Terry's burger lands on Food Network Magazine's 'ultimate' list | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

Terry's burger lands on Food Network Magazine's 'ultimate' list | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

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What is your child eating?

There's been a lot of attention given to school lunches - even Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef, has gotten involved in England. California based Revolution Foods is working with California schools to provide healthy, tasty food.

"Revolution Foods delivers tasty and healthy meals and nutrition education to schools and programs across the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. Every child’s education should include healthy eating and learning about nutritious food."

Check it Out

Is that Bacon Flavoring in my Mayo

If Oprah loves it, it must be healthy. As viewed by Deborah on Oprah last week, two favorite food groups, mayo and smoked meats have married and made a Kosher offspring (or two as Bacon Salt is also being made)

Peanut butter and chocolate. Franks and beans. Cookies and milk. Bacon and
anything.

It’s that last part that got us going. Bacon goes with just about anything.
It’s kind of like a condiment, isn’t it? Except it doesn’t come in a bottle,
is hard to cook, and makes an awful mess. Not to mention that it’s not the
healthiest thing in the world.

Check it out

Thanks Deborah for braving Oprah to let us know about this.

Buy v. Bake

Although I love to cook, I've always secretly, darkly, suspected it is costlier to craft at home what you can buy at Ralph's. Obviously, homemade bread tastes better than Wonder, but does playing Martha Stewart really save you money? While packaged food is mostly lousy, some of it can be spectacularly inexpensive. Out of work and increasingly obsessed with our grocery budget, I decided to test my intuition and run a cost-benefit analysis on how much I'd save—if anything—by making from scratch six everyday foods that I usually purchase from Safeway and my local bakery.

Continue Reading @ Slate

Premium Foods, Beverages Redefine Simplicity

"Whereas in the past, more sophisticated foods were complex, time-intensive and somewhat unattainable," today's successful premium-brand positioning stresses "quality, purity, authenticity, superior taste and optimum nutrition and health" within a context of streamlined preparation and attractive presentation, she says. "Our research suggests that brands that celebrate the aesthetic beauty in real ingredients, simple preparation and artful presentation will be aligned with the driving philosophy that good food is eaten fresh and prepared unpretentiously."

Media Post

ConAgra's Chow Talks Innovation, Insights

Joan Chow: It’s definitely “fewer, bigger and better.” We call it sticky innovation, meaning that when you launch it, it sticks around. It’s not just a flash in a pan and then it’s gone. Steaming is one of our major platforms. You see it with the Healthy Choice Asian Inspired Café Steamers; the technology has been expanded to Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers and now with Marie Callender’s Pasta Al Dente, which uses that same platform.

BrandWeek

Trivia of the Day

Guess which taste team member got some new kicks and get a cookie (if she can catch them).

Local Fodder

To follow up on a previous IGT story...the guys over at a OMGreds.com have taken the Taco Helmet to a local flavour (see the "u" in there Tommy? cool, huh?). Check out their beautiful photography when you have a chance.

New Organic Artisan Liqueur

Former Beam and SKYY exec launches Thatcher's Artisan Liqueur:

In the days of old, before anything was ever marketed as organic, everything just simply was organic. There were fruit and vegetables grown without the interference of chemicals or modern science. And the people, proud and strong, lived their lives one day at a time, enjoying the season's offerings. But that was then. Now we live in cities, rushing from one place to another, hardly knowing where we'll be dining next, let alone where the ingredients were farmed and how they were grown. But there is a better way.

Let's hope they found it.

Are You a Gastrosexual?

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT...the Brits, in all there genius, have discovered that guys use their cooking skills to find the way to woman's hearts! Next they are going to claim that someday we'll all drive around in "motorcars" and perhaps even fly in "airplanes" like birds. But what isn't original in concept, they've dubbed a trendy name, Gastrosexual. The line between Food Network and MTV only continues to get blurry.

Per the Splendid Table:

There's a new word on the block that we want you to know about. A British paper had the scoop, and then Canada's Calgary Herald took it over. The headline read Stovetop Seduction — and the story reads that there is a growing brotherhood of men who use their cooking skills for seductive purposes. Sound familiar? If the shoe fits, then you are a gastrosexual.

Now the proper definition, culled from Urban Dictionary.com is "Men who use their culinary skills to impress their friends and potential love interests." That may be proper, but we think it a tad sexist.

