SheeFood

A Few Whole Grains With My Sugar, Please

I received a prize in the mail the other day. General Mills Foodservice sent me a box of goodies to sample—and hopefully write about. I tore into the single-serving packages of Fruity Cheerios, reminiscent of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops; Honey Kix, with a flavor so similar to Quaker Oats’ Cap’n Crunch; Strawberry yogurt flavored Simply Chex, that I haven’t tried yet; and there was more.

 

While getting my sugar high, I read the letter that came with the yummy assortment. “The Dietary Guidelines recommends that Americans make half their grains whole, however, nine out of 10 kids don’t get enough whole grain. For K-12 foodservice operators, getting kids their whole grain is a big job, which is why General Mills partners with schools to make serving whole grain easy.” Then I looked at the packaging, and sure enough, each of the treats was made with whole grains!

 

Wow. What planet are they from? (I know, if they read this, I’ll be off the PR free-product list.) I’ll ask the obvious. Does the presence of whole grains make Fruity Cheerios healthy? Well if that’s the case, we also need more fruit in our diets, so Ben & Jerry’s can you please send me some strawberry ice cream (real strawberries, please). We also need more vegetables in our diet. Hostess Cakes, can you pop a carrot cake in the mail to me? I promise, I’ll write about you.

 

These are the great nutrition choices K-12 foodservice suppliers are coming up with for schools. It so reminds me of the School Nutrition Association annual convention I attended a few years ago when I went from booth to booth to see what manufacturers had to show for healthy lunches. The most startling healthful new product to me was gooey whole-grain fried cheese sticks. I was mortified speechless then, and here I am, speechless again.

 

You GO, Michelle Obama, in your drive to reduce childhood obesity by 2030 by encouraging physical fitness and better nutrition, including more fruits and vegetables. I’m sorry, General Mills. I love the Fruity Cheerios, but let’s not imagine that they are solving any nutrition problems.

Jody Shee 

Egg Splosion

Just how many ways are there to eat eggs? As if there weren’t already enough, how about horse-urine soaked hard boiled eggs? That’s how my husband explained the tangy black eggs I selected and ate off a buffet in Malaysia before he had a chance to see what I had just popped into my mouth. They are century eggs, something quite common to the culture. Of course, he now explains, horse urine isn’t necessary anymore; there are other ways to get that flavor. All this begs so many questions that I won’t rehearse again here.

 

But my current intrigue with new ways to eat eggs comes from our frequent visits to a local Korean restaurant, where steamed eggs come with every meal. We fight over them. Why hadn’t we ever thought of this ourselves? After all, eggs are my husband’s favorite food, I discovered when we were in the dating quizzing phase. Steamed eggs are natural for the Korean culture, given the heavy granite bowls (dolsots) they cook in. We’ve experimented with steamed eggs ourselves now and think we are onto something novel to American tastes.

 

I must admit that while my husband was saving the best for last (egg yolks) for breakfast, lunch or dinner while growing up in Malaysia, I was avoiding them in Kansas. I didn’t eat my first fried egg until I was 16. It would have happened sooner at age 10 at a Campfire Girls outing when we made them on top of gypsy stoves. But my egg slipped off into the dirt. That was OK and maybe subconsciously planned. I didn’t like the idea of eating runny yolks. But at 16, I spent the night with a friend, and her dad made us fried eggs for breakfast. I’m pleased to say I was polite enough not to give a no-fried-egg confession or a pre-opinion. And it turns out, they were good.

 

I wondered the most popular ways they are served at restaurants in our country. Here’s a look at the top ways among the 580 restaurants, including chains, tracked by Chicago-based Mintel Menu Insights.

