 a.m., finish his Feed the Kids menu by 2:53 p.m. and his seafood platter by 3:27 p.m.
This year, instead of the plate contest, the Bocuse d’Or puts education in food and taste for young people through cooking at the center of the candidates’ work.
Today, cooks play a central role in food and culinary education. In the “Feed the kids” contest, each candidate will have to be creative in producing a squash-based menu for children. Several varieties will be provided by competition partner METRO to create a 100 percent vegetable-based cold starter, a hot dish including an egg and a restaurant dessert style. The candidates will have to redouble their creativity, play with textures and flavors to convince the jury of chefs, supported by children from all around the world.
The platter theme honors monkfish, supplied by partner Seafood From Scotland, accompanied by scallops. To enhance the monkfish, the candidates will have to prepare two vegetable garnishes to be placed on the platter as well as a garnish served separately, made from a vegetable from their country, mussels and an individual crouton of their own composition.
The Bocuse d’Or adventure gathers the world’s gastronomic family and federates more than 5,000 chefs spread across 70 countries. With a local and itinerant approach, the Bocuse d’Or has travelled from city to city throughout the world since 2005 for the national and continental selections: in America (Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, etc.), in Asia (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore, etc.), in Africa (Dakhla, Marrakesh, etc.) and in Europe (Brussels, Budapest, Stockholm, Tallinn, Turin, etc.).
Beyond the geo-tourism implications of the event for the involved countries, the traveling selections serve to promote the gastronomic culture of each region and to highlight the vast diversity of world cuisine.
Before reaching the Grand Finale, each team spends two years training to perfect their skills. This makes the Bocuse d’Or much more than just a competition, it is a genuine human experience that combines self-improvement and team spirit.
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