Entries tagged as ‘new york times’
Posted by Jennifer Heigl
Food writer Ruth Reichl was up in arms last week over a recent New York Times article noting that many food companies are now placing the responsibility of food safety on their consumers.
According to the Times article, companies like ConAgra, who experienced a recent food recall with their Banquet pot pies, have essentially resorted to wiping their hands of food safety responsibility by adding new ‘food safety’ instructions to their packaging. Other food manufacturers, such as Nestle and the Blackstone Group, are taking the same route, conceding that they cannot guarantee food safety in their products.
Consumers, as well as those within the food industry, are outraged by the passive take on food safety.
Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said companies like ConAgra were asking too much. “I do not believe that it is fair to put this responsibility on the back of the consumer, when there is substantial confusion about what it means to prepare that product,” Dr. Osterholm said.
Surprisingly, much of the difficulty in ensuring food safety lies within the food production industry itself. While there has been discussion about developing a stronger ‘food passport’, ensuring food safety at each level of production from harvest to final distribution, some groups within the industry, such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association, feel as though the production information is ‘unnecessary’ and often ‘not practical or possible to provide.’
No wonder Reichl was appalled at these recent developments! It’s absolutely outrageous to assume that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to ensure food safety! Shame shame, big companies.
Be a savvy consumer! How can you ensure food safety within your home?
- Boycott companies that can’t guarantee the safety of their food products, like ConAgra, Nestle, and others!
- Utilize locally grown organic and natural food products within your home.
- If you don’t own one, purchase a food thermometer, and become familiar with food temperature requirements, from storage to cooking.
- Become an educated food advocate! Learn where your food is produced, how it’s produced, and how you can ensure food safety for yourself and your community!
Categories: business · food · government
Tagged: blackstone group, boycott, conagra, daily blender, food recall, food safety, grocery manufacturers association, nestle, new york times, organics, ruth reichl, sustainability
Posted by Jennifer Heigl
A few of our favorite weekly foodie newsbits:
Oy! Whatever will we do without Bruni? In case you missed it, the big food news of the week is regarding New York Times and Diner’s Journal writer Frank Bruni. According to the Times announcement, after five years at his regular post, Bruni is leaving to focus on personal writing projects, like his upcoming memoir, and settling into more of a writer-at-large role for the Times’s Sunday magazine. Needless to say, food blogs across the interweb are all a-twitter, not only with the announcement but as to who will be replacing the revered reviewer. It’s a Bruniocalypse, according to Eater New York!
Mega-company PepsiCo announced the launching of a new website to assist restaurateurs in growing their business during these difficult economic times. According to Restaurant News Resource, GrowMyRestaurant.com was developed ‘to assist foodservice operators…by providing information and tools via a one-stop shop that address an operator’s most pressing needs — such as driving traffic, growing average check, managing employees and understanding their customers and competition.’
What could be better than reading Bon Appetit? Having them buy you dinner! The Bon Appetit Now website is currently running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will win a $250 dinner-for-two gift certificate at the restaurant of your choice! I suppose it could be a dinner for one, or even four, depending on how much you (or your companions) can scarf down! Good luck!
Categories: business · economy · food · food & drink blogs · fun food links · web
Tagged: bon appetit, bon appetit now, Diner's Journal, eater new york, frank bruni, growmyrestaurant.com, new york times, pepsico, recession, restaurateurs, slashfood, sweepstakes
Posted by Jennifer Heigl
As an organic advocate, I was very interested in attending the recent ‘Farm to Table’ panel at the Vegas Uncork’d festival. Top chefs, including Bellagio Executive Chef Edmund Wong and sustainability advocate Rick Moonen, discussed the importance of supporting local and sustainable farms by designing menus that feature those food items. However, during the panel discussion, Bon Appetit’s Restaurant Editor, Andrew Knowlton, posed a great question: If you had the choice to purchase organic asparagus from another country or locally grown asparagus, which would you choose? Hands down, all four participating chefs opted for the local option, with BA’s Editor in Chief, Barbara Fairchild, noting that we needed to ‘get people to buy fresh and local’.
The New York Times had an interesting article about companies who are starting to use the appeal of local food production to sell more products. The article highlights the Frito-Lay company and their utilization of local potato producers for their potato products. With the interest in local markets, Frito-Lay announced the launch of a new marketing program specifically noting their use of local food producers.
