More than 50 craft spirits will descend on Portland, Ore. later this month for the 5th Annual Great American Distillers Festival. The festival is a gathering of craft distilleries from coast to coast. Attendees will be able to meet the distillers, taste their spirits and purchase signature cocktails. Bill Owens, president of the American Distillers Institute will give an opening presentation. And, as part of the event, the 3rd Annual Mixmaster Mixology Competition will take place, with 24 top bartenders from Oregon and Washington competing for a $1,000 prize.
The festival will take place Oct. 24 and 25 at the Bossanova Ballroom. Visit www.distillersfestival.com for more information.
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The California Raisin Marketing Board is pleased to announce the winners of its second annual "America's Best Raisin Bread Contest," hosted at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kan., Oct. 9 and 10. The competition included 30 finalists, made up of both professional and student bakers from across the country in the artisan and commercial categories.
In the artisan category, the grand prize formulation was created by Larry Lobe, Dawn Food Products, Phoenix, for his Sicilian Raisin Bread (pictured below). Taking top honors in the commercial category was Ronald Guerrero, Caravan Ingredients, Kansas City, Kan., for his Natural Swirl Raisin Bread with 50 Percent More Raisins.
Of the 30 finalists, a total of 12 winners were chosen to participate in an all-expense paid visit to California to experience the growing areas and production of California Raisins, and enjoy California cuisine and wines at the Culinary Institute of America Greystone in St. Helena.
For more information, visit www.LoveYourRaisins.com.
CulinaryCorps Inc., the nation's first service organization for culinary professionals, will expand its culanthropy footprint with an outreach trip to Puerto Rico from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7, 2010. Through Nov. 23, 2009, CulinaryCorps will recruit a team of ten qualified and passionate culinary professionals to travel to the country to make a difference through food and cooking.
Since March 2007, CulinaryCorps has led six week-long service trips offering food-focused humanitarian aid to communities in the US. These trips, which recruit chefs, cooks, food educators and culinary students, are designed to address a community's most critical food challenges: emergency hunger relief, cooking and nutrition education, healthy food access, childhood wellness, and culinary heritage preservation. Initial CulinaryCorps efforts focused on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, connecting 75 chefs with an intense portfolio of projects including establishing farmers markets, edible school yards and emergency feeding centers.
To date, these teams of CulinaryCorps chefs from around the world have created over 6,000 meals for the communities served, mentored 400 local students on the importance of healthy eating, designed a "Grow.Cook.Dine" after-school cooking club for the state of Mississippi, and taught AmeriCorps members how to cook for Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
Applications for the 2010 trip are now available at www.culinarycorps.org.
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The 34th Annual Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Supply Show of the Southeast, to be held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center Jan. 26-28, 2010, is a comprehensive marketplace showcasing the latest offerings from thousands of the world’s leading suppliers--and is open only to members of the hospitality industry. Known for its "on-the-floor, money-saving deals," the show provides each attendee with the opportunity to deal one-on-one with actual producers and manufacturers of the latest products and services available to the hospitality industry. During the three-day event, thousands of the world's leading manufacturers can be found displaying their products and services in some 500 plus booths on the show's floor.
The show's location, Myrtle Beach, S.C., is an added bonus! Widely known as the "Seaside Golf Capital of the World," Myrtle Beach provides a full slate of dining, sporting and entertainment options along with world-class ocean front accommodations--further enhancing the experience of all who attend.
Thousands of hospitality industry leaders have found that attending the Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Supply Show of the Southeast afford them the same exposure that is experienced at industry shows on the national level. The quality of the show and its international scope of exhibitors, coupled with the attraction of the resort and the low cost of attending has made this an annual must see event for thousands of southeastern hospitality industry leaders.
The 33rd Annual Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Supply Show of the Southeast boasted over 22,000 Industry Leaders from every aspect of the hospitality industry.
Categories of attendees included:
- Hotel & motel personnel ranging from owners, general managers, food and beverage supervisors, engineers, buyers, housekeepers, chefs, etc.
