FOODS IN FOCUS Dufour Pastry Kitchens Cheese Empanadas
FROZEN APPETIZERS: A FOCUS ON ETHNIC EATS
The freezer section of gourmet stores holds a cache of interesting hors d'oeuvre options to heat and serve at a moment's notice. And international flavors are becoming more popular. Sukhi's Gourmet Indian Foods won the 2012 sofi Gold for
World's #1 Best Selling Caribbean Rum Cake
Outstanding Frozen Savory for its Chicken Samosas & Chutney. "We get tons of orders for holiday parties," says Sanjog Sikand, director of sales and marketing. Williams-Sonoma includes them in its online holiday gift guide, and last year the company experienced a 40 percent bump in national distribution. "Five years ago business was one-third of what it is now," says Sikand. "People are looking for global tastes and new flavors but we still need to focus on the format Americans like—finger food. Grab-and-go is our lifestyle." Sikand believes the explosion of popularity of the samosas
has to do with the number of choices facing consumers. "People like getting a little bit of everything rather than committing to a whole meal," she notes. "It's easier for them to experiment with two to three kinds of food on a plate and not think about it too much." Dufour Pastry Kitchens has also seen more international fla-
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vors coming into play. Ray Destefano, sales and marketing coordina- tor, confirms that the Bronx, N.Y., company will be introducing new items this holiday season although he could not share details at press time. "There's still a place for traditional flavors in hors d'oeuvres," he says, "but we're finding that people's palates have expanded in the past ten years. We're borrowing spice ideas from Middle Eastern, Moroccan and Asian foods. … We listen to what our customers want and that has translated to a lot of different influences for
our hors d'oeuvres, for instance, combining pomegranate molasses, (continued on p. 118)