Gift Baskets

Terry Talks Baskets at the Fancy Food Show

Terry August, our founder, has been asked to give an informative seminar on the art and business of gift baskets this weekend at the 37th Winter Fancy Food Show.

Over 17,000 attendees are expected at the show along with over 1,300 exhibitors representing 35+ countries.

Monday morning she will be sharing her 25 years of experience with an audience of food manufacturers and gourmet food retailers, including people in the gift basket business. The attendees are in for a great time. Terry is a very animated and engaging speaker, and will be giving an interactive talk where the participants will be encouraged to ask questions.

While at the show, she will also be researching new foods and keeping in touch with many of the craftsmen that make the fine products we feature in our store and gift baskets.

Video: Yam Good Cookies

Video: Terry Talks about The Paris Bistro

Autumn in LA, at last

Despite 100 degree weather in Los Angeles, Fall is upon us, and I am excited by the change of seasons. In Southern California we have to rely on the little things to get that autumn feel: the days are noticeably shorter, the sun hits at a different angle creating long shadows, my roses and tomatoes are fading, pumpkins, ghosts and spider webs decorate the porches and lawns in my neighborhood.

As a designer this means that I get to design differently. My palette expands into the burnt oranges, olive greens and aubergines I love so. Rather than create gift baskets for outdoor picnics and barbecues I get to think about the family gathered around a table enjoying their gift.

When putting together a gift I’ll think about the person receiving it, enjoying the wine in a cozy home nestled in by the fireplace. I know, it is the romantic side of me, but I often envision the person getting the gift and how they will experience it. I’m tempted to put instructions in, but that is just the mother in me.

Food gets exciting at this time of year as well. I can’t wait to put together Autumn Harvest Baskets. They’ll include Pumpkin Butter with Maple Syrup, Yam Good Cookies, Dark Red Wines, a Riesling or two to go with that turkey, Rich Pates, Dark Chocolates.

Summer is over, so I consider Fall and Winter official Chocolate Months. I can ship chocolate gift baskets and receive chocolates without fear of them melting. I’ll be getting chocolates from Michel Cluizel, Fresh Truffles from Coco Delice and our own heavenly Norman Love Chocolates.

Well, once this heat wave passes…
I almost forgot I am in Southern California.
But the cool will come soon and then we can rejoice with wild abandon at the bounty we have and enjoy. – Terry August

Note from the sales team: you can order your holiday gift baskets now at www.fancifull.com.

The Creamy Goodness that is Point Reyes Blue Cheese

We have recently renewed our love affair with Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company’s Original Blue Cheese. People trying it for the first time can hardly believe how good it is. Many of them actually say: “I can’t believe it. It’s so good!” Then I try some, too. And I say: “Yeah, amazing isn’t it?” We all have big smiles on our faces. It has this amazingly rich creamy texture that melds perfectly with the sharp tanginess of the blue, fading away slowly to leaving just a faint shadow of sweetness at the end.

So I recommend that you get some and start smiling, too. We have it here, although we’ve gone through a lot of Point Reyes Blue this week in Kosher Gift Baskets due to the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that in addition to being made from Cultured Raw Cows Milk from their own farm, the cheese is also kosher. Anyway, you can get it from us here at our store on Melrose. One of my favorite ways to eat it, aside from just eating it plain with a nice crisp white wine, is as a dressing on a big green salad.

Terry’s salads are the best. Starting with a variety of greens she will add some roasted corn (shaved off the cob), red bell pepper, diced jicama, maybe grated califlower – there are a lot of possibilities. Then just add some of the Blue Cheese. No dressing. Chopped strawberries really send this over the top. The combination of the sweetly acidic strawberries with the creamy cheese will launch your taste buds into orbit. It’s out of this world. A nice crisp white goes well here, too. Right now I’m thinking of a White Bordeaux, Chateau Ducasse, made by Hervé Dubourdieu. Heavenly.

Hmmm… Maybe we can pair these two together for a Holiday Gift Baskets.

