Celebrating Virginia’s Finest in Specialty Foods
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Saturday, July 9, the Specialty Food Advisory Committee and 17 of Virginia’s specialty food purveyors joined forces to host the Virginia’s Finest Reception at the Hotel Tabard Inn. The specialty food purveyors were in D.C. this week to participate in the 57th Summer Fancy Food Show, North America’s largest specialty food and beverage event.
This is a particularly notable year for Virginian participation in the Fancy Food Show. Fifty Virginia specialty food producers exhibited their products, 26 of whom showcased products in the state’s pavilion–the largest Virginia contingent to date.
The reception, which featured a Virginia-centric menu of passed hors d’ouevres and crudites (including Surry Farms’ Edwards Surryano Ham and seared rare beef tenderloin from Culpeper’s Croftburn Farm Meats) was an opportunity for Virginia purveyors to network and highlight their product lines.
Many of the purveyors in attendance were also celebrating their selection as 2011 sofi Silver Finalists. The sofi, which stands for ”Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation” is the equivalent of a specialty food Grammy. This year, there were 125 Silver Finalists selected in 33 categories.
The Specialty Food Advisory Committee was created by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in order to promote and market Virginia’s specialty food and beverage industry. Sofi Silver Finalist Pamela Barefoot of Blue Bay Crab Co. lauds the Committee for helping to foster camaraderie between the VA purveyors: “it’s like family,” she explains.
Some of the dynamic duos that I met at Saturday’s reception included:
Claire and Neville Turner of Rappahannock County’s Virginia Chutney Co. Claire started experimenting with Southern-style chutneys after studying anthropology and Southern food ways at George Mason University. The family (sons Oliver and Christopher also lend a hand) developed eight flavors, including spicy plum and hot peach. You can find Virginia Chutney Co. on the shelves of Whole Foods locations and in select specialty cheese shops.
These doctors know how to operate… in both the O.R. and in the kitchen. Silver sofi Finalist Bone Doctors’ BBQ is the darling of Drs. David Heilbronner and Bruce Wilhelmsen, two orthopedic surgeons who treat your bones right–with their BBQ sauces and spice rubs.
Leah Kuo and Laura Englander of Falls Church’s CookieZen evolved from a gourmet cookie business into “Cookies & Corks,” which pairs both sweet and savory cookies with wine. Kuo bills the concept as a novel, fun, and “unpretentious way of doing wine pairings.”
Gunther’s Gourmet is named after Mike Lampros’s first Brindle Boxer. (Because of this namesake, the company has a special place in its heart for the SPCA and animal rights causes.) Mike, a Certified Executive Chef, and his brother Nick, a lawyer and estate planner, are the team behind the award-winning line of fat free and low sodium salsas, vinaigrettes, and marinades.
For more on these specialty food vendors, and on the Fancy Food Show, click here.
-Johnisha M. Levi
Tags: Blue Crab Baby Co., Bone Doctor's BBQ, chutney, CookieZen, Croftburn Farm Meats, Gunther's Gourmet, Gut Check, Hotel Tabard Inn, Johnisha M. Levi, Leah Kuo, Mike Lampros, Nick Lampros, Northern Virginia, NoVA, Pamela Barefoot, Specialty Food Advisory Committee, Summer Fancy Food Show, surryano ham, Virginia Chutney Co., Walter E. Washington Convention Center