Summer 2010 Fancy Food Show
By Dana McCauley
With over 180,000 products showcased by 2,500 Exhibitors at New York City’s Javitz Center, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) Fancy Food Show offers an interesting glimpse into the current culinary landscape. Here, in no particular order, are my observations:

Pink peppercorns were featured in chocolate products by New Tree and Vosges. At New Tree the chocolate was dark while Vosges used lemon scented white chocolate as foil to this sweetly spiced berry.

The show was, quite literally, saturated with teas and …

There’s a stereotype that all the excitement in the Canadian food sector lies in a few locales.  That’s wrong – there are delights to be found across the country and  good things are cooking in Manitoba — or are being served up in their raw, marvelous, unprocessed glory.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the exciting and interesting finds from Manitoba:
Cold Pressed Prairie Oils
We’ve all seen cold pressed canola oil.  How about cold pressed flax, sunflower and  hemp for salad dressings, dips, or finishing oils.  Grown locally, and …

As you enjoy your long weekend hikes through the woods, and are tempted by the marvelous wild delicacies, please remember the following:
-When foraging plants, remember the general etiquette: know your plants, and know about their life cycle.  Never take more than the plant can quickly regenerate within a year.  Some of my personal recommendations include not taking more than one or two fiddles per well established fern. I never taking more than 1/4 of the mushrooms I find (even if it breaks my heart), and I leave some fruits (1/10) …

The chill of an early May snowfall in Edmonton has not prevented me from cooking on my gas grill. Just like 43 percent of the 1009 consumers surveyed in this year’s Weber Canadian Grillwatch Survey, I choose to grill year round. I am proud to admit that I fall into the category of hardy Canadian grillers (32%) who brave the elements when the mercury drops below zero to fire up the old “Q” and rustle up a grilled meal. The “to grill” meal chosen by most of the survey’s respondents …

It seems the local food movement is getting more political.  Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals have developed a platform for a Canadian food policy, and with their announcement Monday, the food community is aflutter with comments focusing on what positive changes this might bring, or whether it is just more political grandstanding.
Even with the fanfare, the Liberal party is not entering into a massive food policy void.  Canada has a food policy.  For better or worse, Canada has a whole pile of government food policies, regulatory agencies, and organizational tiers.  …

By Dana McCauley
Quite often food trends trickle down from the foodservice world to the grocery realm. Consider balsamic vinegar. In the 1980s when Cal-Ital restaurants become popular, this was a new and exotic ingredient that home cooks quickly started asking for at the grocery store. Today balsamic vinegar is a kitchen staple and sold in even well-stocked convenience stores. The modern equivalent is black garlic, which as 2009 dawned was brand new to most chefs but is now, less than 18 months later, available at chain grocers such as Longo’s …

By Dana McCauley
As the end of the decade advances, I find myself looking back, taking stock of the trend landscape and wondering about what we can expect to see in 2010 and beyond.
During the last ten years products that offer a wellness advantage that promote either longevity or enhance our beauty have become mainstream. Likewise, blending sweet and savoury ingredients in desserts and main meal components continues to be a popular way to add flavour and interest to Canadian recipes and restaurant meals. We’ve also seen a plethora of …

Trends, trends, trends.  Everyone’s talking about them.  Food trends abound, but which ones are here to stay (at least for the time being).  Bensimon Byrne’s recent Consumerology Report focused on food consumer trends for Canadians, and the insight is interesting.  Where we are going, as a nation, with how we interpret food and health, is enlightening, but also clouded in misconceptions, and full of potentials for food professionals.
No big surprises are here for anyone in the food industry, still let me summarize some of the most interesting findings:

Consumers are …

Recent discussions with a friend of mine, Paul Spence, a cash crop farmer from Ridgetown Ontario, really brought home the crisis, the opportunity, and the barriers in diversifying in the agricultural sector today.
We all know that many sectors of the Canadian agriculture are in trouble.  Case in point, the pork industry. It’s under catastrophic collapse from fluctuating commodity prices, trade barriers instigated by disease outbreaks, and supply and demand issues which have left the pork industry in chaos.  Pork farms are going bankrupt under the current system.
So there are a myriad of farmers who …

I finally got around to reading Massimo Marcone’s book, In Bad Taste?, awarded last year’s Honourable Mention for Special Interest Books at the Canada Culinary Book Awards. Massimo is a friend and colleague of mine, so he has been cajoling me to read the book since it came out. Browsing through the public library, it finally got the best of me, and I read it this past long weekend.
What fun! It’s a whirlwind tour of weird food, fascinating places, and the futuristic world of the scientific lab. And it is …