Brodhead & Butter

NE Dessert Showcase Update

db@dorashomemade.com (Doris Brodhead) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:47:00 +0000

Saturday, September 26, 2009, The Marriott Long Wharf, 296 State Street, Boston, MA

9 - 11am Trade-only Hours for B2B Networking
11am - 4pm Showcase Open to the Public
4 - 6pm VIP Ticket, Exhibitor & Media Reception
7 - 10pm After Party

Here is the complete list of exhibitors for today's show:

Strawberry Hill Confectionery
Sugar Me Cookies
Sugabettens Baking
Cassis Bakery Inc.
Delectable Desires
Sister Nadine's
Godiva Chocolatier
Finale Desserterie and Bakery
Simply Dahlicious
Brazilian Bakery Specialties & Co
The Cholive Company
Brooke the Cook
Children's Trust Fund
Wheeler's Frozen Desserts
H. T. Berry Co.
Simply Divine Brownies
Pic-cha Sistas Photography
Boston Common Coffee Company
Starlight Creatives
Party Favors
Sweet
B B Snaps
Geoff and Drew's Incredible Cookies
Aroa Fine Chocolate
KJW Productions
jBagz Photography
Biga Breads/Wildflour Catering/..Cakes Milton
Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro
Salter College
Boston Chart House
The Melting Pot of Boston

Trendspotting or Another Bakery Show?

db@dorashomemade.com (Doris Brodhead) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:26:00 +0000

The New England Dessert Showcase

Friday, September 25, 2009, The Greatest Bar, 262 Friend Street (between Causeway and Traverse), Boston, MA

7 - 9pm Cocktail Networking & Opening Night Party

Saturday, September 26, 2009, The Marriott Long Wharf, 296 State Street, Boston, MA

9 - 11am Trade-only Hours for B2B Networking
11am - 4pm Showcase Open to the Public
4 - 6pm VIP Ticket, Exhibitor & Media Reception
7 - 10pm After Party

Here's something of interest happening in Boston this weekend. This is the first year for the New England Dessert Showcase, an event run by Anthem Entertainment, which promises to bring together bakeries and potential wholesale customers. In addition to the B2B side, the event is open to the public. For a more detailed schedule and information about exhibiting or attending, go to http://www.nedessertshowcase.com/.

The confirmed list of exhibitors as of last Monday follows. Presumably it has grown as more folks decide to exhibit in the last two weeks before the event.

Sugar Me Cookies
Sugabettens Baking
Cassis Bakery Inc.
Delectable Desires
The Specialty Bean
Godiva
Bella
Finale Desserterie and Bakery
Simply Dahlicious
Strawberry Hill Confectionery
Brazilian Bakery Specialties & Co.
The Cholive
Brooke the Cook
Children's Trust Fund
Wheeler's Frozen Dessert Company
H. T. Berry Paper Co.
Street Eats
The Chart House
Simply Divine Brownies

In addition, several hotels will be attending, including the Intercontinental, the Eliot, the Boston Harbor Hotel and the Hyatt. Erica Johnson of Anthem said there will be "close to 100" caterers, event planners and wedding planners attending. Despite the fact that the Showcase's website says it will benefit exhibitors who are interested in "mass commercial distribution," it appears that Anthem is focusing on the catering and hotel market.

TheFoodMonkey.com, a website that follows Boston Restaurants and eating, is sponsoring a cooking demonstration with Nicole Coady, Executive Pastry Chef at Finale Desserterie and Bakery and Shannon Black, the Pastry Chef at Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro. Mike Prerau from TheFoodMonkey.com will host.

Anthem Entertainment, which as its name belies, is an entertainment promoter rather than an organizer of trade shows, so there is a lot of focus on the party aspect and less - if any - on professional development.

Don't miss the after-party.

Some ideas from Canto 6

db@dorashomemade.com (Doris Brodhead) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Canto 6 Bakery and Cafe
3346 Washington Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-983-8688
http://www.canto6bakery.com/

A few meetings have taken me out of my normal routine and into other parts of Boston, so I have had a chance to visit Canto 6 in Jamaica Plain and Clearflour in Brookline over the last two mornings, both of which are exceptional European-style bakeries. As usual, I was looking for baked goods that could be translated into a larger retail setting.

Honored as the best bakery in Boston for sweets by Boston Magazine, Canto 6 is named after the ring of hell in Dante’s Inferno reserved for gluttons. They are known for their cannelés, a pastry which looks more like a burnt cork or a lamp finial than a dessert. Cannelés are made in small fluted molds, traditionally coated with beeswax, which caramelize the exterior of the vanilla and rum flavored batter. Trader Joe’s has quite good traditional and chocolate versions in their frozen section at $4.95 for six.

Having never been there, there was a lot to try: (clockwise starting in the upper left) the bourbon glazed bread pudding, a tappo - which means cork in Italian, essentially a bouchon which means cork in French, a milk chocolate hazelnut cookie, the lemon shortbread, a triple chocolate cookie, an oat cranberry bar, a plum-raspberry galette and an almond croissant. As an afterthought, I also tried a sugared brioche. Sadly, no cannelés.

