Expedition: Eat! : Sysco Epicurean Food Festival

Me and the hubby, Monsterfink, were lucky enough to ditch the regular day jobs for a bit on 3/26 and attend the Sysco Epicurean Food Festival. It was essentially their annual food show at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, NJ. If you're a foodie and you've never been to a food show, make friends with someone in the industry and insist they take you. Every booth, and there are ALOT of booths, have free samples to entice buyers to...well..buy. Some highlights...bacon wrapped hot dogs (crash cart please!), kobe sliders, wild boar sausage, striped lobster ravioli, walnut apple danish and 54% Mysterio chocolate.

As an Operations Manager for a healthcare dietary department I'm authorized to purchase at food shows but I generally don't buy too much. Mostly I collect information on items I can use in the retail area or catering. Then I go back to the facility, plan for how to use the items and buy the items from my vendor at that point. Purchases on the show floor only happen when I have an immediate use for the item to take advantage of the show special. Purchasing without a plan is not good for business. Discounts in the form of show specials are not nearly good enough to offset a pile of unplanned for food showing up at the door and languishing in a freezer while we take care of the busy day to day activities in the department. (We serve 1000 meals a day even when we don't have a big event going on.)

But seeing the food, touching, tasting and discussing with the people who work for the companies is so valuable! When I'm planning an upscale event for local healthcare magnates and politicians 6 months from now, I'll have a flash of memory of that "perfect" item for the event and POW! catering perfection happens. Tasting the vegetarian sausage from Morningstar Farms and knowing it will be perfect as a Meatless Monday breakfast offering opposed to wondering if it's really that good when I'm looking at a computer screen at work is what it's all about.

As always, I was disappointed there wasn't more offered for my patients and residents. But low fat, low sugar, modified consistency foods aren't sexy or exciting so that's not what gets showcased.

Enjoy the pics and let me know if you've been to any food shows lately in the comments.

-DK