There is statistical evidence to support the idea that women find gastrosexuals more attractive. A food company in England did a study that revealed 48% of those surveyed found that slick cooking skills made a person more attractive. 23% of men aged 18 to 34 years said they cook to "potentially seduce a partner."

This is not news... men have been onto this since Caesar flambeed an asp for Cleopatra, but now we've got a name for it!

In the spirit of supporting anything that gets people to enjoy cooking, we are launching a "Gastrosexual of the Month" from now until July. Men and women both, complete our entry form and you may be the next to have your moves in the kitchen broadcast across the country.

A tip of the cap to Sue for passing this along to her "In Good Taste" men!

Region restaurants dangle stimulus deals | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

Region restaurants dangle stimulus deals | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

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Growing Up Globally

Though many consumers have shunned carbonated soft drinks in favor of teas and waters, Coca-Cola Co. called the category the "oxygen" of its business and highlighted strong growth in areas beyond the U.S. And the company is attributing its increases, in part, to "Open Happiness."

Volume in the category increased 1% internationally, with marked strength in India, up 31%, and Japan, up 12%. Brazil, China, Great Britain and South Africa also reported gains in the space. North America posted a 4% decline in carbonated beverages.

read the full article @ AdAge

Free Coffee and (Ice) Cream

It's 50-cent iced coffee day at Dunkin' Donuts. Get a 50-cent iced coffee and your purchase will help support Homes for Our Troops. Get more info on the promotion and find Dunkin Donuts locations near you by clicking here.

Today is also Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Scoop Shops are serving up a free scoop of your favorite flavor from noon to 8:00 p.m. Get more information on that promotion by clicking here..

Remember, these promotions are good only at participating locations.

via Cincinnati Enquirer

World's Top 100 Restaurants

Fire up your skymiles accounts and head overseas to check out the majority of the World's Top 100 Restaurants.

It could be about to get very bitchy again in London’s best kitchens.

Gordon Ramsay suffered fresh ignominy last night when his three-star Michelin restaurant dropped out of the world’s Top 100 eating experiences, while his former protégé made his first appearance only six months after opening his first solo restaurant after a very public falling-out between the pair.

Days after reports that boil-in-the-bag dishes were served at the chef’s gastropubs, Ramsay’s Hospital Road restaurant in London, thirteenth in last year’s list, missed out on a place in the 2009 San Pellegrino world restaurant awards. Yet Marcus Wareing, who opened his restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel after an acrimonious split with his former friend, has made a dramatic entry on the list at No 52.

Read the Full Article & List

Food Firms Cook Up Ways to Combat Rare Sales Slump

Fast moving consumer goods? Now not moving so fast:

In the last quarter of 2008, consumer spending on food fell by an inflation-adjusted 3.7% from the previous quarter -- its steepest drop in 62 years, the Commerce Department said. So, food giants are racing to adapt to what they believe is a lasting shift in eating and shopping habits.

Kraft Foods Inc. recently launched an application for Apple's iPhone. Called the iFood Assistant, it allows people to search for recipes and manage their shopping lists. Nestle SA is pushing hard its popular Lean Cuisine frozen entrees, offering five for $10 in some stores. Campbell Soup Co. is creating more sophisticated recipes that mimic restaurant offerings, such as Braised Beef with Shallots made with the company's Swanson beef stock.

Wall Street Journal

The Big Fizz at PepsiCo

A fairly fascinating look at the man agitating for all the change at PepsiCo. Including a peek into the Big Bang project that had the company simultaneously redesigning seven brands, creating brand manifestos, and generating Super Bowl ads.

Companies often perfect each stage of a rebranding plan before moving on to the next one. For example, the design agency typically settles on a logo before handing off to the people working on the package. To save time, d'Amore decided to adopt the so-called concurrent model: design the logos, create the packaging, shoot the TV commercials, and so forth simultaneously. He acknowledges that this is riskier but insists the enhanced speed and agility are worth it. "Aiming for perfection is the enemy of good progress," d'Amore says. And if getting the project done in time meant inserting himself in the creative process—highly unusual for a CEO—then so be it. After all, he had marketing experience.