So here are some ideas that may work in a larger retail setting:

Bourbon glazed bread pudding
Baked in a Novacart paper mold, mine was doubled – perhaps a mistake but more likely necessary to hold the wet interior – it would need to be in a refrigerated or frozen section. Its great positive is the very attractive glazed and caramelized topping which tumbles out of the wrapper. It is breadier than I like my bread pudding, but visually very appealing.

Triple chocolate cookie
There is so much chocolate out there, how is it possible to get excited by something new? For that matter, is anything new? This cookie is worth a look. It has a very wet, very pleasing uncooked center, with a light almost meringue-like exterior, that you might find on a French style macaroon. A problem, at least for me, is it leaves bitter remnants of cocoa nibs in your mouth - or was it the skins from the walnuts? The start is quite fantastic, but the finish needs a change.

Sugared brioche
So lovely that I didn’t take a picture of it, a problem I repeated today at Clearflour. Consumed quickly as an afterthought, it was perhaps the nicest find of the visit. A rich brioche dough with a crusty sugared top. While Canto 6’s largest cost after labor is high-fat butter, it seems like this could possibly have containable ingredient costs that might lend itself to a larger retail environment. The crusty sugared top gives you a great hit of sugar that makes this less of a roll and more of a breakfast treat.

Almond croissant
Why does an almond croissant warrant a mention? Its exceptional flakiness and rich almond filling which is baked onto the exterior, rather than the interior. I have always wondered why no one recreates the crisp, shattering exterior of a great croissant in a supermarket environment. Whole Foods seems to do a good job, but I expect that this is with items that are baked and sold the same day. Why are most store-bought croissants so soft? Is this because consumers use them to make sandwiches and they are essentially a bread replacement? Is this a constraint of the physical properties of the dough which cannot sit at room temperature for more than a day without softening, or is this a consumer preference? Half of this is up on my shelf, so we’ll see how it tastes after sitting in plastic for a few days.

Pictures and comments on Clearflour will follow.

Payard New York City closes

db@dorashomemade.com (Doris Brodhead) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Payard, the phantasmagorical patisserie on New York City's Upper East Side, has officially closed. Francois Payard, the acclaimed pastry chef could not carry the burden of a 50% increase in rent required by the landlord. Tastings, the associated catering company will continue to operate.

While famous for it's brightly colored french macaroons, my favorite, tasted on a visit in January, were the small almond and pistachio tea cakes.

Starbucks rolls out their new baked goods. So what?

db@dorashomemade.com (Doris Brodhead) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:09:00 +0000

July 21, 2009

So what - well, there's a free baked good today at any Starbucks. That should be enough to get any self-respecting bakery category manager over to see the new spread. Okay, you have to be there by 10:30, buy a drink and bring the invitation you printed out on their website.

If you've been following the ads in major newspapers, such as the Wall St Journal, New York Times and USA Today, you're familiar with the fact that Starbucks has been positioning and promoting their new food menu, a significant percentage of which is baked goods. If you thought it was about baked goods, you're wrong, with Starbucks, it is always all about coffee. Starbucks has been under pressure from McDonald's McCafe and among other initiatives, is using the food menu to respond. Their positioning against McCafe? All natural, healthy and even low calorie options. And green and politically correct. There will be no price increases with this revamp.

What are the implications for folks responsible for in-store bakery? Well, if you want to emulate that positioning – healthy, natural, etc. – you can look to the bakery case to find what millions of dollars in staff, agencies and market research have told Starbucks: oats, blueberries and retro desserts. Specifically, Outrageous Oatmeal Cookies, Blueberry Oat Bars, Blueberry Streusel Muffin, Reduced-fat Very Berry Coffeecake, Banana Walnut Bread and Marshmallow Dream Bars. In the Boston-area stores we visited, there were also Old Fashioned Donuts – so misshapen as to give a new spin on the concept of handmade, Passion Fruit Coconut Bars, Morning Buns, Scones, Muffins, Apple Fritters and the traditional Cinnamon Roll. The Valencia Orange gluten-free cake, which debuted in March of this year, is also in the case.

Starbucks began a sourcing initiative over a year ago to control manufacturing costs and to reduce the total number of suppliers. With extensive RFPs and requests for detailed cost information, it was perhaps a familiar approach for major suppliers, but hardly SOP for Starbucks' smaller bakery vendors. Starbucks has moved from regional fresh suppliers to a national program with a significant thaw and sell component, working with a limited number of high volume frozen suppliers. One commercial bakery, Crestone Group of San Diego, is suing Starbucks for stealing their proprietary recipes and reneging on business agreements. Crestone had built plants specifically to supply Starbucks.

In addition, the food offerings have been simplified and made more consistent across stores. Along with a revamped product line, the bakery case changes have been launched with a mix of advertising, promotions and digital media. In June, Brandweek reported that Starbucks has 200,000 followers on Twitter and 1.8 million fans on Facebook. On Facebook, those who are interested are asked to RSVP to the invitation to meet for coffee and a free pastry.

Do the pastries actually taste better? Can it help Starbucks? Well, on those topics, your comments are needed.