Category Archives: Blog

The Costco Solution – Heat And Serve

The challenge that many young professionals have, is that they love to socialize over a meal with friends, but they don’t have the time to cook for a dinner party. One solution is to buy everything you need from Costco. You can buy everything: the wine and beer, hors d’oeuvres, first course, entrée, sides and dessert. You can even buy flowers for the table.  All you need to do is assemble, heat and serve.

While this blog focuses on Costco, you could take the same approach with a one stop shop at Kroger, Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s or a variety of other retailers. But, you have to love Costco. The varieties of options are endless. The quality is the best.

When I worked for Kraft Food Ingredients, Costco was a major customer. We sold them tons of cheese and flavors. We once were working with Costco’s Director of R&D. We had a flavor that would make a lesser cut of beef taste like a better cut. The R&D Director who was a French Chef by training, said to me: “You don’t understand, Costco doesn’t sell lesser cuts of beef”. It is true, the quality at Costco is better across the board. By the way, Costco wound up buying lots of our flavor.

Dinner party menus don’t get much easier than these. If you can read, you can prepare these dishes. The preparation instructions on the packages are very straightforward. There should be very little of an intimidation factor for even the most inexperienced cook.

The reason for this type of approach is to attract new participants to supper club. As I have shared this concept with more experienced dinner party hosts, I have heard some negative feedback. Such as:

  • The quality of the prepared/process food isn’t as good as homemade
  • Lots of people enjoy cooking and shifting to precooked meals takes from the fun.
  • Prepared foods are usually higher in salt and are not the healthiest options

As with anything, change isn’t easy. But, if this type of approach brings more people to the supper club party, that is a good thing.

I ask that readers of this blog to tell me what they think of the approach

Costco Menus

Stuffed Salmon Menu

  • Mini Quiches
  • Mediterranean Chopped Salad
  • Stuffed Salmon
  • Steamed Asparagus
  • Tiramisu

Herbes de Provence Lamb Shank Menu

  • Panko Shrimp
  • Asian Cashew Chopped Salad
  • Herbes de Provence Lamb Shanks
  • Steamed Broccoli
  • Oven Roasted Potatoes
  • Caramel Tres Leches Cake

Lemon Butter Cod Loin Menu

  • Hummus and Chips
  • Parmesan Cesar Salad
  • Lemon Butter Cod Loins
  • Organic Beets With Balsamic Glaze
  • Steamed Cauliflower Florets
  • Cherry Pie A La Mode

Stuffed Chicken Breast Menu

  • Crudité With Ranch Dressing and Hummus
  • Lobster Bisque
  • Broccoli And Cheddar Stuffed Chicken Breast
  • Mac And Cheese
  • Spaghetti Squash Salad
  • Mango Mousse

Again, please let me know your thoughts on this type of approach in the comments section.

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.

 

Food Trucks Deliver Food Trends

If you want to have your Supper Club dinner party menu to be on trend you might want to check out what is hot with your local food trucks.

Research has told us for years that there is a cycle in how trends develop and come to market. Food Trucks are an early indicator of what is to come. The cycle of food trend sources include:

  1. Food Trucks

Food Trucks are  at the forefront of what is trendy. Quite often, trucks are run by young and creative chefs, that bring imaginative food to the market. And if it isn’t good, the food truck won’t be in business long.

  1. White Tablecloth Restaurants

High end restaurants are next in line. They take what is trendy and often what was “peasant food”, add a little panache to delight their upscale clientele. And yes, they are proud of their product and charge accordingly for it.

  1. Fast Casual Restaurants

This segment takes what has been tried and tested to serve to their customers. Trends have been proven and modified for the mainstream.

  1. Retail Markets

At the end of the development cycle is what is being sold at your supermarket. Major food manufacturers watch each segment of the development cycle and pick only what has been fully developed to bring to market.

My friend and culinary muse, Lucien Vendôme, recently went to a so called “Food Truck Rodeo” in Poland. They had over 40 trucks from all over Poland staged outside the football stadium. It had all type of cuisines from Arizona Pastrami (I have no idea how they came up with the name) to Balkan burgers and Vietnamese steamed buns.

One thing that struck me from the pictures is how “Americanized” items were. My guess is that foodies in Poland are watching a lot of the Food Chanel’s “Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins”.

If you want trendy food and great ideas for your Supper Club Menu, Check out your local food Trucks.

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.

Author’s Note: The featured image is of my niece’s Sage Vegan food truck. She runs a chain of vegan restaurants in Los Angeles California area and has a fantastic offering on her Food Trucks

Joe Biden Is A Toucher, Always Has Been

I have been telling this story for years. Back in the late 1980’s I worked for General Foods in Dover Delaware. I was the designated Rotarian on the staff. This meant that I had to go to a monthly Rotary meetings with local business people. Back then, Biden was the US Senator from Delaware and once or twice per year he would come speak to the group. He would walk around the room and randomly touch people, put his hand on your shoulder, touch your arm…He did it to me all the time.  It gave me the creeps, still does*. It was like some political consultant had told him that the way to connect with your audience is to touch them. Yuck!

This is not a politically driven story. It has absolutely nothing to do with sexual harassment or the “me-too” movement. It just means that Biden is a toucher. The other thing that was a little creepy about Biden back in the 1980’s was his hair implants. Little did he know back then that being “follickly challenged” was a good route to the presidency. He had opted for the implants (then they were more like wounds) versus the artful comb over that looks so creepy in orange. My father, who was a modified comb-over guy, used to say: “God only made a few perfect heads. The rest, he put hair on”.

Have you ever been to a dinner or cocktail party where someone violates your space? You don’t know them too well and they just get too close. I put that in the same category of Biden. My buddy Urs from Switzerland was the same way. He would corner you at a dinner party and talk right into your face. It didn’t help that he was a pipe smoker. You could try to move away, but he would follow you. It is just one of those things that happens at parties. There is no real solution, you just have to keep on moving.

If you ever see Joe Biden heading your way, just keep moving.

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.

PS For the record, my best friends, my best an at my wedding is gay. The day he came out, or as he put it: “switching teams”, he said I was somewhat homophobic. He also told me not to worry since he was: “The butchest gay I would ever meet”. The good news is that we are still best friends and he is a great Uncle John to my kids.

 

Photo credit: The feature photo was found on the girlsaskguys website