by David Sax
All of these trends created economic growth. The Botden family staked millions of dollars on the Red Prince apple because they knew that only a new, innovative apple could set them apart on the grocer’s shelves. Their success will drive others to find and breed new apples, bringing greater diversity to what is available for us to eat while also increasing the fortunes of farmers and everyone who works with them, just as bacon’s revival lifted the fortunes of the pork industry, buoyed restaurant profits, and helped farmers get more for their pigs. Chia created a global market for a seed that previously was sold only as a novelty item. The poor Argentinean farmers that Wayne Coates initially introduced to chia are now rich because of its growth as a health trend. Each cupcake shop, aspiring Indian restaurant, food truck, or small company winning a sofi award at the Fancy Food Show represents the hopes of several entrepreneurs, each of whom can possibly create hundreds or even thousands of jobs on the strength of their food trends. These are jobs in farms, offices, restaurants, and warehouses, jobs for highly educated individuals and for those who need steady entry-level work at a decent wage. Food trends represent capitalism at its finest: a good idea that the market rewards with dollars, creating jobs, tax revenues, and economies of scale as they expand.
With that economic might, too, comes the possibility of even more change. If enough people get behind a way of eating, policy will eventually follow. People had been crying about the lack of street food options for decades in North American cities and nothing happened. Only when gourmet food trucks became a trend did change actually occur and work its way into law. Within just a handful of years North American cities went from places where selling food on the street was illegal and the most you could hope for was a stale hot dog, to a roving smorgasbord of edible options that spurned innovation and new models of commerce that were legally available thanks to the political efforts of the food truck associations and the trend they rode in on.
Over the last few decades most of the food sold to us has become more processed, giving rise to particularly devastating health consequences such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, around 17 percent of American children are now obese, and as many as a third are overweight. Those numbers have tripled in the past three decades and are now showing up in developing countries like China, India, and Brazil, where health problems related to overeating were entirely unknown twenty years ago. This shift, unfortunately, is also a food trend, and it is a hell of a lot more impactful than any hot pastry of the moment. Trends like these aren’t easily diverted or slowed down; they are powerful and change the way we eat on a biological level. You cannot litigate them out of existence. They require a shift in the opposite direction with equal momentum and force to unseat them. The only thing that can do that is a countertrend.
Two years ago I found myself in the gymnasium of the Barrow Street Nursery School, a wealthy private school in New York’s Greenwich Village, where Radha Agrawal was busy running around with a pack of shrieking three-year-olds. Agrawal, who was then thirty-three, was there to put on a puppet show with the Super Sprowtz, a posse of talking, singing vegetable superheroes that she had created years before. Formed after lightning strikes a New York City rooftop greenhouse, the Super Sprowtz use the power of their health benefits—Brian Broccoli is super-strong, Colby Carrot has super-sight, Suzy Sweetpea is super-speedy, Sammy Spinach is super-stretchy, and so forth—to fight their nemesis, Pompous Pollution and his unhealthy henchmen Greasy, Junk, and Processa, who hatch schemes tailor-made to rouse the ire of Whole Foods–shopping parents, like sending exploding grease carts into the Union Square farmer’s market. Take the Justice League, infuse it with Dr. Oz’s antioxidant gospel, wrap it in cuddly felt faces, and you’ve got Super Sprowtz.
Once the teachers seated all the school’s children in front of a makeshift stage, Agrawal, who barely stood five feet, bounded out in front of them.
“So do you want to meet some of the Super Sprowtz today?” she asked the children.
“Yes!!!” the kids shouted.
“I can’t hear you!”
“YESSSS!!!!!!” they shouted louder.
“I still can’t hear you!”
Colby Carrot, the main hero of the Super Sprowtz, who wore a yellow eye mask, popped up from the stage. Screams erupted.
“Hi kids! I’m Colby Carrot! I heard all the yelling, and I came up here to see what that was all about! Let’s cheer again if you like carrots!”
The kids went wild.
