Category Archives: Blog

You Don’t Realize How Good You Have It

You don’t realize how good you have it till it is taken away. I Never Thought I Would Say This. It is not a good time to get together with friends to socialize over a meal. There I said it. The coronavirus has changed the rules of the game. This is temporary. Life as we know it will return. Things are returning back to normal in Asia and they will return to normal everywhere else. When they do, we need to make sure we get together with friends to socialize over a meal

Right now, instead of socializing over a meal with friends, we need to be thinking about Social Distancing. I had never heard about selfies growing up and Social Distancing is certainly new to our vernacular.

What does Social Distancing mean?

If you google it we are told:

Social distancing is a term applied to certain actions that are taken by Public Health officials to stop or slow down the spread of a highly contagious disease.

There is a great article in The Atlantic.

While we are dealing with the Coronavirus there are new rules:

  • Dinner parties of more than 4 people don’t make sense
  • You should be keeping a personal space of at least 4 feet
  • If you go to the gym use a sanitizer before and after touching equipment
  • Try to shop at times when the store is less crowded
  • Keep your hands away from your face
  • Wash your hands
  • Wash your hands
  • Wash your hands

Right now, it is all about reason and common sense versus panic and hoarding. People are going CRAZY! Situations like what we are going through right now, bring out the best and worst in people. The local markets here in Memphis are a perfect example. Last week I saw a man buying 12 bottles of Isopropyl alcohol. He was hoarding. Today you can’t find isopropyl alcohol anywhere. Saturday (yesterday) you couldn’t find a potato anywhere in Memphis. Sunday (today) the shelves are restocked. It reminds me of September 11, 2001. I remember talking to my sister who worked in the city that day. She said as she walked the streets, it was really weird. It was really quiet, and what was really really weird, New Yorkers were being nice to each other.

Speaking of common sense, you might want to enjoy a glass of wine. The funny thing is that with all the panic buying, the supply of wine hasn’t been an issue here. The stores are well stocked and my guess is that production continues.

For now, have the glass of wine, plan your next supper club dinner party for after the coronavirus and enjoy a good laugh.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

 

What Is In A Name?

Have you ever wondered: What were they thinking? when reading a menu? I certainly have:

  • Traditional Italian restaurants in Chicago are famous for selling “Garbage Salads”. Last I checked, most people wouldn’t think of eating Garbage.

  • I Recently saw a restaurant promoting their weekly fish special as their “Deadliest Catch”. Of course, it is a play on the TV show, but who would want to eat something linked to death and dying?

It’s all about promotion. When you are writing a menu you are trying to get your guests attention, but more importantly, you our trying to whet their appetites. Some tricks of the menu writing trade include:

  • Using French…calling something a hors d’oeuvre sound a little better than an app.
  • Citing an ingredient as Organic appeals to some. I see Organic and think that without the use of pesticides there is a better chance that it has bugs in it.
  • Today Local is overused. My favorite was hearing a “Citi-ot” (Idiot from NY City) ask a farmer at a farm stand in Eastport NY if his pineapple was local. Granted Long Island is an island, but winters there are not quite the same as the Hawaiian islands.
  • Quite a few things are promoted as Heirloom. I see something being promoted as an Heirloom tomato and I wonder if the tomato will be left in someone’s will?
  • Using Italian always works. Quite a few cuisines are polarizing, (Not everyone likes Korean kimchi) but just about everyone loves Italian food.

Then again what do I know? I learned about marketing working for Maxwell House Coffee back in the day when we used the same actress that played the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz as Cora to promote coffee. As a kid, that Wicked witch scared the heck out of me. She still scares me. It could explain why I don’t drink coffee 40 years after working for Maxwell House.

I wonder how many consumers saw the connection?

The moral of this story is that you might want to stick to terminology that has food appeal when writing menus. For me, the thought of eating garbage or risking death, simply doesn’t work when making a menu choice. Then again blood sausage has been around for a long time

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

 

Featured Image is of  Ela and Lucien Vendome with Susan Kenny in front of the Ugly Mug coffee shop in Memphis…PS they don’t sell Maxwell House Coffee

It’s All About The Sauce

The key to French cuisine is in the sauce. You can have the simplest of ingredients, you don’t even need the best quality ingredients, but if you have a great sauce, you will have a great meal. Sauces can be complicated, but they don’t need to be. The Secret Sauce to a good dinner party is the combination of good friends, good food, good conversation and a few glasses of wine doesn’t hurt.

My friend Lucien Vendome once took me to a very old restaurant on the Ile de la Cite in Paris. Lucien is a world renown French Chef. That night we had a wonderful meal highlighted by fantastic sauces. Lucien explained that there is a chef working in the basement kitchen of the restaurant that makes the same sauces night after night for years. Those same sauces have been made in that restaurant for over 100 years. There is something to be said about tradition and great sauces. The lesson is that with repetition, even the most complex task becomes simple.

We had a great sauce and the secret sauce working this week. Lucien and Ela Vendome visited Memphis from Poland and we took  advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with a few old friends from Kraft Food Ingredients. Lucien Vendome, Mike Taylor, Jody Driver, Pam Gray and I got together along with our significant others. It was a perfect forum to tell a few of our favorite stories:

Mike Taylor, Lucien and I were driving from Frankfort Germany to Reims France several years ago. I am driving and struggling to stay awake. To keep a conversation going, I asked my car-mates to describe what their mothers cooked for meals on a daily basis.

Lucien growing up in the south of France, started with: The day would begin with a baguette and confiture…

Mike growing up in east Texas, started with: We had beans and then we had beans and if times were really good we had beans and tamales…

As the French would say “Viva La Difference!”

Jody Driver and I were at the IFT trade show quite awhile back. Jody did a masterful job of managing and enormous enterprise-wide effort. One year I can remember her being 9 months pregnant with her son Gregory (Now 25) and sneaking off to a quiet corner of  the booth to sing Happy Birthday to her then 3-year-old daughter Lindsey.

Pam Gray was always our style guru. Back in the day when Manolo Blahnik shoes were all the rage, Mike Strauch and I would have an annual over/under bet on how many pairs of shoes Pam would bring to the week-long IFT event.

The over/under was 12 and the safe bet was the over

The KFI Team back in the day

The meal we had Thursday night was a lot of fun. The old joke is: How do you cook for a world renown French Chef…You let them cook. Lucien and I have been cooking together for years. When it comes to sauces, he is the master and our meal this week was All About The Sauce!

Le Menu

Entrée

  • Citrus Melon Napoléon

Le Plat Principal

  • Rack of Lamb Provençal
  • Pommes Frites
  • Haricot Verts

La Sauce

  • Roasted Garlic a la Vendome

Dessert

Peach Cobbler A La Mode with Raspberries

(Note: Citrus, Melon Napoleon)

Le Plat Principal – Rack of Lamb, Pommes Frites and Haricot Verts

Lucien and I doing the “Culinary Shuffle”

The KFI Alumnus…Pam, Jody Lucien, Mike & Paul

Click here to watch the Culinary Master At Work

Lucien called it a simple sauce. I counted over 15 ingredients and close to 7 processes. Of course, for Lucien it was simple, but the flavor was amazingly complex. By layering in flavor with:

  • Sautéing the mirepoix with herbs
  • Reducing the stock, wine and base with tomato paste
  • Roasting the garlic
  • Sautéing the shallots
  • Adding the roux
  • Condensing with immersion blender
  • Top noting with mustard and butter

The lesson is that with repetition, even the most complex task becomes simple. The sauce was magical and the evening, with its  Special Sauce was memorable

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.