Also, he's something of a hands-on manager:

One of the first Arnell-d'Amore productions was a TV spot for SoBe Lifewater, a beverage d'Amore wanted to reposition to take on Coca-Cola's (KO) vitaminwater. It was an early glimpse of d'Amore's management style. After giving the job to Arnell Group, he fired SoBe's existing ad agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. He and Arnell then cooked up the idea for the ad together—a sendup of Michael Jackson's Thriller video featuring lizards dancing with model Naomi Campbell. Later, d'Amore flew to Los Angeles to help edit the commercial.

BusinessWeek

Bottled Water Sales Flatten During Recession

Environmentalists have been calling for people to give up the bottle ever since, and for states to increase recycling. Now the entire bottled water market is down 1 percent.

"Anecdotally, we believe that consumers last year increasingly drank more tap water," says Gary Hemphill, who tracks sales for the Beverage Marketing Corporation.

NPR

Jim Beam - The Remake

Jim Beam is allowing consumers to 'remake' a Jim Beam commercial. This is my favorite submission, but check out Jim Beam's website for more!

SunChips Rolling Out Compostable Package

Oh says the choice of making SunChips the first brand to get the new packaging was easy. "Our consumers very much want a healthier snack, and we realized a couple of years ago that those same consumers have an interest in what's healthy for the planet," he says. "From an organizational standpoint, SunChips is the lead brand for communications around sustainability initiatives."

Media Post

Dominos . . . The Aftermath

Domino's, in its ongoing effort to put out the public-relations fires ignited by "disgusting" YouTube videos made by two employees, has fired back with a YouTube video of its own. In it, Patrick Doyle, president of Domino's USA, apologizes for the incident, and describes the steps his company is taking to ensure such an incident doesn't happen again.

Read the full article via AdAge

100% Mega-Numbers

A design system entirely predicated on giant numerals? Volker must be swooning.

Lovely Package

An Outsiders Perspective

It's always interesting to see an outsiders view on things. The Washington Post recently came to Cincinnati to try our chili. The dialect used by those not familiar with a product's attributes always translates into a good laugh:

"I try to start my day off with a couple Coneys," he said, referring to the version that employs a wiener as its delivery system.

I'm going to see if that nomenclature throws off my friendly waitress tomorrow at lunch? I'll have the bolognese-esque sauce with a wiener delivery system. Oh, and please wallow it in macerated cheddar. And Utah, make it two.

Campbell Grows Tomatoes, Coke Plants Trees

Some new cause marketing seeds the world:

In the new HGYOS promotion, Campbell is, for the first time, making its specially cultivated tomato seeds available to the public. Consumers who buy any variety of Campbell's condensed soup and enter the code on the can at the HGYOS site can request a free packet of the seeds through June 21, or while supplies last.

With each request, Campbell will also donate its special tomato seeds to the National FFA and Urban Farming Inc., which plants food on unused land in urban environments worldwide. The two organizations will use the seeds to help create five community gardens in urban communities. The gardens will be planted and maintained by the two groups, and all vegetables harvested will be given to community members.

Media Post

Name Your Flavor

One of UK's oldest and favourite chip brand Walkers Crisps has produced a great user-generated campaign that has attracted widespread UK interest (thanks James Cherkoff for the cross-Atlantic discovery).

From the brand that also has such cultish loved variants - Prawn Cocktail, Salmon & Thai, Lamb with Spices, Chilli Lemon and Sweet Cumberland Sausage - comes a contest inviting users to choose the frontier of 6 new flavours in exchange for 50,000 pounds and 1% of the flavour sales here (similar to Doritos Guru contest here in Canada).

Check these options out -
- Builder's Breakfast
- Cajun Squirrel
- Chilli & Chocolate
- Crispy Duck & Hoisin
- Onion Bhaji
- Fish & Chips

Read The Full Article

A Tax Day Break

Ran across these on PopCandy

- MaggieMoo's Ice Cream & Treatery is giving customers a free scoop of ice cream Wednesday. Head to the site for store locations.

- Like Cinnabon? The store is giving away free "Tax Day Bites," i.e. miniature versions of its famous gooey confection. The promotion takes place April 15 between 5-8 p.m.

- I've never been to Taco Del Mar, but the chain is offering a free taco on Tax Day. To get it, you'll need to head to the website and fill out a short form.

- And finally, P.F. Chang's is offering 15% your bill on Tax Day.

1 Part Rock & 1 Part (Vegetarian) Roll

I opened up the paper this morning and saw a cool restaurant, and when I saw where it was I was taken aback. The restaurant was Chrissie Hynde's The VegiTerranean and the city was Akron. With the tag line, "Vegan Fare . . . Italian Flaire" sounds mighty tasty.

