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Home » Food Shows and Conferences

Winter Fancy Food Show 2014 – Trends and Tempting Tastes

by Beth Lee · Published: Jan 27, 2014 · Modified: Jan 27, 2022

139 shares
Winter Fancy Food Show
photo courtesy of WFFS 14 press kit

Imagine Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco filled with room after room of tantalizing food and drink from over 1300 exhibitors offering 80,000 products to taste from all over the world. What if each company offered you a sample of their latest creation and you only had 5.5 hours to navigate through the maze?

Well that’s how I spent last Monday at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. For your virtual tasting pleasure, here is my recap of the highlights, hoping to tease and tantalize you with my discoveries.

According to the Fancy Food Show trendspotters, the five top trends at the show were: (click here for their quick video about the trends if you want to see all the product examples)

  • Sriracha in everything
  • Healthy crunchy snacks
  • Low sugar sips
  • Mint in everything
  • Creative condiments

Adding my interest in Middle Eastern ingredients to that trend list, I took a quick browse through the What’s New What’s Hot room and then headed out to find the products that piqued my interest. Despite my best effort at staying on task, I was constantly distracted by booth after booth of other intriguing finds. For example, who wouldn’t want to taste whatever was in these giant glasses? Which turned out to be fantastic hot fudge style toppings by a company called Somebody’s Mother’s. My favorite was the Mocha Sauce - too bad their booth was not next to Three Twins ice cream.

Winter Fancy Food Show
photo courtesy of Somebody's Mother's

With the trends mentioned above in mind, here are the highlights of my semi-organized booth hopping:

Hot and Spicy

Besides seeing sriracha as a flavoring in many foods from jams to chocolates to savory snacks, I also noticed many alternative bottled sriracha sauces beyond the one we are all used to seeing on the table at our local Pho restaurant. Spicy is definitely a hot product category.

Crunchy Munches

As for healthy and crunchy – there was a lot of both.

If you think garbanzo beans or chickpeas are just for hummus. Think again. These protein-rich healthy beans are a winning crunchy snack alternative, able to accept many flavor profiles. These tasty treats are from a company called The Good Bean, who has now extended their bean-based snack products to include snack bars as well.

Winter Fancy Food Show

While we’re talking about munching, I hope these Pop’d Kerns, halfway between a tooth-breaking corn nut and fully popped corn, arrive at my local New Leaf Community Market shelves soon! They were a salty, sweet, savory fun nibble.

Winter Fancy Food Show

And I learned that there is more to peanuts than Planters. The extra large Virginia type peanuts are super crunchy, flavorful, and not at all oily or greasy. If you are a nut lover, these Virginia Cocktail Peanuts will transform your view of peanuts.

Winter Fancy Food Show

My award for most unusual snack item has to go to D’vine Crush – a nosh that is based on the by-product of the winemaking process known as the Crush. In the spirit of no-waste, D’vine Crush harnesses the flavor of the crush, adding fruit and nuts to create these munchy mixes that mirror the taste of the wines they start with – what a great conversation starter for your next cocktail party!

Winter Fancy Food Show

Coconut chips were everywhere. A great snack food - gluten free, non-GMO, vegan, high in fiber and lauric acid and containing no cholesterol - these Dang chips were all the rage. Dang is a family run business based out of Berkeley, California and inspired by the great street food of Bangkok.

Winter Fancy Food Show

Other crunchy snacks spotted – pasta chips (really), quinoa chips, flavored pita chips, crunchy seaweed and the list could go on.

Not Soda, Not Water

As far as low sugar sips, the choices were abundant. One of my favorites was this Silk Road Soda that uses vibrant Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors. In fact – they combine two of the show’s trends – low sugar sips and mint – in every bottle. I loved the pomegranate mint combination. While at their table, I met a family from a Northern California pomegranate farm called Skylake Ranch. They heard me mention pomegranate molasses, an ingredient we talked about in September for Tasting Jerusalem, and asked if I knew how to make it as they are working on a recipe for an all natural, no sugar pomegranate molasses!

Winter Fancy Food Show

This Bruce Cost Ginger Ale also incorporates so many healthy Middle Eastern and Asian-based ingredients like fresh turmeric which is pictured in the foreground and looks like ginger but has an orange undertone.