Fancifull Unwrapped

When I first set foot in Fancifull Fine Foods and Baskets in November 2010, I didn’t know what to expect. I only knew they made amazing wine gift baskets, fruit baskets and many other wonderful gifts that I’d feel privileged to receive. I had received a call from my Mom saying that her friends needed help in their production line for the Christmas season. So off I went…into the world of gift baskets!

The teamwork that goes into every facet of the business was astounding. Working in the production area proved to be a delightful mix of controlled chaos and constant motion. All the baskets/bows are handmade to order, artisan foods are carefully selected to create a delicate blend of flavors and the finishing touches are never overlooked with any order. From the small individual orders for holiday gift baskets to the large and extravagant custom baskets, everything looked like it was fit for royalty (and sometimes it was!). The amount of dedication that was poured into every design made me feel proud to be a part of it all. It was a wonderful way to start my career at Fancifull, as it let me see the end product of all the hard, time-consuming work that goes into designing every gift that leaves the building. I knew that I had to learn more about this business, about what it takes to run every aspect of it all. It was only 1 month after the Christmas season had ended when I returned to Fancifull, only this time, as a permanent employee… an Assistant Buyer.

A Taste of Fate: Meeting Winemaker Jacky Blot

Many of my vacations truly are “working vacations”. Yes, we spend three weeks in France, but we are visiting wine makers, cheese producers and the like. Yeah, I know, tough job but someone has to do it. I can’t complain. I do work at hunting out products . Much like the truffle pig, I am always sniffing around, looking in local shops, watching what the locals are eating. Of course this often means eating and drinking many things to be assured of quality – I never just take someone’s word for it- but that is another story altogether.

When I eat a cookie I like in Italy, I will find out who imports it to the U.S. I am quite vigilant. This is just the best way to bring my customers items they might not find otherwise, such as many of the wines we have in our shop and in our gift baskets. Sometimes I find them through a focused tasting or meeting wine makers. Sometimes greatness just falls in your lap, almost like Divine Intervention.

Forces were at work when we discovered the lovely wines of Jacky Blot: Domaine Taille aux Loups (whites) and La Butte (red).

The Intervention came by way of a kindly Paris wine shop owner, Christophe Vidal. While we were buying some wine from his shop, I noticed some odd whiskeys from Japan which started up a conversation (and some sampling of said whiskeys, did I mention how nice this guy was?). In our discussion of the wine business, we mention that we are planning to visit a winemaker or two in the Loire Valley. As we are about to leave we hear a shout. He comes running up to us with an open bottle of wine. Turns out that the winemaker, Jacky Blot from the Loire Valley, had been in his shop earlier for a tasting of his wines. Jacky had left an open bottle but Cristophe didn’t need it, perhaps we could take it back to our apartment and enjoy it. We took our Taille aux Loups wine, happily skipping back to our apartment and marveling at the kindness of strangers.

The wine is a delightful surprise. Chenin Blanc grapes, light, crisp, wonderfully balanced. What a nice gift! Wally, ever diligent, looks up the winery and I can see he is contemplating, actually becoming determined, to find the winery in our travels. We move on to the Loire and are having dinner in the city of Tours when, lo and behold, the Taille Aux Loups is on the wine list by the glass. We have to order it, and yes, it is as good as we remembered. Okay, that settles it, we have to find this winery.

After a few days of trying wines in Chinon and Saumur (both great cities to visit and sample wine), we track down the winery Taille Aux Loups. We drive along curvy roads, follow the river (because we don’t know exactly where it is) along the south bank of the Loire east of Tours. Eureka, we find it! Jacky’s daughter Françoise greets us warmly as we come in from the rain, and sets up quite a tasting for us. We try sparkling wines, the whites that we love, and reds from nearby Bourgueil. It is quite fantastic, especially since we don’t even have an appointment. Jacky pops in and gives us an exuberant hello, but he is quite busy with a bunch of clients in another room. We write down the name and phone number of their distributor in California and buy some bottles to add to the collection we have amassed during the previous few days. We high five ourselves once we get in the car, feeling the excitement of another successful hunt. We rub our hands in anticipation of tasting this wine for our clients back home, and hope that the distributor, Adventures in Wine, carries the wines we want. We have never bought from them before, or even heard of them.

