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GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2016 www.gourmetnews.com Supplier Business SUPPLIER BUSINESS 1 8 BRIEFS General Mills Acquires EPIC Provisions General Mills, Inc. has acquired EPIC Provisions, a rapidly growing, premium meat snacks company based in Austin, Texas. EPIC will operate under General Mills' Annie's business, which itself has experienced strong sales growth since General Mills acquired the company more than a year ago. EPIC will maintain its present location in Austin. Applegate Farms, LLC Announces Leadership Changes For 2016 Natural and organic meat provider Applegate ® announced that Chief Executive Officer Kerry Collins is transitioning to the role of CEO Emeritus, and Chief Operating Officer Steven J. Lykken is assuming the position of President. Applegate Farms, LLC is a stand-alone subsidiary of Hormel Foods Corporation. Pernicious Pickling Co. Honored with 2016 Good Food Award Pernicious Pickling Co. was named a 2016 Good Food Award winner in the Pickles division. Pernicious Pickling Co.'s winning entry, Fashionably Dill Pickled Red Beets, is a nod to Eastern European flavors with dill in a sweet and salty brine, enhancing the rich, earthy tones of the beet. Bixby Bars Honored with Good Food Award Recognized for its dedication to handcrafted natural and organic craft candy snack bars, Bixby & Co. was a recipient of the prestigious 2016 Good Food Award in the confections category. Bixby founder Kate McAleer accepted the award in San Francisco on January 15 for the Nutty for You organic craft candy snack bar. American-Made Prosciutto from La Quercia is now obtaining its Tamworth pork from a new supplier in Missouri who has a Global Animal Partnership rating of 4, attesting to his humane treatment of his animals. Breeding is also very important to La Quercia. The company makes prosciutto from purebred Berkshire pork as well as the Tamworth pork from Missouri and from Berkshire Cross, which is more than half Berkshire and comes from a supplier in the Midwest. "We're contin- uously trying to improve the quality of the eating experience. Obviously the meat is a key part of that," Eckhouse says. La Quercia is also expanding its Acorn Edition program, which is prosciutto made from Tamworth pigs that have lived in an oak forest for four to five months. "It's a tradition that really spans the globe," Eckhouse says. "Acorns and good pork quality have been associated for years. We're the ones trying to bring it into the U.S. and do it here." The pro- gram makes use of Tamworths because they produce pork that's full-flavored and very sweet. "This meat is rich in umami and has a long, sweet finish," Eckhouse says. "The acorns give it a tex- ture that's very soft and delicate." These hams are aged for a minimum of 27 months, or up to more than three years, depending on size, and then La Quercia offers them bone-in with the hoof on for a dramatic display and an impressive chef station. White tablecloth chefs are lining up for the La Quercia Acorn Edition meats, but about half of the company's production is currently being sold at retail through upscale spe- cialty retailers. Zingerman's and Mur- ray's are online sales partners for the products. "Cheese Shop of Des Moines is one of our best customers for the Acorn Edition," Eckhouse says. For more information, contact West Coast sales rep Aaron Eckhouse at Aaron@laquercia.us or East Coast sales rep Kyle McCormick Kyle@laquercia.us. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN This year at the Winter Fancy Food Show, for the first time in four years, La Quercia was taking orders for prosciutto. "We did a big expansion a couple of years ago, and finally we're happy to be able to offer prosciutto to new customers as well as to existing customers," says Co-Founder Herb Eckhouse. "We're con- tinuing to develop our meat supply. We feel that the best meat makes the best cured meat." The company's expanded prosciutto production is the result of La Quercia's ongoing efforts to track down farmers who can raise pork that meets the com- pany's high standards. La Quercia won't use any confinement pork or any pork from animals treated with nontherapeu- tic doses of antibiotics. "We never have," Eckhouse says. "We estimate that to be about the top half of one percent of all pork in the country. We've had commit- ment from the very beginning to use only premium quality meat. "La Quercia BY RICHARD THOMPSON There aren't many condiments you'd carry with you for emergencies, but if it's Mr. Bojack's Hot Sauce, then you'd better make room. Lynn Holmes, Co-Owner of Mr. Bojack's, exclaims, "Yeah, I carry a bottle in my purse! It's one of those hot sauces that gives a twang of flavor to whatever I end up putting it on." Mr. Bo- jack's line of hot, barbecue and wing sauces started out in Florida as a local fa- vorite during Citrus Bowls and monster truck rallies, but has quickly become a staple for restaurants, gourmet food re- tailers and small specialty shops throughout the region. "We manufacture and produce [our] sauces for retail. No retailer or wholesaler is having problems moving the product," explains Holmes. Mr. Bojack's is an Orlando-based com- pany that opened right at the beginning of the year in 2010, but its origins came much, much earlier. Founder and Presi- dent B.W. Blunt Sr. has had a passion for cooking since he was a young man. "It all started with my father growing up when I first learned to cook, but when I was stationed in Germany, I would grill up my sauces and people kept asking for more," he recalls. It wasn't until after Blunt returned stateside that he considered bottling his locally popular sauces for retailers – and even that was only because of a dare. "This is how it all started; Lynn said I should bottle it, and I said, 'Okay, find a way to bottle it and I will.' She was on it the next day; it was one of the best things she could have done," says Blunt with a laugh. After finding support from an Ocala, Florida, bottling company, Prima Foods International, and establishing retail connections from Jacksonville to South Beach, Mr. Bojack's started seeing rising popularity, not just smaller gourmet stores such as Hopkin's Meat Distribu- tors and Clemmons Produce, but as a must-have condiment in the state's Fresh Market food stores and at restaurants like High Tide Harry's. "They had to take it off their tables and lock it up with their merchandise because people kept walking off with them," says Blunt. Mr. Bojack's provides a line of seven different sauces that go well with to all types of foods – both traditional barbe- cue fare and vegetable options. "What makes our sauces different than other sauces is that we put the seasoning in the bottle. All customers have to do is bring the food," says Holmes. Mr. Bojack's Spicy Garlic wing sauce is the company's best seller, and, while made for hot wings, Blunt says that it marries perfectly with all types of seafood such as crab and shrimp as well as potatoes and any fowl from turkeys on down. Mr. Bojack's Slappin Sauce is at home on ribs as much as it is on cucumbers. "What you do is drizzle it over vegeta- bles, or meats, or anything and once you put it on, you don't need anything else," says Blunt. Mr. Bojack's Hot Sauce, the company's flagship product, is the sauce that put Mr. Bojack's on the map. With its twangy taste and "right amount of heat that won't burn your seat" heat index, the company's hot sauce has become famous in central Florida. Excellent for break- fast, lunch or dinner, Mr. BoJack's Hot Sauce livens up any dull dish – or is great on its own. "We gave retired NFL Wash- ington Redskin, Tye Dye, a bottle and he called me up later to tell me that he couldn't bring it home because he drank the whole bottle while he was driving," recounts Blunt. GN Mr. Bojack's Hot Sauce Slaps on Deliciousness Face Rock Creamery Releases Clothbound Cheddar Face Rock Creamery announces the first allocation of its premium clothbound cheddar. The 14-month aged cheddar is available from the Face Rock website and through select retail locations including New Seasons and Market of Choice in Oregon and Washington. Rhythm Superfoods Debuts Roasted Kale Chips Rhythm ® Superfoods debuted five flavors of its new Roasted Kale Chips at the Winter Fancy Food Show. The five tantalizing flavors of the Roasted Kale line include Sea Salt, Smoky Bacon, Roasted Garlic & Onion, Sea Salt & Vinegar and Chili Lime.

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