 

Top 10 menu items centered on eggs

 

Menu Item Dish	Number of Items
Breakfast - Omelette	1,177
Omelette	354
Egg	156
Quiche	130
Scrambled Eggs	107
Frittata	45
Huevos Mexicanos	41
Poached Eggs	21
Deviled Egg	9
Peppers & Eggs	7
Number of Items	2,052

Source: Mintel Menu Insights

 

Jody Shee

The Fluid Coffeehouse Market

Right now, I’ve got a coffee buzz. Not from drinking it. (I hate coffee.) Rather, I’ve been knee-deep in trend info for a soon-to-be-released report for Chicago-based research company Mintel (Coffeehouses & Donut Shops – U.S., June 2010). I spent part of the day yesterday looking at social media discussion on the coffee beverages offered by various coffeehouses, including Starbucks and McDonald’s McCafé. I waded through hundreds of blog posts from a neutral, topically organized database of such. The thing that surprised me most was that I could not find one positive blog comment about McCafé coffee. I looked. And I saw very few negative comments about Starbucks. In fact, what I noticed about them was the high regard basic bloggers have for the whole Starbucks experience (except for posts from those who hate big corporations.) The negativity surrounding McCafé coffee was only matched by that expressed for Burger King’s BK Joe coffee. (Burger King announced in February that by the end of September, Seattle’s Best Coffee—owned by Starbucks—will replace the BK Joe coffee program. Good move, based on the comments I read.)

 

I wasn’t surprised when I read an article today in Chicago Business (powered by Crain’s) that reported sales of McCafé hot drinks dropped from 55 a day per restaurant when the coffee brand launched in May 2009 to about 25 per day earlier in June. (See http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=33545)

 

People aren’t liking McDonalds coffee. I know. I read their comments. I think it’s an expectation thing. What do people expect from McDonald’s? Cheap food. Is anyone really going to trade the splendor of Starbucks for a cheap cup of coffee from McDonald’s? The coffee would have to be phenomenal, and apparently, it isn’t. So forget taking business away from Starbucks (which the chain was trying to do). On the other hand, McDonald’s has come through with its own salvation – the McCafé Frappe (blended mocha or caramel ice drink with only a hint of coffee served with whipped cream and a chocolate or caramel drizzle). Now we’re talking. I’d buy that in a heartbeat. The Chicago Business article said, “Frappes have boosted sales quickly this spring, even without heavy advertising, and the drinks helped McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales grow 3.4% in May from the same month last year.” There’s been no crying at McDonald’s over lost coffee sales. I think the chain just found its coffee niche, thanks to sugar and cream.

 

Meanwhile, Starbucks, which has no coffee  problem to overcome, is still buttressing its image. I read an article today on readwriteweb.com that said by fall 2010, Starbucks will drop its two-hour restriction on free Wi-Fi. And upping the ante, it will give internet users free access to the Wall Street Journal online (I’d go to Starbucks for that, and remember, I hate coffee). Later, the chain will announce details of other free-access opportunities, one of which will be The New York Times. (You recall, they will soon make you pay for their content. Does this mean not if you’re logged in at Starbucks? Brilliant, if that’s what’s coming.) You GO, Starbucks!  Jody Shee

Menu Trends From NRA

No doubt, Nancy Kruse was right on when she couched her foodservice trends and solutions workshop at NRA in May around operators’ two biggest concerns—the economy and sales volume. (Consumer surveys show that dining out less often is one way people are dealing with their personal-finance issues.)

Nancy focused on ways to bring customers back to the restaurant—through creative, craveable dishes; kitchen/culinary expertise; and making items consumers can’t or won’t make at home. Practically, she offered four ways to accomplish this: 1. Updated comfort foods 2. Hot preparation techniques 3. Flavorful/healthful approaches 4. Small plates with big value. 

A fireworks display of reasons and examples followed. Let me shoot some of her fireworks here – that I completely agree with and that I also see and believe will be ongoing through 2010 and beyond.

1. Updated comfort foods, as in meatballs, melted sandwiches and oatmeal. Subway offers its Meatball Marinara Sub. Chicago’s Gilt Bar boasts its “oven-roasted, hand-cut meatballs.” And there’s The Meatball Shop in New York City. For melted sandwiches, they already were popular, but imagine including mac & cheese in a sandwich, as in the Philly Mac & Cheesesteak sandwich offered by Great Steak & Potato Co., or the Cheesy Mac & Rib Melt from Grilled Cheese Truck in Los Angeles. While McDonald’s, Starbucks, Jamba Juice and Caribou Coffee have added oatmeal, here’s an update: Oatmeal Brulee from Catal’s in Anaheim, Calif. 

