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CARVING OUT A CATERING NICHE
By Mike Mitchelson, editor
Catering isn’t just a specific business segment anymore, it’s part of a larger business plan. More restaurants are developing catering operations, and more catering businesses are rolling out a pseudo-restaurant business by holding special events—wine or beer tasting dinners, for example—at their base of operations. In essence, one business model can fuel the other: the event or the restaurant shows off the food and interests diners in the catering options, or the catered meal can generate buzz about an existing restaurant. Featured in this issue are three catering models out of the many successful companies in the area.
Big Daddy’s BBQ in St. Paul represents the restaurant growing its catering operations through its loyal following. Create Catering and The Dining Studio in Minneapolis is a pure catering operation that grows a large portion of their ingredients and throws the occasional bash (most recently a multi-course meal for the Cities 97 morning show and its fans).
The third business is a unique catering model: the facilitator. Creative Corporate Catering has no production kitchen, only an office with a warehouse and two dispatchers. Its gang of drivers deliver meals to businesses from more than 50 Twin Cities restaurants.
Big time barbecue at Big Daddy’s
Big Daddy’s BBQ got its start in the 1980s with catering and events. But it was far from a deliberate business plan. Barbecuing was “something we used to do in our backyards,” said Gene “Big Daddy” Sampson, one of three partners in the business. “Then people come over and say, ‘Can you do this?’ ”
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Keynote address at NRA Show: High- and low-lights
By Mike Mitchelson
It’s not often a person gets to bump into someone of national stature whom they admire greatly. But, that circumstance happened to me at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, when, stuck in my own narrow world, I literally bumped shoulders with journalist Charlie Rose (he’s a bigger man than I thought, as tall as me and broader shouldered). He was in town to deliver the keynote address at the Show.
Once I looked up and realized whom it was I ran into, I said, “Oh, I was just on my way to see you.”
“That’s good,” he said.
“I’ve been a fan of your show for about 20 years.”
“Well, thank you.”
“I think you’ve got the best job in the world.”
“I really can’t think of any better.”
It was a quick exchange; we were both moving quickly—me to get to my seat, and him to backstage. I was looking forward to the speech.
I’m used to seeing him slightly hunched at his familiar round oak table, interviewing guests on his nightly PBS program, simply titled “Charlie Rose.” He’s also a 60 Minutes correspondent, and writes a column for Business Week.
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From the Big Apple to the Mini Apple: Beard Awards to scholarships
CHEERS TO OUR BEARD WINNERS…and more New York City News. It was a hot and humid 85 degrees when we rolled into New York City for the 20th Annual James Beard Awards the first weekend of May. But you can bet your booty it was even hotter on the stage at Avery Fisher Hall over at Lincoln Center by Monday evening, May 3, with many of our talented Minnesotans holding their breath to see who would win the prestigious James Beard Medallion, this year boasting a bright, grass-green neck ribbon. Deemed the “Oscars of the Food World,” The James Beard Foundation Awards really are the most coveted honor for chefs, food and beverage professionals, broadcast media, journalists and authors working on food, as well as restaurant architects and designers—and we had Minnesota nominees in most categories until the very end.
Three famous faces in the food world co-hosted the stage proceedings, which is named the most prestigious recognition program in the country to honor professionals in the food and beverage industries. Co-hosts were past Beard Award-winner Alton Brown (host of “Good Eats” on the Food Network) and two esteemed James Beard Outstanding Chef Award-winners, Lidia Bastianich (famous for cookbooks, TV and restaurants) and Wolfgang Puck.
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There’s more to ‘writing’ a menu than food
By Jonathan Locke
After writing your menu, think about how to really “write” your menu. Your segment and audience determines how much copy—or how many pictures—should go on there.
