Fancy Food Show 2024: 6 specialty foods for grilling

Check out the specialty foods that are either grilled, smoked or perfect for BBQ that were on display at the Fancy Food Show 2024.

This past weekend, team Girls Can Grill competed in the Game On competition from the Nevada Barbecue Association. John Mull’s Meats in Las Vegas provided us with salmon, quail and a bison tenderloin.

Team Girls Can Grill turned in some salmon tacos, some grilled teriyaki quail sliders and bison tenderloin that we turned into filet mignon steaks. You can see all of the pictures on my Instagram and Facebook.

Also, we got first in salmon, second in quail and third in bison. Congrats to All Up in My Grill and Bad Rabbit BBQ for your calls.

This week, I attended the Specialty Food Association, Fancy Food Show 2024 in Las Vegas. This is where hundreds of specialty food brands come out and they showcase their products to media brands and distributors. They talk about trends and innovation.

BBQ and Grilling Companies

There were a few brands present from the barbecue and grilling industry, including Kosmos Q who many of you probably know, and Rufus Teague Barbecue.

They were there demonstrating their sauces and their rubs.

Blues Hog was also present. I use so many of their products on the competition circuit. They had their full line of rubs and marinades and sauces.

Ten along with them, Marble Ridge Farms was also showcasing their ready-made meat products. So in case you don’t know, Tim Scheer, who owns Blues Hog, also owns Marble Ridge Farms.

I got a chance to taste the Marble Ridge Farms Wagyu sausage, and it was really delicious.

Speaking of Wagyu, there was a whole Japanese pavilion there where they had a ton of Wagyu products, along with other Japanese specialty foods. That Wagyu was some of the most marbled that I’ve ever seen in my life. It looked really amazing.

For this week’s podcast, I’m going to touch on some of the specialty foods that I saw that weren’t exactly in the barbecue market, but there is a little bit of crossover.

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Grilled Pickles – Randy’s Pickles Sideburns

I’ve got to start with grilled pickles. Randy’s Pickles claims that they have the cleanest, healthiest pickles on the market. No chemicals, no preservatives, all of that stuff.

Why grill a pickle? Let’s hear what they had to say.

“This is our Sideburn.” said Christopher Brauser, and exhibitor for Randy’s Pickles. “This is a grilled cucumber half pickle in a brine of red peppers, black pepper and garlic. It is a full size cucumber half. Belongs on every dish.

“And quite frankly, I’m going to challenge you that it’s not going to make it to your dish. You’re going to eat the jar before you get done.”

“And why grill the pickle versus every other type of pickle on the market,” I asked.

“You know what? Because every other type of pickle on the market is kind of boring. It’s a category that really hasn’t had a lot of innovation in forever,” he said.

“What we were looking for is we know a lot of people use pickles in barbecue. They use them for cookouts and grill outs because they love that charred flavor, that carbonized flavor. So we worked for a long time to figure out how to do it on a cucumber without cooking the cucumber and ruining it. And now you can get that kind of flavor in that in that pickle as well,” said Brauser.

I tasted them. They had a great crunch, a nice, balanced, tangy flavor. And then you get just a hint of that smoky char flavor. It’s definitely something that’s unique.

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Smoky Cocktails – Tongue in Peat

There were several booths related to cocktails and mocktails, including cocktail mix-ins and specialty olives. But my favorite was Tongue In Peat. It was a smoky tomato juice that’s used to make a bloody Mary mix.

Let’s hear from Hannah Brown, the founder of the Scottish-based company.

“So I’m Hannah. I’m the founder of Tongue in Peat, which is a Scottish bloody Mary mixer. We use peat, which is smoky mud. found in the grounds of Scotland,” she said.

Wait, Stop the tape. Smoky mud? That’s right. Peat is actually partially decomposed plant matter that forms along the highlands of Scotland that is then burned into a type of coal that’s used to make scotch whiskey.

To make Tongue In Peat, they chop fresh seasonal tomatoes by hand and then they cold smoke them in the Scottish peat for about 16 hours.

I don’t usually like tomato juice, but this stuff was really good. I think that the smoke flavor just really made it so much better.

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Grilled Cheese – Grillies Haloumi

There were so many different cheese booths at the Fancy Food Show. I mean, you couldn’t walk a couple of booths until you ran into more cheese. It was all so delicious from so many different countries, all regions of the United States.

There was just everything you could think of. But what really stopped me in my tracks was when I got to Grillies, this was a booth that was grilling their cheese.

You don’t usually think of grilling cheese other than maybe a grilled cheese sandwich, but they were taking blocks of their cheese and putting them on a waffle iron and on a skillet.

What that was doing was creating this beautiful golden crust on the outside, and then the inside was melted and ooey and gooey.

The reason they’re able to do that is because their type of cheese is called Halloumi. If you’re not familiar with Halloumi, what makes it different is that it has such a high melting point.

The Grillies Halloumi cheese is made in Cyprus, which is an island near Greece in the Mediterranean.

Then once you put this on the grill again, it’s savory, it’s salty, it’s crispy on the outside and it’s creamy on the inside. They said that you can find this at Whole Foods.