"It's Akron native and rock musician Chrissie Hynde's The VegiTerranean, featuring vegan cuisine in a sleek, modernist setting with a soothingly expansive outdoor patio. It's on the first floor of a new residential loft building in Akron's compact, renovated Northside District. (Northside also has a depot for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, featuring vintage train cars traveling through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.)

Hynde, who long ago left for England to find fame fronting the Pretenders, decided to help her hometown with this restaurant, which opened in 2007. Dinner entrées like Gardein (a trademarked garden-grown protein) scaloppini picatta prove the point. Plus her Chrissie Fries may be the best French fried potatoes in the world."

You can check out the site here and an article here.

Image from here.

Was Yesterday April Fool's Day?

Kanye West is getting an energy drink . . . who's next Brett Michael's?

"Kanye will "create" a new energy drink for Guru, the "100% natural and organic" beverage that Pitchfork News Editor Amy Phillips assures me is "pretty good." I'm almost certain this won't mean Kanye will actually sit in a lab somewhere experimenting with chemical flavors, but I can dream."

check it out on Pitchfork

Pizza + Twitter = Hip

DiGiorno turns to Twitter to help with sales . . .

"DiGiorno is launching a flatbread pizza by way of TV, print and ... Twitter. The freezer aisle's largest-selling pizza brand is wading into social media for the launch, tapping tweeters with strong followings and offering to provide food for tweetups."

Full Article via AdAge

Another reason to love bacon

As if you needed another reason to love bacon, the wonder-meat now cures hangovers...

Food doesn’t soak up the alcohol, but it does increase your metabolism – helping you to deal with the after-effects of over-indulgence. So food will often help you feel better. Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids.

“Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good. Bingeing on alcohol depletes neurotransmitters too, but bacon contains a high level of amines which tops these up, giving you a clearer head.”

More: Bacon Cures Hangovers

Bad Times Are Good For Some F&B Segments

Recession fuels growth in bread, sweet spreads, frozen meals, side dishes and coffee.

Media Post

Coke Teams Up With Socially Focused Smoothie

Coke said this week it will take a minority stake in London-based Innocent, which has quickly become one of Britain's top brands by marketing its healthy ingredients and social commitment. By giving 10% of its profits to charity and using recycled bottles, Innocent was one of the first consumer brands launched in Britain to develop a big following through ethical marketing.

The investment of £30 million, or about $44 million, may be small, but it speaks to Coke's continued interest in expanding beyond soft drinks and in owning small stakes in innovative companies. Details of the transaction weren't disclosed, but Coke will have a stake between 10% and 20%, valuing Innocent between £150 million and £300 million, Innocent co-Chief Executive Richard Reed said. Founded 10 years ago, it now has 82% of the U.K. smoothie market, according to a spokeswoman.

Wall Street Journal

Hershey's Kisses "Off to Work We Go"

Simplicity Becomes a Selling Point

Advocates for healthful eating have long tried to steer Americans away from highly processed foods that contain dozens of unnatural and unpronounceable ingredients. Now, driven by a drumbeat of food recalls -- ground beef, peanuts and, most recently, pistachios -- consumers may be more inclined to heed the call.

Last week, Snapple Beverage unveiled a reformulated line of drinks and an eight-figure marketing campaign emphasizing that its iced teas are made from green and black tea and "real" sugar. Frito-Lay is boasting that its potato chips, tortilla chips and even Fritos are each made with just three ingredients. The hope: that consumers will equate fewer ingredients with healthfulness, even when it comes to ice cream and chips.

Washington Post

Hillshire Farm, Miller Launch Co-Branded Brats

Beer + Brats = New SKU

Media Post

I love April . . . It's National Grilled Cheese Month

"In honor of "National Grilled Cheese Month," Kraft Foods has launched a microsite for the month of April inviting consumers to write 50 words about why they love Kraft Singles. The missives will be entered into a weekly drawing from which 500 will be mailed coupons for a free package of Singles."



Check out the Microsite

Read the Full Article from AdAge

And a Happy B-Day to the Guy In the Big Chicken Suit

Who would have thought that a guy in a giant chicken suit selling BK would make internet history, well it did 5 Years Ago. Happy B-Day Subservient Chicken


Read More Here

Check out the Subservient Chicken - Don't do anything I wouldn't do

Looking to create your own "taste?"

