Good Food Awards

The awards marketplace at Fort Mason for 2016 was a treat, well worth going. Though somewhat chaotic, crowded, and noisy, the winners and crowds remained in good spirits and gave out generous, plentiful samples of some of the best artisanal chocolate, honey, cheese, salumi, cider, jams, sauerkraut, and other specialty food you ever tasted. Each one of the vendors is a finalist or winner in a nationwide contest that drew over 2,000 entries. The judging, by blind taste test, was clearly favoring food that is deep, intense, bold, and layered. Nothing dull or wimpy here, no duds, if you’re going to make some berry jam it had better damn have some lime peel and ghost peppers. Many of the products were farmstead (made on the farm) or at least farm-​to-​table (made from specific farms), and most were from outside of Northern California, meaning you get to try products that you’ve never heard of before and doesn’t distribute here, like estate-​grown sugarcane rum from Georgia, or a cacao plantation in Hawaii. Most everything was available for sale, though a few ran out or didn’t have the necessary logistics to bring their products.
Tickets were only $ 5, and were still available day of show — though judging from the crowds they need to make more room or limit sales a bit. The free admission super-​sized edition of the weekly Fort Mason farmer’s market was a little out of sorts because they moved it indoors to coincide with the awards marketplace with inadequate signage, and some of the local market regulars didn’t know where to go.

The Great Food Awards is a great opportunity to sample/​buy cheese, charcuterie, chocolate, coffee, confections, pickles, preserves, honey and oil from all over the country. The marketplace for the award winners allows anyone to meet with the makers of these great foods, learn about the company and purchase the winning products in person. For a few dollars, you can sample quite a bit of food — tremendous value.

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I’m a regular here on Saturday at the Ferry Building Farmer Market, this time, my parents joined me for the «Good Food Awards 2011».
Please check out their website for the next 2^nd Annual Good Food Awards — on their website: «The Good Food Awards celebrate the kind of food we all want to eat: tasty, authentic and responsibly produced. We grant awards to outstanding American food producers and the farmers who provide their ingredients.»
They host an annual Awards Ceremony and Marketplace at the iconic Ferry Building in San Francisco to honor new Good Food Award recipients and also organize a month of events and tastings to support the wider community making good food.
In their 1^st Annual Good Food Awards were given to winners in seven categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles and preserves.
We got to tasty charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles, and preserves. My parents love every bite of it and mom stocked up quite a few.
— Olympic Provisions Restaurant — Pork Liver Mousse (Portland, OR) — This was delish & I bought it!
— La Quercia — La Quercia Prosciutto Green Label (Norwalk, IA) — tasty, flavorful, just enough fat ;-)
— Madcap Coffee — Los Lobos Costa Rica (Grand Rapids, MI) –rich & tasty!
— Spirit Creek Farm — Purple Sauerkraut (Bayfield, WI) Purple Sauerkraut — delicious!
— Alexian Pâté — Duck Mousse With Cognac (Neptune, NJ) — My dad couldn’t stop praise about this!
— Cellars at Jasper Hill — Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (Greensboro, VT) — say CHEESE-​IT!
The best part, it’s FREE to taste as much as you want & you can buy the goods right on the spot! See you all at the 2^nd Annual Good Food Awards!