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As Americans become increasingly aware of ethnic cuisine and culturally inspired tools, they head to their specialty gourmet stores to learn about and purchase these products.

Many of these specialty tools require explanation, proper merchandising, and interesting visual displays to define their use. So how do you discern which of these cultural cuisines will be the rage of your neighborhood? How can you predict what your customers may be inspired to create in their kitchens? We've gleaned from consumer lifestyle consultants, as well as your retail peers the right formula for creating a culturally diverse inventory and are presenting it here.

The American Consumer

The demographics of customers who shop for ethnically inspired cookware, kitchen tools, tabletop, and ingredients are very broad based. While some of these customers' families may have immigrated to the United States, bringing their culinary styles with them, others might be gourmands with a penchant for entertaining friends. Simply evaluating your customer base won't give you a clear picture of their interests — you really have to ask.

Renée Behnke, president of Seattle-based Sur La Table, extrapolated, saying, "The person doing this type of cooking is the person who already knows how to do it — a person of that culture. It's also the person who read about it in a magazine and wants to experience it. I don't think it's limited to an age or an ethnicity — it's a little bit of everybody."

Libby Connolly, manager of The Spanish Table in Berkeley, Calif., agreed, saying, "It's not necessarily the ethnicity of the person so much as a desire to cook the product."

Behnke added, "People from all over the world have come to America. Just because they are here does not mean they are not eating or cooking what they grew up with. They are looking for the tools they are accustomed to using. Ethnic cooking also plays a huge role in cooking shows. It receives a lot of attention and is becoming more and more important. It plays a large role in everything that we do."

IHA Lifestyle Consultant Lisa Casey Weiss explained, "We're talking about an aware, food-oriented customer. So talking to customers will help retailers see where consumer interests might lie. It would be very difficult and expensive to stock every ethnic trend. Retailers have to know their market and know their customers. One good indicator is the kinds of restaurants popping up in the retailer's neighborhood. Retailers can watch a lot of different things for clues on where to focus their attention."

Some of those clues are divulged in shelter magazines, on cooking shows, in cookbooks, and in gourmet and travel magazines (not to mention The Gourmet Retailer's Trade Winds column). Checking with your local travel agents may give you a read on popular new destinations, which will enable you to discover upcoming culinary trends based upon where travelers are heading.

"Until recently, people had been traveling more, and there are many more cookbooks available now to educate people about ethnic cuisines. Plus, PBS does some amazing series," said Steve Winston, owner of Seattle-based The Spanish Table. "So now you have consumers who know what to look for from traveling, cookbooks, and cooking shows because they have discovered that there's an authenticity to ethnic cuisines — there's more to Mexican than Tex-Mex."

Due to current world events, consumers may reduce their travel and instead turn to recreating foods from exotic places to satiate their stifled wanderlust. The economy is also leading consumers to turn to more home entertaining, which leads them on a quest to recreate trendy restaurant cuisines.

"We have definitely noticed that with the economy the way it is, people really want to cook more authentically and are doing a lot more entertaining at home," stated Winston.

Casey Weiss agreed, saying, "The consumer market is so unpredictable right now. Ethnic kitchenware is a growing trend dovetailing on other trends. Consumers are much more exposed to ethnic cuisines than in years past and are seeking to recreate these foods in their own homes. It's the same thing that happened with the professional kitchen concept in the home."

She continued, "Some of the things driving this trend are shelter and travel magazines that reach a lot of people. There is definitely an appeal, if there's a recipe included that looks easy. So it all adds to the popularity of ethnic cooking and the tools necessary to recreate it in the home."

Cocooning and home-entertainment trends fuel the popularity of ethnic cuisines as consumers spend more time with family and friends, especially on weekends.

"Fondue cooking is popular because it's an activity you can do with your family and friends. In addition, people who are entertaining at home might try to create a theme around a particular cuisine," Casey Weiss explained. "They purchase some of these items to help them create that authentic feeling, such as Asian-inspired tabletop for a Japanese meal."

