Just Dip In!
Tina Benitez -- Gifts and Dec, 3/12/2011 4:23:14 AM
Consumers are going global in more ways than one. More exotic, ethnic sauces, dips and condiments are adding spice to American entertaining.
WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD, AMERICANS ARE CURIOUS.
They're traveling more, and copious Food Network shows and cookbooks like Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and India: The Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant from Phaidon Press, are helping lead the way in America's kitchens. Chefs Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich and restauranteur and vintner Joe Bastianich recognized the force of the popularized Mediterranean diet and responded by opening a 50,000-sq.-ft. supermarket mecca of Italian cuisine - the first of many to open in select cities in the U.S.
Indian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Moroccan - these cuisines and more have a special place on American tables and are reflective in how they're cooking, entertaining and gifting. Between 2007 and 2009, food gifts grew 9.6 percent ($14.9 billion) and are expected to jump to more than $21 billion by 2014, according to recent Packaged Facts figures. The reason: more people are recognizing the quality of good food, particularly more organic and gourmet products in their personal consumption, and translating this into great gifts.
Looking for Something Different
"People want something different," says Dave Hirschkop, founder of Dave's Gourmet, San Francisco. "Immigration has been a long-term trend in our country. There's certainly more Asian and Latin influences, so people are curious about these cuisines. People are seeing a lot more foreign influences, and they're curious. They want something new, and if we can bring it to them, they appreciate it."
Dave's Gourmet offerings include Italian-style pasta sauces with a twist like Butternut Squash, Wild Mushroom and Spicy Heirloom Marinara, along with Mexican hot sauces and powders, specialty salts infused with Italian herbs and a Japanese-inspired horseradish and sesame oil sauce called Soyabi. Hirschkop says his pasta sauces are used for everything but the expected - pasta - particularly when entertaining. Instead, all are used for dipping and for more elaborate dishes. "For someone who's more of an assembler, it's a sauce," he says. "For those who are more creative, you can use it as a base. Pasta is too straightforward, but with this, you can make something more special."
Make a Special Moment
Making the moment special is what giving and sharing food is all about. Cheese and crackers are the perfect food for showcasing international foods like the seasonal Burrata Mozzarella from Italy, which is offered at Cheese Plus in San Francisco. It will only wow guests more, says owner Ray Bair, when you present a rare, international cheese or dish. Whether it's for a Super Bowl get-together or an Academy Awards party, Bair's shop helps customers get everything they need for gifting or cooking, from serving platters and other kitchenware, oils and dried, cured meats like the non-perishable salami, Spanish Marcona olives, various dips and a sundry of cheeses - perishable and non-perishable.
Asiago Cheese Straws make a perfect dipping complement. In 1 oz., 3.5 oz. and 6 oz packages, and 10 oz. tin. Mississippi Cheese Straw Factory. 800.530.7496. www.mscheesestraws.com |
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Indian sauces are all-natural, gluten free and have a two-year shelf life. Maya Kaimal Fine Indian Foods. 845.876.8200. www.mayakaimal.com |
Pasta sauces are blends of more unusual flavors and can be used for more than just pasta. Dave's Gourmet. 800.758.0372. www.davesgourmet.com |
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Exotic ketchups bring new flavor to dishes and can also be used as dips. Dulcet Cuisine. 503.756.4688. www.dulcetcuisine.com |
Moroccan Mustard combines the flavors of organic Moroccan spices with Dijon mustard. Dulcet Cuisine. 503.756.4688. www.dulcetcuisine.com |
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Cheese Plus offers customized gift basket service, in-store tastings and periodic, ticketed events to help customers create unique entertaining, and cooking, experiences at home. "We're modeling the behavior that we would like the customers to have at home," says Bair. "We serve the masses, and it's nice when you get that opportunity to have one-on-one as the customer and as the customer service representative."
Across the country at Rhinebeck, NY's bluecashew Kitchen Pharmacy, huge sellers are Nirmala's Kitchen South American, Africa, Australian and Asian spices and salts, and chef Maya Kaimal's Indian products like their Tikka Masala, Kashmiri and Madras Curry sauces. Kaimal says that people are traveling more, and since there are more Indian restaurants opening here, there's a familiarity to Americans. "There's a whole host of ethnic options to make their meals more interesting," says Kaimal. "People need ways to keep meals at home as good as the quality at restaurants, and they want them to be simple and straightforward to prepare. There's a huge appetite for high quality, ethnic food."
Pam Kraemer, co-founder of Dulcet Cuisine, Portland, OR, knows the power of ethnic cuisine and has traveled the world to find only the best North African and other ingredients. Dulcet's Moroccan ketchup and mustard, in particular, have shot up in sales, Kraemer believes, since more and more customers are in tune with good food that's exotic. Kraemer adds that customers are more interested in entertaining with unique dishes like the Dulcet-created grilled Moroccan eggplant, made using the company's Moroccan ketchup, and vegetable dips made with non-fat plain yogurt or a mayonnaise/sour sour cream combination and Dulcet's curry sauce or Moroccan mustard; the Dulcet ketchups also serve as an alternative to cocktail sauce.
"I think with the economy people really started entertaining more and eating at home," says Kraemer. "They're looking to make [foods] that they tried in restaurants, but they don't want to buy all those ingredients and spices. Maybe they're even intimidated, so if they can buy a product with all the [exotic] spices already in it, it's safer for them. Plus, the products are natural, so that's a bonus. In America there are so many ethnic restaurants and so many ethnic options that it's really become more mainstream."
GREAT PAIRINGS: SIGNINGS AND TASTINGS DRIVE SALES
In Rhinebeck, NY, in-store events flood bluecashew Kitchen Pharmacy. In the past year, they've had up to 300 customers in their shop for book signings and tastings. Most recently, guests were entertained by chef Paula Wolfert and representatives of Frankie's Sputino, a famous Brooklyn, NY, Italian restaurant, for the release of The Frankies Sputino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual. "The signings offer tastings for guests," shares bluecashew's Sean Nutley. The Sputino event featured meatballs and other recipes from the famous restaurant. "There's a big slow food movement, so that definitely has a play on things," adds Nutley. "The ethnic thing is rising in the country, so we put recipes on the Web and print them out for customers."
| READ, LEARN, COOK | |||
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| The Frankies Sputino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual. Workman Publishing. 800.722.7202. www.workman.com | How to Cook Indian by Sanjeev Kapoor offers 500 classic recipes. 608pp. $29.95. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. 212. 206.7715. www.abramsbooks.com |
Skinny Dips has 60 recipes for light dips, salsas and spreads. 144 pp. $18.95. Chronicle Books. 800.759.0190. www.ChronicleBooks.com |
Tagine is a collection of Moroccan classic dishes. 64 pp. Hardcover. $12.95. Ryland, Peters & Small. 877.342.1478. www.rylandpeters.com |
Tina Benitez (tina_benitez@hotmail. com) is a freelance writer with credits in Women's Day and Wine Spectator.
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