Winter Fancy Food Show

And there was Gus – Grown Up Soda – offering both traditional cola and root beer flavors as well as some tangy fruity alternatives like cranberry or grapefruit.

Winter Fancy Food Show

Another trend in beverages is the return of fine craft cocktails -- all of these low sugar sips make great starters for creative cocktails.

Tea was quite prevalent at the show with lots of organic choices and unusual flavor combinations. Even chocolate, which we are so used to seeing paired with coffee, can now be found sneaking into many tea offerings. But my favorite tea creation was this Owl’s Brew -- a tea blend made especially to be used as a cocktail mixer. Very clever indeed.

Winter Fancy Food Show

The Flavor Factor

As for the final listed trend - creative condiments – I’ll expand this flavor enhancing category to include spices as well.

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Variations on ketchup were all over. Stonewall Kitchen was featuring a new take on the red staple with truffles included! Didn’t get a chance to taste it, but I understand it was quite a hit, using white truffle oil as its flavor maker.

And Traina Foods, a dried fruit company from Patterson, CA, the apricot capital of the world, was featuring a sundried tomato ketchup which elevates the red condiment to a more sophisticated level of flavor.

Winter Fancy Food Show

And then there was a new condiment line by Erika Krekes of the blog In Erika’s Kitchen called Not Ketchup – made with fruit instead of tomatoes offering three creative flavors so far: Cherry Chipotle (my favorite), Blueberry White Pepper, and Smoky Date. The basis for these sauces are various fruits instead of tomatoes – with encouragement from her tagline for us to Dip Differently. Three cheers for creativity Erika!

Winter Fancy Food Show
photo courtesy of Not Ketchup web site

Not Ketchup was featured in the Arianna Trading Company booth where they were displaying a velvety tasting Greek olive oil. Laura Bashar of the blog Family Spice and Mary Platis of California Greek Girl blog were special guests in the booth and offering a splash of the oil in their pomegranate martinis -- just one of many great ideas that these two food bloggers offer up in their new book “Cooking Techniques with Olive Oil”

Winter Fancy Food Show

In the Savor California booth filled with small vendors from all over the State of California, I found a unique “not” vinegar product with less acidity than vinegar but overflowing with flavor called Sonomic Almost Vinegar

Winter Fancy Food Show

And a local-to-me family from Los Gatos, California making a knock-your-socks-off salsa called Mrs. A's Famous Salsa Buena. The creators of this product, both teachers, were urged by their students to bottle it up and so they have. Spunky flavor and terrific texture for dipping or drizzling.

Winter Fancy Food Show

Wine infused grapeseed oil by Salute Sante also intrigued me – they don’t waste any of the grapeseed, which they use after the grapes have been crushed for wine-making. Grapeseed oil is a flavor neutral, high smoke point oil that is perfect for cooking. But with a new line of flavor enhanced oils and flours (gluten-free), they have added a whole new dimension to this terrific cooking product.

Winter Fancy Food Show

In the dry spice category – there were two standouts for me. Victoria of Victoria’s Gourmet. She creates spice blends in a vast array of flavors (and colors) as well as offering origin spices, sea salts and more. I was intrigued by the Honey Aleppo blend – Aleppo pepper is unique to Syria and Turkey and has a sweet and spicy flavor, some say even reminiscent of the flavor of a sundried tomato but with a kick.

Winter Fancy Food Show

And my very last stop of the day was this unique company Canaan Fair Trade, selling Middle Eastern products that are hand-crafted in the land of milk and honey - Palestine - and sold in the spirit of fair-trade. The za-atar blend caught my eye – za’atar is a unique blend of thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt. Prevalent all over the the Middle East, especially Lebanon, the tangy bright flavor marries beautifully with olive oil, tomatoes, most proteins, and so much more. For more on Palestinian food and this company, you can read this story from the December issue of Saveur Magazine.

Winter Fancy Food Show

 

A few miscellaneous finds:

California-grown Japanese rice from Koda Farms – a family business since 1928, they are the oldest family owned & operated rice farm in California. If you haven't cooked with medium grain Japanese Kokuho rice, white or brown, give it a try - the texture and stickiness is just perfect for sushi or a side dish.

