In its fifth year, the Good Food Awards celebrates food producers, farmers and artisans in 11 different categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, pickles, preserve, spirits, oil and honey. This is one of my favorite events in San Francisco and I’ve made sure to attend every year, and it keeps getting better and better! The Marketplace takes place at the beautiful San Francisco Ferry Building with tables lined up outside all along the building. The place is buzzing with people there for the Saturday Farmer’s Market, the crowd that wanders through the Ferry Building and others there to enjoy tastes and sips from the winners of the Good Food Awards. The coffee section is the best way to start to get your own buzz. I enjoyed tastes from Blue Bottle, Square One, and Noble Coffee Roasters. I then move on to the charcuterie and cheese, slowly moving from table to table, sampling and talking to the owners/producers themselves, some local and others that have traveled from the East Coast. Then it’s time for sweets, starting with tastes of the preserves and honey, and ending with chocolate. I was so excited to see Zoe’s Chocolate there as a winner, all the way from Waynesboro, PA where my husband’s from! We then made our way over to the Beer & Spirits tasting. The Forbidden Planet from Bluejacket Brewery out of DC was one of my favorites and I also enjoyed the really unique Black Currant Cider from Finnriver Farm & Cidery based in Washington.
Charcuterie from Olympic Provisions based in Portland, Ore., is always my favorite.
Cheese tastings from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.
This ice cream from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream out of Ohio was to die for, especially topped with the salted caramel sauce.
The Mango Marmalade from The Royal Gourmet was bright and tropical!
RAFT was serving their soda syrups that are delicious to add to soda water.
The Wild Blueberry compote from American Spoon tasted like eating tiny wild blueberries straight out of a jar and was one of the most unique compotes I’ve ever tasted.
Venus Spirits had a beautiful display and set-up, serving sips of their Gin. Based in Santa Cruz, they are on our list to visit once their tasting room opens (soon!)
I was also lucky to meet the owner/producer of Bloomery SweetShine who won for their Seasonal Pumpkin Spice spirits, which was good on it’s own but would also be amazing drizzled over a cheesecake or other dessert!
Congrats to all of the winners and the team for another great event!
xo.
