Like Water for Choclate uses Magical Realism to capture the transformative qualities of everyday food and drink into something more. Also consider reading (and enjoying) Joanne Harris' amazing Chocolat.
As everyone in the Hospitality Industry knows, Valentine's Day is a crush of guest and expectations.
So why not take a moment and laugh as you watch this compilation of Dos Equis legendary adman and then agree with us that chefs, who are always asked to achieve the impossible, are the "most interesting men in the world"!
Just substitute the word "Chef" for "the most interesting man in the world" and you have it! Enjoy and remember - Valentine's is only one day in the year!
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013
Very soon the world's focus will be shifted to all things brightly British as the 2012 Olympics start in London. And one jewel that is sure to sparkle within the Olympic Complex will be the elegant new London Aquatic Centre in Stratford.
Designed by Dame Zahan Mohammad Hadid, the famed British architect and winner of the Pritzker Architecture Price, this stunning sports facility is a truly unique building whose time has come. This great and very talented architect, along with the hard-working Welsh construction team on site, has literally raised the roof on stadium design.
But far from London, there is another (and much more lighthearted) ‘construction’ event occurring. Each year the hardy beer drinkers of Australia converge in Darwin for the annual Beer Can Regatta. Each contestant there must race (well, sort of race) in a self-made boat made of beer cans!
No, it's not the Olympics but with so much fun one can only wonder if Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn't like to heave anchor from the Caribbean and set sail (in style, of course) for the South Pacific. Once there he might even considering, for a very brief moment at least, the replacement his beloved rum with a can of Aussie beer.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012
The Games have begun, yet many of the half-million devoted tennis fans who will watch Nadal, Federer and Djokovic on home televisions and office Internet connections are unaware of the massive food service that supports this famous 14 day tournament of strength and skill.
Just consider the most recently released figures which reveal just how hard the 1,700 member FMC Catering staff at Wimbledon will be working for those 14 exciting days of play:
To Be Served
130,000 Lunches Served
40,000 Char-Grilled Meals Served
30,000 Fish and Chips Served
30,000 Meals for FMC's Own Staff
12,000 Kilos (26,455 Pounds) Poached and Smoked Salmon
As you might have noticed, the above list does not include Wimbledon’s famed “Strawberries and Cream” which are a must when attending the Games. Well, they are in a food class all by themselves where tradition meets logistics.
On average Game spectators will consume 28,000 kilos (61,730 pounds) of English strawberries - 2,000 kilos (4,409 pounds) and 7,000 liters (7,397 quarts) of fresh cream every day of play.
When added up, that’s a total of 28,000 kilos (61,726 pounds) of strawberries and 98,000 liters (103,558 quarts) of cream prepared and served in just in 14 days! WOW!
And these aren't just any generic strawberries. They're Grade 1 English strawberries from Britain’s finest strawberry producing farms such as theHugh Lowe Family Farms. Suppliers are working extra hard this year to meet the tournament’s demand as heavy rains and overly long cloudy skies have delayed the usual ripening season.
But with a courageous spirit equal to that of any tournament player, England’s berry growers are working hard to make their 5:30 A.M. delivery date each and every day.
The very same words used in the newest Wimbledon ad should also be used to describe the hard working catering staff and culinary suppliers to the Tournament – Super Human, Tough as Nails, True Champions All!
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012
Post Note, May 26, 2012: You know you're a star when you're profiled on 60 Miuntues, America's in-depth Sunday News program faithfully watched by millions. This past Sunday Novak Djokovic was so honored.
The resulting story highlights how Djokovic's skill and courage led him from battle torn streets of Belgrade to the emerald green grass of Wimbledon. Impressive and touching. Thank you 60 Minutes!
Many Americans are surprised when they learn that a beloved U.S. holiday, the Cinco de Mayo, is rarely celebrated in Mexico.
This can be a startling awareness as this fifth of May holiday is linked, in a somewhat confusing manner, to two separate events in Mexican history.
First off, the Cinco de Mayo holiday does NOT celebrate Mexico's independence from Spain. That event occurs on the sixteenth of September when the nation remembers Father Miguel Hidalgo who bravely rang his church bell and asked his fellow townspeople to claim their freedom from colonial control. His courage sparked the revolution that finally set Mexico free in 1821.
The beloved American Cinco de Mayo holiday honors a different event where Mexico once again for her independence from foreign powers. And herein lays an amazing tale of commerce, history, beach songs and creative marketing.
After Spain lost her hold on Mexico in 1821, many other European powers sought to replace her and control the rich resources of the nation, especially France.
This was supported by many of Mexico’s great landowners, who holding vast colonial land grants, feared change under the new constitution.
As the powers that be struggled to form a new and more just Mexico, France’s Napoleon III approached a young (and recently unemployed) Austrian Archduke Maximilian and his beautiful (and very talented) wife Carlota, asking if they would like to be the emperor and empress of Mexico.
There was only one big problem – no one asked the people of Mexico if they wanted an emperor and empress instead of elected officials. When the imposed, though naïve, new rulers arrived on Mexican soil with a supporting army, Mexican troops defended them initially in the Battle of Puebla on, you guessed it, May 5, 1862.
