FOOD FANATICS FOOD FOOD PEOPLE MONEY & SENSE PLUS Go with the Flow Home Away from Home Analyze This Stoked on Smoke Lava cake still has it going on, Cash in on new traditions, Get data to speak, Mezcal is lighting up drinks, page 10 page 41 page 63 page 74 Sharing the Love of Food—Inspiring Business Success TRASH TALK TRASH FALL 2018 TALK HOW TO TAKE DOWN FOOD WASTE Fall 2018 USFoods.com/foodfanatics Waste not, want not, FOOD page 28 GET SHORTY Beef short ribs are long on possibilities. 5 GO WITH THE FLOW IN EVERY ISSUE Chocolate lava cake is here to stay TREND TRACKER but in a good way. What’s hot and what’s not. 10 38 SEAWEED’S RISING TIDE FEED THE STAFF Ocean greens are impacting menus. Chill with these six stress-busting 20 tactics. 50 TRASH TO TREASURE PR MACHINE Reducing waste in the kitchen Gimmicks that get the job done. increases your bottom line. 66 28 IHELP Is it time to go app?. FOOD PEOPLE 67 HOME AWAY FROM HOME Create new traditions for holiday BEYOND THE PLATE diners. Advances in equipment range 41 from simple to high tech. 68 TALK SHOP PROTECTED ASK THE EXPERTS Speak your politics or zip it? 46 Advice from the street. IN THE FACE OF THE UNEXPECTED 72 ROAD TRIP! A taste of Birmingham, Alabama. I’LL DRINK TO THAT! 54 Get in on mezcal’s moment. 74 Customized business insurance for more peace of mind MONEY & SENSE BY THE NUMBERS As a small business owner, you know firsthand that each day can bring its REHABILITATION NATION Preserved and pickled foods ON THE COVER Nothing makes a first impression like show no signs of slowing down. The Prime Rib, with locations challenges. 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USFoods.com/foodfanatics | FOOD FANATICS 1 Welcome to the Fall Issue of Food Fanatics® Magazine USFoods.com/foodfanatics We know that as a restaurateur every penny counts and a lot of work US FOODS ADVISORY BOARD goes into ensuring nothing is wasted. Food, time, effort – it all needs to President and Chief Executive Officer be optimized, and that is what this issue is all about. Pietro Satriano Chief Merchandising Officer Andrew Iacobucci Start with our cover story on combating food waste. Savvy chefs are Senior Vice President, Marketing taking what some would consider trash and repurposing it to create Diane Hund Senior Vice President, Innovation and Quality great food and grow their profit margins. Stacie Sopinka Vice President, Creative Jovo Balach Up to 40 % of all food is wasted, much of this coming from restaurants. Digital Content Manager A big issue to tackle to be sure, but when done right the benefits to Jasmine Jones operators are pretty immediate – less throwaway and lower food bills. CHEF CONTRIBUTORS RESTAURANT OPERATION CONSULTANTS Steve Affixio, Tampa, FL John Byrne, Minneapolis But reducing waste is not just about food. In our Money & Sense SIMPLE INGREDIENTS. Eric Lewis, Birmingham and Alabama area Scott McCurdy, Denver section, we take you inside several historical buildings that have been painstakingly salvaged as dining spaces – preserved so that their PUBLISHING PARTNER Feedback ambiance and charm can be passed on to diners hungry for both CLEAN LABELS. We welcome your comments. Contact Food Fanatics at: culture and cuisine. Through our UNPRONOUNCEABLES LIST™ initiative, US Foods® is cleaning up the [email protected] Chief Content Officer ingredient profiles of our four best-quality brands – so that what’s left is Laura Yee Contact Bite Me Media at: Bite Me Media Some things in this business, however, aren’t worth holding on to. Contributing Editors 4407 N. Beacon St., Suite 3S Peter Gianopulos Chicago, IL 60640 or email Stress, for instance. Job-related stress is pervasive in our industry and [email protected] Contributing Writers Unless otherwise specified, all Kate Bernot can be especially difficult to manage for chefs and restaurant staff. In correspondence sent to Food Min Casey Fanatics is assumed for publication Megan Dawson this issue, we identify a few of the pain points and offer resources and JUST GOOD FOOD. and becomes the copyright Carly Fisher property of US Foods. Amber Gibson tips for finding some peace of mind. Jodi Helmer Advertising Information Matt Kirouac For rates and a media kit, contact Kate Leahy Andrew Eppley Megan Rowe 847 720-2963 or email Our goal, as always, is to help you make it. For more solutions that help Mike Sula [email protected]. you reduce waste and improve your bottom line – check out our smart Cover Photography Food Fanatics is the go-to source Paul