What follows are the Chomple Awards for the 2009 Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. The awards were judged by our entire editorial staff over a bottle of cab in our room at the Serrano Hotel.
If you have won one of these awards, be aware that you have won nothing but our complete admiration and hunger. That, and we're absolutely willing to write a testimonial to how creatively awesome your products are.
To our readers: we obviously don't get compensated for any of this. In our marathon run through the Fancy Food Show, these were the items that made us stop in our tracks and go "Wow. Just wow.". So here are the winners!
Grand Chomple Prize--Waffle Lady
We totally did not think we would find our grand prize winner 10 booths into the show, but we did. The Waffle Lady is everything we love in a great food product: great history, great philosophy, and most of all, the product is above and beyond anything else in their segment.
You can read the complete story at their website, but the short version is that the Waffle Lady's family (there really is a Waffle Lady and a Waffle Family) owned a few restaurants which were known for the superior quality of their breakfast offerings. Various recipes were developed at those restaurants and customers loved them all.
The Waffle Lady's customers kept telling her to package the waffle mix and sell it. Being an astute businesswoman she did just that. Eventually the Waffle Family got out of the restaurant business and got into the waffle mix business and here we are.
For this product, the story alone would merit a mention in the Chomple Awards. Here's the almost scary part: the product is even better than the story. This stuff is good... damn good. Now, I'm not a pushover when it comes to breakfast foods. I have consumed waffles all over the world and these were the best ones I've ever had, period. Every single variety they had was phenomenally delicious.
Their booth requires a special mention. The booth was not loaded with the usual flood of marketing people and dedicated dealmakers. It was just the Waffle Family. Waffle Lady and Waffle Son were out front while the other two Waffle People were behind the counter with a waffle iron and a griddle making waffles and pancakes. No flashy booth needed.
The way I look at it, the megacorps that dominate the food industry can promote themselves very easily, whereas small businesses like the Waffle Lady succeed through word of mouth about their superior products. So do yourselves, your breakfast, and the food industry a favor and run, not walk, to the nearest box of Waffle Lady mix.
I never ever thought that I would award the grand prize to a waffle mix, but here we are.
Best Dessert Product--TIE--Clearbrook Farms, Plaza Sweets
Both Jody and Work Girlfriend were pretty clear that of all the sweets at the show, this was the one we were going to give the award to.
Most home cooks, especially those that do a lot of entertaining, love products that seem like you slaved all day over a stove, even though all you did was open a package or reheat something. Call it the faux-kitchen-hero effect. Many many products at the Fancy Food Show attempt to accomplish this. None of them do this as well as Clearbrook Farms' Tart product line.
Making spectacularly good fruit tarts is a snap with their stuff. Start with one of their tart shells. The shells are flaky and wonderful but... here's a twist, they are NOT sweet. Their philosophy is that in a tart, the filling should be sweet, not the shell. Great concept. It works beautifully.
This also means that you can use their tart shells for savory tarts if you so chose.
The fillings are sweet as one might expect but they somehow have managed to capture the fresh fruit flavor that most packaged fillings seem to lose during the cooking and canning process. They taste completely homemade... if your home kitchen was run by an incredibly talented chef.
In a show full of baked goods, Plaza Sweets was the best. Jody and Work Girlfriend are cake experts and gave a collective four thumbs up to this place. Work Girlfriend doesn't even like pumpkin based baked goods and declared their Pumpkin Cheesecake the best dessert on the floor.
Best Drink--Noh Hawaiian Iced Tea
Some of you may have had this before. It's sort of a lemon tea, so think Lipton Brisk if it was made with all top-grade materials. No high fructose corn syrup here, the Noh Hawaiian Iced Tea is made with pure, straight up cane sugar.
Noh Hawaiian Iced Tea
Best Butter--TIE--Meyenberg Goat Milk Butter, Vermont Compound Butter
Pretty funny, considering they are products on total opposite sides of the product spread (no pun intended, haha).
