Mike Hohnen

Coaching for personal growth, change and development

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Asparagus As High Art

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Would you spend more than $100 a person on a gourmet seven-course meal created entirely of vegetables?

Judging by the growing popularity of vegetarian tasting menus at some of the nation’s most celebrated restaurants — including several in the Washington area — the answer is a decided yes.

From the glittering new Per Se in New York, where a nine-course vegetable tasting menu is $175 a person, to the posh Maestro in McLean, where a five-course meal from the “Colors of the Garden” menu is $105, to the innovative Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago and its $115-a-person vegetable menu, ambitious chefs are presenting diners with stunning multi-course meals that don’t contain a scrap of meat, poultry or fish.

And they aren’t apologizing for the cost, either. Exceptional vegetable courses that look and taste like works of art take as much or more time to do well as any other dishes, chefs say.

Washington Post

Biofortification and superfoods

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Purple carrots and black tomatoes may seem like a marketing gimmick, but the real reason behind their development is biofortification, the process of adding extra nutrients to foods. But how are such products developed? And how will consumers react? Patrick McGuigan investigates.

Crimson carrots and black tomatoes may sound like something from a modern art still life. But scientists are developing this kind of unusually coloured produce, using traditional breeding techniques, because certain pigments contain nutrients and anti-oxidants that have been shown to fight various health problems.

And the process of boosting nutrients in fruit and vegetables, known as biofortification, may be beginning to capture the imaginations of supermarkets, which appreciate the marketing benefits of eye-catching, better-for-you produce. Wacky coloured vegetables may appeal in particular to children, who are notoriously reluctant to eat their greens, but might be tempted to eat their reds or purples.

Just-Food

Chipotle's Choices.

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You can have anything you want at a Chipotle’s restaurant — so long as it’s some kind of a taco or burrito, reports Amanda Hesser in The New York Times Magazine (2/27/05). Condiments — Chipotle offers just three hot sauces to its customers. “Nothing to dilute the purity of the tightly swaddled burrito,” writes Amanda, who also observes that the formula seems to work — and suggests that it “represents a shift in American fast food … a triumph for the increasing number of diners interested in healthful, sustainable food.” As she describes the scene at the new Chipotle on 34th Street in Manhattan: “Fresh tortillas are heated on a griddle, then piled with fillings like rice flecked with fresh cilantro, naturally raised Niman Ranch pork and organic beans. Burritos, good-tasting if bulky, are rolled by the hundred.”

Reveries

Chipotle

Where's the Loyalty?

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“A loyalty card,” says Spence, “is a piece of plastic. Most loyalty programs are plastic. They do nothing more than replace traditional paper coupons with electronic coupons. Why would that generate loyalty?”

FastCompany

Report: Soy Drinks, Yogurts and Eggs See Fastest Growth

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CHICAGO (January 27, 2005) – Food and beverage products that support healthy diets, weight loss, and on-the-go lifestyles are among the world’s fastest growing, according to a new global study from ACNielsen, based here. Specifically, soy-based drinks, drinkable yogurts and eggs were the top growth categories, reporting revenue growth increases of 31%, 19% and 16%, respectively, from 2003 to 2004, the report showed. Soy-based drinks and drinkable yogurts were among the fastest growing in a similar study conducted in 2002. The new findings are contained in ACNielsen’s report, “What’s Hot Around the Globe – Insights on Growth in Food and Beverages 2004.”

Supermarketnews

Change on the menu as Gen Y hits eateries

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Restaurant menus will undergo profound and rapid change over the next two decades, reflecting the convergence of two significant factors. One is the power exerted by huge Generation Y as its members become autonomous restaurant-goers.

The other is the demands of diners of all ages who want menus to cater to their health, nutrition and weight concerns.

That’s the meta-message of Flavor & the Menu, an industry quarterly that tracks trends and makes predictions for the future of restaurateuring.

Miami Herald

End of Low carb?

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Signs that the public’s enthusiasm for low-carb dieting is waning are everywhere. According to U.S. studies, up to 10 per cent of Americans have tried low-carb diets in recent years, but almost half have given them up. Books like Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution and The Zone, which monopolized bestseller lists for much of 2003, have quietly bowed out of the Top 10. And sales of the thousands of newly launched low-carb food products have stalled. It appears that for a growing number of people, the diets heralded by celebrities as the key to boundless energy and a bodacious bod have proven to be a massive disappointment.Mcleans

Simple is hard

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You sell service. At the heart of any successful restaurant operation is the soul of service. Customers walk in, drive through or pull up to our businesses dozens or hundreds of times a day. If those people are exactly the same when they leave, that means we’ve failed. “Product expertise can be duplicated,” says author Martha Rogers, “so any competitive advantage based on products eventually will go away. But customer expertise is competitively defendable, unique and permanent.”

More wisdom from Jim Sullivan