Archive for the ‘Food Alert Trends’ Category

Future Foodservice Innovation: Look to Where Food Sucks and Establish Integrity

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Posted 18 Aug 2010 — by S.E.
Category Food Alert Trends

I have a theory about culinary innovation that’s pretty simple but worth talking about. If you want to find the next area of innovation in foodservice, look to where food sucks. It’s not hard to do; there are lots of places where food is sold without regard to quality or integrity. When entrepreneurial chefs find these pockets of low food quality they transform them for the better and find success along the way. The food truck revolution of the past three years is an example. Food trucks used to suck. So are the phenomenal success stories of Chipotle Mexican Grill in the fast casual segment, Stonyfield farm in the yogurt category, and Amy’s organics in retail. Each of these companies established integrity within a category where it was lacking. The list of places where you can find food with integrity is long and getting longer. However, there are still some dark spots out there that present an opportunity for innovation and need fixing.

Recently, I had two food experiences while traveling that confirm my point. While riding the Amtrak Acela to Penn Station in New York I visited the dining car to check it out and get a snack. The set up was nice with approximately one third of the car dedicated to a small pantry, service counter and cashiers station and the rest of the car set with a small counter with seating and places to stand with food. It was nice enough except that there wasn’t a single item on the menu worth eating. Like an airliner, the dining car was outfitted to transport cold food cold and hot food hot but was ill equipped for fresh food preparation. Out of desperation I ordered a turkey sandwich and went back to my seat and unwrapped the sandwich. The turkey slices were compressed into a solid clump centered in a soft roll with a slice of tomato and a limp and bruised lettuce leaf. Needless to say, I didn’t eat it. It seems to me that the Amtrak folks and their designers and consultants place convenience over quality when it comes to food. Amtrak should be able to deliver a high quality turkey sandwich on board with very little fuss and a reasonable price. What a shame they haven’t taken the time to do things right. My prediction: someone’s going to figure out how to bring some credibility to Amtrak’s dining car or the dining car will die a slow death. Integrity with proper control yields financial success, convenience over quality yields failure.

My second example comes from a recent Southwest Airlines flight. That both these bad-food examples occurred while I was trapped on a moving vehicle is noteworthy. Travelers like me become captives with no other food options while on a train or plane. Is this what allows the people in charge of foodservice at these entities to set the bar so low? It pains me to bash Southwest, I actually like the airline on many levels and think they provide tremendous value to travelers. However, the food options on board their flights are weak. I avoid eating the crap they serve in most cases but couldn’t avoid it on a recent trip. By the time I deplaned at the connecting airport on this trip I was starving. The airport was small and regional with no quality food options (captive again!). Sullen, I walked to my gate, boarded my flight and was sitting in my seat before hunger surpassed my idealism. I pulled a Southwest menu out of the seat-back pocket and read it to see if there were any real options. Aside from peanuts, pretzels and Nabisco snacks, there were none. The flight attendant allowed me to select one of each and I sampled.

Studying each of the small packages, I notice that none make any kind of statement about food integrity. I wonder where the peanuts are from, whether they are conventionally sourced, whether my crackers are free of transfats, and whether my pretzels are organic (no) and lye-free (no). For more than five years researchers have been working to genetically engineer the allergens out of peanuts. Are these peanuts modified? I would love to know. No need to open the peanuts, my stomach is turning.

Studying the Nabisco Cheese Nips I notice the product has nineteen ingredients. All of them are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) but if given an option I will pass when it comes to eating the partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, monosodium glutamate (flavor enhancer), sodium caseinate (casein neutralized by lye), and acetic acid (flavor enhancer) in these nips.

My view is aligned with Professor Kelly Brownell at Yale and Professor (and rock star author) Michael Pollan at Berkeley when it comes to foods with more that a few ingredients. Pollan recommends only eating processed foods with five ingredients or less and Brownell questions whether foods with as many ingredients as my Cheese Nips are actually drugs or controlled substances in disguise. Again, I am left searching for food integrity. At this stage I toss all three packets into the trash when the flight attendant passes by. Southwest has made famous their meager food options as part of their cost containment and low price strategy. This is fine. However, if you serve a snack of any kind, make sure it has integrity. Find a sustainable, scalable source for these types of snacks with high food integrity or ditch them all together.

