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Email the editor: mmoran @gourmetretailer.com

Senior Editor James Mellgren gave us some insight into marketing specialty foods back in June with complements for a wealth of categories from condiments to cheese. Now, it's my turn to spill some wisdom. What I'd really like is for you, our readers, to send me your great merchandising tips as a follow-up to this story. Because while I've been pondering this article for a couple of weeks now, thinking up ways to increase sales of everything from food processors to frying pans, I'd really like to know what works for those of you out in the field. So please, feel free to fire back your thoughts and suggestions to mmoran@gourmetretailer.com.

When it comes to building displays that sell, it's all about painting a portrait. So, this article is designed to help you build vignettes for four basic categories of kitchenware. We've tried to think of a few ideas for each category to help jump-start your creative side and build new complementary displays that bring you more than just compliments.

Small Electrics
From food processors to toaster ovens, building a story around small electrics can follow a simple recipe. There is a wealth of cookbooks designed for food processors, including my favorite Process This! My fondness for the book starts with the name. The name alone can be used as a sign to bring attention to your display. Then include all the tools of the trade from food processor accessories to rubber spatulas to measuring cups to olive oils. You can focus on a particular recipe in the cookbook or design the display around a theme such as baking. There are also plenty of recipes online if you want to create recipe cards to place next to the machine along with some of the ingredients and tools to create the recipe. For a warm weather soup, you might try a Carrot-Ginger Soup recipe, building your display with a saucepan, fresh ingredients if available, spices, and pretty serveware.

Shine some light on your slow cookers by inspiring a warm, family meal, eaten by the fire on a cold winter's night. Include items to both cook and serve with such as spices, spice grinders, graters, slotted spoons and serving spoons. Build a portable dining scene by setting a tray with a beautiful cloth napkin, earthenware serving bowl, mini salt and pepper shakers or mills, a mug for cocoa, and large spoons suitable for a thick stew. Write out a menu on a chalkboard: Red Wine Turkey Stew with Buttermilk Biscuit Dumplings, Hot Apple Cider, and Apple Cobbler. You might also include statements about how easy it is to use a slow cooker, and how it's a time-saving cooking method for people on the go. The turkey stew takes about 15 minutes to prepare and the slow cooker does the rest.

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two by Beth Hensperger is another great centerpiece for the slow cooker category. Use her book as a centerpiece to highlight simple-to-prepare meals for two. Most people think of slow cookers as tools for large family meals, but this book provides a great respite for smaller family units.

Most small electric categories cry out for complementary items. Automatic coffee centers are not complete without fresh coffee beans, mugs, frothers, specialty sugars, toppings such as cinnamon or nutmeg, flavoring syrups, and demitasse spoons. Complete the table with dessert plates, boxes of rugalach, specialty cookies, and other complementary baked goods.

Create a center aisle of tools for your small electrics section with a collection of items well-suited for the task. Include time-saving tricks such as bread and waffle mixes. Showcase rices and grains for your rice cookers, steamers, bread makers and other complementary equipment. Stack up colorful mixing bowls and set up crocks of grab-and-go items including:
• Rubber Spatulas
• Whisks
• Kitchen Towels
• Measuring Spoons
• Mixing Spoons
• Serving Spoons
• Measuring Cups

Cookware
Building great cookware displays involves understanding the value of each piece of cookware in your array. Design signage that helps customers understand the best uses for each piece, including cookbooks or recipes, along with the proper tools.

Set up a crock of utensils that won't damage nonstick surfaces and add in signage that explains that while most high-quality surfaces won't chip or scratch, the best tools for the job are silicone-coated spatulas and other softer tools. Use signage to explain the benefits. Also include great cleansers to encourage hand-washing. Other complementary tools include: spice grinders, salt cellars, olive oils, and a mezzaluna.

A Soft Touch
Certain utensils are best used with nonstick cookware such as nylon- or silicone-coated tools that won't scratch the surface. These tools are dishwasher-safe, flexible and attractive. Nylon construction offers heat resistance up to 400°F while keeping nonstick surfaces safe.

Show off great stockpots with a collection of sauces that customers can personalize with their own ingredients. Showcase rustic pastas, olives, olive oils and spices, along with spice mills, garlic presses, cheese graters, slotted spoons, pasta servers, pasta forks, pasta machines, and colanders. You can also build in a great grain display featuring beans and lentils with your stockpots. Include colanders, skimmers and strainers to build on the display. Consider finding a great chili recipe to showcase and complement the display with spices and serving bowls — you might even consider a tailgate theme with a menu board set up on a cooler near a grill. Your menu could include: Chili Dogs, Steaks, Corn on the Cob. Include all the accoutrements from a stockpot for chili to a steamer insert for the hot dogs to a griddle perfect for indoor or outdoor use.
Other tools for this category include:
• Mashers
• Mills
• Ricers
• Skimmers
• Strainers
• Colanders
• Canning Tools
• Tasting Spoons
• Pot Clips
• Ladles
• Collapsible Prep Boards
• Mandolines
• Crab Crackers
• Shrimp Cleaners
• Lobster Forks
• Spatulas
• Whisks
• Tongs
• Kitchen Towels
• Turners
• Spoon Rests

Bakeware
Building a bakeware story takes a simple walk around the store, along with some thought about seasonal baking, healthy grains and cooking with kids. Complements for this category run the gamut from child-friendly cooking tools to great whole grains.