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Plant-Based Foods

For the past several years, plant-based products have been on the rise. They’ve definitely been the trend. There was a wide range of plant-based products at the Fancy Food Show, all the way from plant-based dairy to plant-based meats.

The simplest, purest thing was like grilled vegetables, pure vegetables that they were flash freezing, and then you could buy them already grilled so you didn’t have to go through the grilling process.

Vegan Turkey

One of the most unique things that I saw that was in the plant-based meat category was a vegan turkey. This turkey was made out of soy and wheat proteins, but you pull it out of the box and it’s actually shaped like a turkey, like they take the materials used to make the meat and they form it in this mold and then freeze it.

Then you take it home, you bake it in the oven. They recommend you cook it at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

It even has a cavity where you can put your vegan stuffing in it and it comes with vegan gravy.

So if you’re into the plant-based meat alternatives, it was definitely a unique way to get turkey because then you still get the shape and kind of appearance of turkey.

That’s not exactly my jam. I prefer actual meat. I don’t I don’t like the taste and texture of the soy-based products, but it was a cool alternative. And if you are vegan and you want to have a turkey experience, you could also throw that on your grill or smoker.

Even though the vegan turkey isn’t quite my thing, I am always interested when people find plant based meat alternatives, but I like the ones that are just a little bit more natural and pure.

Mushroom + Bacon = Shroomacon

The Montague family has come up with something called Shroomacon.

It’s basically taking mushrooms, slicing them into thin strips that look like the appearance of bacon and then they only add four other ingredients smoke flavor, olive oil, salt and pepper.

“Let me tell you, you’ll be able to fool whoever is in your family when you fry this,” said Aleah Montague, co-founder of Shroomacon. “Put it on a BLT; put it on a burger. They will not know the difference, but it’s so much healthier than regular bacon. No cholesterol, no saturated fat, lower sodium and just as easy to cook as regular bacon.”

I was hesitant to think like, how could you get a mushroom to taste like bacon, be crispy like bacon, have that texture and appearance of bacon.

But they did it. They fried it up in a skillet with just a little bit of oil. You can also throw it in an air fryer, and then when it’s done, it’s crispy like bacon and it has that smoke essence that you enjoy from bacon. But it’s way less calories, no cholesterol, way lower in fat and even lower in sodium.

They’re actually going to be on Shark Tank on January 26th. I’m excited to see the Montagues to see if they get the funding from the Shark Tank. It’s a cool product. Again, if you’re looking for a meat alternative that’s plant-based but way more natural, you should give this a shot.

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Speciality Salts – The Dinosaur Egg

There were a ton of seasonings and spices at the fancy food show, but there was only one that really caught my attention. And that was The Dinosaur Egg from the Philippines.

The product from xroads Philippine Sea Salts looks like a partially cracked dinosaur egg, but it’s actually salt.

To make The Dinosaur Egg. They take coconut husks and soak them in seawater. Then they let that dry and they smoke it with mango wood and mahogany wood to create a charcoal.

Then that charcoal filters more seawater in these clay pots, and then it kind of smokes and roasts to create the salt.

As the seawater cools and evaporates in the pot, it leaves a layer of salt, and then they add more seawater and it continues the process until the pot is full of salt, it takes several months.

Then they turn the pot over, they crack it, and it looks like a dinosaur egg.

“This is Asin Tibuok, a sea salt from Bohol, Philippines. It’s a southern island. And it is very unique because there’s only one family that still makes this,” Said Thonton Lemoh, an exhibitor with xroads Philippine Sea Salts.

“When you get the finished product, you use it like this on for fishing and for grilling. And the flavor profile on the top of the egg actually comes out differently than the flavor on the bottom and the consistency as well. This is going to come out like a powder almost. And it has a smokier flavor because of the clay pot.”

Ilocano Asin

They also have a coarse sea salt called Ilocano Asin.

“This is Ilocano Asin. This is from Pangasinan, Philippines, in the northern part of the islands,” said Lemoh.

“This one is course, grain salt, hand harvested. And what’s really cool about it is it’s almost hollow in comparison to other salts. And it will almost like dissolve when you put on your tongue. But it’s great for grilling and finishing,” he added.

Crossroad Salts said that many of the top chefs in Las Vegas are using these salts at their restaurants.

I was fortunate enough to taste it on site and to take a few samples home, so I’ll be cooking with some of it soon.

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Well, that’s a wrap for this week’s episode. I realize that the last two episodes have been a little bit different because I attended two international food shows, the Consumer Electronics Show and the Fancy Food Show 2024.

That’s the advantage of living in Las Vegas. There is always something going on here. Actually. This spring I’ll be attending the National Hardware Show and the Kitchen and Bath Show.

Before then, the next few episodes are going to be very food and barbecue specific. The Super Bowl is going to be held in Las Vegas this year, so I’m going to touch on some tailgating tips. I’m also going to pass along some of my pastrami tips before St Patrick’s Day.

If you found this week’s episode interesting, please leave me a review and a comment. I love hearing from you guys.

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