As usual, Kohl’s cornucopia of culinary creations packs punch for paunch (especially Steve’s)

QUINCY — It’s that time of the year.

Familiar autumnal colors will soon be coming to a tree near you, and football will be available to watch seven nights in the not-too-distant future.

And the Kohl Wholesale Fall Food Show, a true rite of caloric passage each fall, filled the Oakley-Lindsay Center on Wednesday.

The fall show always is the second show of the year for Kohl’s, which also sponsors a spring event. Both are extremely popular to both vendors and potential customers. Kohl’s serves as a “middle man” in bringing the two together for what is an unofficial World Series of food that also showcases information and innovation.

A cornucopia of culinary creations, if you will.

How popular has this event become since its inception in October 1983?

“We have 165 vendors. We can’t fit anymore in (to the Oakley-Lindsay Center),” said Aaron Kerkhoff, a general manager at Kohl’s.

About 2,500 people attended the six-hour entrée of eats from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Representatives from hotels, restaurants, schools and other businesses were on hand, all busy sampling the offerings during the private show that was by invitation only. Most attendees were from Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, but Kerkhoff said representatives were from as far west as California and as far east as Pennsylvania.

The interaction between vendors and potential customers at this commonwealth of fine cuisine can prove invaluable. Tim Arturi of Anaheim, Calif., was in Quincy representing Bridgford Food Corp., of Dallas, Texas. He was attending his eighth Kohl’s Fall Food Show.

“This is the best show of its kind,” Arturi said without hesitation.

The Fall Food Show is the largest marketing event of the year for Kohl’s, which dates to 1873. Offered at the event were all sorts of samples, ranging from Szechuan shrimp to sassy salsa and everything and anything in between — a virtual monarchy of munchies.

The Oakley-Lindsay Center was filled with the the aromas of all those specialties, allowing attendees to treat their taste buds and test their stomach’s stamina.

“We love this kind of show,” said Brad Pawek of Valley Meats in Coal Valley. “We get to see a lot of our customers in person.”

Amy Winters, the Mid Central regional sales manager for Tasty Brands of Syosset, N.Y., was attending her first Kohl’s show — an adventure she will not soon forget.

“This … this is fantastic,” said Winters, who says she’s on the road “three weeks a month” and headed to a food show in Nebraska on Thursday.

Winters called the Kohl’s show “unique” because of the day-long opportunities it provides for vendors and potential customers to get up close and personal.

Scott Bechtold of Des Moines, Iowa, and Jake Wakefield of Chicago were in town representing Tyson Foods. They said each year allows the company to showcase new items that the parent company wants to introduce or emphasize. Some of the products, they said, might target businesses. Others may point specifically toward schools. In both cases, direct contact with potential customers is the overriding area of importance.

“This is always a great show,” Bechtold said.

Opportunity for students

Andrea Nicholson of the Quincy Area Vocational Technical Center had a group of students Wednesday at the OLC. Organizers were introducing them to opportunities in the food service industry. “They were learning all about head-of-household careers that do not require a four-year (college) degree,” Nicholson said.

Helping the community

Kerkhoff reported that following Wednesday’s show, all the food remaining from the 165 vendors is packaged and trucked to the Salvation Army. Kerkhoff said the gesture is part of Kohl’s “involvement with its community.”

It all started in the old Holidome

The first Kohl food show was held more than 40 years ago inside the Holidome at what was the downtown site of the old Holiday Inn.

From the beginning, Kohl’s, now a sixth-generation family business, has looked at its food shows as “a sensory experience featuring new menu ideas and new products” from its suppliers. Kohl’s is a distributor of numerous national brands with an inventory of more than 14,000 products, describing its company as one of the nation’s premier “customer-driven broad-line food-service distributors.”

Kohl’s provides service to restaurants, hotels, supermarket delis, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, retail grocers, caterers, taverns and similar businesses. Along with numerous food products, Kohl’s offers kitchenware and related equipment.

The company’s locations at 4705 Gardner Expressway and 130 Jersey are the fifth and fourth sites, respectively, that have housed the firm’s business operations. Before those two state-of-the-art facilities, Kohl’s was at 218 N. Fourth. Kohl’s first location was at Fourth and Maine, back in 1873, eight years after the Civil War ended.