NYC Food Trucks Go Big Time with a Union and a Lobbyist

We recently shared with our readers that upscale food trucks were one of the elements currently influencing emerging food trends. Proof that these rolling ethnic kitchens are here to stay (and increasing in popularity) is the fact that in New York City food truck owners have formed a representative trade group and hired a lobbyist.

A total of thirty-two culinary entrepreneurs, who street market everything from uniquely flavored ice creams to the very popular Korean tacos, have contracted with Cacalino and Company to represent their concerns from quicker food licensing to street parking rights.

David Weber, president and a co-owner of the Rickshaw Dumpling Trucks, believes the move is necessary as there is a negative stigma from former eras that doesn’t fairly apply to contemporary gourmet food trucks.

Disregarding any past negative marketing images, currently even some established restaurants are currently investing in this hot new food outlet format. 

Some food trucks have, indeed, become so popular they’ve “lost their wheels” and become a traditional brick-and- mortar restaurant.  

Changes can’t come too soon as the daily increase in the number of trucks intensifies the struggle for parking places between vendors. Added to the mix is the decision by New York City to ban the trucks from metered parking areas, all the while adding more car-only meters daily to increase the city's declining revenue funds.

Let’s hope it all works out and that there’s space and a place in the Industry for everyone willing to create and care about quality and innovation. 

Post Note, November 2, 2011: As they say there's an app for everything soon or later and now that's true regarding your favorite food truck.

Tweat.it has just launched their new app which will enable hurried hungry diners to find the location of their favorite NYC food truck quickly. Hopefully the app will soon expand to other cities worldwide so we can all catch our favorite eat on the run.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Hotel deLuxe Celebrates a Legend with the Elizabeth Taylor Champagne Cocktail

Many of us woke today to the sad news that a great star has passed away.  Elizabeth Taylor, a true member of Hollywood’s golden-era royalty, died peacefully of congestive heart failure at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, surrounded by her four children. She was 79 years old.  

When one speaks of the amazing life of Elizabeth Taylor, only the word “lengendary” will do.  And it is this great legacy that the Hotel deLuxe in Portland, Oregon honors every day with a very special cocktail.

But first let’s meet Elizabeth Taylor. She came to Hollywood from war-torn Britain during the early days of World War II and rose to sudden fame as the courageous heroine in the heart-touching film National Velvet.

Her stunning beauty caught the eye of many men, starting with Nicky Hilton of Hilton Hotel fame. Seven other husbands followed and many more great movies including Cleopatra, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, BUtterfield 8, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, Place in the Sun, Taming of the Shrew and A Little Night Music to name only a few.  

Lesser acknowledged is her skill as a business woman and her active support of HIV/AIDS research. She launched the first and most successful celebrity perfume, entitled “Passion”, named after her Love for life.

By 1991 her fragrant “Passion” had soared to sales of over $100 million dollars. A later perfume, “White Diamonds” would go on to rack up over one billion dollars in sales globally, making it the most famous star perfume ever marketed.

Elizabeth then gathered her star power (and dollars) and helped found the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the shattering death of her former costar and longtime friend, Rock Hudson. At a time when many wanted to ignore the growing health crisis or worse use the event to isolate and judge a valuable segment of society, she demand that the issue and loss caused by AIDS be faced squarely and publicly.

Showing the strength behind her beauty, she went further and founded the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF), enlisting the aid of the rich and famous to raise funds and fight fear. Indeed, it is to this organization that she asked her many fans and friends to support if they wished to remember her after death. 

From charm to beauty to meaning – what a life she lived, what a legacy she has left us. Michael Robertson, lead bartender extra ordinaire of the Driftwood Lounge at the cinema–themed Hotel deLuxe, has created a fantastic champagne cocktail that captures the beauty (inside and out) of this amazing superstar.

An almost perfect color match to Elizabeth Taylor’s stunning violet eyes, this is a cocktail as unforgettable as the star’s beauty and personal courage.

Equally unforgettable is the Hotel deLuxe with each floor’s décor honoring the Hollywood made famous by the movies. Images of Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow grace the walls in elegant art deco style.  It’s just the right place to enjoy elegance and a world class cocktail honoring a world famous star – Elizabeth Taylor.

But, just in case you can’t make it to the Hotel deLuxe in the near future, bar master Michael Robertson has graciously offered to help you honor Elizabeth Taylor by sharing the recipe for his original cocktail – Enjoy and remember: 

The Elizabeth Taylor Cocktail

Stir gently together:

4 ounces of chilled Champagne

¾ ounce of Rothman & Winter’s Crème De Viollete.

Mix slowly and pour into the most elegant glass available.

Gently top with an Amarena Cherry.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

How Culinary Trends Are Created at Digital Light Speed

It seems that, whether it’s bacon or cupcakes, there’s a new culinary trend every other day, passing by in a whirling and seemingly never ending parade of the “hip and the hot”. But often overlooked is the backstory of how, exactly, are these trends created.

To answer that question one has to understand the history of culinary marketing both pre and post digital revolution. Prior to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame and an ever advancing army of reviewing bloggers, the popular food trends were identified by a select group of knowledgeable culinary and lifestyle magazines at the tables of the world’s leading restaurants.  

The creative chefs at these remarkable restaurants were (and still are) masters of their medium.  Their kingdom is the kitchen and their dining rooms the arena of their expression.  Only rarely did the general dining population known their names.

