Awards elation for the gold

I could (and will) write an entire blog about the inaugural Caputo’s Deli Olympics, but for the sake of showing off our talented food people and making y’all drool, we’re going to start off with a highlight of the Best Bites competition. For this test, contestants were given 15 minutes to create a composed bite using only ingredients from our market shelves and deli pantry. The shopping was fast, the prep was furious, and the bites were beautifully plated with only a little sweat shed on the side.

Judges Judging

With teams representing each brick and mortar Caputo’s, Online, Admin, and Warehouse, we had a diverse set of faces working hard behind the line. Our judges, Matt and Yelena Caputo, have an intimate knowledge of the ingredients contestants had access to. At the end of the day, the winners were clear and undisputed, with praise for the gold putting it in line with a “dessert one would expect to find at a Michelin-starred restaurant.” While we can’t share all the bites that came across the judging table, we do want to share the highlights, and present the Bronze, Silver, and Gold with their stories below:

Gold: Caputo’s Holladay

Spicy Citrus S’more

By Fern DeFrance

Fern has been with Caputo’s for less than a year, but she’s been with food her entire life. Some kids want to grow up to be an astronaut. Elementary school Fern wanted to be a baker. Now a full-time online student studying photography and creative writing at Seattle University, she keeps her passion for food alive behind the line at Caputo’s Holladay. Her s’more was inspired by the Chili Beak Citrus Habanero Caramel, and came full circle with her manager, Austin, suggesting the use of a blow torch.

Judges Corner: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This bite could have been the highlight of a meal at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant! Truly transcendent.” 

INGREDIENTS

• Rustic Bakery Vanilla Biscuit
• San Giuliano Orange Slices in Syrup
• Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce
• Caputo’s Wild Tranquilidad by Ritual Chocolate
• Markham & Fitz Marshmallow
• Bees Brothers Honey Caramel
• Basil

ASSEMBLY

1. Drizzle syrup from San Giuliano Orange Slices and a few drops of Secret Aardvark Hot Sauce on top of Rustic Bakery Vanilla Biscuit
2. Top smothered biscuit with square of Caputo’s Wild Tranquilidad Chocolate and melt with blow torch
3. Top melted chocolate with M&F Marshmallow and melt with blow torch
4. Add a couple drops of Secret Aardvark Hot Sauce to top of melted marshmallow
5. Cover marshmallow with piece of caramel and melt with blow torch until dripping
6. Place orange slice into melted caramel and garnish with small piece of basil

Silver: Caputo’s Warehouse

Pan Con Tomate

By Ryan Terrio

With no time for planning or previous knowledge he would be competing, Ryan played straight to the hearts of the judges. Having worked in food his whole professional life, Ryan understands the importance of simplicity. His bite is a salute to this ethos as well as a callback to the importance of conservas culture.

Judges Corner: “Having just returned from Spain, this would have been a highlight at even the most prestigious tapas bar. Classic flavors and expert execution. The perfectly toasted bread did become a bit soggy in the middle by the time we tasted it, but had it been eaten immediately this would have been absolutely perfect.”

INGREDIENTS

• Ciabatta (toasted on one side in olive oil)
• Tomato (shredded on box grater)
• Onion (finely diced)
• JOSE Gourmet Olive Oil with Piri-Piri
• Gilles Hervy Fleur de Sel
• Espinaler Premium Sardines
• Parsley

ASSEMBLY

1. Toast ciabatta in JOSE EVOO on one side. You’re going for crispy – not crunchy, not dry.
2. While ciabatta is toasting, prep your veggies. Finely dice your onion and shred your tomato on the medium holes of a box grater.
3. Plate sardines with some oil directly onto the toasted side of ciabatta. Top with prepped onion and tomato. Garnish with parsley and attempt to save some to share.

Bronze: Caputo’s Downtown

Throw it on a Cracker

by Alicia Konzen

As the market manager of Caputo’s Downtown, Alicia is deeply steeped in the products on our shelves. In her own words, she is “lazy and likes to throw stuff together on crackers.” Luckily, she knows the right stuff to throw, and her bite was nothing short of divine. She even added arugula because “it’s the Olympics and we had to make it fancy!”