A nice article on our own Cincinnati State's culinary program. The fact that this institution competes on a national level can only benefit us locally. The more quality cooks in the area, the better I eat...win, win situation.

Want Fries With That?

A soon-to-be-released research paper says that when fast-food restaurants offer healthy options, consumers are more likely to take the unhealthy choice, often fries.

What would you order if given a choice?

NY Times

Genius, Pure Genius

If you haven't noticed our nation is going through some tough times. These tough times, though, provide a great opportunity for entrepreneurship/creative thinking to sprout. Just saw this article and thought it was genius as Fried Chicken is always on my mind and every day I have to avoid the 20 Ft of potholes on I-71. Essentially it's the next wave in promotions- taking what the government can't do and turning it into a branding opportunity while fixing America. Nice tie by the way.

Dark chocolate price jump may melt sales gains

Nielsen data also show that the popularity of dark chocolate could be stalling in the recession, with sales off by 2.2 percent through February 2009. Some even expect American tastes to swing back to milk chocolate. "It's a bubble that's going to burst," predicts Judith Ganes-Chase, a commodities analyst. "You have a combination of recession plus high prices. I just don't see how consumption can't drop sharply."

Chicago Tribune

Le Whif Chocolate Inhaler

Finally, the zero-calorie, guilt-free choco-inhaler you have been waiting for.

Cool Hunting

Chipotle Rocking a New Ad Agency

Chipotle has just named Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners as their ad agency of record. Supposedly, there already is a new billboard on I-75 which breaks away from their clean black and white ones of the past (unless painter is seeing things).

Check out the full story at the Denver Business Journal

Starbucks to sell instant coffee at Costco, Target

In hopes of taking its newest product mainstream, Starbucks Corp. this week expanded its instant coffee trial to include sales in certain Costco, Target and Barnes & Noble stores.

Starbucks unveiled its VIA instant coffee in February and started selling it in Chicago and Seattle cafes in March.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Hea!thy Choice, Advertising, Yadda Yadda Yadda

JLD for Hea!thy Choice? Looks like she's not quite committed yet. How will this turn out?!?!?

spokespersonwanted.com

Beam Stirs Up 'Mischief' For Hornitos Brand

Hornitos gets its swerve on...

Print ads elaborate on a raffish social life at parties where Hornitos is the spirit of choice. Ads show imagery from an actual private party in New York City in January with taglines like, "If you're going to be home one hour late, may as well be three," with the proviso to "Always Mischieve Responsibly." Ads will run in national urban-hip mags like Vice and Theme beginning this month, while out-of-home executions can be found in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and New York.

MediaPost

Thousands of Pizzas, pizzas for free

Earlier this week, a blogger for a money saving blog (Cheapskate) posted an entry telling people how they could get a free pizza from Dominos by simply entering "BAILOUT" in their special codes portion of the online ordering page.

Fueled by the power of Facebook and other online communication pages, over 11,000 people took advantage of the free pizza!

Here's the problem - it wasn't supposed to happen!

Apparently a customer tried the 'bailout' code after Dominio's had been airing their 'bailout' campaign. (The code had been programmed internally - but had never gotten the green-light from management).

Dominio's honored most of the orders, but I'm sure it was a costly day for the company.

Does anyone want to try to some other codes to see what we can get?

Where Social Media, Alcohol, and Trouble Collide

Just cruising my favorite site ESPN.com - you know, the sports site. Well, the add on the right side of the screen was of the images below. I guess it seems that 1) Facebook isn't for just the kiddies anymore, 2) Those crazy Belgians love social media, and 3) Bud Light has a new label. I put my money on that there is a controversy on this right after the woman with the 8 babies quiets down.

Food & Wine Best New Chefs of 2009

Today Food and Wine announced the Best New Chefs of 2009.  I would love to test out each of them but I personally like the first one on the list, Nate Appleman, mostly because of his inspiration. He credits Greenville, Ohio (what what) and Julia Child to why he has become what he is today. The other chef of personal interest is Chris Kostow, who would "fry chicken all day, starting at 9 a.m., while listening to the same Beastie Boys album over and over."

Penguins Love Shopping

Seems Whole Foods has been busy opening stores around the world . . .



Who doesn't love a little April Fools