As far as a pure butter goes, the Meyenberg was by far the best. It was a clean butter with a hint of that great goat milk/cheese flavor.
The Vermont Compound Butter was also very good. All the flavors were spectacular.
Most Awesome Branding--TIE--Fartless Factory, Redneck Pepper
I believe their products aren't actually fartless, but they are still awesomely branded. And... they're actually tasty.
Then there's Redneck Pepper. Being a corn-fed Ohio boy, I was instantly drawn to their booth clad in camo with honest-to-goodness rednecks manning the sales floor. Like Fartless Factory, these guys not only had a hilarious brand, but had a very awesome product. Their spice product was very good, and their sausage was even better. Their jerky would have won the Chomple best jerky prize had we been giving one out this year. Work Girlfriend also carries some redneck genes and had fun communing with their sales staff.
Best Dairy--Straus
This one was a no-brainer. Jody is addicted to their products, mainly their whole milk in glass bottles. They have the best milk on the planet. At the show, they let Jody try their brand new products: their soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt mixes. I don't even like ice cream or frozen yogurt and these were just phenomenal. The liquid mixes are institutional/foodservice only, so restaurants, get this stuff now! And let me know, so you can get my dining dollar.
The funniest part was when Jody declared that she was their biggest fan (she really is!). One of their marketing guys took her picture saying "I'm starting a blog, I need something to write about!"
Cutest Food--Whatever this place was
Their food looked cute. The guys manning the booth were standoffish and rude. Didn't even bother writing down where they were from. Whatever. But the food is cute. The vigilante part of me doesn't even want to give them an inch of free press, but oh well.
Best Booth (and best tea, while we're at it)--The Republic of Tea
These guys showed up with a huge redesigned bamboo-clad booth full of tea. They were pouring 33 different sample teas which were all amazingly good. Many critics say they've grown to a size where they've lost their way, but as long as their products stay as good as they have all these years, I don't see an issue.
They had a ton of staff there making sure people were being helped and the booth attracted a ton of attendees. When the tea craze finally hits mainstream these guys are going to be rich as hell.
Best Condiment--Dulcet's new ketchup line
This marks the ONE time in the show that a food product physically gave Work Girlfriend goosebumps. I tried it and it was that good. The ketchup in question was their Moroccan ketchup, but the others were just as good. They have a sauce line which is also phenomenal, but not as good as the ketchup which almost made Work Girlfriend collapse on the spot.
Best Kid-Related Products--Zebra Mix
There are plenty of kid-related cooking products nowadays due to the Food Network and kids in general getting really excited about being in the kitchen. The show was full of these things but the booth that got our attention immediately was from Zebra Mix.
The concept is at once simple yet brilliantly effective. Each kit comes with a giant fold-out map that details the steps required to bake the product. Along the way, the map is designed to give kids a few word problems to handle. The kits are designed with wholesome ingredients that result in delicious and healthy baked goods.
Best Milk Substitute--Living Harvest Hempmilk
I have spent at least a decade trying to find a milk substitute that didn't either 1) taste like complete poo 2) was loaded with a ton of sugar to cover up #1.
I have finally found it. Living Harvest Hempmilk is tremendously good... and good for you. Work Girlfriend's "omg yay!" moment was the ketchup and this one was mine. I have no idea how they get something other than real milk to be this creamy, but I am not complaining.
Most Generous Booth--Fage Dairy USA
Fage is a manufacturer of everyone's favorite Greek-style (strained) yogurt. They had a huge booth at the show where they were giving out full size containers of their products to anyone that wanted one. The cost of such a show might be higher for them, but what better way to declare that your product is so overwhelmingly good that you're willing to let it speak for itself?
The "WOW" Award--Savory Creations International
These guys make soup/stock/sauce concentrates. Their products taste better than the real thing. Seriously. I'm not making any more stock or broth as long as these people are in business. It's that good.
Savory Creations International
That's it for this show. Hopefully I make it to the summer show in NYC. If so, see you all there!