Judges Corner: “The creamy tang of the mild buffalo cheese paired very well with the cinnamon in that vegan salami and the hard crunch of the cracker/crisp was a great delivery device. The bitters added an array of botanical aromas and the bitterness helping bring complexity and balance. Given the bitterness from the cocktail bitters, it might have been better without the arugula, mainly because of texture mismatch, but overall this was a delicious bite.”

INGREDIENTS

• Rustic Bakery Artisan Crisps with Apricot, Pistachio, and Brandy
• Casatica di Bufala
• Hellenic Farms Vegan Fig & Pistachio Salami
• Arugula
• Dashfire Vintage Orange Bourbon Barrel Aged Bitters

ASSEMBLY

1. Place cracker on plate. Top with Casatica, salumi, and a couple dashes of bitters. Finish with a leaf of fresh arugula (to make it fancy).

The conservas industry, although very trendy as of late, has historically been guided by conglomerates that sacrifice quality and the environment to drive down price as quickly as possible, resulting in the regrettable “Chicken of the Sea” reputation that the industry is trying to shake today.

Several years ago we started noticing a shift in the world of seafood; tinned seafood, to be exact. We poured over information and discovered that a renaissance of sorts was happening in the canning industry. Specific attention is being paid to how fish is caught, with strict measures against overfishing aiming to provide sustainable and highly nutritious food sources. Harking back to old time practices of conservation, the producers we work with are fishing seasonally, in optimal conditions and canning immediately to preserve freshness and nutritional value. The canning process extends the shelf life immeasurably and makes conservas one of the wisest and most value dense food choices currently available.

Harvesting Mussels

The founder of Patagonia (with their own conservas provisions line), Yvon Chouinard, really says it best: “People need a new jacket every five or ten years, but they eat three times a day. If we really want to protect our planet, it starts with food.” For Yvon, it started with rope-cultivated and nutrient dense mussels, which don’t require any farming or additives to prosper and are naturally regenerative, actually cleaning the waters around them. Responsible fisheries and canneries are well aware of how to cultivate the sea to obtain abundant sources that are lower on the food chain. Thankfully the world is more aware today than we were just a few years ago about the dangers of overfishing and over polluting our waters. In fact, there is even occasional good news to report! Some species are being removed from endangered lists as their populations are being properly managed. We’re proud to say that our producers are the ones leading the pack in making the waters a prosperous and sustainable environment for all.

Conservas Gift Bundle

Unfortunately, our producers remain in the vast minority. The modern agricultural complex will not give way easily and, perhaps because the category is trendy, it is actually becoming harder to identify responsible canneries. We’re savvy to this and vet our purveyors cautiously, examining their fishing and labor practices to confirm, without doubt, that they are doing things the right way; out of respect rather than the bottom line. We’re proud to offer a wide array of responsible producers coming to us from all over the world, from the Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, to the famous Galician coast, up to Nordic waters, and seemingly everywhere in between! All of our producers stand by their unadulterated and clean products with the same pride we do for our market.

If you’re like me, you may not look at kelp – a type of large brown algae – and wonder what it tastes like. Luckily for us, the good folks at Barnacle Foods did! Born-and-raised Juneauites Matt and Lia founded Barnacle in 2017 after their bullwhip kelp-infused salsas garnered high praise at their local farmer’s market. Founded with the mission of showcasing just one of the many delicious flavors of Alaska, Barnacle also champions ocean conservation and sustainable harvesting.

Kelp farming is a relatively young industry, and Barnacle is leading the way in bringing it to its full potential. Through tireless advocacy and leading by example, Barnacle is ensuring kelp forests and the kelp farming industry remain healthy for generations of Alaskans to come. Barnacle also pays respect to the indigenous regions from which their ingredients are sourced – including Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida waters.

Here at Caputo’s, we share this sentiment. It is crucial to protect biodiversity and ensure our grandkids enjoy the same access to the amazing food and ecosystems our ancestors enjoyed.

Since their inception, Barnacle has since expanded into barbeque sauces, hot sauce, seasonings, chili crisp, and of course, salsa! Kelp imparts salty, savory, and vegetal notes to anything it’s used in. Even more, kelp is an incredibly sustainable product. With a growth rate of up to 18 inches a day, kelp forests require zero additional resources to grow. These sprawling forests also absorb carbon, helping to balance our ocean’s pH levels.

