Tag Archives: Food

February 8, 2019 · 2:50 pm

Stew

It’s nearly 80 degrees here on this Foodie Friday and one might think that winter is gone. Not so fast – it will be in the mid-40’s tomorrow so we’re not yet past stew weather. Stews are a winter staple and since there are endless variations of them, one can’t really get bored with making them.

Some folks think of stews as a thick soup but I think that vastly underrates the dish. I wouldn’t serve soup over noodles or mashed potatoes, would you? As it turns out, they teach us a bit about managing too.

One thing that’s great about stews is that the longer they sit, the better they get as long as you don’t raise the temperature too far. You need to choose your protein – generally meat – wisely. You want the inexpensive cuts that really aren’t good for much else since they contain a lot of connective tissue. They require lengthy cooking (pressure cooking excepted) so that tissue can break down and the meat can transform into tender loveliness.

The meat needs to be seared properly. That means you can’t overload your pan or the meat with steam and not brown. You don’t want to put too much flour on the meat or into the stew to help thicken it or you end up with a gloppy mess. Let the collagen from the meat do its job. If you need more thickening, use gelatin (look it up!) which does the job without changing the flavor or adding lumps.

So why is this appropriate for our business blog? Your team is your stew. You need to find the right ingredients, which are often the overlooked cuts. The best stew meat comes from the muscles that do a lot of work but need help in transforming into dinner greatness. Dig deeper for people, especially the ones who’ve been working hard but maybe not getting the recognition they deserve. You need a sturdy pot that can hold the heat. That, dear readers, is often you, the leader of the team. Great stews have lots of individual components, each of which needs to be added at the right time or it will get mushy. This speaks to the need to pay attention to the individuals on your team to bring out the best in each of them. Pull things together, apply some gentle heat, and give it time. Your team is a magnificent stew!

Here is a list of stews. It is quite varied, but the dishes have a lot in common while still being quite distinctive. Your stew – your team – will be too. Go out and pull it together.

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February 1, 2019 · 10:35 am

The One True Holiday

It’s Foodie Friday and it’s the eve of the annual national holiday called the Super Bowl. It’s America’s only true national holiday in my book. Oh sure – most Americans celebrate Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Veteran’s Day and even Thanksgiving, but none of those have the vast majority of the country focused on exactly the same thing at the same time. Only the Super Bowl does that.

Along with the game goes the food. Or, rather, THE FOOD, since inevitably there is a lot of it. Even those years in which I’ve watched the game by myself rather than at a party or a bar, I’ve managed to have copious amounts of generally not very healthy food by my side. Try to find a food site without a Super Bowl menu on it. Try to find a bar or a non-fine dining place that isn’t throwing a party.

Here was my take 8 years ago. Nothing has changed off the field (we won’t go into how the on-field experience has changed):

The Super Bowl is unlike any other sporting event from just about any perspective.  It’s watched by more people and is even covered by media people who wouldn’t know an H-back from Preparation H.  Hundreds of marketers, both authorized and unauthorized, try to tie in with “The Big Game” (for you ambushers) whether they’re selling food, TV’s, or anything else along the durable to non-durable scale.

So what do you do as a marketer? Do you try and fight city hall and run your own campaign not related to The Big Game? Do you pay the NFL’s or the broadcaster’s price tag (if your category is available) and use the marks or even just buy TV time in or around the game? Do you just stay quiet and begin your Valentine’s Day promotion after the game?

Tough question. If you’re in the food business, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most popular takeout days of the year (1 in 7 Americans order takeout food for the game!). A third of Americans consume some sort of dip. Are you staffed properly if you’re a restaurant? Have you ordered extra dip and sour cream if you’re a market? If you’re not a food business, you need to account for this holiday – especially this holiday – in your marketing and content plans. Unlike any other sports championship, people watch The Super Bowl even when they don’t have a favorite team playing. They actually watch the ads. They generally participate in word of mouth and social media conversations. It is America’s holiday and if you market behind the others, maybe you need, as it says on many pizza boxes, to try the best since you’ve tried the rest. Make sense?

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January 25, 2019 · 4:16 pm

Something To Talk About

I’m going to return to an old theme this Foodie Friday. I’ve written about how happy customers breed more happy customers but I came across a piece of food-related research that reinforced that message. Since I think it’s one of the most critical tenets in any business – food-related or not – I’m sharing it here today.

A recent survey by reservation platform SevenRooms found that more than half of American diners (54 percent) turn to friends and family for restaurant recommendations. About 30 percent consult review sites like Yelp, and 25 percent were influenced by something they saw on TV, according to the survey. About 35 percent of diners said they have eaten at a restaurant because they saw it on social media. Among those platforms, Facebook had the most influence (23 percent), with Instagram (10 percent), YouTube (9 percent) and Twitter (7 percent) far behind.

So word of mouth isn’t dead, and the way that one generates the best word of mouth is to create a memorably wonderful experience for the customer. I don’t believe that the restaurant industry is any different from any other in this regard. Let’s think for a moment about what that great experience really means. I think it means that the business provides an experience that distracts the customer from whatever else is on their minds. It provides a break and enjoyment. It gives the customer something to talk about afterward – something positive. It makes the customer feel that whatever they paid for the service or product they received they received better than fair value. Their expectations were exceeded. It’s the totality of the customer experience. It’s a combination of items offered but also the service quality in which those items are offered.

That’s the sort of stuff that people talk and write about. Have you ever left a business with the feeling that you couldn’t wait to tell someone about it? I have and those become the businesses with which I gladly spend a good deal of time and money. One small example from going out for breakfast this morning. The server greeted me and said, “coffee and a small container of milk for it, right?” She remembered that I can’t stand the little containers of non-diary creamer or half and half that many places – including hers – put out for coffee. A small thing but among the many reasons I keep going back and tell others to do the same.

What business has given you something positive to talk about? I spent a lot of this week telling you about some businesses that managed to do the opposite. It’s much more fun to write and talk about when businesses get it right don’t you think?

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