A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

 

The New England Food Show is the region’s largest trade event focused on the retail and food service markets. The show is open to trade professionals only and lasted three days. I attended on March 16th and 17th.

I went Sunday afternoon to walk the floor and see all the booths. A lot of my favorite brands were there as well as some new ones that I had never heard of. I especially liked the Tcho chocolate booth, Cat schooled me on chocolate and introduced me to the flavor wheel.

Olive oil and coffee were big trends at the event (even though they aren’t pictured here).

Dark and Stormy’s now come in a pre-mixed can. Thank you Goslings!

Monday, my friend Zared and I met up and did some networking. Check out his pickles at https://www.facebook.com/FoxPointPicklingCo

We started off the morning with a George Howell Coffee demo. Later in the day we sat in on a craft beer session presented by the guys from Wormtail Brewery.

Afterwards, we attended a blogger session with Damien Smith, Community Manager for Yelp, Rachel Cossar, Boston Editor of the Daily Meal, and Rachel Blumenthal, Editor for Eater Boston.

Martin Lyons, Executive Chef at XO Cafe in Providence, RI did a cooking demo.

We all got a taste! The pork was so tender!

The thing I was looking forward to the most was the cook-off between Steve “Nookie” Postal of Commonwealth in Cambridge, Tim Maslow of Strip T’s and Ribelle in Brookline, and Brendal Pelley of Zebra’s bistro in Medfield. Jenny Johnson hosted the event.

Each chef had 45 minutes to create three dishes containing ingredients picked ahead of time.

I wish that we had the chance to get a closer look at the final product before it was whisked away to the judge’s table, but no doubt they were all delicious.

Tim Maslow was crowned the winner of the cook-off. Well done!

For more information about the 2015 show, visit the website: http://www.nefs-expo.com/