FOOD FANATICS FOOD FOOD PEOPLE MONEY & SENSE PLUS Regional Chinese Group Dining Fear of Failure I’ll Drink to That! The latest riffs revealed, Cash in on large parties, 7 nightmare busters, Gin is in, page 8 page 38 page 52 page 62 THE WOW FACTOR THE WOW Sharing the Love of Food—Inspiring Business Success SPRING 2015 BLOWN AWAY GET HIGH ON THE WOW FACTOR PAGE 24 SPRING 2015 FOOD Real Chinese Steps Out 8 America’s regional Chinese cuisine gets ADVERTISEMENT back to its roots. In the Raw 14 Tartare goes beyond beef, capers and PAGE 112 egg yolk. Tapping Into Maple Syrup 20 This natural sweetener breaks out of its morning routine. COVER STORY The Wow Factor 24 When the ordinary becomes extraordinary. MAPLE FOOD PEOPLE SYRUP GOES BOTH Bigger Is Better 38 Master a group mentality to cash in on WAYS— large parties. SWEET AND SAVORY Talk Shop PAGE 20 40 Upping the minimum wage: thumbs up or thumbs down? Road Trip to Las Vegas 44 Take a gamble on a restaurant off the strip. PREMIUM QUALITY SIGNATURE TASTE EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE Download the app on iTunes or view the MONEY & SENSE magazine online at FOODFANATICS.COM The Secret to the Upsell 48 A seasoned dining critic says to ditch selling and focus on service. Nightmare Busters 52 Ways to combat 7 of the most common restaurant fears. I’ll Drink to That 62 Gin for the win: The original flavored spirit paves the way for focused beverage programs. WHEN THE TUNA IN TARTARE BECOMES A SNOOZER, GIVE OTHERS A TRY IN EVERY ISSUE (HINT: SALMON) PAGE 14 FOOD Trend Tracker 31 What’s turning up the heat and what’s cooling off. FOOD PEOPLE Feed the Staff 34 Give discounted employee meals a purpose. THE ORIGINAL IS STILL THE ULTIMATE MONEY & SENSE iHelp 55 Protect your POS system from security breaches. PR Machine Serve the one and only premium patty 56 Do you need to pay to play on Facebook? The TNT™ burger is the only premium patty worthy of a burger lover’s Dear Food Fanatic 58 Is local and pasture-raised worth the cake? Get passion—and the perfect way to build excitement around your menu. this answer and others to everyday questions. Delivering incredible taste and tenderness, it’s the burger your guests Beyond the Plate will remember and an experience they’ll never forget. 60 Hack an everyday tool for a different use. By the Numbers VISIT TNTBURGERS.COM OR CALL YOUR LOCAL 64 Make spring produce count. CARGILL FOODSERVICE NORTH AMERICA SALES 00 REPRESENTATIVE AT 800-373-6515. ©2015 Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation Food Fanatics is more than a magazine. It’s a movement of food people who share their love of food to inspire business success. The latest in food trends and industry matters comes alive in the FoodFanatics.com magazine, online, on the iPad and on social media. The Food Fanatics chefs share and expound on the content with fellow chefs and FOOD FANATICS FOR US FOODS Program Manager restaurateurs at their operations, seminars, food shows and other Jennifer Paulson Chefs thawsome! events—all to help achieve success. Curtis Adams, Salem, Missouri Tom Macrina, Philadelphia Nothing beats our premium thaw & serve bread products. John Byrne, Minneapolis Scott McCurdy, Denver Perry Canestraro, Baltimore Mike Miello, New York Matthew Dean, Chicago Rocco Paradiso, Fort Mill, South Carolina Welcome to the movement. 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For more information on the Food Fanatics program, visit www.FoodFanatics.com All rights reserved. © As one of America’s great food companies and leading distributors, US Foods is Keeping Kitchens Cooking and making life easier for more than 250,000 customers, including independent and multi-unit restaurants, healthcare and hospitality entities, government and edu- cational institutions. The company offers more than 350,000 products, and proudly employs approximately 25,000 people in more than 60 locations nationwide. US Foods is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill., and jointly owned by funds managed by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. 