Tag Archives: Foodie

May 13, 2016 · 10:40 am

What’s Your Bacon?

Foodie Friday, and our topic today is bacon. I’d encourage vegetarians and vegans to come back Monday because this is about to cause you to sound like Colonel Kurtz: “the horror, the horror…”

English: Uncooked pork belly bacon strips disp...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was making supper last night, and as I was rummaging through the fridge I noticed an abundance of bacon. That’s neither unusual for me nor bad, but I guess these unopened packs had been sitting around for a while and the expiration dates were approaching. I had planned some shrimp and mushrooms but good cooking is nothing if not adjusting on the fly, so the shrimp were dry-brined and wrapped in bacon. The mushrooms became stuffed with a cheese and bacon mixture. What’s one to do when he finds a pile of cheese and bacon left? Poppers, of course, since there were some jalapeños sitting in the veggie drawer (yes, I do have one of those).

Somehow, two pounds of bacon got used up. The shrimp and mushrooms, which would have been fine regardless, were way better because of the bacon. It reminded me of the time my crew went to a rodizio for lunch and were stuffed to the gills on meat when yet another server came by. We asked what he had – “turkey.” No takers. “Wrapped in bacon.” Everyone had some.

What does this have to do with business? Simple. What’s your bacon? What are you adding to everything you do to make it even better? Where is the value-added that represents you going the extra mile and doing something special?  Wired and Food Network did a little study in which they

compared the ratings of all the recipes that fit a certain description-—sandwiches, for example. Then, we calculated the average rating for those foods if they did not include the word “bacon.” We ran the numbers again using only recipes that did include bacon. The results were pretty great. Of all the foods we analyzed, bacon lends the most improvement to sandwiches.

The addition of that one special thing made the reviewers feel more positively about the product.  So what’s your bacon?

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May 6, 2016 · 11:09 am

Alchemy

This Foodie Friday it’s all about alchemy. Back in medieval times, alchemy was seen as magic even though it’s the forerunner of modern chemistry. Way back then, the point was to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir. It was a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination. To me, part of why I love to cook is that magic. It’s something that any of us can do as we transform raw ingredients into something more valuable than the ingredients themselves.

An Alchemical Laboratory, from The Story of Al...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have friends to whom making a simple sandwich taste delicious is magic. They can’t cook at all. What a shame, as Chef Ramsay would say. I believe that learning to do some simple cooking makes us more self-sufficient and the confidence which ensues carries over into other parts of our lives.  If you’re in business, it turns out you’re more of an alchemist than you think.

The obvious comparison is anyone who manufactures a product, transforming raw materials of lesser value into something else with higher value.  As an aside, we forget sometimes how many people it really takes to make anything, since we tend to forget that if we use lumber or minerals or just about anything else to create our products, many people had to create or harvest those raw materials for us.

I look at great managers as alchemists.  Anyone can put together a group of people and charge them with tasks.  It takes an alchemist to transform that group into something more, converting the base metals into gold.   It’s the same magic as what goes on in the kitchen.  Sure, the better the ingredients, the better the dish, but coaxing something special out of even average ingredients is just as magical.

So here is to all of you alchemists out there, both those in the kitchen and those in the office.  Have a magical weekend!

 

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April 22, 2016 · 11:58 am

Box Wine

Foodie Friday, and this week our focus is on wine. Like many of you, I enjoy a glass or two of wine with dinner. Over time, that can add up in terms of keeping the cellar stocked, so I try to find inexpensive, well-made bottles. I’ve found it’s not hard to find quite a few that retail for under $12. Some of the better wine I’ve been drinking lately actually doesn’t come in a bottle at all – it comes in a box.

This image shows a red wine glass.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’ve never tried box wine, you’re not alone. Box wine represents less than 5% of all wine sold here in the USA. Compare that to 20% in Europe and nearly half in Austrailia. What do they know that we don’t? Maybe that each box is generally the equivalent of 4 bottles and it will stay fresh for 3-4 weeks after you open it due to the vacuum sealed bags that are in each box. Unless you drink a typical bottle in a day or two, it oxidizes and the taste can become funky, no matter how well you reseal it.  But there is a broader business lesson here as well.

Box wine is a win-win for both the wineries and the consumer. The numbers I can find say that the cost to produce the box is less than the equivalent 4 bottles and the carbon footprint is less than half. It is way more convenient (try to carry 8 bottles vs. 2 boxes to your car).  Obviously, it moves more wine while providing a great value.  Why hasn’t it caught on here?  Maybe because some producers focus on making the wine as cheap as possible which often results in an inferior product.  As a great article from Food52 said on the topic:

In the U.S., boxed wine is plagued by associations with Franzia and college drinking games; when the technology first came out, cheap brands seized upon the budget vessel and filled it with contents that fully deserved the terrible reputation they gained. And the reputation has stuck.

We all need to think about the “bad actors” in our business segment.  How are they screwing it up for the rest of us?  Sure, it’s easy to say “well, they make the rest of us look good by comparison,” but the reality is that a significant percentage of consumers paint with a very wide brush.  While I think we all know great, honest lawyers, auto mechanics, advertising professionals, etc, those businesses have terrible reputations.

Consumers now assume box wine is low quality and won’t buy it, and because they won’t buy it, producers hesitate to make it.  It’s too bad that what is an obvious win-win becomes everyone’s loss due to a few bad actors.

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