The Stew Video Chat (Chicago Tribune Blog)

LTH,

Seems The Stew, the Chicago Tribune's blog, is holding a video chat with Monica Eng and Kevin Pang on info and trends gathered at the recent Restaurant Association Show.

Video Chat is at 2pm Wednesday 5/23 and may (or may not ) be quite interesting.

Enjoy,
Gary

So this is the third year I've had to go to the NRA...emphasis on had to go.

I have to say it wasn't all that inspiring. There's a 'hot breakfast smoothie' that's getting a lot of traction from Sara Lee, and Coke's acquisition of Juan Valdez as a coffee brand also seems to be garnering attention.

And who could forget Tyson's new Chicken Fries? Holy Moly!

Maybe its just because it is what I do all day, every day? Who knows, if you aren't eating, sleeping, and drinking the foodservice kool aid, it may be interesting to listen in on.

/end of rant

Queijo wrote:So this is the third year I've had to go to the NRA...emphasis on had to go.

Off topic, but here goes:

I also visited the show today. And I also wasn’t wowed. I thought the FMI/Fancy Food Show, earlier this month, was better.

It was especially sad – but a reality of the times, I guess – to see a number of booths, where the basic message was “don’t bother spending time in the kitchen, increase your profits and customer satisfaction by opening a bag of our food product and microwaving it. Your customers will swear it was made from scratch.”

And I have to wonder if any of the David Burke Flavor Sprays™ is used on the steaks at his namesake restaurant in the James Hotel.

On the plus side, it was interesting to watch the The American Culinary Classic.

American Culinary Classics Research Chefs Association wrote:The American Culinary Classic is one of the world’s great culinary competitions. Top national teams from throughout the world including the Bahamas, Canada Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, USA and Wales will compete for the world’s top culinary title.

I watched the teams from USA, Canada and Switzerland prepare desserts. Unfortunately, there were no descriptions of exactly what they were making.

Here’s a chef adding foam to the USA dessert plates:


And a partially-finished plate from the Canadian team:


The Swiss, always precise with their timing, quickly whisked away their plate as I was jockeying to get a photo.


Finally, I thought this was interesting. These were being passed out at the Anheuser-Busch booth (and no, I didn’t have a Bud, I had a Redhook IPA):

Warning on the back:


Most fun giveaway - bouncy foam rubber: