People are buying cookbooks. Cooking classes are gaining in popularity as well, creating a demand for the necessary ingredients. Though many specialty foods stores sell the products needed for the ethnic cuisine classes taught in their stores, most cooks prefer to shop on their own. Zabarkes also offers catering, much of which is based on ethnic foods such as Jamaican, Indian, Thai, Moroccan and Chinese. They eat ethnic food in restaurants and love it, and don t want to be limited to what they can make at home.
Ethnic caterers are THE big thing in the New York press right now.
Rather than targeting the market directly, most of the Adriana s Caravan advertising is based on press coverage. As the ethnic foods field becomes more crowded with players, those players become more creative about both cuisines and markets. It s all in finding a niche, which Sea Moe of Kalifornia has done. They sell to, among others, the gift basket industry, and lately they re selling natural foods from South Africa. Sea Moe, started in 1992, has turned their eyes not only to Africa but also to Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia and China.