The best products at the show receive the coveted Chomple Award. There is no trophy (although if you really want one, we'll make you one... email me at yod@chomple.com) but the award means you have the eternal adoration of Chomplers from all around the world.
Award categories change every year and are based on food trends that we notice and follow at the show. It's all about the trends. If it's a big thing this year and you were the best, you get a Chomple Award. Your product needs to be the hottest of the hot. You may make the best prune gravy in the world, but unless the hot thing that year is preserved fruit mashed potato toppings, you probably won't get a Chomple Award.
We also give awards for great booth experiences. The show is all about being excited about your products and showing retailers and the press why they should be too.
The NASFT has the sofi Awards, which are the awards you really want to win. They have a way better awards ceremony (heck, they actually have an awards ceremony) and better (aka, existent) trophies.
Enough talking. On with the Chomple Awards!
BEST OF SHOW/BEST CHEESE/BEST HONEY/BEST ARTISANAL PRODUCT: Marcelli Formaggi
We were so overwhelmed at how good their stuff was that I was at a complete loss of words the first time I visited their booth. For those of you who still don't believe in the power of social media, please pay attention. These guys were in the Italian pavilion and I would have just walked past had they not reached out on Twitter and told me that the Chomple staff definitely had to stop by and check out their artisanal Italian products.
I would have kicked myself for months if I missed this.
You can read the complete story at their website, but the gist of it is that Bob Marcelli, an award-winning chef, decided that what he really wanted to do was import his family's artisanal cheeses from Italy. His sons are now in the business with him. The cheeses are made in Anversa degli Abruzzi, a town of about 300 people. They also import other artisanal products from the area.
I'll make my plea right now. These guys need nationwide distribution. They especially need West Coast distribution. If you are a buyer for any sort of food store, pick this product line up RIGHT NOW.
It's that good. All of it is.
This is their booth with some of the cheeses they were tasting. One of these is their Pecorino Del Parco, which was by far the best dairy product that I've ever had. If you don't believe in terroir, this cheese will definitely change your mind. Those sheep are definitely living a charmed and delicious life in the hills of Italy. Seriously, this stuff was unreal.
Remember what I was saying about how they also import other artisanal products from their little pocket of Italy?
These are their honeys.
I didn't get to write down what the different varieties were, as I was too busy watching Designer Girlfriend about to keel over from how overwhelmed she was from the intense flavor of their honey. We were seriously considering distracting the Marcellis with my flash and grabbing the honey and running for the Moscone Center doors.
Check out their products here: http://www.marcelliformaggi.com/home.html and hit them up on twitter @MarcelliFormagg!
I will make my plea again: buyers, please pick up this product line. I need it. NOW.
Most Buzzworthy Product: Jumbleberry Syrup
The Waffle Lady was our Best of Show last year, and probably would have won it this year if it weren't for our rule disallowing repeat winners in the same category.
For the first day, I kept seeing tweets about "What is a Jumbleberry???" and others talking about how delicious Jumbleberries were. There were even people in the press room talking about this mystical product. Little did I know that this was something that my good friend the Waffle Lady had conjured up since I last saw her.
Turns out that Jumbleberry is something the Waffle Lady came up with as a blend of berries that she used as pie filling for her family. After many years she decided to share her creation with the world in the form of Jumbleberry syrup. A full half pound of berries in every bottle and absolutely no high fructose corn syrup.
I know I said this in my recap of the Waffle Lady's 2010 product line, but I fully expect all sorts of food manufacturers to license the Jumbleberry flavor for their own products. I've had plenty of berry concoctions, and none of them are remotely this good.
Best Condiment: Peter Luger's Steak Sauce
This is by no means a new product. Heck, it's not even a properly named product, as 90% of the regular patrons of Peter Luger's Steakhouse wouldn't dare put this on their prime dry-aged porterhouse. But they put it on almost everything else served there.
Over my lifetime, I have probably consumed 10+ gallons of this stuff at their Brooklyn location while waiting for my steak to show up.
Products with famous restaurant tie-ins were pretty plentiful this year, but this is our Chomple Award winner.
Honorable mention: Rao's Specialty Foods. Your pasta sauce is pretty awesome. Call me petty if you want, but Peter Luger's wins because I can actually get a table there.
Best Low Glycemic Index Sweetener: Wholesome Sweeteners Agave Nectar
The while low glycemic index sweetener thing has been going on for almost a decade now. Many companies have been searching for something that will taste sweet but 1) not spike your blood sugar level 2) not have a horrible aftertaste.
There have been plenty of pretenders to the throne. Splenda came close, but has an aftertaste many people do not like. Stevia, in the opinion of the Chomple staff, just tastes yucky. Xylitol has that weird cooling effect which is ok for mints but not for other applications. And let's not even get into maltitol and the bad side effects it has on people (Google it if you care, but this is a food blog).
Agave nectar seems to be the real deal. Great flavor, and a much lower glycemic index than sugar. Most producers just sell agave nectar straight. Wholesome Sweeteners has a full product line of wonderfully flavored agave nectars for any application you can think of.
