Summer Fancy Food Show Preview
It’s time to get fancy!
The Summer Fancy Food Show is nearly here and we’re looking forward to seeing your faces! We are preparing for another great year with lots of new products and some classic favorites. We are also very excited to have several of our producers visiting for the show. Make sure to stop by Booth 3138 to say hello and taste to your heart’s content.
To whet your appetite, here are just a few of the treats you can expect at our booth this year: Pecorino di Farindola, a famous rare pig’s rennet cheese from Abruzzo, raw sheep’s milk farmstead cheeses from Murcia, Romesco sauce, and brand new Mitica® Taralli flavors. We are also thrilled to finally show off some of our brand new redesigns of our retail packaging, including nuts and the whole chocolate covered fruit line! Contact your sales rep to set up a meeting and try all the best new cheeses, meats, and accompaniments we have to offer.
This year, we are fortunate enough to have three producers visiting from Italy and Spain, who will be in our booth the entire show. We think you’ll fall for their passion and be inspired by them, just like we are.
Paola Calciolari, Le Tamerici
Paola makes our fabulous Casa Forcello® mostardas and compotes in the city of Mantova, Italy. She started her career as a pharmacist, then switched gears to pursue her passion: making traditional preserves, using her grandmother’s recipes and local fruit. From spicy-sweet mostardas with candied fruit and potent mustard essence to seductive Amarena Cherry Compote, these are extremely special condiments that make elegant pairings with cheese.
Highlights:
Casa Forcello® Line of
Mostardas and Compotes
We are so pleased to introduce our new packaging for the entire Casa Forcello® line, which we will have at the show. These condiments, all painstakingly made by hand, with the best quality ingredients, deserve labels as spectacular as what’s inside the jar, and we achieved that! The flavors are unique and vibrant and take a cheese plate or dish to a new level. Paola will also bring several new varieties she’s been working on.
The Gritti Family, Quattro Portoni
Bruno and his family will be visiting us from Lombardia, Italy. They run Quattro Portoni, and are pioneers in the artisan cheese world for their aged buffalo milk cheeses. After inheriting the farm from their father, brothers Bruno and Alfio ended up switching from cattle to buffalo, and were one of the first to introduce water buffalo, traditionally seen in the south, to northern Italy. They make the incredible cheeses like Quadrello® di Bufala and Casatica® di Bufala with the rich, fatty milk from their herd.
Highlights:
Liteggio
A rare raw milk cheese from Quattro Portoni, Liteggio is aged 90 days, and goes to show that buffalo milk works wonders in aged cheeses as well as the fresh and soft ripened ones you might already know. This one becomes soft and crumbly, but maintains that mouth-coating richness you expect from this milk. It has a delicate and sweet aroma, with a slight tang in the finish.
Porta Rocca
We worked with Bruno to develop this small format cheese, modeled after the typical caciotta table cheese style popular in Italy. One of their longer aged cheeses at 8 months, it is still mild and creamy at this age, with notes of tangy yogurt. The cheese is named after one of the four gates (quattro portoni in Italian) to the city of Cologno al Serio, where they make the cheese.
Nadia Herrera, Grupo Ganaderos de Fuerteventura
Nadia, the export manager for our producer in the Canary Islands, will be joining us this year, bringing along their four fabulous cheeses: Maxorata, Alisios®, Cabra al Gofio, and Smokin’ Goat™. They make cheeses using goat’s and cow’s milk, and they collect it from local island farmers.
We love how unique, yet accessible their cheeses are and are excited to introduce people to Canary Island cheeses, which are still fairly unknown in our country (but we hope to change that soon)!
Highlights:
The Trilogy: Alisios®, Cabra al Gofio, and The Smokin’ Goat™
These three small wheels form quite a trio and represent the creativity and skill of our Canary Island cheesemaker. Each highlights Majorero goat’s milk, rich in fat and protein.
Alisios® is made with a mix of cow’s (70%) and goat’s milk (30%) and is coated in sweet Pimentón de la Vera. The sweet, brothy paste is enhanced by a light acidity from the goat’s milk and a lovely smoky aroma from the rind. The key here is balance: each element of the cheese works beautifully together and creates a sensational well-rounded flavor.
Cabra al Gofio is striking because of its rind coated in gofio, a toasted cornmeal common in Canary Island cuisine. After aging this goat’s milk cheese for 60 days, it develops an elastic texture and very creamy mouthfeel. It’s pleasantly milky and approachable with a unique sweetness in the finish. You needn’t be an islander to fall in love with this cheese.
We love many things about The Smokin’ Goat™, from the crowd pleasing, light smokiness, to the dapper monocled goat on the label. Toasted notes in Majorero goat’s milk are brought out by smoking the cheese over beech wood, and with just 15 days of aging, it maintains a semi-soft, velvety texture. It’s an excellent melter, which makes it great to cook with – grilled cheese, quesadillas, and omelets are all enhanced by this irresistible cheese.