Developing a healthy baking attitude is a good start for your merchandising program. Begin with signage that highlights the benefits of a diet rich in whole grains. Accent the signage with whole grain cookbooks, packaged grains, canola oil, baking powder, sea salt, specialty sugars, along with mixing bowls, whisks, rubber spatulas, baking sheets and containers to store breads, cookies and cakes. Select a recipe from one of the cookbooks and prepare samples for your customers. Make sure your display includes everything you need to create the recipe you've chosen.

Build a children's bakeware display that appeals to families with children. Gather sprinkles, candles, cookie cutters, easy-to-read measuring cups and spoons, along with mixing bowls with nonskid bottoms, children's cookbooks and aprons. Design a suggested party menu for parents to follow for kids' birthdays with signage that shows them how to create a "Decorate Your Own Cupcake" party. Be sure to include fun paper plates and party decorations, along with a cupcake tree for easy decorating.

Appeal to those dedicated bakeware customers with a more sophisticated display that features wedding and special occasion cakes. Build up the vignette with tools such as cake boards, pastry brushes, a turntable, cutting wire, wire racks, decorating tips and accessories, icings, spatulas, stencils, fondant accessories, rolling pins, confectionery tool sets, sprinkles, sugars, and even tool caddies.

Building a Wedding Cake
Get all your construction pieces together — pans, plates, pillars, stand, even the fountain and stairs if your design calls for them. Now assemble the parts as they will appear on the finished cake. This way, you can be sure you have the correct size plates and boards for your cakes and that your stairs or flower- holder rings will fit properly in the setup.

Along with basic cookware tools such as measuring cups, measuring spoons, rubber spatulas and whisks, complete your bakeware department with:
• Trivets
• Cake Pedestals
• Oven Mitts
• Ovenliners
• Beautiful Serveware
• Cupcake Trees
• Birthday Candles
• Party Accessories
• Cookie Cutters
• Scales
• Egg Separators
• Silicone Pastry Mats
• Dough Scrapers
• Pastry Boards
• Specialty Flours
• Specialty Sugars

Specialty Pieces
Specialty cookware pieces such as tagines and woks call out for complementary merchandise. Asian cookware pieces can tell a story all their own, especially if you group together bamboo products — utensils, steamers, plates and cutting boards — with a wok for a textural display that calls attention to the category. Complete the scene with chopsticks, rice bowls, Asian-inspired serveware, and cookbooks. Food complements can include rice, teas, sauces, mirin, sesame seeds, wasabi, nori, lemongrass, peanuts, peppercorns, fish sauce, coriander, and rice noodles. Complement those ingredients with spice grinders, measuring spoons, rice cookers, and Asian cutlery. Also consider sushi kits, Asian tea pots, trivets, tea cups and dinnerware.

A tagine is an unusual-looking cooking vessel that transcends several ethnic culinary styles. The American version resembles those used in Africa for traditional stews that simmer for hours at a time. Tagines are also used in the Middle East and India. Tell a tale of the Middle East with a tagine by pulling together Moroccan-inspired beverageware and dinnerware, colorful tablecloths in rich silks, a tea service, and rustic earthenware bowls. If you have enough room, create a vignette on a low table with silk pillows for a sensual and fun setting.

Complementary food items should focus on the spices — coriander, cumin, saffron, ginger and preserved lemon. Also, don't forget the olive. The combination of lemon and olives is so popular in Morocco that one ought to regard it as a general theme on which variations, each one applicable to a specific category of sauce, are possible. Different-flavored olives work best with specific combinations of spices. For example, multi-spiced classics employ the green-cracked type of olives, more appropriate than mellow reddish-purple olives, which are used with sauces made with a combination of ginger, saffron and olive oil. Incorporate today's hot Indian culinary trend with spice kits such as Masala Dabba to show the diversity of cooking available with a tagine. Be sure to pull together a collection of cookbooks that help tell your story. Rice is also a staple in these diets so be sure to include rice cookers, rice paddles, specialty rice, couscous, and great serving pieces as complements to this category. Other Indian cooking equipment to showcase here include an Indian Karahi and Indian Tawa. Great cookbooks to test include: Moroccan Modern Cookbook by Hassan M'souli, Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni, and Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran & Stephanie Lyness.

A Tagine for All Seasons
No matter what the month, there is a tree somewhere in Morocco bearing fruit for the tagine pot: lamb with olives, quinces, apples, pears, raisins, prunes, dates, with or without honey, with or without a complexity of spices. In the fall, use greening or wine sap apples. In the summer, try fresh apricots, or the type of hard, fuzzy, green crab apples called lehmenn in Morocco. In winter, try the heavy and rich tagines made with prunes or dates, and, anytime of the year, lemon and olives.

There are so many different complements to any category, it's hard to select just a few. The simplest way to begin is to select an item in your store that you want to feature. Choose a cookbook to go with it, and then select everything you would need to touch in your own kitchen at home to build that recipe. Gather all those things together, complement them with specialty food ingredients you are able to stock in your store — then build your creation. Add signage that explains your story, it could be as simple as a menu card or as detailed as the recipe itself with cooking tips. Whatever you decide, have fun, be creative, and let the compliments fall where they may.