Best Pasta Substitute: Wildwood PastaSlim
A while ago, the Japanese figured out that you could make konnyaku potatoes into a sort of pasta substitute. It wasn't the same as real pasta, but close enough (and if you were a fan of ramen noodles, pretty close to the spongy texture of a product like Top Ramen). Except, these noodles, dubbed shirataki, were much better for you. Only 20 calories a serving and barely any fat.
Unfortunately, none of these producers bothered to try and make their product resemble anything approaching pasta. Wildwood decided to up the ante. Their shirataki noodles actually taste pretty close to real pasta. And with the very steep drop in calories, you'll definitely forget the slight difference in taste and texture. They were tasting their spinach fettucini variety at the show, and it was PHENOMENAL.
Best Booth Personality: Tony Stone for Stoats
Not a product award, but this bears mention. This strapping young lad was wearing a kilt in the Scotland booth and had a fabulous Scottish accent. I had to forcibly remove a few of the female Chomple staffers from his booth after the interview.
The product he was pushing, Stoats, is pretty wonderful by the way. I don't like granola/grain bars much, but the Stoats bars made from whole Scottish oats are delicious and healthy.
Best Cheese Creation: The Cypress Grove Wedding Cheese"cake"
These guys have won so many awards that they don't need one from Chomple. But we're giving them one anyway. Every single one of their cheeses is a different but divine experience. Their Truffle Tremor cheese is one of the most decorated cheeses in the world and is a staple of any Chomple staff gathering.
Their award from us this year is not about anything we tasted. They made a wedding cake out of their gorgeous cheese products. One of the best product presentations at the entire show.
Most Fan Adoration: Cowgirl Creamery
I was convinced that the Bacon Salt guys were going to win this award, but I was wrong. While I was tasting cheese at the Cowgirl Creamery booth, I was going on and on about how much I loved their products and their store in the Ferry Building. Thirty seconds later a couple ladies from a major specialty food chain came up and started screaming "WE LOVE YOU COWGIRL CREAMERY!!!". After them, a gentleman walked up and said that he was craving Cowgirl Creamery cheese so much that the day before the show he went to their store because he couldn't wait until the show opened. This continued until we moved on to the next booth.
Most Generous Booth: Haribo
Haribo. That name brings joy to gummy lovers worldwide. Haribo was at the show with a colorful booth that had samples of over 50 of their gummy creations. Nobody at the show samples that much of their product line. Designer Girlfriend was very happy about this.
Best Snack/Chips: Kilauea Fire/Hawaiian Chip Company
You may have heard about these before as the chips that Barack Obama has stocked in his vacation home in Hawaii. Although I disagree with a lot of the President's food choices, he's dead on with these.
Imagine if Terra Chips were less greasy and had megaton flavor. You would have these chips.
Best Sauce/Best Celebrity Spokesperson: Tyler Florence
We met Tyler on the second day of the show. He was extremely engaging and really went into the theory behind his new West Coast Cooking Essentials. Many celebrity chef products turn out to be pretty mundane, but Tyler made it clear he was determined to make his product line as spectacular as humanly possible.
We'll definitely vouch for how good his products are. Our sauce expert pretty much freaked out when she tasted them. He had a classic pot roast sauce which our expert said made the meat taste like it had been stewed for days.
Best Kitchen Shortcut: Mia's Kitchen.
Wine reductions in a bottle. Divine, tasty, wonderful reductions. You could try a hundred times and it wouldn't come out this good.
I'm a big fan of products that make it easy to look like a kitchen hero. This stuff would make me look like a kitchen Superman.
Mia... we lost your card when we packed up. Email us: yod@chomple.com
Best Dressings: Pigtale Twist
Best salad dressing I've ever had. When people talk about blow you away flavors, they're talking about a product like this one. The three berry vinaigrette tasted like they had just mashed fresh berries to make the dressing before I tasted it. And don't get me started on their Ridiculously Garlic Blue Dressing. Oh my goodness. I don't know which cheese producer they are using for this one, but I want to taste their blue straight up. Amazing.
Their Buttery Caramel Sauce is amazing on fruit. This stuff would turn any fruit salad into rockstar quality food.
Best Thing We Photographed: Daddy Cakes/California Caviar Co. Double Bourbon Tower/Hackleback Supreme Cake
Daddy Cakes and the California Caviar Company were next to each other. Over the course of the show, they got to talking. Daddy Cakes made some blini sized pancakes out of their bourbon pancake mix. California Caviar topped it with their bourbon caviar. AH-MAAAY-ZINGGGG... except they ate it before I could get there with my camera.
Later on they made this thing: buttermilk pancake blinis with hackleback caviar.
Of course, I didn't get to sample this creation. Come on, guys! What the heck?!?
Congratulations to our winners! I'm going to go make myself a Waffle Lady waffle now. Writing this while hungry was a bit too painful.
