Food producers from all over the world flocked to the annual Fancy Food and Confection show at the Javits Center, but Brooklyn companies came out in full force. Most of the Brooklyn companies were there as part of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s new “Brooklyn Goes Global” program, which promotes borough-made products.
“The program is having great success because the products are so terrific,” said Rick Russo, a Chamber vice president.
To assess the validity of Russo’s claim, we tasted everything and present this year’s report:
• David Zablocki of Wine Cellar Sorbet, the Greenpoint-based vintage wine ices company, hawked his three new flavors: mimosa, port wine and saki. The mimosa was first rate. For more info, call (718) 383-8308 or visit www.winecellarsorbets.com.
• The three guys who started the Brooklyn Petro hot sauce company let us taste their flagship scorcher, “Exhaust.” It lived up to its name — smoky and hot. The company also makes custom sauces for restaurants. Check them out at www.brooklynpetro.com.
• Moshe Freund was on hand to show off his new “Great King” line of canned tuna fish. Don’t laugh — this is not your normal tinned tuna but full albacore filets. For info, go to www.kingoftheseatuna.com.
• The Vermont Smoke and Cure company was boasting about how its new one-ounce pepperoni stick — which really is perfect for when you crave some pepperoni (and who doesn’t?) but don’t want to buy a huge link — is now available at Stinky Brooklyn on Smith Street. Better than that, of course, is the company’s maple wood smoked bacon (sliced or unsliced!). For info, visit www.vtsmokeandcure.com.
• Self-professed “Brownie Babe,” Mari Tuttle let us try some excellent treats (even though they’re actually baked in Queens). She’s still getting her Park Slope-based company fully up to speed, but you’ll be spotting her desserts in specialty stores soon. For info, visit www.marisny.com.
• Rick Field of Rick’s Picks broke some big news for The Brooklyn Paper: he’s created a special relish for the Shack-Cago dog at Danny Meyers’s Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. That’s big news for a company that started in Brooklyn with just some pickled green beans and cucumbers.
• Blue Apron Foods in Park Slope and the Greene Grape in Fort Greene have started selling organic, fair trade chocolates made by Askinosie, a Missouri-based company. The Mexican nib bar was a standout — as was the company’s policy of paying farmers fair prices for their cocoa beans. The white chocolate — which really isn’t chocolate at all, by the way — was a miss, however. For info, visit www.askinosie.com.
• Wendy Smith of School House Kitchen showed off her award-winning chutney — and proclaimed chutney “the new ketchup”! Let’s hope she’s right because a large share of the company’s profits get funneled into education programs, a la Paul Newman. Check it out at www.schoolhousekitchen.org.
