NYC. Summer Fancy Food Show. Indulge in the Flavors of Italy

New Yorkers get ready to taste the world! And Italy!  The country's largest specialty food and beverage event, the NYC Summer Fancy Food, will take place at the Javits Convention Center (655 W 34th St, New York ) on June 28-30. In its 55th edition, this year’s Summer show will cover a space of approx. 330,000 square feet and will feature more than 2,400 exhibitors coming from 75 countries. Around 24,000 attendees are expected including importers, cooking schools, consulates, press representatives, food experts, distributors, producers, brokers, restaurants, caterers, and hotel restaurant representatives.

Aniello Musella

The Italian presence at the show, coordinated by the Italian Trade Commission, will feature over 250 exhibiting companies – between them representing over 30 Italian regions, export consortia, and Italian Chambers of Commerce – in an area measuring 24,100 square feet. In particular, a delegation from Regione Calabria, will introduce to the

American and foreign audience the extraordinary and ancient culinary traditions of its territories, also offering food and wine degustation.

As in the past, Italian participation at the show will be higher, in both dimension and in number of participants, than any other official international presence. Italy’s attendance will serve two

purposes: to consolidate those positions on the local market gained by Italy’s most internationally competitive products, and to expand the range of Italian-made products in an ever more qualified and diversified a manner. The range of products presented by the Italian exhibitors will be wide and varied, offering a truly panoramic taste of the best in Italian food and wine production.

Ranking among the top five in exports to the U.S., Italian food and beverage producers continue to benefit from a number of culinary trends, including greater demand for authenticity, quality, and health benefits. U.S. retail sales of gourmet, specialty and premium foods and beverages are growing at much faster rates than those of the overall food and beverage industry, according to New York-based industry research firm Packaged Facts. Sales of Italian foods in particular are on the rise because of the continued reversal of diets in favor of healthy, natural, Mediterranean eating. “Great Italian cooking relies heavily on the use of authentic Italian ingredients, and the Fancy Food Show is the best opportunity to find typical products from the many regions of Italy,” says Chef Cesare Casella, Dean of The Italian Culinary Academy and chef of Salumeria Rosi in Upper West Side. “Classics may ebb and flow, but they never go out of style.”

Italian vendors will present a wide spectrum of products—from traditional favorites such as olive oil, prosciutto, pasta, cheese, coffee and wine,  to  innovative and interesting products like  organic  honey and jams, chocolates and candies, juices and sodas,  preserved  vegetables and spreads, and countless more. 

Aniello Musella, Trade Commissioner and Executive Director for the USA, explains that “Italian producers are  proudest when asked to present the richness of their culture and traditions in connection with the best food and wine Italy has to offer.  The Fancy Food show does just that: it allows the companies to showcase Italy's climate, geography, territories and history from North to South, with a taste of the distinct regional delicacies. Today's world needs what Italy brings to the table in its unique way and with its unique mark ‘Made in Italy’". 

The Italian Trade Commission organized for the occasion two educational seminars.

 
The first one (June 28, 4:30- 6pm  - Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York, Room 1E03)
takes the name of “IL MADE IN ITALY A TAVOLA: INGREDIENTI SALUTARI, QUALITA' DEL CIBO E TUTELA GIURIDICA DEI PRODOTTI TIPICI NEGLI USA"

(Made in Italy: healthy ingredients, quality of food, and juridical protection of Italian traditional products in the US). The seminary is divided into two sessions: in the first one Dr. Katherine McManus - Director of Nutrition Dept., Brigham Hospital, Boston – will talk about the healthy aspects of Mediterranean diet and Italian organic products; the second one, organized by the Italian Intellectual Property Rights Desk in New York, is dedicated to Italian importers in the US. Members of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP Law Office will talk about the juridical protection of Italian food products in the US .

 The second seminar (June 29, 4:30pm - Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York, Room 2D08), titled “WHY IS ITALIAN FOOD THE BEST DURING ECONOMIC HARD TIMES?”, will be presented by Fred Plotkin, author of the best seller “Italy for the Gourmet Traveler”. The renowned Italian culinary expert writes for the New York Times, and for the trade journals "Gourmet" and "Bon Appetit",

For further information, visit the official website of the Italian Trade Commission