Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62387
FROM THE PUBLISHER Great American Food Cities D ue to the timing of this year's spring roster of trade shows, many of us have the opportunity, during a six-week period, to sample confections and snacks in Chicago, cheese and charcuterie in New Orleans and every imaginable specialty item in Washing- ton, D.C. Tis May/June issue of Specialty Food Magazine serves as our show issue for the Sweets & Snacks Expo and Internation- al Dairy Deli Bakery Expo and also previews the Summer Fancy Food Show. Just looking at the articles in the magazine makes me think about the work that will be done during the day and the good meals that will be enjoyed when exploring three of the best food cit- ies in the United States at night. With the ongoing national obsession with food I don't suppose it's unreasonable for tourist bureaus from coast-to-coast to tout the "foodiness" of their respective cit- ies and towns. One of the statistics often used to reel us in is "restaurants per capita." Those figures for the aforementioned cities are impressive: There is one restaurant for every 370 residents in Chicago, for every 285 in New Orleans and for every 306 in the District of Columbia. This density puts them in league with San Francisco's one-to-279 and New York's one-to-341. Not only is the restaurant competition fierce in these cities, but local star chefs There is one restaurant for every 370 residents in Chicago, for every 285 in New Orleans and for every 306 in the District of Columbia. are receiving national acclaim. Last year, D.C.'s José Andrés won the coveted James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chefs Award for Outstanding Chef, and this year the list of finalists for the Foundation's awards was again filled with chefs and restaurants from Chicago, D.C. and New Orleans. Clearly none of these cities needs me—someone with an appetite that is best described as indiscriminate—to promote their well-documented status on the food scene. But for what it's worth, what I like even better than the great food in these destinations, is that each has managed to ascend to the throne by making spoiled-for-choice locals and legions of tourists alike very happy. Though we'll be weary from toiling at trade shows all day, let's plan to find our friends and go somewhere fun and celebrate the good fortune we have for being gainfully employed in this business. Gumbo, deep dish or crab cakes—what's not to like? |SFM| By Matt Tomas HAVE A COMMENT? go to specialtyfood.com/mthomas/foodcities Publisher, Specialty Food Magazine mthomas@nasft.org facebook.com/specialtyfoodmedia MAY/JUNE 2012 5