by Elizabeth
on July 11, 2012
On my way home from the Fancy Food show, I was going through my collected product literature- all sorts of fliers, printed tri-folds, and booklets from people we had purchased from or I wanted to remind myself of later, and I came across the most recent issue of
Culture Magazine (Summer 2012 “
Spread the Love: Amazing American Buttersâ€). In a way, I started reading it to procrastinate from the actually sorting I needed to do, but found myself both learning and completely entertained, and when I realized how long I’d been engrossed, we were touching back down in New York!
We happen to carry Culture at Chelsea Market Baskets, but I rarely have time to read it cover-to-cover, and when I’m shopping for cheeses, I am happy to rely on our in-house cheesemongers for their recommendations. Discovering something new that you really like is such a pleasant surprise! I’ve learned that, starting with a fairly well-known flavor or type of cheese can lead to tasting more unusual, rarer varieties, and I’m no longer as intimidated by our cheese case. For example, I love our Fleur Verte (“Green Flowerâ€)
which I took home a wedge of in my first few weeks of work at CMB. It is a young, herb-covered goat cheese from France. It doesn’t have a rind per se, but it is dusted in dried thyme, tarragon, and pink peppercorns, and the herbs enhance the tang I’ve come to expect with a chevre: overall this cheese is part crumbly, part creamy and almost citrus in its “brightness.†I appreciate that goat cheese on a baguette with some barely dressed leafy greens becomes dinner in the warmer months, and I so this summer, armed with my knowledge of Fleur Verte, I can help the cheesemonger guide me to something else I might really enjoy and I’ve found two new go-to goat cheeses that I’m excited to share with you!
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by Elizabeth
on July 5, 2012
When the weather is blazing hot, I find it so hard to be inspired in the kitchen and my thoughts turn to picnicking (how funny is that verb and spelling?!) and small meals alfresco. We are so fortunate to have the
High Line right out the backdoor at Chelsea Market Baskets, so I can grab some snacks (or more substantial pupus) and go enjoy a gorgeous summer sunset from the elevated park.
Luckily also for me, CMB has some prepared picnic baskets that are easy to grab and go, and the only items that I add to make it a meal versus a snack are 1) extra drinks from the fridge case (you can never have too much water or Luscombe Organics), and 2) cheese (because CMB has recently started carrying Brooklyn Salvatore Ricotta and I could eat it by the half pound!). Here are my top two picks for Summer Picnic Baskets from CMB (plus a few handy picnic accessories): [continue reading…]
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by David
on June 29, 2012
New York has had two years off from hosting the Summer Fancy Food Show; this year the show took place in Washington D.C. from June 17-19. Next June it is back in NYC where most people believe it belongs!
De-mystifying the Fancy Food Show is not easy; it is from a spectator’s point of view an ultimate tasting extravaganza but making sense of it and understanding how it works is another thing. As the owner of Chelsea Market Baskets, I decided this year we would exhibit in a booth, showing our wares which include European “inspired specialty foods†and packaging or baskets mainly from China, that we wholesale. We also shop the show for new lines or new items for our store and gift assortment which sometimes involve figuring out the distribution channels of the food business.
We sell direct to premium stores around the country our unique wholesale offering. We bring in regular shipments that are often consolidated in Manchester, England, including some products from France. Consolidating does provide economies to what we sell by minimizing our freight and hopefully shipping in full container loads, 20 or 40 feet long, and minimizing customs clearance charges. Aside from a smaller importers like ourselves, the show includes booths that involve small, “home-made and home grown†business that might do a few hundred thousand dollars and spend a minimum of about $5,000 to exhibit and ship directly to stores
and a mega distributor that might do a few billion dollars of business or more and incorporate thousands of products. Also included are “country pavilions†which may be generously state financed and are looking for a smaller or a larger importer to bring their product to the United States, sometimes they do not know what they are looking for and get excited when any interest is shown but have the challenge of getting their products here.
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