So that’s my strategy; I look for where food sucks and consider the discovery a revelation. If you are an entrepreneur, seek out where food sucks and you will find your next great opportunity. If you are a major manufacturer, develop products with true integrity and ditch the engineering. It is only a matter of time before the wave of integrity that is washing over American foodservice cleans out these last remaining pockets of bad food. Serve us food with integrity and we will come!

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White House Chef Sam Kass: The Most Powerful Chef in America

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Posted 23 Jun 2010 — by S.E.
Category Food Alert Trends

Sam Speaks

On June 4th, 1000 chefs (including me) attended the launch of first lady Michelle Obama’s “Chefs Move Schools” initiative on the south lawn of the White House. This was an event associated with the “Let’s Move” program mentioned in an earlier blog post. The day started with a series of presentations on healthy eating and wellness strategies for public schools at the JW Marriott Hotel around the corner from the White House. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented along with others including Billy Shore of Share our Strength. At 10:00 am 1000 chefs departed the J.W. Marriott Hotel and headed west down Pennsylvania avenue cuing up at the east gate leading to the south lawn. Imagine the scene; 1000 chefs dressed in their whites walking in unison down Pennsylvania avenue.

JW Marriott

After crossing through the east gate and through multiple security checkpoints I enter the white house grounds at 10:30 am. For the next ninety minutes, I have the pleasure of walking around the vegetable garden planted on the southwest corner of the lawn adjacent to E-street, observing the new beehive up close, and interacting with dozens of colleagues, celebrity chefs, and friends. In addition to regular folks like me and my immediate companions, the festivities attract a cadre of world class chefs including Daniel Bolud, Marcus Samuelson, Tom Coliccio, and Sherry Yard along with television chefs like Cat Cora, Rachel Ray and 994 others of varying culinary backgrounds and pedigrees. By now, the launch has been widely reported in the press and from what I can tell “Chefs Move Schools” is gaining momentum. At 11:30 we make our way up toward the White House to take our seats. Through a series of lucky opportunities (and some good friends), I find three seats in the front row. Its 11:50 a.m. now.

Bee Hive

Looking up from my seat, I am overwhelmed by this place. As a major fan of American history, my mind is reeling. Leaning back, I scan over my right shoulder, catch the eye of chef Ellie Krieger of the food network and realize she is sitting just a dozen or so yards from where Richard Nixon made his final departure from the White House and his presidency on Marine One, hands raised waving peace-signs over his head as he stops at the helicopter door to smile before taking off for the last time. My skin is tingling. Turning around to face forward, I sit quietly reflecting and realize that slightly to the right in front of me are the twin staircases leading up to the south portico where Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated for his historic fourth term, the ceremony kept sedate in 1945 due to the ravages of war around the world and (most likely) FDR’s failing health. This is hallowed ground. I close my eyes for a minute to soak it in. I hear the door below the south portico open and then shut and I open my eyes again. An attendant has exited the ground floor and is carrying a small table with two glasses of water on it to the podium. I guess we are about to get started.

Cora & Samuelson

At 12:00 noon sharp, Ms. Obama exits the vestibule on the ground floor of the White House residence through the arched doorway just below the south portico onto the lawn to deliver her speech. There is a nervous excitement settling while she heads toward the podium. She opens her speech by commenting on the blazing heat. It’s above 90 degrees and we are all sitting, sweating in full sun, a sea of starched white chef coats reflecting the sun back at Ms. Obama. After a couple of additional comments she states “I have to say I wasn’t sure when I heard the goal of having nearly a thousand chefs on the South Lawn.  I said, right, Sam, sure, whatever. But you all pulled it off.  And I am just so proud and honored to have you here at the White House.” The Sam she is so proud of is Sam Kass, special events chef at the White House.  Kass is a Chicago native who graduated from the University of Chicago, was on the crew at Avec under Chef Paul Kahan, and, according to the Chicago Tribune, is founder of Inevitable Table also in Chicago.