Strabbing for the foodservice industry and Business Tools at www.usfoods.com/your-business. anyone truly passionate about Photographers food, food people and improving Sean McGill the bottom line. Issued quarterly Paul Strabbing and hand-delivered to readers, the magazine is a US Foods publication Enjoy the issue! Prop Stylist produced by Bite Me Media. Johanna Lowe For more information on the Food Fanatics program, visit USFoods.com/foodfanatics. All rights reserved. © About US Foods US Foods is one of America’s great food companies and a leading foodservice distributor, partnering with approximately 250,000 chefs, restaurateurs and foodservice operators to help their businesses succeed. Andrew Iacobucci With nearly 25,000 employees and more than 60 locations, US Foods provides its customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a Chief Merchandising Officer comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology and business solutions. US Foods is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill., and generates approximately ® $23 billion in annual revenue. Discover more at www.usfoods.com. US Foods 9300 W. Higgins Rd. Suite 500 Rosemont, IL 60018 (847) 720-8000 www.usfoods.com For more information, visit usfoods.com or contact your US Foods representative. © 2018 US Foods, Inc. 06-2018-FOF-2018060402 *Stock Yards® products: as made available to our foodservice customers FOOD GET SHORTY BEEF SHORT RIBS ARE LONG ON POSSIBILITIES BY MIKE SULA USFoods.com/foodfanatics | FOOD FANATICS 5 Cinderlands Beer Co., garnishes its take on short ribs with orange zest and THINK RICE parsley. Get the recipe on When Chef Auguste Escoffier published his Grains can act as a low-cost “canvas” for page 8. braised short ribs. That’s how Chef Yia Vang now legendary French cuisine bible, “Le Guide of Minneapolis’ Union Kitchen describes the Hmong rice porridge mov kua dis topped Culinaire,” in 1902, he reserved some serious with seasoned short rib. He cooks down su- shi-grade rice until sticky and stewy, gar- praise for train de cotes, aka beef ribs. nishes with 2 to 3 ounces of pulled short rib braised in milk stout, lemongrass, ginger “This part of the carcase (sic),” he wrote, Executive Chef Jason Knibb’s dinner and dark soy. Each bowl gets a sous vide soft “is one of the finest joints for presentation menu at Nine-Ten in La Jolla, California. egg, scallion, cilantro, radish, and chilies, and carving in the dining room.” He starts by searing off boneless ribs, then plus a bit of beef tallow and braising liquid In Escoffier’s mind, short ribs were a marinates them overnight in mirepoix, that acts as the tare, or seasoning ($12). “It luxurious secret weapon for wooing guests. red wine and ruby port. A 3- to 4-hour has a very rich flavor, but the rice porridge More than a century later, local chefs are braise in veal stock renders them tender, mellows it out,” he says. “You don’t have to finally taking his advice to heart. while their fattiness ensures they’re make that many short ribs, so you can really For years, American chefs tended to difficult to overcook. cut (costs).” lump the rich, fatty, full-flavored and, They’re trimmed, squared off, portioned At Cinderlands Beer Co., in Pittsburgh, frankly, ornery cut in with the similarly and bagged individually with the reduced Chef Joe Kiefer dry cures short ribs for cheap meats likes oxtails, cheeks and braising liquid for convenient pickup. 24 hours in rosemary, orange zest salt, tongues. Then came a renaissance, thanks Chefs should consider the advantages of peppercorns, and cardamom, sears them to the tail-to-snout movement, and now using short ribs to gild other high-profit off, then braises the meat in the brewery’s something close to a short rib frenzy. classics, like soups and sides, which can milk stout, a rich braising medium rife Short rib volume in the food service keep carnivores coming back for more. with espresso, vanilla, and berry notes. industry was up a whopping 23 million At Fruition in Denver, a short rib He makes a “risotto” with rye berries pounds in 2017, according to the National crowns a stone-ground polenta soup with ($23), cooked in fortified stock, then Cattlemen’s Beef Association. That’s 116 preserved tomato jam and grana padana finishes it with butter and smoked goat million pounds of braised, barbecued, crisp, which delivers just as much full- cheese, 5 ounces of pulled short ribs, stewed, sous vide, and seared-off beef, bodied flavor as a traditional entree.