Gadgets Abound at Gourmet Products Show : 2,000 Booths Were in Evidence but Many Went for Espressos

If irons and toasters were hot last year, and woks the year before, espresso/cappuccino machines were steaming even more this year at the San Francisco Gourmet Products Show.

Held at the Moscone Convention Center May 5-8, more than 2,000 manufacturer’s booths with new and established gourmet product lines wooed cookware store owners and retail buyers who were mostly from the West Coast. This year, a special International Pavilion had been added to the show.

Noticeably, the pressure was on from American and European manufacturers of espresso units or espresso/cappuccino combinations. Various stove-top espresso models were displayed, but most buyers centered their attention on electric espressos. These were the machines they believed offered the most appeal to the sought-after young urban professionals (yuppies), the group considered to be the most typical espresso-machine customer. Costwise, the selection of espressos exhibited ranged from around $100 (Signor Cappuccino, Avanti) to $400 (Gaggia, Girmi). For upscale customers, there were $1,000 machines of copper-brass from Benjamin and Medwin.

Difficult Decisions

With almost 20 vendors around, it’s difficult for any customer, particularly first-time buyers, to make a decision when buying an espresso maker. According to one department store buyer: “For many customers it’s a choice between design and function, but demonstration of the machine plays an important role for the retailer who wants to sell any machine.”

Aside from the espresso machines, there were coffee makers galore, ranging in size from the compact one-cuppers popular in offices and for single person households to the larger models with these newer features: dual coffee/tea maker (Krups), under-the-cabinet capability (Hamilton Beach, Black and Decker, Toshiba), hidden cord storage and anti-drip mechanism (Braun, Krups), permanent filter (Panasonic), one-step mill and drip system (Toshiba, Norelco).

Taking advantage of the increasing popularity of grinding your own coffee beans for a fresher cup, a vast selection of small coffee grinders were present. Coffee beans likewise abounded, and one popular item was the new vacuum package with the freshness valve that lets air out, not in. Also rampant in the show were electric and non-electric kettles, vacuum bottles and mugs, all competing in design and color. Anything to do with coffee was the name of the game--which makes one wonder: what has happened to the caffeine warnings, or even the decaf cancer scare?

Many products at the show were not new, but attractive new packaging catering to the gift concept brought them into the limelight. Fashion stood hand in hand with function, as exhibited by Crown Corning in one of the most eye-catching booths in the show. The merging of Corning Glass with Crown in Fall, 1984, brought forth a vast array of merchandise with wild, brilliant colors and emphasis on flashy packaging. Aside from the traditional Corning line of glassware, the booth exhibited a whole line of colorful outdoor plastics, including vacuum bottles, canteens, coolers and ice chests, solid color Prego dinnerware and place mats in varied shapes and geometric designs.

Even in cutlery, new designs were sharp. Bright and bold colors in lightweight handles made of thermoplastic rubber were exhibited in Japanese and European cutlery. Still actively selling its wood-handled professional series, J. A. Henckels now also carries seamless plastic handles made of high impact polypropylene in its Four-Star series. The blades in these knives and in Henckels’ new twin-shear blades are made of high carbon steel formed in the new ice-hardened process for no-stain properties.

Cutlery Category

Other interesting features noted in the cutlery category were under-the-cabinet knife blocks, single knives in attractive individual colored cases and all sorts of handy knife sharpeners, including battery-operated ones and diamond sharpeners.

Many show items were geared to summer selling. Included were patio ware, picnic ware, complete picnic baskets, pitchers, barbecue grills, plastic pool glasses and beautiful decorative candles in all sorts of shapes (would you believe fruit tarts and sundaes?) and colors.

Electric ice cream makers from Italy were also buzzing away, providing much awaited samples. One that wasn’t buzzing but was busily attracting a lot of buyers and taste samplers was the Donvier Ice Cream Maker from Nikkal Industries. Manufactured in Japan by the Nippon Light Metal Co., the Donvier makes ice cream in about 20 minutes without ice, salt or electricity and only requires a few turns of the handle.

The plastic outside container holds an aluminum freezer pot, which contains a refrigerant in its walls. This pot is frozen overnight so that when the ice cream mixture comes in contact with it, it freezes and turning with the plastic propeller makes the mixture smoother. Aside from simplicity, another reason for its popularity was the low pricing--$29 for the pint size and $35.95 for the quart size.

Of interest were goods from Europe, particularly from Italy and Germany. Italian designs in dinnerware, serving containers and kitchen goods exhibited bold geometric designs as well as traditional patterns. The quality was good, especially in attractive handmade Italian pottery of various eras.

