Specialty Food Magazine

36 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM Jack Acree SAFFRON ROAD FOODS After spearheading the nationwide growth of Terra Chips and building Saffron Road into a highly successful specialty food brand, Jack Acree has been seeking to share his experience and insights with others. His long history of involvement with the Specialty Food Association includes multiple stints on the board of directors, serving on committees, leading educational sessions, and most recently working as a consultant for SFA. When he was just getting his start in the industry in the 1980s, Acree was deeply involved in all aspects of the operations at Terra Chips, which had been founded by chefs Dana Sinker and Alex Dzieduszycki in New York. Acree did everything from buying vegetables needed to make the chips from Hunts Point Produce Market in New York, to driving the product from store to store to stocking shelves at the city's specialty food markets. Before long—with the help of some exposure and some product awards from the Specialty Food Association—Terra Chips expanded to the West Coast and eventually nationwide. After leaving Terra Chips in 1996, Acree worked as a consultant and was also involved with a grocery ecommerce company called foodonline.com, and with a meal kit company called Impromptu Gourmet. "Both were about 20 years too early," Acree says. He also ran the retail food business for chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten for a couple of years, and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he took his career on a detour to Honduras, where he worked as a scuba instructor. He also worked with Dzieduszycki to help him build his Alexia Foods frozen potatoes business, which was acquired by Conagra in 2007, before he joined Saffron Road, the frozen Indian meals business, in 2010, and helped launch the line into Whole Foods. Acree says he prides himself on being able to see the future potential in new ideas and enjoys imparting his accrued wisdom on other entrepreneurs in the business. In some ways, he says, it's a bit like teaching scuba diving. "It's just really creating healthy guard rails for companies to exist within, and to be themselves and be unique, while just being aware of the things that could be dangerous for them," he says. —M.H. Bob Bruno RJ BRUNO INTERNATIONAL Many of the Italian specialty foods that are ubiquitous in the U.S. today owe their success at least in part to Bob Bruno, who has been at the forefront of importing olive oils, cheeses, and other products from Italy and building their popularity in the states. The founder of RJ Bruno International has spent more than four decades connecting some of the best Italian food producers with U.S. consumers who seek to enjoy the quality and craftsmanship of European artisanal food making. Although Bruno had spent some of his early adulthood in Italy, where he developed an appreciation for the country's food craft, he actually got his start in the specialty food industry working for Amazon Coffee & Tea Co. The owners soon after began to use their alternative company name, De Choix Specialty Foods, which imported products from France, as well as other countries. Before long he met the leaders of the Colavita olive oil company, who were seeking to expand their distribution in the U.S. In 1984, he became the first marketing director for Colavita in the U.S., and helped spearhead the adoption of extra virgin olive oil across the country. At the same time, he formed RJ Bruno International, and began representing Colavita and a handful of other companies. "It was more about representation," rather than strictly a brokerage, Bruno says of his company, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. "It was food-based, culture-based, and education-based." He says that when he started in the business, specialty foods were still largely a niche industry, for the most part. "Even in the first 20 years I was in the industry, people weren't into all of those imported specialty foods," says Bruno. Bruno went on to help lead the expansion of other specialty food companies in the U.S., including Musco Food Corp., Fabbri USA, and most recently, Galvanina, an importer of mineral waters. During his time as president and chief operating officer of Fabbri North America, Bruno helped spread the popularity of Fabbri Amarena cherries throughout the American marketplace, and also played a key role in the rapid expansion of the market for gelato ingredients in the U.S. —M.H. 2024 Hall of Fame Inductees

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