“Local for us has two appeals,” said Aurora Gonzalez, director of public relations for Frito-Lay North America, which is owned by PepsiCo. “We are interested in quality and quickness because we want consumers to get the freshest product possible, but we have a fairly significant sustainability program, and local is part of that. We want to do business more efficiently, but do it in a more environmentally conscious way.”
‘Locavore’ advocates, however, have difficulty adopting this new drive for ‘local’ promotion. While companies are promoting the use of local farms, the producers are generally local to wherever the food product is manufactured, and not necessarily local to the consumer, leading to what some consider misleading advertising.
“The ingenuity of the food manufacturers and marketers never ceases to amaze me,” said Michael Pollan, the author of “In Defense of Food” and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine. “They can turn any critique into a new way to sell food. You’ve got to hand it to them.”
While I’m certainly encouraged by the growing use of local food producers, I’m concerned as well about possible ‘greenwashing’, or ‘localwashing’ – the practice by some companies of utilizing key terms, like ‘local’, ‘green’, ‘organic’, ’sustainable’, or ‘natural’ to merely sell more food products.
To ensure that you’re not being ‘localwashed’, become an educated consumer. Ask where your food stuffs are produced. Inquire as to whether the production is sustainable, organic, and/or natural. Best of all, don’t believe everything you read. Sometimes, it’s just for the sale!
Categories: business · food · green
Tagged: 2009 vegas uncork'd, andrew knowlton, barbara fairchild, bellagio, bon appetit, edmund wong, frito-lay, green, greenwashing, in defense of food, local food production, localwashed, locavore, Michael Pollan, natural, new york times, organic, pepsi, potato, rick moonen, the new york times magazine
Posted by Jennifer Heigl
Author Frank Bruni has a great post today on his New York Times blog, Diner’s Journal, commenting on the recent move of many restaurants to begin charging for their ‘extras’, namely the standard bread and butter.
It seems many diners have a problem with being charged for items that were previously complimentary, so Bruni tries to take an alternate view, suggesting that more restaurants charge for bread and other assortments. He offers that perhaps, with charging for such items, you’d receive a higher quality of item, rather than the kitchen leftovers. He refers to the bread and butter starter listed on the Momofuku Ssam menu:
Here’s it’s $8 for those people who really care about bread and butter and are really planning on eating this bread and butter. Everyone else can simply move on to the next menu item.
I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment of many restaurant visitors who would rather pay for the bread and butter (and other complimentary items) when they wanted it, rather than having bread service included in the entree prices.
Moreso, the reason restaurants are needing to charge for such items is certainly because the lack of overall menu sales. By reducing pricing on main menu items, and eliminating the ‘free’ stuff, restaurants will inevitably save more money at the bottom line. I say absolutely!
Categories: business · economy · food · food & drink blogs · restaurants
Tagged: bread and butter, economy, frank bruni, menu changes, momofuku, new york times
Far be it from the rancid conditions of the meatpacking industry in the era of Upton Sinclair and his novel The Jungle, but the latest outbreaks of salmonella has achieved worthwhile concern from consumers and health officials.
While the previous administration did nothing to little to restructure the current regulations on food safety, advocates of reform have faith in President Obama.
During his campaign Obama spoke on the matter:
“Far too often, tainted food is not recalled until too late. When I am president, it will not be business as usual when it comes to food safety. I will provide additional resources to hire more federal food inspectors.”
The latest incident of salmonella poisoning involves tainted peanut butter/peanut products manufactured at a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Ga. The company has been charged with manufacturing the peanut butter in an unsafe environment and knowingly distributing the contaminated product.
In the recent years tomatoes, jalapenos, cantaloupes and spinach have been sources of foodborne illnesses measuring in large recalls and losses in crops and revenue.
Currently several bills involving food safety reform are floating through Congress. The major items on theses bills, save for creating an entity independent of the FDA – which had been a proposal of Illinois Senator Richard J. Durbin – include stricter inspections of domestic and foreign facilities, regular access to food testing and a reconstruction of the system used to detect outbreaks.
Durbin told the New York Times, “I think I can prevail on the president to take a fresh look at this. We can no longer forgive or explain what’s happening with food safety in this country.”
