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/838473
Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 6020 friend from academia, Garrity, was ready for a career change and came on as his invest- ment partner. They built a production plant in Berkeley and now have 26 employees. Family farms, mostly in the Midwest, supply the pork for Fra'Mani. The pigs are raised on pasture or in deeply bedded pens on diets free of artificial growth hormones and antibiotics. On any given week, the company and its co-packers produce up to 15,000 pounds of pork, utilizing 90 percent of the carcass. Fra'Mani does not release revenue data, but Bertolli says it has seen steady growth since 2006. The company offers roughly 25 SKUs, including sweet apple uncured ham, mortadella, Canadian bacon, and cooked, smoked, spicy and mild types of sausage. About 25 distributors sell to hundreds of accounts nationally—and in Hong Kong and Macao—from mom-and-pop shops to restaurants, hotels, caterers, and chain gro- cery stores. In addition, Bertolli creates a line of prepared foods sold at Costco. His journey has not been without strife or injury, once severing an artery while butchering and another time cutting off half an inch of his forefinger. "I can't play Chopin etudes anymore, but I've adapted to playing other things," he says. Fra'Mani has proved to be meaningful work, helping to regenerate the production of small, specialty foods in the U.S. "I was able to assess all the things I tried to do and realized this is who I am," he says, "who I've always been." Julie Besonen writes for The New York Times and is a restaurant columnist for nycgo.com. PAUL BERTOLLI Age: 62 Years in specialty food: 11 Favorite food: Perfectly ripened dry aged salami. And a ripe Comice pear is way up there. Least favorite food: Any fruit or vegetable that's out of season is always disappointing. Last thing I ate and loved: Panade made by a friend with leftover bouillabaisse. The fish soup had been layered into a large gratin dish with slices of toasted levain bread rubbed with garlic and served with aioli. If I weren't in the food business I'd be: A classical pianist, but I've got a bum finger. One piece of advice I'd give to a new food business: Strap on tightly, it's going to be a wild ride. SUMMER 2017 87