The Super Sprowtz began in 2006, when Agrawal created the cartoon vegetables for the kids menu at her twin sister Miki’s organic pizza restaurant, Slice. Kids reacted by requesting those same vegetables on their pizzas, and Agrawal felt she was on to something. Over the next four years she wrote a backstory and hired artists to develop the Super Sprowtz characters, which she turned into a series of four self-published books. Eventually she quit her job in advertising to develop the Super Sprowtz into a kids educational nutrition and entertainment company with global ambitions. So far Super Sprowtz has produced plush toys and books, put on an interactive exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, shot a short television series that aired in the back of New York taxicabs, and performed hundreds of shows at schools, parks, zoos, and other venues, where the Super Sprowtz have appeared on the same bill as marquee kids’ brands like Dora the Explorer and Olivia the Pig.
When I spoke with Agrawal in early 2013 the company was on the cusp of big things. It would soon secure a $2.5 million investment from one of the owners of the Century 21 department store chain, and talks were underway with merchandise licensers, book publishers, supermarket chains, and Amazon.com to take the Super Sprowtz characters and bring them all over the United States and the world. Improving childhood nutrition was a major cultural trend, and it was only growing. First Lady Michelle Obama had dedicated tremendous time and funds to raise awareness around it, and Agrawal had the support of her administration—even bringing Colby Carrot to the White House. “The first lady believes that the vibrancy and future of our country is truly at stake,” said White House Chef Sam Kass when we spoke about Super Sprowtz. The dire scope of the problem translated into a potential market, complete with institutional support for people with potential solutions. “A lot of innovation is happening in this space,” said Kass, “and Super Sprowtz is doing something that’s very exciting.”
Agrawal’s hope was that the Super Sprowtz would eventually land a big TV deal. She pictured their show airing in every family’s living room, with an Erica Eggplant puppet in every child’s toy chest. Using the same aggressive marketing techniques that big food companies employ to get children to eat sugary cereals, Super Sprowtz would hook kids on vegetables, making carrots and spinach into a pint-sized food trend in the way the Vidalia onion farmers had done with Shrek. “It’s not hard to get kids to eat vegetables if you start them young,” Agrawal said. “But the only way to get that knowledge to a child is via strong and culturally relevant material.” Agrawal was full of anecdotal tales of how this had already happened—of the little girl’s father who wrote to her after the show, telling her about how his daughter suddenly couldn’t get enough eggplant, or the investor who saw the company’s future when his grandson began eating broccoli after a Super Sprowtz performance. If these individual successes could be replicated on a larger scale, to millions of children instead of thousands, imagine the potential trend it could unleash: kids tossing aside sugary cereals and soft drinks in favor of carrots and kale smoothies, eating healthier and better, and starting to reverse, however slowly, the decades’ long trend in the other direction. A doctor at Columbia University was studying the potential effects of the Super Sprowtz on kids’ food choices, and Agrawal had recently partnered with Cornell University to launch Super Sprowtz–branded salad bars in several New York schools.
Back at Barrow Street Elementary Suzie Sweetpea and Zach Zucchini swam to the Isle of Pollution and stole a key tha
t controlled Pompous Pollution’s deep fryer, saving the day once again. Agrawal ran out to the thunderous applause of a hundred tiny hands and grabbed the microphone again. “Okay, who wants to meet the Super Sprowtz?” she asked, and on cue dozens of squealing kids sprung from the floor to rush the stage. Their little hands tore at the felt puppets, desperately trying to touch Colby Carrot while Agrawal and her small staff frantically tried to keep the company’s projector and laptop from falling victim to this pint-sized Altamont. Her goal of a broccoli in every lunch box was a lofty dream, of course. One child’s nutrition expert referred to the Super Sprowtz as a “drop in the ocean” of addressing child obesity, but that was the thing about food trends: As much as the professional forecasters felt they could guess which ones were coming next, the big ones almost always hit the world by surprise. The Super Sprowtz had as good a chance as any at initiating a trend, and as I watched dozens of little children run into the arms of their parents, begging them, with tears in their eyes, for broccoli and zucchini, you could see a glimmer of hope for a new trend, small but still visible in the afternoon light.
The Tastemakers was brought to life by dozens of wonderful, talented people who encouraged me and took chances with this project over the past few years and deserve no end of gratitude in these pages. Please call me anytime to collect a complimentary reward of a food trend item from within these pages, be it a fondue dinner or a tube of bacon lube.
