Fine Cheese & Charcuterie November 2011

I am excited this month because we are going to turn our attention to another category of product that we are equally passionate about, charcuterie. Some may say I could live on cheese alone, but truth be told I have a love for the specialty meats of the world, and they do often make the perfect companion for a plate of your favorite cheese. I am actually quite proud that my youngest daughter insists on bringing a salami sandwich every day to school for lunch, and there will be no negotiation or temptation from the occasional offer for PB&J. Of course, not just any salami will do. She has already acquired the fine taste to insist on finocchiona from Molinari. What can I say, it's my own fault. Thankfully, we have an American company that can produce a salami as good as that which comes from Italy. To think I had to live with a standard “Americanized” version of Genoa salami when I was growing up, but I hadn't known better I guess. I am pleased to see the charcuterie business has, like cheese, come so far in terms of the quality and specialization of products available at your local market. I would like to personally thank all of the companies who have endured the USDA procedures to make these products available to Americans to enjoy.

The Gourmet Business team recently returned from Anuga in Frankfurt where we were introduced to food nirvana. We would like to thank the organizers of Anuga for sponsoring the journey for our editor James Mellgren who has brought back some great information that we will share with our readers this month. It was a tough job but we managed to taste our way through hall after hall of fantastic foods from every category imaginable originating from all corners of the world. It's a real eye-opener, a great deal of fun, and should not be missed. What I learned while attending this incredible gathering is that there are still many food treasures that have yet to make it to our shores because of the large investment necessary to meet the USDA guidelines to qualify the product for import into the United States. My only hope is that the market for specialized charcuterie continues to grow because as the potential rewards of doing business increase, we will continue to tempt other European companies to invest the necessary capital to make their products available to the U.S. market.

We are big fans of merchandising and creating appealing displays at point of sale. This month, we will explore some of the products that we think are just right for merchandising around cheese and charcuterie which will be a regular feature in this publication. We hope to bring our ample exposure to the myriad of products that are introduced in all of the vertical channels we cover to help our readers uncover interesting cross-merchandising opportunities that relate to this business.

We would like to thank everyone for their support of our publication thus far. The response has been encouraging, and we have received a lot of valuable insight that will help us continue to improve the value of each issue to your business. The positive response has been so overwhelming that we are pleased to announce that Fine Cheese & Charcuterie will move from a quarterly publication to bimonthly in 2012 to give us the opportunity to cover more and deliver timely information on a regular basis.