Great Ideas Before Their Time

Starbucks stole our idea to build a chain of Viennese coffee houses. Yes, Maxwell House of “Good To The Last Drop” fame, had a strategic plan to invest in a chain of coffee houses in the U.S. in 1982. We didn’t do it , but Starbucks did and it has been the best thing to happen to coffee consumption since the discovery of caffeine.

Because of Starbucks, coffee is cool again and you should definitely serve it as part of your supper club dinner party.

I worked for Maxwell House in the early 1980’s and coffee wasn’t cool. Baby Boomers didn’t drink coffee. We were the “Pepsi Generation”. We had found another way to get our caffeine. Besides, our parents drank coffee and they certainly weren’t cool. I can remember sitting at dinner with the President of Maxwell House when coffee was being served and telling the waiter I didn’t drink coffee. The President said to me: “Kid, have him fill the cup, its all about consumption”. Maxwell House was desperate to get baby boomers to drink coffee.

The chain of Viennese coffee house was a brilliant idea…way before its time. We made our pitch of the strategic plan and got shot down by General Foods (Predecessor to Kraft) upper management for two reasons: The concept was:

“outside of our strategic core” and
“it wouldn’t play in Paducah”.

Back in that day, the Harvard Business School was preaching to have companies focus on their strategic core. In other words, stick to what you are good at. And, General Foods certainly didn’t know anything about Viennese coffee houses. We also got a speech from the then Chairman that he didn’t care what would be popular on Manhattan’s east side (Where many of our marketers lived). But rather, he wanted strategic plans that would be a hit in Middle America. Maybe this paragraph explains why the mainstream of American Food Processors are having the problems that they are having today.

Besides, You have to question General Foods marketing genius knowing that our two major marketing personalities were Jell-O’s Bill Cosby (Who knew) and Cora also known as the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz was also Cora, the Maxwell House lady from the 1970’s. Twenty-twenty hindsight is a wonderful tool, but you might want to question GF’s people choices.

Fast forward to 2005. It was then that I knew coffee was back. We took our daughter Jennifer to New York city and she made a point of being seen with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hand. Coffee was cool again. Young professionals love coffee. Baby boomers while late to the coffee craze, certainly love their caffeine. You have to give Starbucks credit for the resurgence of coffee. They did a great job of making coffee cool.

Thanks to Starbucks, coffee is cool again and you should definitely serve it as part of your supper club dinner party.

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Most Memorable Meals

Have you ever thought about what makes a meal memorable? It certainly has something to do with the company, the food and the setting. Supper clubs are great forum to make those memories happen.

Looking back on my list of most memorable meals, an evening we had at the Le Cheval Blanc in La Croix-En-Touraine France is way up there on the list. It combined an amazing set of very interesting people, some very good food in a fantastic setting of France’s Loire valley. And, I should mention that there was alcohol involved with some very nice wines.

(From the left: Frank LeFevre, Ank Blijdenstein, Philippe Roulliard, Susan Kenny, Paul Kenny, Marie Cristine Roulliard, Bonnie Colonna and Ben Blijdenstein,. John Argiro and Chip Colonna were taking the picture)

The evening was hosted by my good friend Philippe Roulliard. Phiphi was one of these genuinely nice people and a marvelous host. It helped that Phiphi knew the chef/owner of the restaurant which was probably behind some of the amazing food. It was over 25 years ago and I can still remember the duck breast that I had. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and had a crust that defined savory, complemented by a demi-glaze/sauce of red wine and dark berry. Desserts were enshrined in a dome of caramel (See cover photo) that we all still talk about today.

One important piece of the memory involved our friend Bonnie Colonna, my wife Susan and Ben Blijdenstein. Ben was a very serious man. A world renowned expert on mushrooms and true gourmand. His wife Ank summed Ben up perfectly by telling the story about being on a flight from Frankfurt to Singapore in first class. She said she knew she was in trouble when Ben sent the third bottle of wine back and telling him; “Ben we are on a plane, it is not like the flight attendant can go to the corner store to get you another bottle”. We used to jokingly call our friend “Bitching Ben Blijdenstein”. Well during the evening of the Cheval Blanc dinner there were no complaints, I just worried that Ben would suffer a heart attack. Bonnie and Susan had him laughing so hard that I was scared.

John Agiro’s fond memories of “Bitching Ben Blijdenstein” (a.k.a. B3)

Philippe did a wonderful imitation of how B3 used to check the wine with his thermometer and how his beak for a nose went deep into the wine glass. Once in awhile we could see his appendage come up from the glass with drops Pinot Noir on the tip of nose. Ank, would say to B3…Nay? Then we all waited for the verdict? The suspense caused many of us to drown in our water. Ben would say, after careful thought and deliberations; 1. Not quiet ready. 2. So-so for tonight OR 3. Send it back. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the U.S. constitution in less time than B3 could render his pronouncement of the wine.

Say what you want about the French, but there is no question that their food is fantastic and they know how to entertain. Check out this video designed to keep customers at a restaurant occupied while waiting for their meal.

There are lots of Supper Club lessons to be learned from the French.

The Best Indian Food Is In London

Indian Food Is Better in London Than India

Indian food makes a great Supper Club menu. It even works great for the hosts that: “Don’t cook, but know where to buy”.

My love of Indian food goes back to my friend Sunil Gersappe. He was born and raised in India, but lived in London for over 30 years. He was a distributor of ours and we had a tradition of going out for Indian food whenever we were in London on business, which was quite often. The trouble that many Americans have is that they like Indian food; they just don’t know what to order. Sunil took care of the ordering and we learned to love everything he ordered.

(Sunil dressed for dinner at the Savoy circa 1997)

London has become famous for its Indian food. Many say Indian food is better in the U.K. than it is in India. In London, Indian food has the highest number of Michelin stars (six) after French cuisine (13) and double the number of Italian (three). The other big reason that Indian food is better in the U.K. Is that the quality of the ingredients is better. India is notorious for food poisoning.

For years John Argiro, our international Sales Manager tried to convince me to go to India. One time John and Sunil went to India and poor Sunil got sicker than a dog. Here is a guy that was born and raised there and he got sick. After hearing Sunil’s horror stories, India fell off of my travel list. I’ll stick to London as my favorite destination for Indian food.

While I occasionally try to make Indian food, when I do, I always think of Sunil. Again, here he was an Indian from India, but he hated it when his wife Kalyani cooked Indian at home. He claimed that the spices made the house stink for weeks.

Unfortunately, Sunil passed way to early, but because of him, I know what I like when it comes to Indian food. Give me:

Chicken tikka masala,
A couple different curry dishes
Basmati rice,
Tandoori Chicken
Naan

…and I am a happy man.

Come to think of it, combine that menu with a few bottles of wine and you can have a Supper Club menu that Sunil would love. And remember, Sunil certainly wouldn’t mind ordering “takeaway” from your local Indian restaurant to keep the house smelling fresh.