Fancy Food Show

At first look, the Fancy Food Show seems like the typical trade show -- a massive and intense event where the pace of a year's commerce is set. And it is all those things, that's just a business reality. Yet, as we want to know more about where our food comes from those producers who are making food with intention stand out. Tim McCollum is founder of madecasse, a chocolate and vanilla company that cultivates its products from the grassroots agricultural level and makes the products in Madagascar where they ingredients are grown and sourced. Impeccable taste merged with fair business. The Rozendal Family, from Stellenbosch, South Africa, make vinegars that are presented as much as a aperitif as an ingredient. Their Mixed Vinegar is macerated with green tea, chili, carob, lavendar, sweet pepper and kelp for a balance, refreshing and quaffable vinegar. They also ask us to seek truth in our food and realize how much of what is labeled balsamic is merely vinegar finished with burnt sugar. Augusto Zuffa, is a poet and winemaker, who in New York for the first time, is thrilled to share his culture and history through the organic wine made on his family farm for many generations. Then there is Aris Kefaloglannis, founder of Gaea, a Greek food company, who by all planing and preparations, should be in politics right now. Instead he is making and exporting traditional and authentic Greek foods. Gaea foods include award winning olives oils, sauces and olives -- all certified to their regions. Gaea also is presenting the first carbon neutral olive oil. They reached this benchmark by first reducing energy use then offsetting the rest. Aris felt that this was necessary to keep the products pure and in line with the essence of the Greek lifestyle. Having tasted several Gaea products, Aris' choice of food over politics, is a happy outcome. More on these and other Fancy Food products in the coming weeks.