Here are a couple of our favorite products from Barnacle:

Kelp Chili Crisp: Barnacle teamed up with chef Taku of Outdoor Chef Life to bring this wonderfully complex chili crisp to our shelves. Using fried bullwhip kelp, onions, and chilis de arbol, this chili crisp and its accompanying spicy vegetable oil are the perfect addition to eggs any way you want to make them. While the chilis de arbol bring a smoky heat to the mix, the onions, garlic, and sugar add flavor and a surprising sweetness. Try it on pizza, pasta dishes, or – as Barnacle suggests – on top of donuts!

Bullwhip Kelp Hot Sauce: The product that introduced me to Barnacle. This hot sauce blew me away with its unbelievable umami flavor. The piri piri pepper-derived heat balances effortlessly with the briny flavors of bullwhip kelp, creating a deviously addictive hot sauce that pairs well with just about anything! Breakfast burritos, eggs, grilled veggies and much more can be elevated in no time with a few dashes of this hot sauce.

Nettle Meadow Farm

Upstate New York has no shortage of picturesque lakes, verdant pastures, and sprawling, craggy hills of green. This lush region presents boundless opportunities to host a healthy, happy, and wholesome family of animals in its folds. These reasons among many more attracted Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan – co-owners, partners, and founders of Nettle Meadow – to Thurman, NY in 2005. Leaving successful careers in law to prioritize their animals and cheese making side-hustle (originally started in 1990), the two purchased their farm and drove across the country from Oakland, CA to start Nettle Meadow anew.

Meet Crabcake

Lorraine and Sheila wasted no time after finishing their 3000 mile trek across the country. “We often say that the sanctuary was developed on day one,” Sheila remembers. Most of their already small herd had developed medical conditions that immediately removed them from production stock. First order of business quickly became converting one of the barns into a retirement home for these goats. Over the years, this retirement home has grown to a village, now housing over 150 creatures who are differently abled, recovering from neglect or malnourishment, or retired from the Nettle Meadow production herd. The Kemp Animal Sanctuary showcases a core ethos of Nettle Meadow Farms: care for their animals above all else. Past the sanctuary and onto the pasture, this ethos holds strong – happy animals make delicious milk, and the artisans at Nettle Meadow churn that cream to gold.

Cheese on Cheese

Whether that gold takes shape as a triple-cream goat’s milk button, a sheep’s milk crottin, or a truffle studded tomme, it holds unique flavors imparted by the landscape on which these animals are raised. Nettle Meadow is more than a moniker – stinging nettles line the pastures where the goats graze. In addition to raspberry leaf, garlic, and wild growing herbs fed to all animals on the farm, the goats aren’t bothered by the nettles’ sting and consume them regularly. We love tasting terroir – a sense of place – and Nettle Meadow lets the flavors of upstate New York shine through with pride.

Kunik

Nettle Meadow isn’t new to our cheese case at Caputo’s. Their flagship cheese, Kunik, recently recognized as one of the 20 best in the world, has been a not-so-secret staff favorite here for years. As we’ve met more of their unique treasures, we’ve only fallen harder for the farm. You can now find beer washed kunik, lavender infused fromage blanc, and maple sweetened treats waiting in the eager hands of our mongers. Each cheese is handmade with attention to detail, thoughtful local inclusions, and a deep loving care for the herd.

Kemp Sanctuary Friends

From our overlap of ethos to our mutual appreciation for thoughtful, local ingredient inclusions, this is a partnership we’re proud to share. We hope you’ll join us in enjoying these handcrafted specialties soon.

Stinky Ewe

Sappy Ewe

Very Adorable Ewe

Salame Toscano

The history of salumi is long, storied, and speckled with delicious spores of healthy molds. Salumi’s origins center around the preservation of meat for future consumption. Italian salumi sprang up from a need to preserve primarily pork and beef, and introduced new ingredients based on the given region where it was produced. As salumi continued to grow in popularity, tradition took hold and each region defined its own style.

Salame Cotto

Currently, most salumi producers stick to the classics. They’re timeless, tasty, and well established enough that large, commercial operations know how to cut corners without most of the market batting an eye. Old-world or imitated, we all love a classic prosciutto, know the smoky salt of speck, and have high expectations when finocchiona is on the menu. These classic cuts are made to match our expectations, but many may have lost their claim to regionality and old-world production along the way.

Chris Eley

Enter Smoking Goose. Chris Eley, owner and head butcher, wanted to re-introduce old-world techniques with a new-world flair for flavor. Chris founded Smoking Goose with a mission to bring American made salumi back to, well, America. When looking through the selection of meats from Smoking Goose, you’ll notice a distinct lack of old-world recipes. Chris strives to apply the regional values at the heart and history of salumi right back into his hometown and all it has to offer.

