SUPPLIERS TRY TO BOOST SALES
Park MGM this year, has teamed with Ken’s Foods — makers of popular salad dressings, barbecue sauces and more — to release a line of Kogi sauces derived from his Kogi BBQ food truck.
Choi operates several LA restaurants now, but his original mobile dining concept serves a Mexican-korean hybrid cuisine known for big, bold flavors. He said he wasn’t concerned about maintaining that reputation with his new sauce collaboration. “The reason I’m not apprehensive is what’s in the bottle. These flavors are true to Kogi,” Choi said.
There were plenty of smaller suppliers at the expo, including first timers Charlito’s Cocina, a boutique charcuterie producer from Long Island, N.Y., that has recently expanded its production capacity. “We usually do the specialty food shows so this is pretty big for us,” said meatmaker Ben Parker, offering samples of salami picante and dry-cured black truffle sausage.
The pizza industry is thriving and diversifying, so there wasn’t one clearly dominant trend discussed at this year’s expo, however gluten-free food products are a hot topic throughout the food and beverage industry and especially in the pizza universe.
The manufacturing side of the industry has made vast improvement in regards to gluten-free product certification, but the service and restaurant industry is in need of additional education, according to Lindsey Yeakle, quality control manager and food safety specialist with the Gluten Intolerance Group. The nonprofit organization was formed more than 40 years ago and is responsible for that little “GF” circle logo seen on many gluten-free food products — that’s the symbol of the group’s certification.
“Manufacturers have a better understanding of how technical things have to be in their world so they’re moving in a better direction,” Yeakle said. “But the food service industry still says and does things based on not enough knowledge, making claims without understanding completely how to keep things safe.”
GIG started its certification program about nine years ago, when there was an obvious surge in restaurants and pizzerias putting gluten-free dishes on menus. “I think everybody is a pizza fan,” Yeakle said. “Finding that perfect gluten-free pizza crust is hard because when you take the gluten away, that’s what pizza is. It’s tricky.”
Just a few paces away at the Antico Molina Caputo Flour booth, local pizza maker Vincent Rotolo of downtown’s Good Pie was cooking up a gluten-free Detroit-style pizza with a thick yet light and spongy crust and crispy cheese baked into the edge. Quite ironically, it was delicious.