A.J. Riedel, senior partner of Riedel Marketing Group, concurred, saying, "Ethnic cuisines are popular with the gourmet cook and those who want to create a special occasion."

She continued, "The overall macro trend is toward convenience, especially during the weekday, but there is great interest in hobby cooking on the weekend when people are going to pull out all the stops."

Riedel believes the popularity of ethnic cuisines and the accompanying accoutrements will only continue to grow as Generation X (25 to 35 year olds) gains power in the consumer market.

"They are more well traveled than any other generation and have been more exposed to other cultures and to a much broader range of cuisines," she explained. "Therefore, they will embrace a broader range of cuisines in their cooking," she said.

The Cuisines du Jour

As Americans discover there's more to Chinese and Italian than chow mein and spaghetti, the search for authentic cooking styles has blossomed. These two cultural identities certainly fed the trend and continue to do so. Celebrity chefs promote the ethnic diversity within Italy — from Tuscany to Rome, and stimulate consumers to think beyond what they considered traditional Italian cooking. Restaurants with Asian-inspired themes, the popularity of sushi, and the rising stars of celebrity Asian chefs catapulted Asian cooking onto the pages of gourmet magazines hand-in-hand with the spread of Eastern-inspired home design in shelter publications.

"Some of the ethnic cuisines are much more popular than others," Casey Weiss said. "Sushi and Japanese cooking are still very popular and consumers will still be shopping for sushi kits and bamboo mats. Mexican cooking is also popular and those consumers might be interested in extending their kitchenware to include such items as tortilla makers. It's what we call the globalization of America. We know it's not just Chinese and Italian foods out there anymore."

The search for healthy, exotic cuisines has also brought Mediterranean culinary styles to the forefront. Many experts see Vietnamese and Greek foods as rising culinary stars — a logical extension of the popularity of Asian and Italian regional cuisines.

"There is some indication of Vietnamese as an upcoming trend; in particular, a beef noodle soup called Vietnamese Pho," Riedel said. "Greek cuisines are also on the rise, probably due to the popularity of my 'Big Fat Greek Wedding'."

Casey Weiss believes consumers will answer the call to these trends in varying degrees. While some may want to immerse themselves in the cooking style by purchasing all the necessary accoutrements, others will dabble with a piece of kitchenware to start, while still others will focus on the more decorative aspects.

"Some consumers may respond by adding an ethnic collection of tabletop to complement their everyday pattern," she explained. "I'd say it's across the board; no product category within ethnic cooking is more popular, whether it's cookware, utensils, tabletop, or ingredients."

Sur La Table — which operates 29 kitchenware stores throughout the country, as well as offers catalog and Internet sales — is selling tagines "like crazy," according to Behnke.

"Are they cooking in them? I'm not sure, but we sell a ton of them," she continued. "People are having fun with it. There has been a lot of press interest in Moroccan foods and it has translated to the consumer."

Sur La Table's response to these ethnic trends is dedicated shelf space to the country of origin. Every one of Behnke's 29 stores has sections dedicated to Asian, Moroccan, Spanish, and Italian cuisines. Its catalog follows the same outline, with pages dedicated to a specific cooking style. Just like bakeware and cookware are categories of their own, ethnic cooking is fast becoming a category in and of itself, but it wasn't always so.

Behnke and Winston have spent years sourcing products for their stores specific to the cooking styles they promote. Behnke spends time abroad immersing herself in the cuisines of other cultures, learning the tools they use from the kitchen to the table, and determining what will translate well into the American market.

Connolly explained, "Our business began in 1995 and has grown to three stores. It's taken years to get to this point, and we now have more than one container coming in per month."

Creating Your Niche

Specialty retailers are in a unique and enviable position when it comes to ethnic cuisines. Due to the customer-oriented nature of specialty, your store can become a center of education for the cuisines and the tools necessary to recreate authentic dishes.