We return to our Paris apartment a few days later with our cache of prized wines. I really want to serve Jacky’s wine at our upcoming tasting in two weeks. I need to email my assistant Dave to find this company. As I am looking in my purse to find the business cards from the wine makers we visited, I find a card for Adventures In Wine! I have no idea how it got there. I don’t remember ever meeting the person whose name is on the card. There is no other business card from America in my bag, having cleaned it out before we left. Françoise at the winery did not give me a card, she just had me write down the name in my notebook. But here it is. Magic! That did it. We were obviously destined to have this wine in our shop.

The importer has the whites I want, not the reds, but they are ordering them for me. So with this happy set of circumstances, I am able to offer this fantastic wine to our customers in our wine gift baskets. And it all began because I had noticed some odd whiskeys at a Paris wine shop and started asking questions.

Toma Cheese – Cheese Bread Recipe

If there is just one thing I love about my husband (and there are many) it is his attention to detail. This trait of his is one reason he is known for his Cheese Bread. He’s made it ever since I’ve known him. Even when on the road with his band in the 70s, Wally had an electric skillet in the bus so he could make it.

Yes it is simple, but the taste is in the details.
He toasts the bread (sourdough) just so, fits the cheese like a tile layer putting together a mosaic, then the salt… I’ll let him give you the full rundown, if he will indulge.

If every chef has their star dish, this would be Wally’s. It has been his staple for breakfast for many a year. Our kids grew up on it. Today I watched him as he grabbed the Point Reyes Toma, like an artist with new paint. “Ahhh…Toma and my fresh tomatoes….”

Cheese Bread. I like the fact that it still excites him after more than 35 years of making it.

But that is another thing I love about him…

Wally: How I Do It.

Ah, so much hoopla about so little.
The first and most important thing is to start with good ingredients.

Bread: No light, airy, squishy breads, please. I generally like a good sourdough although a bit of the fig bread from the Breadbar is also a wonderful choice. (The Fig Bread is also available at Fancifull and is finding its way into many of our gift baskets.)

A good cheese: Almost any kind of cheese works – but nothing pre-sliced! Cheddar, Brie, Goat Cheese – and today’s choice Toma, are all great.

Options: Fresh tomatos from your garden are a great addition. Fresh herbs if you like. Slices of hard boiled egg would be great, too.

1) Slice the cheese thinly – 1/8th inch. Could be grated but it’s easier to use slices.
2) Slice the tomatos, chop the herbs and have ready any other ingredients you might want. Tomatos need to be at room temperature. (They should never be refrigerated anyway.)
3) Turn on the broiler or toaster oven to 400 degrees.
4) Toast the bread lightly in a toaster. For a richer version you can pan fry the bread in butter lightly on each side. Mmmmmm… Today I just used the toaster.
5) Lay out the cheese slices on the bread. I try not to leave any gaps. Don’t let the cheese hang over the edge – it will melt off and fall into the oven. Cover the bread completely with the cheese.
6) Place the bred in the oven – you can put it on a piece of foil to catch drippings.
7) Let broil for 2 – 4 minutes. Time will vary depending on the type of cheese! Watch it. When it’s melting over the entire surface it’s ready.
8) Pull the rack out and add the tomatos.
9) continue to broil for up to 1 minute.
10) Add fresh basil if desired. A pinch of salt if desired.
11) Enjoy the aroma while the cheese cools enough to eat!

You remembered to make your tea or espresso, right?

By the way, it was delicious! And my tomatos this year are absolutely mahvelous.

Award Winning Cheeses at Fancifull

We are really happy that several of our favorite cheese makers won big awards at the American Cheese Society Meeting and Contest held recently in Montreal, Canada. We’ve been championing and selling their cheeses for years, so it’s really fun to see them getting the accolades they deserve for their delicious products and dedication to their craft.