- Restaurant personnel ranging from owners, managers, chefs, buyers, etc.
- Catering personnel ranging from owners, managers, chefs, buyers, etc.
- Concessionaires representing owners, managers, chefs, buyers, etc.
- Hospital personnel including management and buyers.
- Country club personnel including management and buyers.
- Nursing home personnel including management and buyers.
Be inspired by the latest products and services providing solutions to all areas of the hospitality industry. Make plans NOW to begin the 2010 year with a wealth of new business and exposure.
You can't afford to miss the 34th Annual Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Supply Show of the Southeast. Register Today! Visit www.hmrsss.com or call (800) 261-5991 for more information.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium, with the help of conservation and public health organizations, has compiled a Super Green list of seafood, meaning it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The products currently on the list are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and are low in environmental contaminants.
Based on these criteria, The Monterey Aquarium lists the following as the best seafood choices as of October 2009:
- Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the United States of British Columbia)
- Mussels (farmed)
- Oysters (farmed)
- Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
- Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)
- Rainbow Trout (farmed)
- Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)
- Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)
Other healthy choices are:
- Arctic Char (farmed)
- Bay Scallops (farmed)
- Crayfish (farmed, from the United States)
- Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
- Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
- Pacific Cod (longlinee-caught, from Alaska)
For more information, visit www.montereybayaquarium.org.
The Association for Healthcare Foodservice debuted its new Web site, www.healthcarefoodservice.org, on Oct. 9. The new site aims to better serve its members while also providing information to the public about healthcare foodservice. The site allows members to access their membership profile, search for other members and find the most current information on healthcare foodservice research and trends. Also featured on the new site is a service called Benchmarking Express, which allows members to compare their facility's performance on specific criteria to other similar facilities across the country such as cost to produce patient and nonpatient meals, hard and soft revenue offsets that affect the foodservice department's net cost and productivity for the department.
AHF also recently unveiled a new logo and color palette (pictured above right).
RATIONAL AG appointed Björn Rowland president of RATIONAL USA. Rowland, currently vice president of RATIONAL North America, will keep this role in addition to managing the U.S. subsidiary's day-to-day operations. He reports to Reinhard Banasch, RATIONAL chief sales officer.
Over the past year, Rowland served as president of RATIONAL Canada. He will continue to oversee RATIONAL's Canadian operation with help from RATIONAL regional sales director, Louis Audette, who is being promoted to president.
Rowland has worked at RATIONAL for more than eight years. Before joining RATIONAL, he was general manager at Hellenius Byggdetaljer, a Swedish construction supply equipment company. he also wasthe general manager of Meto Sverige, a German purveyor of labeling systems and retail merchandise systems.
The National Restaurant Association is accepting proposals for education sessions at the 2010 Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB), to be held May 22 to 25 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The deadline is Dec. 4. Industry professionals may submit proposals for a single speaker or interactive panel discussions in five categories:
• Jobs and careers--including employee recruitment and retention, staff training, employee management and motivation;
• profitability and entrepreneurship--including cost control, research and insight, guest attraction and retention and marketing;
• Food and healthy living--including menu innovation, food safety and traceability, nutrition and sourcing;
• Sustainability and corporate responsibility--including recycling standards, water conservation and energy savings; and
• Technology--including online/electronic/mobile marketing, POS systems, inventory management and guest entertainment.
For more information or to submit proposals online, visit www.restaurant.org/show or www.winespiritsbeer.org.
About
Chef's Stirrings is the official blog of Chef Magazine, the industry publication for restaurant and foodservice professionals. The blog offers culinary news and online exclusives from the editors ofChef.
More than 50 craft spirits will descend on Portland, Ore. later this month for the 5th Annual Great American Distillers Festival. The festival is a gathering of craft distilleries from coast to coast. Attendees will be able to meet the distillers, taste their spirits and purchase signature cocktails. Bill Owens, president of the American Distillers Institute will give an opening presentation. And, as part of the event, the 3rd Annual Mixmaster Mixology Competition will take place, with 24 top bartenders from Oregon and Washington competing for a $1,000 prize.
