‘Foodiest foodie fair ever:’ A critic dishes on new 2024 Minnesota State Fair foods

Food critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl is a six-time James Beard Award winner, a frequent Appetites guest for MPR News, and a bona fide State Fair aficionado. She joined host Tom Crann on All Things Considered to give her take on the fair’s 2024 list of new foods.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Click on the audio player above for the full interview.

There are 33 new items and six new vendors this year. Some people might think, ho-hum, another list of new foods from the State Fair. But you say there’s something different about it this year.

Something different? It’s radically different. We are in a new world, my friend! This is the year that gourmet culture came to the State Fair. Tom Crann, I want to see you in a tuxedo with a candelabra and your white linens, because we are a fully foodie State Fair this year. It is the foodiest foodie fair ever.

That’s been slowly creeping in over the last couple of years.

Two words, my friend, “lobster eclair.” That’s fancy! That is a fancy food. There is also a focaccia ice cream sandwich with focaccia from Wrecktangle Pizza, which is here in town and has been voted the best pizza in America. Then Minnesota Dairy Lab is making a kettle chip — potato chip — ice cream. I am calling that a pastry chef kind of dessert. That’s crazy.

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Then … paella. I never saw this coming in the Year of Our Lord 2024 that Barcelona would come to the State Fair. I look at this new list, and my jaw’s on the floor — everything is so fancy. How did this happen to us? I’'s crazy.

There’s the fancy, and then there is the fried, more traditional fare. Some of it bordering on gimmicky. What do you see in that category?

Oh, I know what you’re talking about. You’re talking about the Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing. So preposterous! I have lived for so many years, Tom Crann, that I have tried deep-fried butter.

Deep-fried butter is a friend to no one. Now Lulu’s Public House is bringing us Deep-Fried Ranch, and the picture looks crazy. You know, I gotta wear a fancy gown for the other food. So how am I gonna work the dry cleaning in?

And then the question becomes it also says that there will be cream cheese inside of this ranch. So are we really just talking about cream cheese puffs? If this is a cream cheese puff that has ranch flavoring, that seems extremely normal, but if it’s this elaborate thing that I’ve seen the picture of, how is that even possible?

Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing: Ranch dressing filling made with ranch seasoning, buttermilk and cream cheese in a panko shell, deep-fried and dusted with ranch powder. Served with a side of hot honey sauce crafted with Cry Baby Craig's hot sauce.
Courtesy of the Minnesota State Fair

Anyway, this is going to be the hit. This is the one that is going to have the two-hour long line, because people go for the gimmick to put on their Instagram and so they can tell their aunt at Christmas, “Oh, I ate it. I tried it. It was crazy.”

This is the world in which we find ourselves, and I’m just reporting it.

‘Foodiest foodie fair ever:’ A critic dishes on new 2024 Minnesota State Fair foods

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There are 33 new items and six new vendors this year. Some people might think, ho-hum, another list of new foods from the State Fair. But you say there’s something different about it this year.

That’s been slowly creeping in over the last couple of years.

Turn Up Your Support

There’s the fancy, and then there is the fried, more traditional fare. Some of it bordering on gimmicky. What do you see in that category?