It's easy to feel overwhelmed when confronted by thousands of the world's best artisanal food producers gathered in one place. It's also easy to eat yourself sick and get just a bit drunk.

I recently tried my best at both on assignment at Slow Food's Salone del Gusto — a biennial festival celebrating artisanal foods. I scoured endless booths of vendors, working hard to suss out what is next to hit our shores and shelves.

I munched more chocolate, sipped more wine, licked more gelato, spooned more honey, crunched more cookies, crackers and breadsticks, pawed through more piles of beans, stared at more jarred this and pickled that than any food writer ought.

And I did it all for you. My report from the front lines of the food world:

• Honey is huge. Not the teddy bear bottle stuff that gets all goopy. Single-source honey produced by bees gathering pollen from specific plants or geographies. I saw chestnut honey. Acacia honey. Eucalyptus honey. Honey with herbs. Alpine wildflower honey.
  
• Specialty meats. Organic and free-range are here to stay. But everything will go even more upscale. Sliced ham, for example, will go the way of the processed American cheese food slice. Sure, it will always be there, but will anyone buy it? On restaurant menus — and increasingly in homes — expect to see lots of higher-end salami and prosciutto, which is to bacon as fresh orange juice is to an orange tic tac.
  
• Chocolate is becoming the new coffee. People will know where their chocolate was grown, the blend of bean used and how much cacao went into the finished product. They will know it because that is how chocolate will be marketed.
  
• Dried fruit will get a renaissance, and figs will lead the way. Raisins on the vine never will make it big, but they will be a cute novelty that rich people will like to show off with.
  
• Speaking of fruit, move over Smucker's. Preserves are going high end. Very high end. And funky. Cloudberry, anyone? How about dog rose? Or mirabelle plum? Try them all. It's hard to go wrong with slow-cooked fruit and sugar. Pay special attention to preserves from Eastern Europe, which has a long tradition in this area.
  
• Unique beans. Some U.S. companies already market canned heirloom varieties. Even more will be available to people willing to cook dry beans. Alubia de Tolosa, a black bean from Spain's Basque region, were particularly interesting.
  
• When it comes to wine, Australia is so late '90s. South Africa is exciting, but already is getting that been-there, done-that feel. For exciting new wines to impress your friends with, consider Lebanon, which produces amazing reds. And anything Italian that isn't from Tuscany or Umbria is worth a sip.
  
• Is it possible for coffee to get even more specialized? Actually, yes. Good coffee already is marketed as much by country of origin as by flavor profile. This will be amplified. You'll know which side of which mountain it was grown on.
  
• Ice cream? Please! When Stonewall Kitchen is selling mail-order gelato sandwiches, you know it's time to rethink ice cream. There are some amazing gelatos out there, and Americans are learning how to make them.

___

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.