 

The Obama’s recruited him to join the White House culinary team in January 2009 and since then he has been building a reputation as a culinary activist with a broad goal to improve the world through food. He has a heavy leaning toward local and organic foods and was the primary influence behind the now famous White House vegetable garden. Watching Kass throughout the morning and hearing Ms. Obama’s comments makes me realize that, as of today, Kass has brought culinary activism to a whole new level. He has joined the national ranks of chefs Alice Waters, Ann Cooper, Dan Barber and, more recently, Jamie Oliver. Along with being a historic moment in culinary activism, Kass has just become the most powerful chef in the country.

Jose Andres, Ellie Krieger

He has taken a page out of the Obama’s play-book and garnered the support of major grassroots organizations like Share Our Strength, Chef’s Collaborative, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, The American Culinary Federation, Research Chefs Association and many others to attract in less than 10 days 1000 chefs (at their own expense) to this event. Hundreds of chefs are mobilizing and volunteering at schools around the country and Sam is the force behind all of this along with Ms. Obama. This is the first time I know of that a chef at the White House has leveraged his or her role to create grassroots change in foodservice; a real historic moment.

Garden

Over the years I have dined with and spoken to other chefs who have worked at the White House. Henry Haller was a true gentleman who quietly went about his business and refused to speak about any of the details surrounding the foods that particular presidents preferred or disliked or matters related to politics. Chef Roland Mesnier, although absolutely hilarious and fun in social settings, shares a bit more of the details that Haller was hesitant to divulge but never ventures into social change or other political matters. My discussions with these chefs were about food and about continually increasing the quality of dining at the White House. It never occurred to them that being a chef at the White House would be a source of power and cultural change. They never remotely touched on activism. Considering the popularity of cooking and food as entertainment today (I am surrounded right now by celebrity chefs) the level of culinary activism emerging at the White House seems to be a natural progression. Kass is a chef of his generation just as Haller and Mesnier were. Kass is blessed with a contemporary food and culinary culture (and an administration) that allows his culinary activism to be taken seriously. He stands on the shoulders of Haller, Mesnier and the others who came before him.

 

Ms. Obama continues to speak. She is talking about empowering chefs to improve school foodservice now and states “This has been a long conversation that Sam and I have had over the years, and I think it’s just pretty powerful to see what started out as a few conversations in our kitchen on the South Side of Chicago turn into a major initiative that hopefully will change the way we think as a country, not just about the health of our kids but about our health as a nation.” Her talk lasts another 30 minutes covering inspirational topics related to health and wellness and detailed statistics that show she (her staff) has done her homework.

 

Ms. Obama wraps up her comments. “So let’s move, let’s get this done.  Thank you all for the work you’ve done.  And I look forward to seeing you all in the months to come.  Thanks so much.”  She steps down from the podium and heads indoors while the secret service ushers us back out the east gate. Chefs continue to mill about taking pictures, talking, and basking in the moment, many are now sunburned and parched. Have we entered a heightened era of culinary activism? Perhaps, only time will tell. One thing is for sure, that Kass is taken seriously marks a watershed moment in the evolution of the culinary profession and a tremendous step forward for American Chefs. What a privilege to watch history as it happens.

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Chef Jacques Pepin Reflects on Culinary Soul

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Posted 06 Jun 2010 — by S.E.
Category At Home, Fine Dining, Food Alert Trends

Chef Jacques Pepin & Chef Jean Jacques Dietrich

It’s the end of May and I am on an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean at 33,000 feet sitting next to Chef Jacques Pepin. Through a series of interesting events, we are together in the third row of a three hour long Southwest airlines fligh. He’s on the aisle and I am at the window with an empty seat between us. Although I am trying to remain cool, my thoughts are percolating. To me, this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime situations that come along from time to time and I want to maximize the opportunity and ask him two or three good questions.