9300 W. Higgins Rd. Suite 500 ® commodity breads · buns · specialty buns · sandwich breads Rosemont, IL 60018 (847) 720-8000 www.usfoods.com Contact your Flowers Bakeries Foodservice Representative www.europeanbakers.com 4 FOOD FANATICS | SPRING 2015 FOOD Spring into the latest dining trends ADVERTISEMENT PAGE 6 Robert E. Meyer Next Phase Chinese The latest generation shows off Natural, premium beef that delivers the exceptional taste and its regional riffs Humanely and sustainably raised, without hormones or antibiotics. Learn more at meyernaturalfoods.com • 1-­888-­586-­2208 foodfanatics.com | FOOD FANATICS 7 For Patricia Yeo’s duck confit fried rice recipe and others, go to FOODFANATICS.COM Will the Real Chinese Fo od KUNG PAO BEEF. ORANGE cooking techniques. No longer are our chefs Please CHICKEN. MOO SHU PORK required to serve pedestrian egg or barbe- cue pork fried rice. Chefs are adding a bit of AND LO MEIN. THESE ARE glamour and sex appeal to Chinese cuisine, THE BASTARDIZED DISH- riffing on a classic cooking style with nontra- ditional ingredients. Step ES FOUND AT THE CORNER At Mission Chinese Food in New York and MOM-AND-POP CHINESE San Francisco, the fried rice comes with flakes JOINTS THAT HAVE BEEN of salt cod, a direct descendant of quintessen- Forward? tial Chinese home fare. Brunch guests at Fung HIJACKED AND POPULAR- Tu in New York can order jian bing, a crepe IZED BY CHAINS LIKE PANDA stuffed with garlic chive scrambled eggs, pick- America’s led cucumbers and watercress. EXPRESS AND P.F. CHANG’S. When I arrived at Khong River House in regional Asian THERE’S NOTHING WRONG Miami Beach (where I am now the executive WITH THESE DISHES— chef), I noticed a dish that pays homage to Chinese-American pork fried rice by pairing cuisine gets THEY’RE JUST NOT CHINESE. Duroc pork belly with Chinese sausage. In- The real state of Chinese cuisine in cit- stead of pieces of egg scrambled in the rice, the back to its ies with large Asian communities is quite dish is topped with a sunny-side up egg. And at different. In San Francisco, New York, To- Blue Ribbon in Las Vegas and New York, the roots ronto and Vancouver, dishes like rou jia mo, fried rice comes with oxtail. BY PATRICIA YEO Xian’s famous lamb burger, xiao long bao, These restaurants have an audience today Shanghainese soup dumplings, or hong shao because food, cuisine, culture and geography rou, red braised pork from Hunan, are as are evolving. China is now welcoming and ac- commonplace as General Tso’s chicken. cessible to foreign travel. We visit in droves, Is American-Chinese food getting a bringing back food experiences. In the ’70s makeover? As a Chinese chef, I think of it as and ’80s, you were hard-pressed to findgai a renaissance, a blossoming and awakening lan (Chinese broccoli), which is why we used of the artistic and intellectual component conventional broccoli with beef, leading to of Chinese cuisine. the explosion of beef and broccoli on every Chinese menu. Show Me Your Riffs Over time, with demand and an influx The kitchens of Chinese restaurants are at of Asian farmers, Chinese vegetables and the forefront of authentic ingredients and other ingredients became available. Second- 8 FOOD FANATICS | SPRING 2015 foodfanatics.com | FOOD FANATICS 9 generation Asian chefs are straddling the line juicy dumplings and chewy noodles tossed to between the American cuisine they grew up order. Your meal will most likely arrive in a Jian Bing with with and the food Mum and Grandma cooked Styrofoam bowl or on a limp paper plate, but Garlic Chive Eggs at home. Chefs like Ming Tsai and Joanne the flavors will transport you to Chengdu or Chef-owner Jonathan Wu Chang in Boston and Anita Lo in New York Harbin. The prep, ingredients and flavors are Fung Tu, New York are part of this cadre, using ingredients from that authentic. 1½ cups jasmine rice their childhood with techniques learned from Chefs know it, too. On a previous trip to the ½ cup poha rice culinary school and their mentors.