Things to Look for

Many buyers claimed that there were not many new hot items featured at the show that they had not already seen at the national housewares show in Chicago six weeks earlier. However, for the average consumer, here are some of the things to watch for in the stores, some of which may already be out.

--Induction stove top units from Sanyo, Kitchen Aid, Toshiba and Induct-A-Range: Electronically controlled, the units may be used with magnetic metallic or ferrous pans; old pots can be easily tested for possible use with a magnet. The units cook food more quickly and economically with easier cleaning features than a regular stove. They use magnetic induction to heat, so only the food and utensils get hot; there are no flames or electric coils.

--Freezer-to-oven-to-table-to-dishwasher cookware: A popular concept with many metal and ceramic pots and pans, the latest one comes in glazed clay from Emile Henry Corp. of France in its Verone line. Stylish and subtly shaded in pink, the French cookware is also microwave-proof.

--REMA BakeWare Inc., the makers of aluminum Cushionaire insulated cookie sheet, is introducing the sheet cake/jellyroll pan, which helps prevent overbrowning of bottoms of baked goods. Another is the Perfect Crust pizza pan, which has more than 900 holes to allow moisture to escape and heat to penetrate into the crust, thus preventing soggy crusts.

--A unique two-level design compact toaster oven in baked enamel finish allows you to toast bread, bake, broil and fry in one easy-to-use pan. From Sanyo, the new model SK2F Toastie has quartz heating elements that reduce cooking time up to 25% compared to conventional toaster ovens.

--If you always have the problem of losing that cork in the wine bottle when you should be pulling it out instead, the Wine Waiter may be your answer. The spiral cork screw gadget has a cork-retrieving device, black plastic “legs” that pull the cork up and out.

--From Mullins Square, aprons with applique design costumes of Santa Claus, nurse, doctor, French maid, butler, etc.

--Beautifully designed Italian Handmade Pottery by Giovanni DeSimone from Seagull Imports of Torrance, featuring a large selection of folk art vases, wine jugs, pitchers, mugs and plates with lead-free, dishwasher-safe colors. The new line comes in patterns of pink-and-blue trim.

--The Educated Cake Pan from Burvelle Enterprise comes with 12 heavy (2-inch) square metal inserts to enable you to personalize cakes in shapes of numerals or letters.

--If you want to weigh food to a 10th of an ounce, the Electronic Kitchen Scale provides accuracy, from American Family Scale.

--Salton’s Three for All Espresso/Cappuccino Automatic Drip Coffeemaker is the first of its kind. With simplified controls, the coffee carafe holds eight cups whereas the graduated espresso carafe holds four cups. The unit also has a cord storage.

--The white-enameled V45 Studio Oven from Vivalp features a 900-watt mini-oven with removable non-stick interior and a 1,500-watt top burner.

--A somewhat similar unit still in prototype, Salton’s mini-oven has a grill on top for cooking eggs, ham, bacon, etc.

--If you like to make your own pasta for potstickers or turnovers, the potsticker maker from Vitantonio may be for you. Similar to ravioli molds used with a rolling pin, the potsticker mold will make six dumplings at a time.

--The electric Deni Freshlock Vacuum Sealer from Keystone Manufacturing works great for packaging foods safely for freezer and refrigerator storage. The sleek-looking machine comes with polyethylene replaceable bags, which are boilable and microwavable.

--Plastic storage boxes have been upscaled. A. K. Das & Co. makes airtight storage containers that have a date reminder. Available in red, white, yellow or blue, the boxes have see-through lids and date indexing.

--Jar Vise jar opener works better than rubber twisters. This can be installed with screws under kitchen cupboards or shelves. It comes with a serrated blade that helps in twisting free the lid of any size jar.

--Chopsticks can be handled easily when you use EZ-Sticks, developed by young Glenn Lee. Lee insists on chopsticks for Chinese or Japanese food since “metal forks leave a metallic taste in the mouth,” he says. So, to help Americans, he created these chopsticks with a hinge in the center to avoid “fumbling through another Oriental meal.”

--Cuisinart introduces its Precision Portion Scale that weighs small food items accurately from 5 grams to 300 grams. The scale will have appeal to both diet-conscious and sophisticated cooks who make their own seasoning or spice and herb mixtures.

--A 2-quart Quick Freeze ice cream maker accessory is an addition to Oster’s Kitchen Center appliance. Ice cream is made in 10 minutes using table salt and ice. The unit will also be available as a free-standing appliance.

--The Stone from Chantry uses no oil when cooking meats, seafood or vegetables. It’s a flameless method of cooking on a square stone slab.