April 2008 Blog Posts (154)

On The Road Again!

Appell Pie

Once again I took to the road and visited Tennessee in February to see clients and to attend a family wedding. While there, I had two dining experiences worthy of reporting simply to underscore the importance of service in our industry.

Going to dinner with 4 adults and 3 children at a Cracker Barrel in White House Tennessee sounded like a good idea. I was tired though, so when the waitress asked for our drink order I asked for Scotch. At first she was… Continue

Added by Howard Appell on April 18, 2008 at 2:35pm — 1 Comment

Status Quo….Latin for “We are happy we are in this mess”

This past Sunday, our local pastor rolled this off her tongue as she was discussing our connection to a higher power and it struck me as pertinent to some of the business world out there.

I have heard these a lot lately……how about you?

This recession is killing us…..

Some people just complain to get a free meal….

People are spending a lot less…..

I am in a tough labor pool and it’s hard to find good people…..

This generation doesn’t have a strong… Continue

Added by Andy Swingley on April 18, 2008 at 1:33pm — 4 Comments

Find a 16 year old mentor

At the Woman's Foodservice Forum conference in D.C. this week one of the presenters challenged the group to find a 16 year old mentor. I thought the concept was cool and it reminded me of my best mentor of all times Antwan, a 17 year old grill cook at McDonalds.

My first day taking over the restaurant a fight broke out between a customer and my counter employee. It started to get ugly when my employee threw a shake at the customer and the customers fired back a wooden straw holder… Continue

Added by Amanda Hite on April 17, 2008 at 6:27pm — 3 Comments

Top 10 take aways from the Woman's Foodservice Forum D.C. Conference

10. Networking, eating, dancing and learning opportunities with 3,700 WFF members

9. The Single Male members of WFF were the most enthusiastic of the bunch

8. The silver pen I was wearing made me cool, new members were actually asking for my autograph

7. Linda Pharr, Chair elect and Chief Foodservice Relation’s Officer Batrus has great hair

6. 75% of the 3,700 other attendees have bad hair

5. Teresa and her entourage from the People Report… Continue

Added by Amanda Hite on April 17, 2008 at 4:25pm — 5 Comments

Red Wine with Fish Revisted

The concept, red wine with fish, is now as firmly entrenched in culinary phraseology as red wine with meat and white wine with fish. Exactly how does this work, and why?

Almost twenty years ago David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson wrote a book about it (Red Wine with Fish – out of print today), explicating a basic methodology that also applies to all wine and food matching. The thinking going that all wines and foods find their matches in two… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on April 17, 2008 at 2:38pm — 2 Comments

Choice Beef Galore (a sequel)

The chart of the week is percentages of cattle grading choice and prime. As noted in recent issues of the Weekly Commodity Report, the percentage of cattle grading choice has trended well above prior year averages. During the past month, the percentage of cattle grading prime has climbed as well. With the increase in the percentage of cattle grading at premium levels we have experienced a notable surge in premium beef output. Thus the USDA choice boxed beef cutout index (a general indicator of… Continue

Added by David Maloni on April 17, 2008 at 2:25pm — 4 Comments

Specialty Coffee Associaiton Trade Show & Conference

WEBSITE CLICK HERE

Specialty Coffee Association of America

20th Annual Conference and Exhibition

Minneapolis, Minnesota

May 2-5, 2008

The theme for this year’s conference, “Roots,” revisits the foundation of our specialty coffee industry: regional, independent, forward-thinking coffee companies joining together to share information, ideas and strategies, while creating… Continue

Added by Spencer on April 17, 2008 at 12:58pm — No Comments

Employee Comment Box

I think an employee comment box should be available at all restaurants/businesses. Many times, employees may want to bring something positive or negative to management but don't. Also, reading the comments allows management the right to take action or not! As a FOH employee, I know how hard it is for management to know EVERYTHING that goes on with 20+servers on the floor a shift. Its also a great way to make your employees feel valued. A restaurant works best with happy employees, right? We are… Continue

Added by Kris Rainer on April 17, 2008 at 12:34pm — 7 Comments

An interesting site I ran across.

http://www.sneakysunday.com

I received this in my email this morning. The website gives you the "best of" for cities across the United States, be it a restaurant, bar, nightclub, hotels and entertainment. It also has a calender of events for each particular city.

Added by Sallie on April 17, 2008 at 10:05am — 2 Comments

Top Chef: Battle of the Sexes

You can see it right? The Top Chef producers have set viewers up for a battle of the sexes.

During last week's show, the producers broke up the lovable lesbian couple Jennifer and Zoi (Zofer tees coming soon!), and concluded with a fight scene that would've made Soprano's producers proud. Spike, who earlier in the episode remarked… Continue

Added by Nina on April 17, 2008 at 9:33am — 3 Comments

HERE'S A GENUINE HAWAIIAN OPPORTUNITY !

If you live and work on the Big Island in Hawaii and you're a chef or you

have a new restaurant there......here ia a great opjportunity to generate some

buzz.

The reporter (below) is looking for some story leads and people for pieces about food and culinary adventures there, on that island.

This ONLY applies if you are on the Big Island.

Contact this reporter directly if this is you and you'd like some "free ink".

I hope it works out… Continue

Added by Roy MacNaughton on April 16, 2008 at 3:10pm — 4 Comments

Can I Get That To Go?

Can I Get That To Go?

The other day I was driving past a McDonald’s that they had knocked down and are rebuilding. It took me a minute, but I figured out what was different. They had reduced their seating area substantially. That is weird. I thought that the object was to get people in to their restaurant. I mean, isn’t that what it is all about? A couple of days later, I read an article in the NRA’s newsletter about the industry trending towards to go service at all levels of… Continue

Added by DJ Tryba on April 16, 2008 at 3:07pm — 3 Comments

Free Trip to Hawaii for the winning recipe

http://kona-blue.com/recipes.php

Wouldn't it be great if a FohBoh member won?

Added by Steve Paterson on April 16, 2008 at 2:13pm — 1 Comment

The Most Memorable People In The World

Pop quiz (and it doesn’t count if you look up the answers.)

Who were the highest paid CEO’s for the past 3 years?

Who were the last three Heisman trophy winners?

Who were the last three winners of the Miss America pageant?

Who were the last three winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature?

Who were the last three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize?

Who won the last three Academy Awards for Best Actress? Best Actor?

So, ho did you do? You… Continue

Added by David Hottle, CPC on April 16, 2008 at 11:09am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator Food businesses failing...

Browsing fohboh I see that there is a really strong accent on 'making money' and while this is the purpose of the food 'business' I have always used a very different approach.

As a student and teacher of Applied Meta-Physics I have always looked to the 'inner workings' of the mind and of the food business to understand how it works.

Now what this approach has taught me is that the food business is really simple - but only when approached in a simple way and with the right… Continue

Added by Stephen J Serva Dei on April 16, 2008 at 7:02am — 5 Comments

Testing the Power of a Restaurant Social Network

Okay, here's the deal. My daughter has one of those school projects that all parents love. You know the ones that they're supposed to do in on their own but the reality is that we have to get involved and have to do pretty much everything?

For this one, every student had to pick a country, do a report, and bring a dish from that country to a class event. Being the busy working mom type who can't cook, I immediately said, yes, we have… Continue

Added by diane on April 15, 2008 at 7:50pm — 5 Comments

Thoughts on Hell's Kitchen 4/15

I think the show just keeps getting worse and worse. These aren't chef's and there is no cooking going on. What are your thoughts??????

Deadliest Catch new season started today and I am upset I missed it.

Last season Hell's Kitchen was so much better and Kitchen Nightmares was great.

Which do you prefer Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares?

Added by Sam on April 15, 2008 at 7:03pm — 6 Comments

Mandatory Alcohol Server Training in Berkeley and Solana Beach California

Berkeley and Solana Beach California have both recently adopted MANDATORY responsible alcohol server training for all front of the house employees who handle alcohol. You must use an approved a California Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) program. If you need any help implimenting or training please give me a call at 312-715-5375 or email at sstanovich@restaurant.org

Added by Sam on April 15, 2008 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Butter Me Up!

Skippy vs. Jif? That debate is SOOOO o-vah! Why would anyone settle for a plain old PB&J when you could have a Peanut Butter with European Mocha on a warm baguette?

As a child, I used to gaze longingly at my friends who got Jif and grape jelly on Wonder Bread. My enviro-hippie mama made sure that I had all-natural, organic peanut butter and no-sugar preserves on…

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Added by Nina on April 15, 2008 at 3:58pm — 2 Comments

A Drunken Samurai's Way of Wine

Some curious, yet totally sensible, thoughts concerning why certain foods, and food and wine combinations, always seem to be so "right" for us once occurred to me when I reading about the period of Shojin Ryori in late 19th century Japan.

Influenced by the austere lifestyle of samurais and Zen Buddhists, Shojin Ryori was basically a vegetarian temple approach to cooking which placed emphasis on food of five colors (green, red, yellow, white… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on April 15, 2008 at 3:40pm — 1 Comment