Delaware Fireball

Working with farmers in Indiana and neighboring states who raise their animals as nature intended, with inclusions and ingredients inspired by and foraged for in the surrounding landscape, Smoking Goose is American salumi at its core. Chris and the Goose gang still seam butcher by hand and cure without compound nitrates to honor old world craft, while inspiring with bold and regional new world flavors.

Dodge City Salame

From Duck Prosciutto to a spicy, smoked, fermented crepinette called the Delaware Fireball, the selection produced by Smoking Goose has range in both style and taste. Their unwavering commitment to quality, flavor, and humane, sustainable farm partners has earned them accolades and awards from Good Food Awards, James Beard, the New York Times, and many more. We’re excited to host them in our case and can’t wait for you to come try some soon.

In the words of Matt Caputo, we’re “SO EXCITED!!!”

Every day, Caputo’s strives to move the craft food needle in meaningful ways. When we are able to see this impact play out on a global scale, it fills our hearts with pride. Chocolate has been an avenue for us to explore our impact from the very beginning, and we’re excited to see and share the ways that it has grown. Our wild cacao series (Juruá by Luisa Abram, Tranquilidad by Ritual) is a labor of love, a story of adventure, and has many tales to tell behind the bars.

Rowan Jacobsen is a renowned American food writer and journalist who has been exploring, documenting, and moving the craft food needle in his own myriad of ways for years. His explicit focus on documentary storytelling and avoidance of instruction or cookbook style explanation has set him apart from the rest. The author of eight books, his writing has also been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, Food & Wine, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Audubon, Best American Science & Nature Writing, and Best Food Writing collections. He has also appeared on CBS, NBC, and NPR as an expert guest. All that without a mention of his multiple James Beard Awards.

When he puts his mind to a project, we trust the story will be told in full. When we learned he was making a multi-episode series on the history of wild chocolate, we were excited to see what we had left to learn.

Obsessions: Wild Chocolate is Rowan Jacobsen’s deep dive into the recent history of craft chocolate. From indigenous communities deep in the Amazon rainforest to small shops trying to pave the way for a new market, Jacobsen does an exceptional job painting all the players in this plot. Our very own Matt Caputo is good friends with Rowan, and was featured on Episode 4: The Awakening in a discussion of how the craft chocolate revolution swept our country.

Every gold rush brings winners and losers, and the craft chocolate revolution was no different. A lot of dinosaurs fell by the wayside, too slow to react to the shift in taste, and a few nimble players rushed in to fill the gap. Most surprising of all was the small deli in Salt Lake City that came out of nowhere to become the ultimate champion of wild chocolate.

 

– Rowan Jacobsen

As the story goes deeper, we weren’t surprised, but quite delighted to learn that Rowan had teamed up with another friend of Caputo’s – Volker Lehmann. Volker has been hunting for wild and rare cacao for years, and his journeys have brought him to remote, dangerous, and unique places. He left his home in Germany for Bolivia in the early 2000s and hasn’t looked back since. One of the kings of wild cacao cultivation, he is one of the main players behind our Wild Tranquilidad chocolate bar and has been working to protect this rare cacao since its identification back in 2014.

With their powers combined, Rowan and Volker tell a compelling story of drugs, morality, and the fight to protect wild cacao. The eight episode series covers all corners of the globe and includes important conversations with everyone from farmers deep in the jungle to consumers appreciating this now closely protected art. We’re proud to be a small part of the chocolate revolution, and we’re excited to share this resource with you – our beautiful and curious friends.

Listen to Volker and Rowan to learn about our mission around wild cacao (including Caputo’s Wild Juruá bar by Luisa Abram) in the iHeart Radio podcast OBSESSIONS: Wild Chocolate!

As part of Caputo’s Preservation Program we are proud to announce a partnership between Caputo’s Market & Deli, Hacienda Tranquilidad (Baures, Bolivia), and Ritual Chocolate (Heber, Utah). Namely, a chocolate bar made from rare wild cacao.

The Caputo’s Wild Tranquilidad bar started almost a decade ago when Caputo’s donated money on behalf of an agronomist who had discovered something very special. The tests we sponsored provided a USDA Genetic Profile proving Tranquilidad’s samples were a previously undiscovered type of cacao, “Beniano.”