First, I have to thank my stellar agent, Robert Guinsler at Sterling Lord Literistic. Robert has been a tireless and enthusiastic advocate of this project since the beginning and demonstrated the patience of a saint countless times, as this proposal (and others before it) was sent out into the rough waters of publishing with his wisdom and guidance.
The reward for all of Robert’s stellar work was this book landing in the hands of Benjamin Adams, one of the smartest, sweetest editors I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Benjamin took a chance on a somewhat vague idea for a book about taste, carried it over to PublicAffairs, and transformed it into something even greater than I could have ever imagined. He put the Magnolia swirl on this humble red velvet base.
The other two publishing talents whom I forever remain indebted to are Doug Pepper and Jenny Bradshaw from McClelland & Stewart in Toronto, who I have now worked with for close to a decade. Your vision has guided this book from a crumb of an idea to the final product, and I cannot express enough gratitude for everything you’ve done to make that happen.
At both PublicAffairs and McClelland & Stewart there are countless people who worked long and hard to bring this book to readers, from copy editors and designers to salespeople and publicists. Some, like Ashley Dunn, I have worked with closely for years. In other cases I am working with a whole new team: thanks to Clive Priddle, Susan Weinberg, Peter Osnos, Jaime Leifer, Alex Christopher, Melissa Raymond, Melissa Veronesi, Lisa Kaufman, Lindsay Fradkoff, and Matty Goldberg. A deep bow to each and every one of you.
The idea for The Tastemakers started out as a series of articles in Bloomberg Businessweek commissioned by the great editors Jonathan Kelly and Julian Sancton with the keen oversight of Brad Wieners. Thanks to all three of you for the opportunity to look at the food business in a way I could never have imagined. I’m also indebted to Laas Turnbull and Lianne George at the awesome Toronto newsmagazine The Grid, as they let me run wild with whatever idea I had, several of which found their way into these pages.
A particular thanks to those in the industry who went out of their way to explain the complicated world of food trends, including Kara Nielsen, Barb Stuckey, Suzy Badaracco, Darren Tristano, and Professor Josee Johnston. I also owe a great debt to friends and peerless food authorities Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation, and Steve Dolinsky (a.k.a. The Hungry Hound) for advice, contacts, and suggestions along the way.
Over the course of my research I spoke to hundreds of people from around the world who spent countless hours detailing their work and thoughts and, in many cases, showing me around their little corners of the food business. A very special thanks to the Malhotra family and Hemant Bhagwani, the folks at Dole, the lovely people at the Specialty Food Association, Glenn Roberts, Shane Schaibly, the Baconfest folks, Che Ruddell-Tabisola and the DCFTA, Radha Agrawal, Ricardo Zarate, Virginia Zimm, and the Botden family.
Wendy Litner, my research assistant, really made this book possible. A talented writer whose own books will one day top the best-seller lists, Wendy spent a year compiling arcane facts about fondue history, chasing down futile leads about chia seeds, and fearlessly tackled a gargantuan topic with surgical precision. Wendy, I cannot thank you enough for everything you’ve done.
Finally, I owe the biggest debt to Lauren, my darling wife, who coached me through the roller coaster of emotions any book will bring out in an author, especially when it coincides with buying and renovating our first house, immediately followed by pregnancy, a termite infestation, and the arrival of our daughter, which quickly led to three intense months of colic. Lauren, you were by my side the entire time, enduring sacrifices that were utterly humbling as you nurtured Noa, my shrieking muse, into the most beautiful creature in the world. I love both of you to no end.
Interviews were either conducted in person, over the phone, or, in a few instances, by e-mail. Portions of Chapters 5, 6, and 8 originally appeared as articles in Bloomberg Businessweek and The Grid Toronto.
Chapter 1: The Cultural Trend
Cupcake sales statistics courtesy of Modern Baking and modernbaking.com, Cake Statistics, and Baking Management.
Cupcake history courtesy of foodtimeline.org.
Adam Sternbergh, “Sweet and Vicious,” New York Magazine, September 2005.