Along with memories of watching Julia Child’s WGBH Boston cooking show broadcast on my grandfather’s old black and white Philco television back in the early 1970’s, I remember Jacques as the first real French chef I ever saw. I have most of his cookbooks and have been a fan for decades. He’s 74 years old now and still going strong while aging gracefully. He is quite stylish in a dark blue blazer with light blue and lavender colored stripes, kaki pants, and trendy lavender colored shirt. His brown eyes are piercing with energy if not fading to grey a bit around the iris and he is sporting a neatly cropped grey beard and mustache. He still has long eyelashes and those same arched eyebrows that cause him to look like he is going to say something at any minute. His mind is sharper than ever and I am hoping he is willing to talk.

How often does a chef like me get three hours with a person like Jacques Pepin? What a privilege. I am nervous and sweaty. What will I ask him? I hope I don’t sound stupid. I can’t boil water compared to this guy. However, I do have some questions. What does all this recent “food-as-entertainment” mean to our profession? Where is the profession headed? “What makes a good chef good?” “What is the essence of a good chef?” “Is there a common set of competencies that all great chefs share?” In no way am I a student of Taylorism and scientific management, but I am drawn to breaking things down into their component parts as a way of making them easier to understand. Developing knowledge is easier when done in increments. There has to be a secret. What is the secret Jacques? Can such expertise be broken down into its component parts? I start by asking what makes a good chef good. It was a good question to ask!

Jacques weaves an answer to my questions into the 90 minute conversation we have in increments while flying north. “A good chef is true to himself. He knows his culinary soul and stays true to it. He doesn’t resist it; he builds on it and develops it.” He doesn’t over complicate it but instead climbs the mountain of culinary competency, becomes an expert, only to proceed back down the mountain to the place he started having made a full circle. The difference is, upon retuning to the base he is educated and competent, capable of many things but drawn to the basic and elegant cookery of his beginnings. His mastery has given way to elegant simplicity, elegant simplicity that only the highest degree of mastery would allow.

“A chef is as much a product of his upbringing and surroundings as the food he creates. Although he changes and evolves there is always a foundation within him laid in place during his youth.” Layers of food memories, food preferences, and food emotions are part of this foundation. To reject this foundation could be perilous. It could potentially cause a chef to become something he is not, although it is natural for a chef to expand beyond his origins, but only to a certain extent. The greatest chefs are the ones who climb the mountain to the summit, head back down and embrace the place where they started. They master culinary method and technique and understand their food foundation. Often, the combination of these two things is what defines the greatest chefs. Mastery paired with simplicity and a good dose of humility. Rather than try to cook what the people want for the simple sake of impressing them, it is better to cook what you love, what you keep in your culinary soul, to cook it perfectly, and to serve it because it represents who you are rather than to impress the eater. By default, the eater will be impressed because of the integrity and quality of your work. Chefs that make it full circle have established and embraced their culinary soul, developed their own identity, and found their own style and voice in the profession. After nearly 60 years in the profession, Pepin has the wisdom and experience from which to draw such an image. His message is profound.

Julia Child's Kitchen

When asked about his most profound food memory he explained that he’s had so many that it is impossible to select just one. However, he does go on to tell me a story. When he was younger he spent hundreds of hours working with Julia Child in her kitchen at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the years, the two filmed television shows, tested recipes for cookbooks, and cooked for pleasure there. Of the many chefs who worked with Julia, Jacques was second only to Julia and a few of her closest assistants in the amount of time spent in her kitchen. These facts are common knowledge in the food community, but what many people don’t know is that Jacques had one of the most profound moments in his life when he visited Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The experience was overwhelming for Jacques and he described is as “weird” and “unsettling” to see a place where he spent so much time preserved as a historic landmark. His description of the experience made clear that the contributions he and Julia made to the evolution of eating and cooking in American culture occurred by coincidence rather than by design. Seeing her kitchen encased in glass made clear to him in a flood of emotion the incredible extent of their contributions. His description of the experience caused him to well up with emotion and we fell silent in the moment.

While the emotions dissipate, we both enjoy some quiet time. Our plane is starting its descent now and I am frantically typing my scribbled notes into my laptop before the details of our conversation fade. He asks for my business card and offers to set up a visit to the French Culinary Institute sometime. I thank him for sharing his thoughts and wisdom and wish him well. I hope our next conversation will occur in a kitchen.