2. Hot preparation techniques as in grilling, braising and smoking. When Pizza Hut offers Grilled Pizza (and they do), you know something’s up. Legal Seafood even offers grilled fruit with its spice-crusted salmon. On to smoking. It sounds … expensive at Chili’s with its Pecan-smoked Ribs and the Smoked Gouda Cheeseburger at Back Yard Burgers. How about Smoked Ice Cream at McGrady’s in Charleston, S.C.?

3. Flavor and Health is something that has to be combined, because health without flavor won’t last. This combo also ties in well with trends toward ethnic cuisines and the local/seasonal movement. Let’s hear it for these examples: California Pizza Kitchen’s Moroccan Salad; McAlister’s Deli’s Chipotle-Peach Dressing; Watermelon “steak” from 51 Lincolns in Newton, Mass.; and Crab, Shrimp, Mango and Avocado Stack with spicy honey-red pepper drizzle from Bahama Breeze. 

4. Small plates with big value is a true winner. Emphasize value. It’s been most obvious in foodservice with the rise of sliders and the buzz around Cheesecake Factory’s now-famous small-plates menu. California Pizza Kitchen has its Small Cravings Line. Now consider Ruby Tuesday’s Mini Benedicts and Dairy Queen’s Mini Blizzard. McDonald’s is even testing Mini Meals. 

Each of these themes will be around for awhile, and if I was opening a new restaurant or adjusting my menu, I’d start here.     Jody Shee

Everything I Know About Social Networking…

Here I am, just a few weeks into blogging and tweeting. I’ve sat through numerous workshops on the importance of social networking and just couldn’t put the whys and wherefores together in my mind. Strangely, I learn best when I research and write on a topic. And that’s just what happened with social media/networking. I was assigned to write a social networking 101 article, directed to culinary students for Sizzle magazine (a publication of the American Culinary Federation, for which I was interim editor last year for a few issues). I interviewed some experts in the food world, including Lia Huber and Kathleen Flinn. Things clicked, and why would I NOT blog and tweet after that? I’m sharing the article to the right of this post under “My Articles.” See “A Guide to Social Networking.”  It can apply to anyone in any foodservice position.

Jody

Regulate the Produce Industry?

You’ve probably noticed that most of the food safety/illness outbreaks over the past several years have been related to produce, and not so much to meat. Why is that? Well, partly because the produce industry does not have government (as in FDA or USDA) regulations and oversight.

Does the produce industry want regulations? Amazingly, yes. They welcome government oversight, and in fact, are working with the House and Senate to develop some food safety, good-agricultural-practices (GAP) guidelines in the form of a bill for the President to sign. And what do they hope these guidelines will accomplish? For one, they’d like to see a standard that would apply to all growers, including small/local growers. Because, what if the big producers follow the guidelines (with the additional expenses that will likely come about as a result), and the small growers don’t?  They may soon find out, because the way the House and Senate are leaning is to exempt small growers. The discussion was had in a workshop session at the National Restaurant Association convention a couple weeks ago. I covered it for QSR magazine. Read the article here: http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/news/story.phtml?id=10981

Top picks from NRA Show

I wasn’t disappointed, generally, from my wanderings on the show floor at the National Restaurant Association show last week. Well, maybe the cherry chili was a bit of a disappointment. (It fell in the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” category.) I was out looking for novelty, and that sweet/savory chili got my “nice try” award. The biggest-buzz prize goes to the mobile truck displays. I could hardly get close enough to the truck for a brochure, there were so many crazed people flocked around. I talked to an analyst with Chicago-based Mintel for his thoughts, and he said that the future of mobile trucks will be with the big chains looking to diversify. It won’t be with independents, as it is now, because of inevitable food safety, insurance, tax (general operations stuff) regulations that will push aside the independents.

The “best idea” award goes to Chipstix for its potato swirl/slicer that makes a spiral-on-a-skewer out of a fresh potato. The unbroken swirl of “chips” goes into the deep fryer and then succumbs to spices like cheese & onion, Mexican chili, BBQ and sour cream & chives. The displaying company was at the show for the first time as the North American distributor of the equipment/concept. Loved it! And I wasn’t the only one. I talked to the foodservice director for the Idaho Potato Commission about it, and he said it’s a new trend.

Most interesting workshop, as always, was Nancy Kruse’s “Menus 2010: Turn Trends into Money Makers” session. Her insights are a subject by themselves.

By the way, for anyone curious about the cherry chili, I have the recipe. J