Categories: food · government
Tagged: congress, FDA, food contamination, food safety regulation, new york times, peanut butter, peanut corporation of america, president obama, salmonella, senator richard durbin, upton sinclair
Posted by R.K. Gella
On Wednesday employees of three B.R. Guest Restaurants arrived to work without jobs. Coming across the wire was news that Steve Hanson, the founder and president of B.R. Guest Restaurants, was closing three venues, Fiamma (SoHo), Ruby Foo’s (Uptown) and Blue Water Grill (Chicago), all effective immediately.
Hanson said, in a statement to the press via his PR office:
“I just couldn’t sustain the restaurant with one 6:00-9:30 seating. And on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays we weren’t even doing that. Wall Street’s [woes] have been devastating to business. These guys just don’t have the expense accounts anymore. Fabio was great to work with, the staff was great. It’s all a product of the economy.”
The closure sent shockwaves throughout an anemic industry, bringing the realization that this may very well be just the beginning.
The following day Eater.com ran a list of all the three-star club members (New York Times reviewed three-star restaurants in the city) as if morbidly setting the spread on what establishment would flounder next.
The Three Star Club is precarious: diners eat with very elevated expectations and as a result are not always satisfied with the value-experience proposition with which they’re met.
But was it the three-stars? Frank Bruni weighed with his hypothesis on the recent turn of events, citing the ubiquitous business philosophy of: location, location, location.
“You show me a restaurant that does consistently bonkers business in good times — or one that’s doing just fine in these bad times — and I’ll show you a restaurant that has been plotted and fashioned with a real understanding of its zip code: of who lives there; who travels there; and what the general aesthetics, spirit and even mythology of the particular neighborhood, block, avenue or even street corner… Fiamma was trying to make it in an odd no man’s land of sorts.
Regardless, these hindsight observations offer nothing but assumption and recap. Determining who will survive the economic crunch has become reminiscent of a trip to Atlantic City. Will the high-end establishments, with patrons only mildly deterred by the financial crisis prevail? Or will it be the low-end market, banking on cheap eats and cheap booze, but with a fiscally sensitive clientele?
Who would have bet against Steve Hanson? A few months ago he could play it cocky with a Forbes magazine reporter outlining his restaurant philosophies and business savvy.
“There are 20,000 working parts in a restaurant,” he said in the Forbes piece. “You have to watch them all.”
Indeed you do Mr. Hanson. Absolutely indeed.
Categories: business · economy · restaurants
Tagged: b.r. guest, blue water grill, closings, economy, fiamma, forbes, frank bruni, new york times, ruby foo's, steve hanson
Posted by R.K. Gella
Say Champagne, think celebration. The two have become quite synonymous since Dom Perignon accidentally stumbled upon the recipe in the Abbey cellars during the 17th century (and to think the French monk initially sought to rid his wine of effervescence in which he considered a flaw.)
Four centuries later the world still prizes the tickle of bubbly. And as the anticipation for grandest party of the year peaks, the revelers stock up on the tipple of choice for the occasion… sparkling wine.
Wait. Sparkling wine? Don’t you mean…
The reason for my refrain of using the term Champagne comes two fold:
1. To present an accurate statement.
2. To avoid any lawsuit the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne) may charge me for misrepresentation.
I jest on my second reason, but only slightly. The CIVC has gone through tremendous length and litigation to preserve the integrity of their wine. But preservation might have come at a cost. For those unfamiliar with Champagne, choosing between Champagne (wines strictly from the designated region that comply with AOC classifications) and other sparkling wines (wines from a variety of regions that utilize different types of methods) may come down simply to the price tag.
In June the New York Times reported that there was a bright outlook for Champagne, with emerging economies growing a taste for the wine, however, financial turbulence has halted those expectations as demands for luxury products have dropped dramatically.
The Financial Times reports that Champagne sales have declined by 5% in the US over the course of nine months, leaving producers with the hope that sales increase during holidays.
Unfortunately, their hopes might be thwarted by Champagne alternatives.
In the US, Cava (a Spanish sparkling wine of Macabeo, Parellada, Xarel·lo an Chardonnay created in the same method as Champagne) has taken over sparkling wine sales in attribute to its quality and price point. Cava, produced throughout eastern Spain (though primarily in the Penedes region), is often a fraction of the price of Champagne making it a more desirable buy.
And for those who are looking to drink immediately, sparkling wine is seldom left to age, benefiting frugal purchases, which comes as a contrary to the usual outline of purchasing still wines.
Other sparklers that can be equally as enjoyable and economical include sparkling Prosecco or Asti wines (Italian), German Sekt, and California sparkling wines (many investments come from French houses).
