But Sofi?
“It’s the Oscars of our industry,” Chris White says of the Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation awards. “It’s truly a big deal.”
That’s why White, owner of Mount Mansfield Maple Products in Winooski, is trumpeting the several Vermont companies — including his own — that just won this year’s prestigious prizes.
Specialty foods are big business. Just ask Allison Hooper, who co-founded Vermont Creamery in Websterville in 1984 and sold it for an undisclosed sum last year to the $14 billion Minnesota-based agricultural cooperative Land O’Lakes.
Hooper was just named to the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America and is set to receive her award in Chicago next month.
“It’s a great acknowledgment,” she says. “We started from nothing and built this business — it’s a Cinderella story. I think what the award says is we did something great for artisan cheese in America and the food movement in Vermont.”
Sofi awards speak volumes, too. Vermont Creamery won a 2018 gold Sofi for its Cremont cheese, a new product Sofi for its clover blossom honey goat cheese and a silver Sofi for its crème fraiche.
Blake Hill Preserves of Windsor won a gold Sofi for its cardamom-infused Meyer lemon marmalade.
Mount Mansfield Maple Products won a gold Sofi for its single malt barrel aged maple syrup and bronze Sofi for its organic maple candy.
Runamok Maple of Cambridge won a new product Sofi for its ginger root infused maple syrup.
And Vermont Amber of White River Junction won a silver Sofi for its fennel seed toffee.
“It’s so cool for Vermont, this tiny little state, to be making a lot of noise,” White says.
The Mount Mansfield Maple Products owner started bottling syrup in a garage in 2009, only to see $60 in first-month sales grow into a business that has ballooned from 100 acres and 5,000 trees five years ago to 1,000 acres and 30,000 trees today.
The secret to success?
“These awards bring a ton of publicity,” White says. “They put you on a platform and scream your name. That attracts retailers and distributors and puts you on the radar for high-profile media personalities.”
Take Oprah Winfrey. Last year the media maven’s staffers saw the maple producer’s products at the largest specialty food show in North America. That led Winfrey to showcase Vermont in her magazine’s annual “Favorite Things” list and on television’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“These awards are an opportunity maker,” White says. “You can’t pay for this kind of advertising and marketing.”
Hooper agrees. She’s looking forward to receiving her latest recognition.
“A lot of people know what the James Beard Awards, more people than I thought.”
She’s also eager to return after.
“I’ve spent three decades trying to build a national brand,” she says. “Now it feels good to be home.”