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Food For Thought at TEDx Cambridge Today

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Posted 16 May 2010 — by S.E.
Category Food Alert Trends

For some reason, I found out about TEDx Cambridge’s “How Do You Eat?” event a bit late. It was too late in fact to get a ticket, but early enough to coordinate a trip to Boston for a visit anyway. With a good friend’s business partner presenting and another culinary contact presenting as well, it made sense to attend even if just to observe from the edges.

MIT Stata Center

TEDx events are locally hosted and loosely linked to the highly regarded TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference held annuallysince 1984  in Long Beach, CA. Today’s event was held at the stunning Stata Center on the campus of MIT in Cambridge, MA. “How Do You Eat?” was coordinated by a team of volunteers led by Jennifer Bréa, a Ph.D. student at Harvard University. Bréa knows TED well; she was a TED fellow in 2007 and 2009.

According to the TEDx Cambridge website, ““How do you eat?” is a question meant to be interpreted broadly.” In the spirit of TED, the question is meant to cultivate “ideas worth sharing.” More than two dozen speakers wrestled with the question and presented findings from disciplines as varied as neuroscience, economics, community farming, and of course, culinary and pastry arts. The program came in short twenty minute bursts or quick five-minute bites of content provided by each of the speakers. One of the main reasons I enjoy this type of program is the opportunity to hear from a wide array of presenters across disciples and then synthesize and draw conclusions from the overlap in concentric circles of thought that each speaker yields.

With such a variety of talented individuals presenting, at times it can be hard to find a connection from one speaker or thought to the next. However, there are always connections and today was no different. Here are the patterns I noticed:

 1: Food and Eating are Cool: The topics continue to gain respect in the academy, and they are topics that attract really smart and talented people!

 2: Elegant Simplicity is a continuing refrain: From fixing food systems, to creating new dishes, to fixing the earth itself, elegant simplicity is the holy grail. Less is more. Natural is better. Less harm yields more good. (Fancisco Migoya, Dan Barber, Jennifer Hashley)

3: Eating Related Behaviors aren’t caused by what you think: For some reason the misconceptions associated with food and eating are extensive. From food related decision making and taste preferences to wine purchases, the force behind the decisions we make and the behaviors we engage in are not the ones you think ( Dan Ariely, Don Katz and Coco Krumme).

4: Science and technology are intertwined with Food and Eating. Like it or not the overlap between science, technology and food are here to stay. Chefs are becoming scientists and scientists, chefs.  (David Gracer, Kenji Alt, Chandler Burr, Wylie Dufresne)

5: Community is Important: Eating is a social activity and we need to focus on authentically engaging each other when joined around a table. Food and beverage aren’t the main event, the people with you while eating are. (Vanessa German, John Gersten, David Waters, Glynn Llyod, Richard Chisolm)

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Achatz “Next Restaurant” A New Meal Ticket Model?

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Posted 04 May 2010 — by S.E.
Category Food Alert Trends

Alinea

Last night while tracking the James Beard Awards I picked up a twitter from Grant Achatz (2010 winner for Outstanding Service) about his two newest ventures: Next Restaurant and Aviary. Achatz, in my opinion, is a culinary genius and a real survivor. His story is so compelling; one of great triumph in the face of potential tragedy. Any new venture he is involved with is destined for success. It appears, based solely on my experience viewing the website for Next that he isn’t going to disappoint us with these new ventures.

The concept behind Next is fascinating. Diners will buy tickets to “attend” a meal as if the experience is equivalent to going to the theater, a concert, or other event. Meal tickets? Yes, meal tickets. Achatz will offer four heavily researched and tested prix fixe menus per year featuring food from great moments in culinary history and the future (yes, the future).  This is going to be interesting. Prices for tickets will vary according to the date and time you attend. I wonder if Next Restaurant will usher in a global meal ticket based, food concert model. If anyone can pull this off, it’s Achatz and his creative team. Watch for Next sometime in the near future, it will open this year (2010).

