Nov 21, 2011 | posted in Blog by seedlingprojects
New York City Roadshow: Spreading the Good Food Gospel 3,000 Miles Away
We have just finished up our second official stop of the Good Food Awards Roadshow and New York City was definitely good to us! Besides the beautiful weather, we were met with passionate, inspiring and driven Good Food lovers at every event we hosted. We’d like to take this time to officially thank New York City for it’s wonderful hospitality.
To begin the festivities, Gimme! Coffee hosted Coffee Tasting Workshop at Williams-Sonoma at the shops in Columbus Circle. We were so excited to have Colleen Anunu of Gimme! Coffee come down from Ithaca to teach the attendees (and ourselves) about the proper way to taste coffee. Working alongside Gimme! Coffee was WholeFoodsMarketCooking.com, who put on a recipe contest for the best recipe featuring coffee. The winner, Joanne Bruno, concocted a great recipe one night when she and her med-school friends wanted a dinner party, but also needed to stay up to do some studying. The result was this mesmerizing Orzo, Arugula and Butternut Squash Salad in a Maple-Coffee-Vinaigrette. She did a great job demoing the recipe and all the on-lookers were very glad to try some for themselves. Check out Joanne’s blog, Eats Well with Others, here.
On Monday night, hosted by The Brooklyn Kitchen, local food entrepreneurs gathered for a panel and seminar, Bringing Your Product to Market. Panelists Harry Rosenblum, owner of the Brooklyn Kitchen; Shan Ma, from Gilt Taste; Chris Forbes, founder of Sourpuss Pickles; Bob McClure, founder of McClure’s Pickles; Cerise Mayo, founder of Nutshell Projects; Elly Truesdell, from Whole Foods Market; and Amanda Oborne, VP of Sales for FoodHub fielded questions from the local entrepreneurs and discussed the best ways to develop a food company in a way that is authentic, responsible and financially sustainable. The panel was followed by a reception where attendees sampled some of last year’s Good Food Award winning products including Smuttynose’s Robust Porter, S. Wallace Edwards and Sons’ Surryano Ham, Clothbound Cheddar from the Cellars at Jasper Hill, Real Pickles’ Garlic Dill, Sourpuss’ Peppered Okra, McClures’ Dill Pickles and Madecasse’s Milk Chocolate. Levain Bakery was also gracious enough to donate baguettes to finish our cheese and meat plates. In the mingling afterwards, we were met with a pleasant surprise. One of the guests, a budding ice cream maker, happened to have brought by some samples of her new product in case the attendees wanted to try some out – and all were happy to oblige! Good luck Phin and Phebes, the ice cream was indeed delicious!
The Roadshow NYC culminated on Tuesday morning at a Press Breakfast where the Good Food Award Finalists were announced. The atmosphere at il Buco Alimentari was perfect, with their upstairs event space filled with samples of all of the finalist products. As guests entered, they were greeted with hot coffee, dutifully brewed by the Counter Culture Coffee crew, while those with a strong stomach opted for a whiskey cocktail, featuring Finger Lakes Distilling Rye Whiskey mixed with a pear puree and walnut liqueur made in-house by il Buco. After a few brief remarks from Seedling Projects director Sarah Weiner, Chris Forbes of Sour Puss Pickles, and Kitty Greenwald of the Wall Street Journal, guests were encouraged to pull out their program and look over the list of finalists. Excitement filled the air and as soon as the plates were polished off, the tweeting began, everyone congratulating the finalists on their big success.
As the morning came to an end, so did our time in New York City. Again, we’d like to say “Thank You!” to everyone who came out to help, eat or just enjoy any of the events. New York City was a gracious host and we cannot wait to return for the Good Food Awards Roadshow 2013. Until then, you will just have to wait with baited breath until the winners are announced in at a Ceremony in San Francisco on January 13th.
