Beer-Flavored Bread: Is It the Way to a Yuppie’s Heart?

They walked in quietly off the street into the noisy, cavernous room, some lugging shopping bags and looking haggard from being on their feet for so long. Gratefully, they stood in long lines to receive platefuls of fresh-baked bread and steaming vegetables.

But this was no soup kitchen.

The menu also included wild boar pate, chocolate pasta, truffled mushrooms, lobster-jalapeno spread, praline pecans, Maui onion salsa and chicken liver mousse laced with Jamaican rum. In between bites, there were glassfuls of Kiwi juice and rich Kona coffee.

Hunger was nowhere in sight Monday at the International Fancy Food and Confection Show in Anaheim--except in the eyes of the gourmet entrepreneurs and retailers who had come from all over the country to eat, drink and be merry about their industry’s robust economic growth.

In particular, they gave thanks to the American yuppie and other affluent types who apparently will pay any price for the exotic, health-conscious foods lining the shelves of upscale supermarkets and specialty food shops these days from Laguna Beach to Long Island, N. Y.

“Now accepted as part of the life style of the baby boomers, specialty foods have become a magnet for the big spenders,” said F. James McGilloway, president of the National Assn. for the Specialty Food Trade, which sponsored the four-day convention that ends today.

As McGilloway spoke at a press conference, hundreds of happy salesmen, business representatives and browsers roamed the convention hall, wolfing down one delicacy after another. But a troubling question hovered over the crowd: What would be the next food trend to sweep Americans off their feet? Was there life after Cajun Popcorn?

“Take a tip from me, we’re going way beyond Cajun,” said Paul Christel, whose Los Angeles-based firm, Nicholas Gold Inc., displayed one of its newer products, “Uncle Bum’s Jamaican Cooking Marinade.”

“It’s Caribbean, that’s where it’s all headed,” he said with a smile. “Really, this is going to be the next sensation.”

Christel’s firm, however, isn’t shooting its entire wad on an unfamiliar product. The company is also marketing Chinese Chicken Salad in a box (“it comes with chopsticks,” he explained) and Trivial Pursuit Fortune Cookies, based on the popular board game.

“When it comes to food, these products are truly on the cutting edge,” Christel said.

But other movers and shakers passionately disagreed.

“Try this tortellini,” said Karen Meguiar, as she ladled out cups of steaming Davinci pasta drenched in a buttery white sauce. “You’re telling me this won’t be a hit? It takes 20 minutes to make. People don’t have time, but they want good taste. We got it all right here.”

Some entrepreneurs banked on more simple tastes. Scott MacCaskill, who helped create Dassant beer-flavored bread, said that his product--which calls for one can of beer to be poured into a prepackaged mix--would become an American classic.

“People like bread. People like beer,” he said with conviction. “We’ve got the best of both worlds. We’re not marketing a fad here, just something very simple.”

Elsewhere, importers of French olive oils competed for attention with merchants selling roasted red peppers from Spain. Mustards from Mendocino were hawked next to tomato salsas from Texas. For truly courageous tasters, there were booths offering fudge bars, fat cannolis, natural ice cream from Vermont and croissants bursting with butter.

Ice Cream Devotees

“Umm, delicious,” said Kirby Hammon of Studio City, savoring a dish of chocolate ice cream. “Am I a yuppie? Yes, I’m a yuppie,” he said. “Mmmm,” answered his companion, Sheryl Henderson, of Phoenix, licking Heath Bar ice cream off a spoon. “Mmm, great.”

These scenes were not lost on the hundreds of retailers who had come to the food show in search of new marketing ideas for the $10-billion-a-year specialty food industry.

“You have an economy today where some of these people, these yuppies, think nothing of buying a bottle of French jam for $5, as long as they think it’s high-quality stuff,” said Michael Christian, owner of the Christian Farmer’s Market chain based in Orange County.

“Some of this stuff, the chocolate-flavored potato chips, for example, may just be a fad,” he said. “But a lot of these products show you how important high-quality food has become to the people who can afford it.”

Contrarian Cook

In one corner of the convention hall, however, one merchant seemed to delight in going against the grain. Ruth Feinberg, 48, ladled cups of her homemade Jewish Mother’s Chicken Soup and smiled at the hordes shuffling by in search of the Perfect Pate.

Feinberg, noting that her low-sodium soup is based on a family recipe, said many conventioneers had returned to the booth several times to thank her.

“Just look at what they’re eating here,” she said, pouring another can of soup into a vat. “People have come by to say they’ve had enough, they can’t take anymore, that they need this soup just to clean out all the other crazy stuff they’ve digested.

“Believe me,” she said, stirring the chicken soup. “They always come back.”