Winter Fancy Food Show

One-cup pour-over coffee filters from Caffe Borsa – If you are a pour-over coffee fan, this would be a nice product for a rushed morning when you still want a high-quality tasting cup of coffee before you run out the door.

Winter Fancy Food Show

Noodle Kugel made your grandmother's way by Kugel Co in small freezer-portioned packaging, each flavor looking like your grandma's recipe card (if in fact your grandma used recipes!)

Winter Fancy Food Show

And one last pick from a local San Francisco company - hummus produced with fava beans instead of garbanzo beans. According to the Fava Life web site, favas might be the beanstalk that Jack was climbing. In any case, they are a nutrient packed member of the pea family and do a great job as the basis for a unique alternative to traditional hummus.

Winter Fancy Food Show

 

If you were going to attend the show - what foods would be first on your list?

 

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  1. Miss Kim @ behgopa

    January 25, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    Did you attend this year too? I'm already ready for the Summer Fancy Show. I think in the 2020 show, I noticed plant-based still continuing to reign, keto game going strong, and heat challenge being a thing. It was a blast!

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 26, 2020 at 8:32 am

      I did and stay tuned on my FB and Insta channels for my video recap! I agree with your trends and also the dairy free options are really proliferating!

      Reply
  2. Hannah

    January 30, 2014 at 8:09 am

    Incredible, Beth! I love some of these food trends...sriracha in chocolate? Wow. Thank you for sharing your delicious journey!

    Reply
  3. Erika at Not Ketchup

    January 28, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    Thanks so much for including Not Ketchup in your roundup! I walked the whole show but I missed a bunch of the products you featured. Guess I was distracted...or walking too fast! 🙂

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 28, 2014 at 4:09 pm

      There is just so much at the show and so many products worth stopping to learn more about. I felt like I had not done nearly enough but when I wrote the round-up, I realized I'd done a lot in just a short time. But next year - going to plan two days if at all possible. More time for meetings then too.

      Congrats on your launch and great product Erika!

      Reply
  4. Lizthechef

    January 28, 2014 at 9:13 am

    I am SO glad you got to meet my friends Laura Bashar and Mary Platis. They are in my monthly writing group - I know they had a fabulous experience. Thanks for sharing yours -

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 28, 2014 at 11:16 am

      Meeting them was definitely one of the highlights of the day. And the pomegranate martini wasn't bad either 🙂 What a nice writing group you must have - lucky you Liz!

      Reply
  5. Deb

    January 28, 2014 at 8:00 am

    What an amazing day Beth! I'm looking forward to watching these trends unfold and blossom throughout the year!

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 28, 2014 at 11:15 am

      Had a fun time on #foodiechats twitter event last night discussing the trends some more. I am generally not a trend kind of person - I'm more interested in actual taste - whether it is trendy or not, but there was a lot of interesting items to get excited about at the show.

      Reply
  6. Carol Sacks

    January 27, 2014 at 4:38 pm

    Wow, I'm starving and exhausted from my walk...I mean, YOUR walk through the show:) Fun post and lots of great info!

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 27, 2014 at 8:57 pm

      Thanks Carol - gosh it was a whirlwind that day and this post sure took a while to put together but too much fun and interesting stuff not to share!

      Reply
  7. Diane Kay

    January 27, 2014 at 4:32 pm

    Sounds fabulous! Let's "schedule" a walk ( ha!) and tell me more!

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 27, 2014 at 8:56 pm

      Yes - I miss our walks - this week for sure. It was a fun and exhausting day.

      Reply
  8. sandycorman

    January 27, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    OMG!!How did you do that all in one day.Impossible to pick one favorite thing.Did you bring home lots of goodies?

    Reply
    • Beth Lee

      January 27, 2014 at 8:55 pm

      In my usual fashion, I felt like I didn't do enough but my body ached so badly by the end. Then when I wrote this post, I realized just how much I did cover in one day. Holy cow!

      Reply

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Hi, I'm Beth!

I'm a cookbook author, cooking teacher and preserved lemon lover. My family is a mix of Jewish, Hawaiian and Korean heritage. My virtual multicultural kitchen is always open. Let's cook together! 

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