I also want to mention Aviary, Achatz’s new bar concept. Aviary is a bar without bartenders. Chefs will prepare drinks from a kitchen. Like Alinea, it is likely that Aviary will feature a high degree of thought and refinement, from the food and beverage, to service ware, interior design and other details. A bar without bartenders featuring chefs who prepare both food and beverage from the kitchen, count me in.

One of the reasons I love tracking events like the James Beard Awards is the peripheral news that surfaces as a byproduct of the event itself. Achatz’s announcement of his two new concepts is an example. If you haven’t visited the Next Restaurant web site, go there. The website itself is an experience. Once both places are up and running, I will visit and follow with another post. Until then, keep an eye on Grant and his crew, once again they are on the verge of shaking up convention.

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Restaurant Charlie Post Mortem

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Posted 02 May 2010 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining, Food Alert Trends

On March 19th Charlie Trotter closed Restaurant Charlie and Bar Charlie at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas when restaurant traffic, like a Las Vegas rain, dried to dust. Restaurant Charlie was closed at the top if its game because there wasn’t enough traffic to sustain ongoing operations. Another great restaurant killed by a bad economy! The 120 seat restaurant, including a wonderful kitchen table perched on a private balcony above the hot line, and 18 seat Kaiseki bar was nothing short of spectacular and, more important, employed some really nice and talented people. Although seeing Charlie struggle makes me sad (he’s a great guy), the effect this closure had on people like Chef Vanessa Garcia and Kaiseki Chef Hiro Nagahara is even sadder. Restaurant Charlie was just starting to gain momentum when it closed.

Hagar and Trotter

I would never have been to Restaurant Charlie if it wasn’t for Trotter himself. When I bumped into Charlie Trotter at the Venetian late last year, he was chatting with rocker Sammy Hagar. Charlie was as energized as ever with a big smile on his face and asked if I had eaten at Restaurant Charlie yet. I hadn’t and my response was disappointing to him. Hagar rolled his eyes. Wrong answer I guess. Trotter paused for a moment, asked if I was willing to endure a quick 5 course Kaiseki, (I was), and within 10 minutes I was on my way across the casino floor to the restaurant.

Chef Hiro

Alone and feeling a bit off guard, I sat at the end of the Kaiseki bar which was half full. After a minute or two my waitress stopped over and introduced herself (her name was Penny). I told Penny to guide me through the five course menu with wines. She smiled and departed to key in my order. A few minutes later Kaiseki chef Hiro Nagahara approached me and said hello. Hiro and I spent the next two hours chatting about his background, his love of Japanese cooking, global food, blending the traditional with the modern and the wonderful freedom he has to be creative at Bar Charlie.

Although I have more I could write about the way Nagahara waltzes his way through the kitchen while conversing with customers, I will save that story for another entry. Instead, I offer you the photos below with a feeling of loss that Restaurant Charlie is gone along with an enduring sense of privilege that I got to eat there before it closed. Keep your eye’s peeled for Chefs Vanessa Garcia and Hiro Nagahara in the coming months, both  have bright futures. In particular, watch for Garcia. Fresh from receiving one Michelin star in 2009, and nominated for best new chef for 2010 by The James Beard Foundation, it will be interesting to see where she winds up.

 Five Course Kaiseki Menu

1st Course

Hirame, Black Grapes & Celery

Champagne Paul Goerg Blanc de Blanc Brut, France

 

2nd Course

Spanish Blue Fin Tuna, Umeboshi & Seawater

The Southeast Cocktail

3rd Course

Tasmanian Ocean Trout, Cauliflower & Tapioca

2007 Riesling Kabinett “Maximin Brunhauser Herrenberg” von Schubert, Mosel, Germany

 

Pork Belly

4th Course

Kurobuta Pork Belly, Herbed Cream & Baby Carrots

2007 Ken Wright “Abbot Claim” Pinot Noir, Yamhill-Carlton District

 

5th Course

Simple Coconut and Passionfruit Sorbet

6th Course

Black Plum with Red Shiso & Charred Cinnamon Ice Cream

2006 Hauth Kerpen “Wehlener Sonnenuhr” Riesling Beerenauslese, Mosel German

 

Friandise

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