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For the past three days, our team has been scouting the Summer Fancy Food Show in quest of the hottest new foods. It was held at the Javits Center, in the booming Hudson Yards neighborhood, which has become a focal point for all things trending, from architecture to retail to.. well, food. Here’s what went down.
Taste came back from a guilt trip, after having been eclipsed by competing claims of clean-eating. The dessert category has made room for unapologetic propositions, made with the richest ingredients for a genuinely indulgent brand promise. Frozen custard was at the center stage, as seen with classic Milwaukee dessert shop Gilles, vowing to build layers of intense and bold flavors by adding egg yolk to the ice cream mix.
The superfood trend has also penetrated the indulgence proposition, moving away from the all-too expected “light” category. Sweet Tahini integrates the infamous chickpea oil into bold treats, and MudLrk takes their shiitake proposition to the next level: an explosion of flavors, a proudly bold snack. These ingredients are not simply made for savvy nutrition gurus, they are the proof that natural foods are game for everyone’s taste buds, and can live outside of the health claims universe. Clean nutrition is still very much part of this narrative, but it is now taken for granted.
On the other hand, the experience around food rituals is also given increasing attention. For some, it’s encouraging the audience to experiment, play with how food can be served to create a genuine moment of creativity (see Cypress Grove’s recommendations and “brulée” cheese). Making more out of the product than it already is creates experiences worthy of sharing online, a major concern common to millennials, Gen X and Z alike. For bottled craft cocktail manufacturer Straightaway, it means extending the bar look and feel to your in-home cocktail game, with an identity inspired by classic mixology cues. Experience makes the exceptional reachable and elevates the product itself.
Grated cheese brand Cello brings premium to another level by turning its products into a noble art form, a symphony. A melody is associated to each type of cheese to create a multi-sensorial experience, creating an exceptional tasting ritual.
A tradition of the Fancy Food Show, the Incubator Village hosted a panel of inspiring, innovative unique brands. These are housed under the mentorship of powerful mainstream brands such as Chobani along with local ones fighting a social fight like Hot Bread Kitchen. For brands to take on such disruptive products under their wing shows their commitment to creativity and experimentation outside of their food specialty.
Overall, the “incubees” were brands blending traditional storytelling with modern claims from contemporary insights. For example, Cocina54 has developed an authentic Latin identity with their empanadas that also constitute a high source of protein and are made from scratch. Brittle and Beyond has taken on the “small-batch” trend in an old-school apothecary way with their with their coconut oil-based snacks. From a packaging design standpoint, this extravagant visual trend is gaining ground on more minimalistic and blunt approaches to transparency in ingredients.
This year’s show demonstrated that with small brands breaking down barriers of traditional challenges such as clean diets, indulgence and convenience, mainstream ones very much have an opportunity to lead change and assert themselves as icons.
Authored by Strategist Chloe Rinaldi
For its second year of participation, CBA USA will reward the winning startup of the Americas competition of the French Founders’ Startup Tour with the u0022People Prizeu0022. The Prize offers a Design Sprint: 4 days of intense work sessions in NYC to identify a business challenge, work together to find solutions, and create a prototype that will go on to be tested by 5 customers.
Regional chapters have been taking turns electing their best in class to move on to the final competition, set to take place in New York City in September. Last week, the Los Angeles chapter chose startup Yobs Technologies, whose mission is to help companies scale their hiring with soft skills reports and video . They are the sixth nominee of a series set to compete in the final:
In Toronto, Sampler, as the leading platform supporting brands like L’Oréal and Nestlé in delivering samples online and gathering the insights they need.
As for the San Francisco chapter, winner came out to be Crossing Minds, that democratized access to recent gains in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research by building the world’s best content recommendation platform.
Mexico City saw Decidata move on, a marketing software based on AI that predicts and guarantees results to advertisers and operators.
New York chapter chose UBEES, a startup committed to saving bees by combining traditional beekeeping expertise with innovative science and technology.
Finally, in Boston, online coaching platform Ace Up will go on. They deliver personalized executive coaching to connect employees from all levels with their full potential using a tech-enabled network.
Stay tuned for the final in September, in the meantime visit the Startup Tour website for more details.
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