Good Food Awards Marketplace

It's awards season, and I'm not talking about the Golden Globes. It's actually awards season for the food community. Early last week the Tasty Awards were announced in Hollywood, and on Friday in San Francisco food high priestess Alice Waters announced the winners of the first-ever Good Food Awards.

The Good Food Awards, created by the Seedling Projects, recognizes great tasting food products that also support sustainability efforts. Products were judged from producers across the country in the following categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles and preserves.

Yesterday at San Francisco's Ferry Building, the winners were featured in a marketplace, providing tastes and making sales of their winning products.


Lined up along both sides of the front arcade of the Ferry Building, the artisan producers, of course, were mobbed by the regular Saturday morning farmers market and tourists crowd. And I was having one of those days. You know, those days where nothing goes right, like missing buses or ending up at the wrong spots. And at the marketplace, as I tried to wriggle my way up to the front to try samples of the winning products, I undoubtedly found myself behind someone who just tried a sample and decided to quiz the producers on his or her life story, not budging from her spot at the front. Leaving me waiting. Waiting. And waiting just trying to get close to grab a sample and leave. Well, basically I wasn't very successful in trying many of the food winners.

Winners came from across the country, but there were a few locals representing the Bay Area, including Charles Chocolates (above), who won for its salty-sweet cashew bar, and Cowgirl Creamery for its multi-award-winner Red Hawk cheese, and the Girl and the Fig for its coppa.





Some of the interesting products I saw included edamame kim chee from Artisanal Soy from Washington, D.C., and a nice-tasting salami from Olympic Provisions in Oregon. With the major Fancy Foods show in town this week, it's nice spending a day at the Good Foods Marketplace to check out producers from around the country making foods with no real gimmick. They're just food that taste good (well, at least the ones I was able to try).