Even before the tests had confirmed it, Tranquilidad’s cacao had become famous being referred to as Cru Sauvage, Cacao Sylvestre, Boliviano, to name a few. The agronomist, Volker Lehmann, bought land in the area and dedicated his life to building a business that would preserve this cacao. Despite the fame and insanely delicious, one of a kind cacao, Tranquilidad has faced bankruptcy, competitors counterfeiting his cacao, fires, drought, floods and more. Long story short, even in the world of fancy chocolate not enough money flows back to the farmer. 

Caputo’s has arranged for Ritual to buy Tranquilidad’s genetically pure Beniano and pay top dollar directly to Tranquilidad with no intermediaries. Ritual uses these jewels of the jungle to make chocolate bars to Caputo’s specifications. After countless tests and tweaks to almost every step in the chocolate making process, Ritual Chocolate proves their mastery with one of the best tasting dark chocolate bars of all time. Caputo’s then gives a full dollar to Tranquilidad for every 60g chocolate bar sold. This represents an additional $7.60 per pound of chocolate sold and is many multiples more than a farmer would receive when selling cacao.

Caputo’s believes that Capitalism can actually be a wonderful system for positive change when all stakeholders in the supply chain share equally in the rewards. We know our community of food lovers will vote with their purchases and join us in blazing a trail to a food system that preserves biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.

“Natural rubber, like cacao, is indigenous to the Amazon Forest. The 1st Rubber Cycle started in 1870. Henry Ford needed rubber for tires, cushions, and many parts in his automobile. Edison needed rubber to insulate his wires that were electrifying America at the time. This triggered the quest for latex – the precursor to rubber – in the Amazon.

With time (and theft by English settlers), rubber trees found their way into Malaysia. Malaysia was able to consume the market, and much rubber production in the Amazon came to a halt.

Rubber Tree Seeds – Represented on Iaco 70%

In 1941, Japan invaded Malaysia and stopped the rubber trading. The allies asked Brazil to reignite its rubber production to fill the supply gap Japan was causing at the time. The USA signed a treaty with Brazil, whose part was to produce more rubber. This quest for rubber is known as the Second Rubber Cycle in Brazil.

Brazil sent to the Amazon Forest what was then called the “rubber soldiers.” In total, 50,000 people, most of them from the NW of Brazil, went to the Forest lured by the promise of quick and easy wealth. Brazil also sent 25,000 soldiers to fight the Nazis in Europe. The statistics are fuzzy, but it is believed that more people died in the Amazon trying to collect rubber sap (aka latex) than fighting the Nazis in Europe!

Boats loaded full of cacao fruit – floating on the Iaco River

The Second Rubber Cycle ended after WWII. The families that collect the cacao pods along the Iaco River are the descendants of the rubber soldiers sent to this part of the Amazon Forest. They are spread out over 4 old rubber plantations, each 4 days away from the largest city, Sena Madureira, in the state of Acre in Brazil. A fast boat takes 1 long day to get there.

This year, 50 families took part in the cacao harvesting collection in the Forest. In total there are 80 families. Those that did not take part in the cacao harvest did so because there were no cacao trees close to their homes. Their income comes from agriculture and, sadly, cattle ranching – a leading contributor to deforestation. After almost 70 years, families in this part of the Iaco river are being paid for goods provided by the Forest: cacao fruits!

To this day natural rubber is consumed by 50% of the demand, the other half is synthetic rubber, which has been around since the 1950s! Very little rubber is produced in the Amazon Forest nowadays. Hopefully cacao will become relevant and the locals can once again live off the Forest.

Rubber Tree Markings – Represented on Iaco 81%

The packaging of the Iaco 70 displays the rubber tree seeds. Iaco 81 is a reference to the markings the workers made in the rubber tree in order to collect the latex. This is our simple tribute to the ones who once cultivated hopes for a better life in the Amazon Forest.”

– Andre Banks

Andre Banks (right) and Family

Thank you for supporting artisans who are fiercely passionate about their food and the stories that have brought it to life. Our hope is that together we can enact enough pieces of small change to make an impact – whether that affects 50 families in the heart of the Forest, or brings much needed healing to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. We are proud to partner with families who make this change a reality, and we are grateful to you for indulging with us along the way. Progress has never tasted so sweet.