Among the winners was Point Reyes Toma cheese for Best Original Cheese. We’ve been including this in our gift baskets for some time now as well as sampling and selling it at our local Farmers Markets. Their fabulous Mozzarella, which we got to taste last week when we visited their creamery, won a second place award. Unfortunately it’s currently only available at the creamery in Point Reyes, CA. We’ll let you know if that changes. (Meaning we’re going to get it if we can!). Their Original Blue cheese also won a big award recently when it was awarded the title of Best Dairy or Cheese Product of the Year at the Fancy Food Show in Washington, DC. Go Point Reyes!

Another big winner at The America Cheese Society was Beehive Cheese which is located in Utah. They won awards for their Barely Buzzed, Seahive and Promontory Cheddars, all of which have been included in our gourmet gift baskets. You can read more about their cheeses in an earlier blog we wrote on Beehive Cheese.

Flavio DeCastilhos of Tumalo Farms in Bend, Oregon also won awards. His Classico, a Gouda style Goat Cheese, is simply amazing. Just this morning I greated some of it very finely and cooked in in with some scrambled eggs with fresh basil and some chopped Jeaune Flamme tomatos from my garden. Ooh la la la la, I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it. I published the recipe in a previous blog on Tumalo Cheese.

And then there’s Beechers Handmade Cheese of Seattle which won awards for three or four of their Cheddars. We carry their Flagship cheese – rich, full flavored, creamy, and extremely popular with everyone who tastes it. I’d recommend this in any of our beer gift baskets. It also makes for a killer macaroni and cheese.

Haven’t yet tried any of these cheese yourself? Call and order some from us – you’ll be very, very, very happy!
Is there some cheese you know of that we should try? Please let us know! If there’s good food involved, we’re interested.
See you at the table!

How and Why We Choose our Products

Terroir

Terroir is an important concept in wine. I believe it also translates to food. Here is a good definition of Terroir from the Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil:

“This French word means the total impact of any given site: soil, slope, orientation to the sun, and elevation, plus every nuance of climate including rainfall, wind velocity, frequency of fog, cumulative hours of sunshine, average high temperature, and so forth. There is no single word in English that means quite the same thing. Generally viticulturists believe that soil indirectly bestows flavor (and relative quality) only insofar as it is one of the voices in the chorus of terroir.”

Wines from different vineyards, coffees from different plantations, cheeses from different regions, indeed all real foods everywhere exhibit the effects of their terroir. This is one of the things which makes the foods we carry in our shop so interesting.

Freshness

It doesn’t matter what you are eating, whether it is a hamburger and fries or foie gras and champagne – it is the ingredients used that make each one marvelous or mediocre. At Fancifull that is what I look for when choosing what goes into our gift baskets. Fresh natural ingredients, organic, no odd chemical fillers. Because you want to taste the food, not the chemicals. I’ve tried cookies where the butter leaps out at you because it is so fresh, and then I’ve tried ones – in beautiful tempting packaging – that taste like cardboard. For example: Americans have a style of chocolate, as do the Europeans. Both have great chocolates. I can’t argue that a fresh truffle is better than a perfect peanut butter cup if both are made with good ingredients. And why argue anyway? Eat them both and enjoy. We will always be searching, tasting, and finding the best ingredients the world has to offer so you can send the best gourmet gift baskets.

Authenticity

Genuine, real, not fake. I like to travel because I like to experience authenticity in the world at large. For instance, I love being in the countryside of Italy and eating what is grown locally. I want to smell the air, meet the people, find out how they have been making this food for hundreds of years and why it is so good. This is true of anywhere I go, whether it be close to home or in far away lands. Even more so, I love to bring these experiences back to share with friends and family. I cook meals similar to those I’ve had on my culinary voyages and bring back jars of ingredients to taste. I find this is a better snapshot of a country than a photo. My joy in Fancifull is that I get to delight you with the pleasures I have found. I get to stock my shelves with the foods and wines I’ve tried and share them with you and your friends. Welcome to the family.

Gourmet gift baskets and wine gift baskets containing genuine artisanal wines and foods can be purchased online at www.fancifullgiftbaskets.com, in our store at 5617 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038, or by phone at 800.350.4437.

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