If you must stay in France, remember there are several regions outside Champagne that make quality sparklers without the hefty price tags. Vouvray, located in the Loire Valley, crafts quite drinkable wines from Chenin blanc, while Blanquette de Limoux from Languedoc in southwestern France, applies noble craftsmanship using Mauzac, Chenin blanc and Chardonnay.
This is in no way to dissuade you from a vintage Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame or Perrier-Joet Fleur de Champagne – especially if someone else is pouring it – these remain remarkable wines, yet what is truly more remarkable, and completely possible to find, is a wine in which quality rationally aligns to price.
Categories: business · international · spirits · the short buzz
Tagged: 2009, cava, celebration, Champagne, CIVC, dom perignon, new york times, sparkling wine, veuve cliquot la grande dame, wine
Ugh! The food news is silent, folks! Everyone’s either at home eating or scrambling for their nearest restaurant or grocery store after freak snow storms! Today, I present a few of my favorite end o’ year links! Enjoy! Imbibe! Party like it’s 1999.
Oh…oh, really? Only the 28th? Oh..well…go easy for a few more days then. And then, you know. 1999.
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Categories: food
Tagged: ambassador east, bars, bill daley, Chicago, chicago tribune, frank sinatra, glenn collins, hangovers, high fructose corn syrup, new years, new york times, qsr magazine, restaurant news resource, the pump room, top wines
December 24, 2008 · 1 Comment
Posted by R.K. Gella
President Bush made a rendezvous back to his Texas Ranch this week to enjoy his holiday break, his final as the president of this country. A month from now President Bush will hand over the keys of the White House to the new family on the block, the Obamas.
Yet, in absence of the Obamas’ expected welcome mat and herd of moving trucks, speculations on President-elect Obama’s administration have indeed begun.
Yesterday, the NY Times ran a piece anxiously dissecting what could be Mr. Obama’s policy on nutrition and food. Those actively working to reform policies concerning food and agriculture are keeping their fingers tightly wrapped that Mr. Obama will demonstrate an understanding and insightfulness that the previous administrations sorely lacked.
“He is the first president who might actually have eaten organic food, or at least eats out at great restaurants,” Ms. Gehman Kohan, of Obamafoodorama.com, said to the NY Times. Spiaggia and Topolobampo, two highly regarded Chicago restaurants have been documented as Obama favorites.
To Mr. Obama’s food savvy and palate refinement, which are debatable to a degree – note he’s not sucking down shakes as a rinse to a Big Mac meal, at least not publicly – there are a few other indicators that he will be an advocate on the side of foodies and nutritionists.
They point out that when Mr. Obama was a child, his family used food stamps and that in interviews he has referred to his appreciation of the philosophy put forth by Michael Pollan, the reform-minded food writer.
What might be most revealing to the direction of the new administration’s outlook on food could remain with Mrs.Obama. In interviews, Michelle Obama has talked about guiding her family’s diet, purchasing organic food and cutting out high-fructose corn syrup. She has also divulged that her family loves bacon. What family doesn’t?
It is apparent that Barrack and Michelle Obama are indeed sensitive to the evolving landscape of food and nutrition. But foodies or not, our food obsessed culture will demand that the Obamas keep in stride with the rest of the country. This is not to say that the Obamas’ refrigerator will have little influence on the rest of the country, it is foreseeable how it will, but perhaps our nations changing perception on food has already had an influence on them.
Categories: food · government
Tagged: 2008, barack obama, diet, food reform, foodies, holiday, michelle obama, new york times, nutrition, president bush
November 7, 2008 · 1 Comment
Today’s post from New York Times’ blog The Moment made my mouth water, offering a short list of the best organic chocolates in the industry. From Dagoba to Equal Exchange, if you haven’t had a the chance to indulge, deny yourself no longer with proper recommendations in hand.
The top pick?
Kallari: 75 percent cacao, organic, Rainforest Alliance, single-source but bean blended Ecuadorean chocolate: fruity, dried cherries, vanilla, smooth, cacao finish. Suggestion: serve it as is at the end of a dinner party.
What other organic chocolates are recommended? Read the rest of the article here. Be sure to check out writer Jill Santopietro’s coverage of the Kallari chocolate history as well.
Categories: business · food · food & drink blogs · green
Tagged: chocolate, holiday, kallari, new york times, organic, the moment
