Gourmet G
ourmet? And American food? In the same sentence? To the uninitiated, this may appear to be a fair question,
but those that have been fortunate enough to travel across the US, or even step foot outside Disneyland, will know there is more on Uncle Sam’s dinner table than deep fried turkey and corn dogs. The way I see it, American food is just more extreme than ours. Their bad food, is really bad. And sadly that’s mostly all we get to hear about. It’s fast, cheap, sugary, and made using ingredients more akin to the chemistry set I used at school. But at the other end of the scale is a world of American speciality foods seldom seen this side of the Atlantic. The country that happily serves up school dinners of High Fructose Corn Syrup and type 2 diabetes, also brings us thousands
of small producers that use fantastic natural ingredients. There are family recipes handed down through generations that combine to make superb ranges of preserves, biscuits, sauces, snacks, and even chocolate, that can rival anything made in the UK. But, I hear you cry, why should I
be interested? Let me give you two very good reasons. Firstly, there’s just some stuff you can’t make or grow here. Take maple syrup for example. Those tree tapping folk up in New England are rather good at producing the best quality maple syrup you’ll find anywhere on the planet. And I’m not talking about the stuff Aunt Jemima serves up either. I’m talking about velvety smooth, Grade A, Dark Robust deliciousness. Secondly, customers these days want variety. They want to see and try new things. They want what they saw and ate on holiday. They want what their friends
don’t have. Or what their friends do have! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting local producers, and I think wholesalers (and retailers) have a duty to do just that. However, if everyone based locally to you only sold what was made locally to you, then you’d all be selling the same products. The solution? To look further afield. To offer a choice. To give the customer what they want. Do what the supermarkets are too scared to do. Offer great tasting products at prices that customers are actually quite happy to pay. Most delis offer products from France, Italy, Spain etc, and I propose that given the huge interest in world food, American food will sit quite happily alongside any offering, in any deli, in any town or village. And importantly – it will sell. Over the coming
American Food
OUR REGULAR COLUMNIST ADRIAN BEALE GIVES US AN INSIGHT INTO THE AMERICAN FOOD INDUSTRY.
months I’ll talk more about specific products and the stories and people behind them. You’ll read about why, as children, Joe and Jack Walker rolled an antique pickle jar around the floor of their family deli, and how Etienne Guittard gave up trying to find gold in California and ended up selling chocolate. Customers love a good story, and I do too. For me it’s about finding new foods, and spreading the word to customers, friends, and family. Over the coming months, I want
to show you a side of America and its produce that you may not have seen. In the next issue I’ll report back on new food trends from the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, but beyond that I hope you enjoy reading about our passion for what is often an easily dismissed segment of the very special business we call food.
Adrian Beale, Co-owner, Buckley & Beale. W:
www.buckleyandbeale.com T: 01454 219445. l
The Delicatessen Magazine 21
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