"Specialty retailers have a unique opportunity to do something mass channels can't do," Riedel said. "They can have whole collections of items, so if a consumer wants to cook Vietnamese food, they can discover all the tools and ingredients necessary. A certain amount of education is required and it's in the retailer's best interest to teach consumers so they have a good cooking experience."

Winston has understood this message for years, building his business around authentic food and cookware from Spain and Portugal. His store has become a resource for both professional and home chefs interested in everything from paella pans from Valencia to Portuguese copper cataplanas to terra cotta cookware, specialty food items, music, and cookbooks.

Much of Winston's customer base is people who have been exposed to authentic Spanish cooking. Not only is Spain a tourist destination, it often becomes home to military personnel and students studying abroad. When these people return to the States, The Spanish Table meets their needs.

"We rely on a niche of people that have been exposed to some form of Spanish cooking. They, in turn, expose their friends to the cooking style. They cook paella for their friends and then their friends want a pan," Winston said. "We hope that Spain and Portugal continue to interest people. When you look at the regionally specific trend of Italy, you realize that Spain has tons of life left in it. There are really wonderful regional cuisines of Spain that haven't even begun to be experienced."

"We do well because it's our focus. When people want to prepare a traditional Spanish meal, they think of us," Winston explained. "When we sell paella pans to other stores, I am always amazed at the limited volume they sell. It tells me people aren't thinking of these stores when they think of ethnic kitchenware. You have to educate the customer. It's still a market that has a lot of educational spade work to do."

Connolly places a great deal of emphasis on educating customers about the resources available at The Spanish Table. Her excitement is evident when she described the authenticity of the cookware the store stocks.

"Everything we have is for traditional cooking. People who are interested in cooking from scratch and slow cooking with fresh ingredients will be interested in the clay cazuela from Spain. It's glazed on the inside and unglazed on the outside and emotes an older, more rustic way of doing things," she explained. "People are really sold when we say this is the original cookware. This is the cauldron on the hearth. These products are old and have a story that can be told."

As Connolly describes the traditional paella pan, her knowledge almost makes you feel guilty if you've ever passed off paella cooked in any other pan as traditional.

"We tell our customers the origin of the dish and that there are many choices for pans, but that this is the traditional pan and is what people are really using in Spain. We focus a lot on what people have been doing for hundreds of years," she continued, "There are even little dents in the pan, dimples in a circular pattern that some people say are essential for the cooking of the rice. Since the dish and the pan have grown up together, we focus on the advantages of the pan — the symbiotic relationship between the two. You can make great rice dishes with numerous ingredients, but you can't get the authentic traditional flavors without the right pan."

Now That's Sales and Education

"Our inventory is all encompassing. We have everything from the recipes to the cookware to the music to the ingredients to the ceramics to the glasses. We have the whole picture," Connolly explained.

And, according to our experts, that's the way to showcase this trend — as completely and succinctly as possible. While you may not want to stock ingredients and accoutrements for every ethnic cooking trend, the ones you do focus on have to be fully stocked. By doing so, you become a resource for consumers who will immediately think of your store when considering a new cuisine. They will turn to you for more than a simple purchase — they will rely on you for a lesson.

Both The Spanish Table and Sur La Table stock the cataplana, a Portuguese cooking vessel gaining attention recently. Sur La Table merchandises these products alongside paella pans in the Spanish cooking section.

A customer heading to Sur La Table for a tagine will discover the traditional Moroccan brazier stocked nearby. Someone interested in Asian products might stop at the store to buy a wok and discover sushi-making tools and beautiful tabletop in the same section.

"We merchandise by country and culture," Behnke said.

At Sur La Table, cooking classes and ethnic kitchenware go hand-in-hand. It's just one form of education the store creates for its customers.

"Among our many classes are sushi and Moroccan classes and we use a lot of those products in the classes and we feature them in our catalog with the recipes," Behnke explained. "We have complete instructions and recipes designed in-house that are included with each product."