Elizabeth Olson, “The Latest Entrepreneurial Fantasy Is Selling Cupcakes,” New York Times, November 25, 2009.
Tim Carman, “An Alternative Take on the Profit Margins of Gourmet Cupcakes,” Washington City Paper, December 2009.
Ellen Tien, “Baby Cakes Grow Up,” New York Times, January 24, 1999.
Jacob Goldstein, “Are We in a Cupcake Bubble?” NPR.org, July 16, 2010.
Sumathi Reddy, “New York City’s Cupcake Economy,” blogs.wsj.com, July 16, 2010.
Burt Helm, “The Great Cupcake Wars,” Inc., May 1, 2011.
Joel Stein, “Food: Cupcake Nation,” Time, August 20, 2006.
Brigid Schulte, “Once Just a Sweet Birthday Treat, the Cupcake Becomes a Cause,” Washington Post, December 11, 2006.
Evelyn Juan, “Helping Afghanistan One Cupcake at a Time,” Christianity Today, September 12, 2005.
Daniel Gross, “The Cupcake Bubble,” Slate, September 2, 2009.
Andrea Aldeman, “The Psychology of Cupcakes,” Washington Post, February 7, 2012.
Emily Maltby and Sarah E. Needleman, “Forget Gold, the Gourmet-Cupcake Market Is Crashing,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2013.
Allison Robicelli, “Cupcake Wars,” Medium.com, April 25, 2013.
Chapter 2: Agriculture
Kay Rentschler, “A Grits Revival with the Flavor of the Old South,” New York Times, March 24, 2004.
Oliver Schwaner-Albright, “True Grits,” New York Times, September 17, 2006.
Julia Moskin, “Southern Farmers Vanquish the Clichés,” New York Times, December 27, 2011.
Eva Moore, “Columbia: Secret Grits Capital of the World,” Free Times, April 21, 2011, www.free-times.com/archives/columbia-secret-grits-capital-of-the-world.
Jeff Gelski, “Modern Markets for Ancient Grains,” Food Business News, February 9, 2011.
Sarah McSimmons, “A Tour of Anson Mills,” sarahmcsimmons.com, July 6, 2011, http://sarahmcsimmons.com/2011/07/06/a-tour-of-anson-mills/.
“Anson Mills,” Know Your Farms, http://knowyourfarms.com/j/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83:anson-mills&catid=12:producer-profile&Itemid=14.
Eva Moore, “Shrimp and Grits,” Free Times, May 29, 2008, www.free-times.com/archives/shrimp-and-grits.
“Glenn Rob
erts” (interview), Common Place: American Food in the Age of Experiment, www.common-place.org/vol-11/no-03/roberts/.
“History,” Arroz Preto Ruzene, www.arrozpreto.com.br/historico_en.asp.
Virginia Phillips, “ ‘Heritage Grains’ Return as Tasty Alternatives, and the Trend Is Sprouting Here,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 2011.
Chapter 3: Chefs
James Oliver Cury, “Epicurious Predicts Top 10 Food Trends for 2009,” Epicurious.com, December 1, 2008.
Gregory Dicum, “Food of the Andes by the Golden Gate,” New York Times, August 20, 2009.
Andrew Curry, “The Next Superchef,” Upstart Business Journal, November 7, 2008.
Mitchell Davis, “A Taste for New York: Restaurant Reviews, Food Discourse, and the Field of Gastronomy in America” (PhD dissertation, New York University, 2009).
Jonathan Gold, “Mo-Chica: The Best Peruvian Ceviche Might Be in a Warehouse South of Downtown,” LA Weekly, May 27, 2009.
David Kamp, The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2006).
Chapter 4: Health
Woody Allen quote from “Hypochondria, an Inside Look,” New York Times, January 13, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/opinion/sunday/hypochondria-an-inside-look.html.
Gluten quote from This Is the End, Columbia Pictures, 2013.
Ricardo Ayerza and Wayne Coates, “New Industrial Crops: Northwestern Argentina Regional Project,” in Progress in New Crops, ed. Jules Janick (Alexandria, VA: ASHS Press, 1996).
Dr. Coates’s website: azchia.com.
Margaret Conover’s website: chiativity.org.
Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).