Nothing says welcome like food. So welcome to Qualifirst!

My name is Yves Farges, and I am the CEO of the Qualifirst Group, distributors of fine foods across Canada to chefs and retail stores. The oldest company in the Qualifirst Group has deep roots. Far-Met Importers Ltd., was started by my parents in Vancouver over 50 years ago. I grew up in the food business, remain fascinated by its complexity, and enjoy its challenges. Qualifirst Foods is the company I started in Toronto from scratch 25 years ago. I bought Far-Met in 1999 and added it to my Group to become a national organization.  

I invite you to read my Blog on my travels, my discoveries, the people and restaurants I visit, the trends that shape fine food, and the realities behind the ingredients. I will answer reader's questions and cheer on Canada's growing sophistication in the industry.

I invite you to read this issue and send any comments you have to us at customerservice@qualifirst.com. I want to help make a better www.qualifirst.com community by incorporating good ideas, so if you have a tough fine food question, fire away! What I know I will share, and what I do not know I will learn and then share. It is a good philosophy for daily living.

Welcome.

Yves Farges

PLACE: South-East Coast of Italy, in Puglia

DATE: March 2008

Recently I accepted an invitation from the Italian Government to participate in the Canadian mission to a trade show called EURO & MED FOOD 2008 held in Foggia, Italy. Where is Foggia?  Close to Bari, in an area of Italy known as Puglia, which is famous for a dizzying number of fine Italian foods. It is also an area that has seen better times.

My flight from Vancouver to Rome was smooth. Even the inevitable loss of my luggage in Rome did not faze me.  In Rome, lost luggage is always found. I was driven from the airport to my home for the next week, the Mercure Cicolella Hotel in Foggia, where I meet the other Canadian business delegates. Then I promptly collapsed, exhausted from jet lag.

I was up early, picked up my luggage (awaiting in the lobby) and then enjoyed an Italian breakfast and good conversation. On my arrival in the Food Delegates area, I was introduced to my interpreter. We sat down to work, conducting a series of intense 15-minute meetings with small manufacturers, farmers, and innovative producers of traditional and not-so-traditional foods. 

Lots of olive oil producers came to see me!  I spend extra time with them explaining that, for the North American market, they must develop a marketing strategy.  A story has to accompany the oil, because customers want to know that story. Puglia olive oil is famous for a rich, vibrant base that is only a little marred by the fact that the pits are crushed with the olive flesh, imparting a slight bitterness, but that is the tradition here.

One thin, intense young man was scheduled for an appointment the second day and brought jars of a relatively ordinary product: orange jam. Oranges are grown in this part of Italy and all the way to the south, where it’s warm, so you would think orange jam is common and ordinary.  Not this one. It was shockingly good. I will be helping this company package their jam, and I will bring it to Canada by Christmas. What makes it special? Think orange without the bitterness from the white part of the orange. Think sweet but not loaded with sugar. Imagine the delicate, firm aroma of orange zest when you open the jar.  This young manufacturer has found a natural way to eliminate the bitterness.

On our day off, all the delegates from around the world went on tour or relaxed. Not for this cat. I took up one manufacturer on a unique offer: to tour his factory, see the producing fields, and witness the processing from the ground up. Visualize a patchwork of fields, orchards and vines, all surrounding a square, modern factory. They grow tomatoes, olives, artichokes, and a broad assortment of typical fresh vegetables. The produce travels less than one kilometre to the factory where it is packed. They not only pack the vegetables -- they also pack the flavour.

I was asked to put them to a practical test. I picked the long-stemmed artichokes typical from the region. They were served to me on a plate right from a jar in which they are packed. I was given a plastic fork. I purposefully took the fork and tried to cut the last centimetre off the tip of the tail of the artichoke. Now usually this part of the typical Italian long-stemmed artichoke is tough, fibrous and quite frankly bulletproof, requiring a chainsaw to cut. Not this one, though. It was tender to the tip and cut like butter. The taste was faithful to the delicate artichoke and a pleasure. As I type this, my team in Toronto has placed their first order to bring this quality to Canada. 

The Italian government treated us royally while at the trade show, but good things come to an end. Sure enough, Rome once again swallowed my luggage on the trip back to Vancouver. My bags show up a few days later, complete with 20 kilos of documentation.  Good news arrived when I got home. The Spanish Government, through ICEX, invited me to lecture on Olive Oil in Madrid and Seville, a rare honour that I have accepted.

Qualifirst and epicureal.com have brought to the Canadian market an astounding olive oil from Spain called "Castillo de Canena" which I found a number of years ago while tasting oils in the endless halls of the ANUGA Trade show in Koln, Germany. I taste hundreds of oils at   fancy food shows of all kinds, but this particular oil literally stopped me in my tracks. It took a while to bring this miracle of nature to Canada, but it was worth it. I love raising the bar for fine food products when I can.

In my next dispatch, I will detail my trip in Spain, my lectures, my adventures with old Rioja wines, visits to other Spanish factories, and also provide more detail on how I try to source the best products on the planet.

Yves Farges