From The August/Sepember 2003 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

Expanding Ethnic Markets

Fuse Flavors From Far Away

Ethnic ingredients become key elements of innovative American cuisine

Rachel Hauser

If fusion foods—the combination of ingredients from multiple ethnic cultures—are popular in restaurants now, you can be sure consumers will be looking for them in your stores before too long.

"People are being turned on to different foods, not by reading about them in the press, but by word of mouth," explains Louis Karp, Whole Foods Market's team leader in Boulder, Colo.

At least one prominent chef concurs. "High-end restaurants were the first to focus on direct relationships with farmers, bringing heirloom produce into the kitchen. When you go into any grocery store now, you see an amazing variety of salad greens and herbs," says Michael Laiskonis, pastry chef at Tribute, suburban Detroit's nationally renowned eatery. Tribute's kitchen blends Asian influences with contemporary French cooking.

Trained as both a traditional and pastry chef, Laiskonis mixes the sweet and savory, incorporating little-known Asian ingredients with French staples like goat cheese, celery or carrots into his creations, including the restaurant's unusual and critically acclaimed desserts.

"I'd like to think that restaurants have contributed in some small way to making such ingredients more prevalent. After discovering new foods at restaurants, consumers often ask for them in grocery stores," Laiskonis says.

Those who haven't encountered them in restaurants may walk past exotic ingredients, bewildered and too intimidated to try them. And that presents a dilemma for retailers. If they purchase ethnic foods for a particular consumer niche, how can they sell the foreign-looking offerings to other customers so the products don't linger on the shelf?

For one thing, they can purchase culturally specific foods in small quantities—albeit at premium prices—to offer sampling to customers. Later, they can increase or decrease quantities based on changing demand.

Karp acknowledges that in-store taste testing is perhaps the best aid in consumers' discovery process. But he finds that sampling works best in the prepared-foods department. "We're not necessarily out there cooking and demo-ing different foods and ingredients. It's mostly through recipes and our prepared foods that customers identify and try new foods," he says.

Gastronomic Guidance
Once inspired by the prepared foods section, Whole Foods' customers need only leaf through the pages of the store's recipe book to find pairings of ingredients with instructions on how to use them to re-create something on their own, without being put off by the store's wide variety of vegetarian and international food options.

Taking a similar approach to consumer education, some Wild Oats stores provide pamphlets that outline cooking times as well as ratios of grains, cereals and rice to cooking liquid for most of its bulk items.

Deborah Madison, vegetarian cookbook author and fresh-produce authority, whose latest book, written with Laurie Smith and illustrated by Patrick McFarlin, is titled Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets (Broadway Books, 2002), suggests educating staff too. They can then advise shoppers about what to do with eclectic ingredients, she says. Whether working in the produce or prepared- or frozen-foods sections, an educated staff helps make products more approachable to a wider audience, and ultimately moves product more quickly.

Madison emphasizes that staff grocery experts need to be readily identifiable, even if it involves wearing "ask me" buttons. Doing so establishes the same level of friendliness prevalent at farmers' markets, she says.

"How do visitors learn to prepare unusual ingredients at Hmong produce stands? They talk. Grocers need to be sensitive that, when it comes to produce, people are naturally not adventurous and don't want to spend money on something they don't know what to do with," says Madison.

But with a little encouragement, consumers will more willingly experiment with produce because of its lower price point. A uniquely shaped eggplant or an intriguing green does not break the bank if the experiment goes wildly awry, she says.

Madison also suggests grocers provide reference books that detail how to use little-known products. She applauds the idea of having cookbooks available in grocery stores that provide overviews and helpful tips that consumers want and often need.

"Unless consumers are wonderfully intrepid, they should look at a cookbook that deals with the kinds of foods they are thinking about making," counsels Madison. "People have taken a lot of time and effort to write books on Asian greens, or whatever the subject is, and they offer both the grocer and home chef needed hints for success."

Raising Customer Awareness Of New Foods
Today, ethnic foods are accepted by the mainstream more rapidly. Once consumers are comfortable and relatively knowledgeable about recipes from other cultures and regions, it becomes easier for grocers to introduce variations on the standard. At this point, companies like Tamale Molly help broaden culinary experience.

Erin Wood, longtime tamale maker and owner of Tamale Molly, concocts gourmet vegetarian versions that have quality ingredients and rarely seen combinations of flavors—chard and shallots, New Mexico goat cheese and mint. Her dessert tamales feature Mexican chocolate with almonds, honey and pecans.

How does Wood account for her products' success? Savvy marketing strategy plays a part. Tamale Molly began selling in the American West, South and Southwest, where people are familiar with tamales. In the Northeast, where her products are just now hitting the shelves, she will rely on product sampling.

She also attributes her products' appeal to three growing grocery markets: consumers who are health-conscious, vegetarian or gourmet.

"We offer something grocery buyers haven't seen before outside the traditional Mexican food vein. Consequently, both grocery retailers and consumers have been very willing and excited to try them," says Wood. "Tamales are standard Mexican food, so, although these are different, it's an easy transition for grocery retailers to make. When people see something like goat cheese and mint, it might sound a little odd, but people are willing to try it."

While the "try it, you'll like it" approach works, grocers will initially face the need to coax and wheedle consumers into experimenting with something new. But, as mothers and food experts know, you just need to make new food approachable, and soon enough, even the most hesitant eaters will be coming back for more.

Rachel Hauser is a freelance food editor in Boulder, Colo.