I have been spending far too much time lately grading “Menu Planning” finals, so I thought I would share the joy with you. If you don’t have a kid in school, you may not be aware that we as a nation have decided that the only skill which matters is test-taking, and that this skill is crucial to success in an adult’s working life. So get out your pencils and get out your menus, and good luck to you. No copying, no texting, no breaks—you should have gone to the bathroom before you started reading.
You needn’t worry that I’m going to ask you stuff from the first five pages of the test. If at this point you don’t know what a market survey is, have never heard of an equipment analysis and can’t fill out a recipe-costing sheet, there are consultants on summer break who can help you. It’s the last three pages that are the killers.
So you’ve got your menu sitting next to you. Let’s pretend I have chosen it for the class to analyze. The first questions are going to have to do with your customer: What is the immediate impression that your menu gives of your restaurant?
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Giving thanks to catering
By Mecca Bos-Williams
Former restaurant chefs and line cooks find rewards in the catering business.
At 27 years old, after a “come-to-Jesus” moment about What I Really Wanted to be Doing With My Life, I decided to turn my cooking avocation into vocation. But even with my limited knowledge of what I would be ultimately getting myself into, I knew I was a relative senior citizen in this industry. I was terrified to approach a restaurant in search of a real job. And so, I turned to catering. If those who can’t do, teach, do those who can’t cook, cater? While I’d answer that question with a resounding “No,” it does seem that catering enjoys all the status of a redheaded stepchild amongst “real” chefs and cooks.
After a couple years of catering and personal cooking in private homes, I went on to several jobs in “real” kitchens, including many rigorous line cooking positions as well as a sous position at a well-known bistro. But these days, I’m back to catering. I’m not about to tell you my age, but it’s been over two years since my last line cooking position and I’m not about to go back. Not ever, unless I’m on the verge of starvation. Then, I’d have to think about it. If I needed a walker at 29, these days I might as well be 6 feet under. So are catering kitchens where old chefs and line cooks go to die?
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In crowded genre, ‘Food Fight’ stands out
By Julie Brown-Micko
The last 10 years or so have given birth to a new genre of food movie: the big agribusiness documentary. A well-modulated narrator indicts the industrial food complex for its crimes against farming, animals, produce and humanity. Grim visuals of slaughterhouses, feedlots, and massive farm machinery alternate with vintage commercials featuring grinning housewives and gleaming kitchens. Sincere experts (small farmers, authors, food critics, chefs) detail the abuses of agribusiness but offer a sliver of hope that consumers can make a change if they support local, organic, sustainable farmers.
Christopher Taylor’s Food Fight falls firmly in this category. It’s a pretty good representative of its genre: serious, but not depressing. Smart, but not in love with its own cleverness. Historical but still forward looking. A well-muscled cadre of foodie superstars share their wisdom including Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, Wolfgang Puck and many lesser, but even more interesting, luminaries. And thankfully the ubiquitous 1950’s commercial footage is used as a spice, not a main ingredient.
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Big ideas, local implementation
By Mike Mitchelson
The MSNA Industry Conference, with its varied presentations, tackled large issues by showing how easy it can be to implement them at a local level.
“Opportunity! Innovate! Or Stagnate!” That was the progressive theme at the annual Minnesota School Nutrition Association Industry Conference at Ruttger’s Bay Lodge in Deerwood, Minn., on May 4-5. The conference traditionally has been an ideas- and discussion-based gathering for school foodservice professionals and vendors, a “no sale” zone that serves to improve relationships to better serve, ultimately, the “clients” of those schools—the students.
The conference began with the return of humorist and psychologist Bruce Christopher, who delivered his own “Innovate or Stagnate” address, which focused on how individuals can learn to “ride the waves of change, instead of being overwhelmed by them.” The session dovetailed easily into the afternoon seminars: “Social Media: Adapt or Die,” and “Going Green is Easy: Saving Costs and educating Students on Environmental Stewardship.”
The two-day event was highlighted by a presentation by Will Steger, the renowned polar explorer and environmental educator.
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