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GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2020 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 1 Northern Wind Offers Flexible Seafood Options for Grocery Retailers BY LORRIE BAUMANN Northern Wind, known for its rich history of purveying scallops from its seafood fa- cilities on the New Bedford, Massachusetts, waterfront and globally, is planning to make a splash in the retail channel with its Bon Cuisine line of products that super- markets can offer from their frozen seafood cases or from the deli counter or hot bar. Adam Taylor, Northern Wind's new Vice President of Re- tail Sales, will be leading the launch while Chief Executive Officer George Kouri commis- sions a new fa- cility on the New Bedford waterfront. The new facil- ity includes a state-of-the-art I Q F - c e r t i f i e d freezing tunnel that adds the ca- pacity to process 12,000 pounds of scallops per hour and a holding freezer with cold storage for 5.5 million pounds of seafood. "That's big news for us," Kouri said. The new Bon Cuisine line is designed to overcome the single objection that many Americans have to serving more seafood to their families and their guests – they aren't sure how to cook it. With these products, supermarkets and club stores will be able to offer their shoppers handmade-quality meal kit solutions, prepared food that cus- tomers can consume either at home or in the store's seating area and frozen products that consumers can take home to cook in their range ovens, microwave ovens or saute pans. The new items fill a gap in the seafood options available to consumers, Kouri said. "Consumers need sustainable seafood, cer- tified facilities, authentic handmade pro- duction, and the novelty and nu- ances of these items," he said. "We go into this launch feeling pretty good that there isn't any- thing like this on the market." All of the seafood for the new items is sustainably and re- sponsibly sourced, Taylor said. "Which is what consumers are looking for. We have a great story to tell on all these items as well as all the items that Northern Wind sells," he said. "One of the things I like most about Bon Cuisine is that they're all handmade. They're different from anything else out there. They're high quality." The new Bon Cuisine products include Fish and Chip Goujon. That's a piece of New Zealand Hoki fillet and some hand- cut potato strips coated together with a tempura batter, so that the consumer gets both fish and potato together in the same bite. At home or in the store, the item can be prepared for serving in either conven- tional oven or deep fryer to make a fin- ger-food snack or appetizer. Shrimp and Zucchini Fritters and Smoked Salmon and Zucchini Fritters occupy the same niche. The Bon Cui- sine Smoked Salmon Hash Cake combines the smoked salmon with a hash brown cake and would work for breakfast as well as for later day parts. Crab Bites contain 40 percent real crab meat, and the Shrimp Shaomi is a handmade dumpling that can be steamed, sauteed or mi- crowaved to make appetizers worthy of the cocktail hour of an elegant dinner party. The line also in- cludes a Prawn Gyoza as well as Taylor's personal favorite, Spinach and Cheese Salmon Kiev. That's like a Chicken Kiev, except that salmon replaces the chicken. To make it, Northern Wind combined diced salmon pieces with onion and herbs as well as the spinach and cheese in a bite to go into the oven or a deep fryer. "That's one that I think is going to be very popular on a hot bar application," Taylor said. "The price points for some of these items fit right into the hot bars that are priced by the pound." The new line also includes a couple of meal kits that can be sold from the deli case or prepared at the store level: a Fish Taco Kit and a Bao Bun Kit. The Fish Taco Kit includes white fish in a tempura batter, four 6-inch tor- tillas and a red chile sauce, while the Bao Bun Kit includes double- crunch shrimp, four bao buns and a sriracha sauce. They're both de- signed to serve two – or one hun- gry fisherman. The fish tacos go right into the mi- crowave oven, or the tortillas can be briefly warmed and then the fish seared in a saute pan. The four bao buns go into the microwave or steamer, and the double-crunch shrimp are cooked in the oven. "Every one of our items that can go into a fryer is ovenable as well," Taylor said. "Most people don't have fryers at home." For more information, visit www .northernwind.com. GN Bone Suckin' Sauce from Ford's Gourmet Foods When the Ford family decided to sell their family's secret sauce more than 25 years ago, they thought it would be a sentimental addition to the gourmet foods side of their fourth generation family produce business. Little did they know that were creating a phenomenon. "The sauce came from my Grandma's recipe on my Dad's side that was then modified by my uncle. The name of the sauce was inspired my Grandma on my Mom's side. My mom, Sandi Ford, named the sauce Bone Suckin' Sauce, because she was reminded of her mom eating chicken down to the bone," said Patrick Ford, Vice President of Ford's Gourmet Foods. And so, Bone Suckin' Sauce (BSS) was born. A Western North Carolina style, tomato- based sauce sweetened with real honey and molasses, BSS also has a hint of apple cider vinegar, a hint of mustard, real bits of onions and garlic and little bit of horserad- ish. It has developed a substantial cult fol- lowing. What's the real secret of the secret sauce? "It comes down to simple, honest ingredi- ents. We offered a gluten free, no high fruc- tose corn syrup, non-GMO, delicious sauce long before it was the trendy thing to do," said Ford. "And in every product since, we have stuck to that philosophy, and that matters to our customers." BSS has been rated No. 1 by Food and Wine Magazine, Newsweek Magazine and recognized by countless other competi- tions and news outlets. The product offer- ing has expanded over the years to include variety of sauces and marinades, seasonings and rubs, and a spicy and a sweet mustard, both of which were re- cently named National Champions by Illi- nois Barbecue Society. "The accolades from the industry and the press are nice, but what really matters to us is what our customers say," adds Ford. "We get messages from customers all the time – multiple generations enjoying BSS at a fam- ily barbecue or customers with celiac dis- ease being able to enjoy barbecue for the first time because our original BSS is truly gluten free. Those real stories from real cus- tomers are everything to us." The Ford's decades-long commitment to quality products and exceptional service is netting great results. Sales of BSS have ex- panded into over 80 countries around the world and offered consistent growth and repeat customers year to year and through to partner distributors. The Fords have no intention of stopping there. Said Ford, "We know there are markets and customers we still have not met. And we know there are ways to extend the reach of BSS through continued innovation and evolution of our products. We are excited to see where the future will take us." Bone Suckin' Sauce is distributed by Ford's Gourmet Foods – a fourth genera- tion, Raleigh, North Carolina-based family business that creates some of the world's greatest tasting gluten-free foods, including the internationally acclaimed Bone Suckin' Sauces, Fire Dancer Jalapeno Nuts and Southern Yum. For more information, call 919.833.7647 or email sales@bonesuckin.com. GN

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