But France was determined that their expansive new foreign would be a success, including within it the southern American states when the Confederacy hopefully won the Civil War then raging to the north. To protect their plans, vast new numbers of French were sent to occupy Mexico.
The young Maximilian and his lovely wife believed they could bring enlightenment to Mexico and begin to issue rulings that angered their hard line conservative supporters who thought they would return colonial benefits, not overturn them.
Without their support, Napoleon III saw his dreams of an empire in the New World evaporating and quietly withdrew his supportive troops. The result was Maximilian was executed and beautiful Carlota went mad.
Mexico returned to its internal struggle for freedom and let the years of French occupation fade into history.
Sadly, freedom does not come easy for any nation whether it is America in the 1700s or Egypt today. There are always those who seek to take advantage of the disorder that change creates. One such individual in Mexican history was Porfirio Diaz, who had fought as a young general at the Battle of Pueblo against the French.
He levered his battlefield fame into a dictatorship that lasted from 1876 to 1911which provided some internal stability but limited political freedoms. Finally when the people could stand the oppression no longer, they rose up in a rebellion against the priviledged and favored that lasted for 10 bloody years.
Because of the violence, many Mexicansimmigrated to the United States, especially California. In seeking to express their heritage in a new country that had previously largely ignored its own internal hispanic legacy, they searched for an appropriate holiday.
As they had left Mexico while she was still fighting for freedom against the entitled and endowed, they could hardly select the 16th of September as a day of celebration. Sp why not celebrate the Cinco de Mayo instead?
And so a California ethnic holiday was created, but not a national one. That would only occur in the 1980s when the Mexican beer company Corona began exporting beer to the U.S. in 1979.
At first the product was not successful but after conducting marketing focus groups with male college students, they changed their image to embrace the Cinco de Mayo date as a day of fun, not the memory of a battle.
They supported this theme to include tropical Mexican beaches as captured in the songs of their new spokesperson, Jimmy Buffett of “Margaritaville” fame.
And the rest, as they say, is history – an American holiday with a history as rich and varied as the population of America. Hopefully this Cinco de Mayo this wealth of diversity, in both people and cuisine, will be remembered and honored by all as a treasure and never a libility.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012
November 19th is fast approaching and that can only mean one thing - The Harvard - Yale Game is scheduled for one more mighty confrontation of brawn and brain.
Since 1875, there's been a game. For years it was called either "the Yale - Harvard Game", if one attended Yale or "the Harvard - Yale game" if one went to Harvard.
Then in the late 1940s, the famous sport columnist Red Smith wrote about the game as “The Game” and the name stuck. Why such praise?
Because as one of the first games ever played at the university level, this annual contest of Ivy League will significantly defined the game of American football, making it ‘the” major college sport in the U.S.
This legacy would continue through the years, leading to such memorable games as the 1968 contest when the battered Harvard team made a miraculous last-moment comeback, scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds to tie a highly acclaimed Yale squad. The next day the Harvard headlines read with justifiable pride, "Harvard beats Yale 29 - 29".
This year The Game is at New Haven and Yale can’t wait to welcome the hardy Harvard Pilgrims (players, students and fans) down from Cambridge, near Boston.
Besides hoping to break a sad record of five years of straight losses, Yale students and alumni are also looking forward to enjoying another great tailgating event for which they are truly famous.
And while the University administration has issued various 'rules of engagement' (no under 21 drinking, beverage ID wrist bands required, gas grills only and no glass bottles), that won’t stop the fun, given the combined IQ of both schools.
The joint student bodies are sure to enjoy beer and any other spirited beverage obtainable in the nearby vicinity. Food to hopefully balance the liquid intake is kindly being provided by Yale University’s College dining halls.
Those who have graduated have a far more elegant spread at their disposal be it from the assorted alumni groups or various association hospitality tents. Here the fare is far more gourmet and the beverages as memorable as the fabled ivy covered walls of Yale and Harvard.
If distance or duty keeps you from The Game, you can still enjoy the tradition and heritage of it all with these classic cocktails – ones sure to be enjoyed by many while waiting for The Game (and the fun) to begin. (Will M.I.T. appear and try another of their infamous pranks? Who knows).
Good luck all and remember classes (and work) commence once again, bright and early, on Monday morning.
Harvard Cooler
1/2 tsp. superfine sugar 2 oz. carbonated water 2 oz. applejack
Stir sugar and carbonated water together in a 12 oz. Collins glass. Fill with cracked ice and add applejack. Top off with more carbonated water, or ginger ale. Insert spiral of orange or lemon peel over the rim of the glass.
Yale Punch
1 tsp. sugar dissolved in a little water 1 or 3 dashes lemon juice 1 or 2 dashes lime juice 2 or 3 dashes raspberry syrup 2 or 3 dashes Bénédictine 1/2 oz. St. Croix rum (probably any decent dark rum will do here) 2 oz. brandy (the recipe specifies Hennessey)
Mix with ice in a glass. Garnish with mint.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 3:46PM 