Then came the Internet and television food channels and suddenly, it seemed in the twinkling of an eye, everything changed. As millions of viewers tuned in, show topics became trends. Host chefs became media celebrities, often promoting a variety of supportive products.

The dedicated viewers of these new cooking programs turned their new found interests into Internet search words, all to be tracked internally on the Web by background analytical software.

The accumulated marketing data further focused attention on single products, single dishes, strengthened by the effect of “value added placement” (or v.a.p.) in movies and television shows such as Sex in the City and Mad Men.

Then there were the upscale food trucks that appeared and their location and fame spread via twitters and bloggers as their young chefs in innovative “incubator cities” such as Seattle, Portland, Austin and Oakland tried the new, the daring, that unique untried combination.  

Today’s insightful chef can and does take the best from each of these worlds and maintain equally both tradition and innovation.  Valid professional skills, learned from a trained master, are a must as is a knowledge of and presence on the Web. Today’s successful chef needs to know the resources of the Internet as well as he knows the talents of his staff and tastes of his or her diners.

One can only hope that this balanced blend of past and present will be the best and most lasting of all the ‘trends’ to emerge into the future legacy of the 21st century.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Possible New Menu and Champagne Choices at William and Kate’s Royal Wedding

While many people are currently wondering who will design Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, chefs around the world are thinking menu – menu- menu – menu. If the past is any guide (and we are talking tradition here), it might be helpful to review the choices of former British princesses on their wedding day.

In 1947 when the present Queen Elizabeth was still a princess, she chose a blended English French menu to celebrate her wedding to Philip Mountbatten. Then, as now, the young couple was faced with the difficulty of hosting an elaborate wedding during hard economic times.

As a result, elegant restraint was the main theme of the event with the exception of 20,000 plus white pearls sent from America to accent the young princess’ snow white wedding dress. Those lucky enough to attend the post-wedding oh so select private reception dined on a menu of:

Filet of Sole Mountbattan **  Perdreau en Casserole ** Haricots Verts ** Pommes Noisettes ** Salad Royale ** Bombe Glacee Elizabeth ** Friandises ** Dessert ** Café

The baroque wedding cake was a stunning 2.5 meters or eight foot tall and topped with a silver sculpture of England’s patron St. George and his Dragon.  

Glasses of Bollinger champagne were passed to the enjoyment of all, thanks to the American General George Patton (also a noted lover of fine Champagne), who late in 1944 rushed to the Bollinger’s French estate and prevented the evacuating Germans from dynamiting the rare wines stored in the champagne cellars there.

In more affluent days, Prince Charles and a hopeful Lady Diana dined on gold plate at their 1981 morning-after breakfast reception (actually an elaborate late brunch) as their guests enjoyed:  

Brill in Lobster Sauce ** Chicken Breasts Garnished with Lamb Mousse ** Strawberries with Cornish Cream ** Claret and Port

The groom cut their five tier wedding cake with his naval parade sword. Each lovely layer was decorated with sugar doves nestled in a confectionary garden of roses, lilies of the valley, fuchsias and orchids entwined with an ornamental “C” and “D”.

It was a lovely wedding complete with endless toasts, of course, of Bollinger's legendary champagne. The entire world seemed to stop that day with everyone wishing the young couple the very best. Sadly it was not to be.

Today another royal wedding is on the horizon and this young couple seems to be more modern, focused and eager to reflect the times they live in. With an informative wedding website and a list of selected charities replacing the standard "me-me" bridal gift registry, William and Kate Middleton are both a breath of fresh air in the stately halls of British traditions.

It’s even possible they might select their own champagne, say England’s own, the Nyetimber’s Classic Cuvee 2003 of Sussex. Chosen at the esteemed international Bollicine del Mondo competition held last year in Verona, Italy as the best bubbly in the world, this remarkable English, yes ENGLISH, champagne beat out 52 other entries including Bollinger and Roederer! Mon dieu!

So, it will be interesting to see what this very modern young couple chooses. Many are betting on a health focused menu that also highlights the culinary traditions of England, all done with a touch of elegance and grace.

And the champagne…? Bollinger, Nyetimber or something else? Well, change is always possible, even at historic Windsor.

Yet, when Prince William introduced Kate to a preview of her future royal duties recently in North Wales, she christened a new lifeboat by pouring (poured, not broken) a bottle of Bollinger’s finest over the bow.

There are also other champagne houses that are willing to help the million plus wedding visitors to London celebrate the April 29th festivities in style. One is the English firm of Halewood International, which has owned the Prince William Champagne brand for decades. With an event/brand name match like that, Halewood is sure to be, as the English would say, rather popular.

But come ladies and gentlemen, whose going to create a  worthy "Lady Kate" Champagne? Please, let's remember to honor the bride!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

How to Be Irish with a Difference

They say that on St Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish, but that doesn’t mean one has to be limited to a dry soda scone or a wee shot of whiskey.  Why not try, instead, a green cocktail made with a clear bright vodka crafted from either wheat or potatoes – both traditional in Irish cuisine.

Daniel Seelbinder at Exclusiv Vodka has created just such a cocktail and it’s truly worthy of the day:

SAINT PAT’S-TINI COCKTAIL

2 oz Exclusiv Vodka
1/2 oz Creme de Cocoa
1 oz Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 oz green Creme de Menthe

• Shake first three ingredients in a martini shaker.
• Pour into a chilled martini glass.
• Slowly pour in Green Creme de Menthe.
• Garnish with a mint leaf and chocolate shavings.

 Enjoy your 'drinking-of-the-green'! Saint Patty would so approve!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011