The KOA Trading Company Food Show held last week at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beachclub’s main ballroom can be described in only one phrase: a gastronomic delight. At least 40 food vendors gathered in the resort’s main ballroom to
The KOA Trading Company Food Show held last week at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beachclub’s main ballroom can be described in only one phrase: a gastronomic delight.
At least 40 food vendors gathered in the resort’s main ballroom to hawk everything from breads and desserts, to meats, chocolates, ready-to-eat mini-manapuas, delightfully greasy sausages that popped with every bite, coffees and frappes.
But behind all the fanfare, laughter, music and delicious scents was a seriousness of purpose. The event wasn’t for the public, but specifically for the vendors, who came from far and wide to show off their finest products in the hope that Kaua‘i’s buyers, chefs and restauranteurs would sign up with them.
“Try this!” urged the representative from Nevada-based Sierra Meat Co.
A chunk of range-fed veal hung suggestively off her tongs, slightly pink and dripping with juices.
“Howzabout a chocolate frappe, my friend,” offered the Tropical Mist beverage vendor.
It was the kind of place where your mind says “no” but your gut says, “yes, please.”
“You may not know this, but there are two different grades of food,” said Vincent Yim of Progressive Marketing in Honolulu. Yim has, perhaps, the best job in the world: to fly to food shows, mingle with restaurant owners and chefs, suggest marketing strategies for their products, and eat the very best food on God’s green earth.
He explained that few of the products at the show that day could be found at one’s local grocery store. They were specifically for the restaurant and food-service industry, he said, which explained the giant, industrial-sized cans of sauces and meats, and the 50-packs of Keoki’s lau lau.
“A third of the brands here, most people don’t even know about,” he said. “They’re concentrated, high-quality stuff sold only to restaurants.”
Vie De France, R.W. Zant, Mid Atlantic Foods, La Brea — these are the kinds of companies on whom America’s food-service industry relies, Yim explained.
“The idea of these shows is to keep everyone up on the latest products,” he said. “Think about it: you come to a show, you meet the person who actually makes a product, they’ve got their name on the label, and there you are, actually meeting that person. You can be that makes a difference in whether someone buys.”
Take Lou DiLisio, for example, who came all the way from New York to pitch his Casa Di Lisio pesto products.
The rotund, avuncular DiLisio looked authentically Italian in a green and red apron, a ladle in one had, the other on his hip. He actually looked like a pesto chef, and with a handshake and a smile, he made deals for his products all day long.
Or Don Schmanski, who could barely contain his glee when talking about the Hole-e-Toaster, a device he created to cook hot dog buns and rolls from the inside out.
“You can now fill this with anything now that it’s hot and got a nice big hole in it,” Schmanski giggled. “Man, I’ve sold 11 of these things already at $1,500 bucks a pop.”
That was the plan for KOA Trading Company, Kaua‘i’s largest food distributor, who strategically planted KOA employees around the ballroom, where they logged countless miles running order forms from the vendors’ tables to the KOA order desk. “People buy products like mine instead of making it themselves because they want consistency,” DiLisio explained. That consistency is what gives restaurateurs the confidence to charge higher prices for their menu items. When a customer knows what they’re going to get – and that it always meets their standards — they don’t mind shelling out a bit more for something they might otherwise make at home. Perhaps the most important thing to come from the KOA show is something one might call the Zen of Restauranting: in order for any restaurant to thrive, it must be both consistent and always changing.
“You take some of this Morrin kiwi syrup, put it in a tropical liquor drink, call it a ‘green gopher,’ and charge six bucks for it,” said Brian Garraway, distributor for Tropical Mist.
Garraway said that he’s mistified by restaurant managers and owners afrad of competition, especially from the Starbucks of the world.
Instead of panicking, he said, consider it an opportunity to do something different, to set yourself apart.
“Look, when a Starbucks comes into a town, people know what they’re going to get, and the quality is high. That’s why you’ve got to come to these shows, see the new products on the market, and use them to your advantage,” he said.
Because the show was mostly filled with industry insiders, it’s possible that the restauranteurs who most needed the show weren’t there, Garraway said.
There are countless food shows in Hawaii each month, traveling from island to island. To find out when the next one is in town, contact KOA at info@koatradingcoinc.com or 245-6961.