"Obviously, everything to do with Asian cooking is popular — cooking with the wok and all things to do with sushi. Our sushi classes sell out consistently. Sushi is expensive to eat out and in most markets across America, you can buy really good-quality fish, so it makes sense to recreate this at home," she explained. "Stir fry is another very simple style of cooking that's not that expensive."

Regional Italian cooking styles continue to capture home chefs' imaginations. Pasta makers are selling well, as are pasta-making tools, such as ravioli molds and chitarras.

"Even products like the molcajete are selling well and that's not a typical mortar and pestle. We make sure people understand how to season them and care for them because if you don't season them properly, you are chewing grit," Behnke said.

Teaching customers how to season a molcajete might seem like a simple point, but it is what will drive customers back to your store. On the other hand, if you don't show them the proper technique for using unfamiliar equipment, they will have a poor experience with that cuisine and lose faith in both their ability to recreate authentic dishes and your store as a resource.

Many ethnic cuisines are already in vogue. As a retailer, it's your responsibility to not only learn about these trends and educate your staff and ultimately your customers, but to also keep a watchful eye on up-and-coming trends. Who knows what's on the horizon. Maybe Norwegian chef Andreas Viestad's upcoming introduction to the American marketplace will translate to an increased interest in Scandinavian cooking. Maybe the Moroccan trend will extend to South African- and Indian-inspired cuisines.

The only way to be sure is to ask your customers, stay up-to-date on consumer magazines and cooking shows, and educate yourself on the tools necessary to recreate popular cuisines at home. The best advice concerning ethnic kitchenware is to keep yourself informed — you never know when you'll be explaining how to make Aebleskive or giving a lesson on the function of a chapati press.

Global Kitchenware Primer

>> To season a lava Molcajete, grind a handful of wet, raw rice in it once a day for a week until you've smoothed out the roughest edges in the bowl and the rice no longer looks dirty. A technique to teach your customers is to hold the pestle so that your fingers are parallel to its length (not wrapped around it), with the smallest end toward the palm. Keeping the wrist loose, rotate the pestle easily around the bowl while exerting even pressure.

>> Used to make spaghetti, the Chitarra has a rectangular frame strung with steel wires. A thin sheet of pasta dough is placed across the wires and gently pressed through the wires with your hand or a rolling pin. The spaghetti formed falls onto a sliding tray beneath.

>> The word Tagine refers both to a North African dish and the pot for making it. Tagines have a beautiful conical shape, which is believed to enhance its cooking properties. Classic tagines are used on a brazier over hot charcoal, but today's versions may be utilized on the stove over a diffuser or in the oven.

>> The Cataplana's origin is the southern province of Algarve in Portugal. It is a large, lightweight copper pan with the curved shape of a clam; its top and bottom are hinged together. The cataplana, which is used for cooking a number of Portuguese dishes, brings out the fullest flavor of whatever it cooks.

>> Rustic-looking terra-cotta casserole dishes used in Spanish, Mexican, and Latin American cooking are called Cazuelas. They are left unglazed on the outside so they can absorb both moisture and heat better, but have a smooth, glazed interior. Explain to your customers that this cookware must be soaked for six hours before the first use, and then occasionally thereafter to rehydrate the clay.

>> Traditional polenta pots made of unlined copper that are called Paiolos are narrower at the bottom than at the top. The pot's shape facilitates the heat distribution throughout the mixture. It also facilitates stirring, which should be done every few minutes so the polenta cooks evenly.

>> Earthenware Comal griddles are made of unglazed earthenware and are the traditional surfaces used for cooking tortillas. The comal has to be cured to seal its pores before it is used. Slather a thick paste of unslaked lime and water over the entire surface. Then, place the comal over charcoal or gas heat — never on an electric burner — until the coating bakes dry and burns away without blackening. Scrub clean.