Discover Hollywood's Favorite Foods and Champagne Cocktail at the 2012 Governors Oscar Ball

Sunday, February 26^th is Oscar Night in Hollywood this year. And while the stars and artists of all things cinema will be watching the award ceremony at the L.A.’s Kodak Theater, chefs and event designers around the world will be analyzing the cuisine and décor at the offical post-gala Governors Ball.

Once again Cheryl Cecchetto will produce the must-be-at event with Wolfgang Puck overseeing the cuisine along with pastry chef Sherry Yard. This is the 18^th year that Chef Wolfgang has directed his Spago staff to cheer the winners and comfort the losers, all with his hallmark flare and creativity.

And this year is no different with some exciting changes in store. Unlike past evenings, this year’s event is no longer a formal sit-down dinner. Surprise-surprise. There will also be no buffet tables or long lines straining to grab a bite from crowded tables. Even bigger surprise.

Instead 550 pieces of customized furniture will be brought in to create a dazzling lounge, created with a welcoming open floor plan that will surely say ‘You can NOW relax and have some fun” to all with that sought after invitation card as all the food will be directly tray-offered to the lucky guests.

Yet soft suede, red roses, sparkling crystals and purple drapes still mark the event as one with classic Hollywood glamour.

And then there will be the food as only Tinsel Town can do it – 1450 pounds of Maine lobster for petit tacos for starters and finally dessert mouse served in golden hued eggs. Ah Hollywood!

But what’s a party without a cocktail – the Governors Ball has always had its very own signature one, thanks to the very elegant champagne of Moet & Chandon. So without further delay, card please – recipe card, that is…Enjoy!  

RED CARPET GLAMOUR COCKTAIL 

• Fill a chilled champagne flute ½ way with ice.
• Stir 1 ounce of fresh-squeezed sour mix (see below) and Hum Botanical Spirit with fresh ice.
• Strain into flute to fill ½ way.
• Top with Moët & Chandon Imperial.
• Garnish with a single rose petal.
• Continually refresh as needed with champagne.

Sour Mix: Combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water until sugar is completely dissolved. Add 1 cup fresh lime juice and 1 cup fresh lemon juice and refrigerate.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012 

How to Make 2012 an Exceptionally Great Year

From Sydney to Paris the new year will soon roll in upon us. And while many of us within the Hospitality Industry are at this point a bit weary (to say the least) of holiday cheer, now is a good time to step back and think of our goals (and dreams) for the coming year, a year we all want to be exceptional.

Perhaps no one captures how to actually achieve that better than the staff at Absolut Vodka in their stunning "Anthem" video which takes items of the everyday and, in the hands of the gifted, turns them into art and meaning.

Likewise the members of our Industry do the same every day with our day-in day-out tasks.  We take items common to us all - food, lodging, rest - and with skill turn them into the art of expression and experience.

And when we choose to add our perceptive insights, our unique take on it all, well, the result is both exceptional and unforgettable - just like a glass of fine wine or a sip of classic vodka, both well worth the effort and the price.

May 2012 Be the Best Year Ever!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Shackleton's Whisky Reborn at Last!

If whisky were only a science than Whyte & Mackay must be truly the masters of the medium as they have brought Ernest Shackleton's recently rediscovered 100 year old Arctic whisky alive again. Congratulations!

After carefully airlifting three precious bottles from New Zealand, Richard Paterson and his staff slowly removed samples of the whisky from each bottle using the latest scientific tools. Special attention was given to avoiding any contamination of this rare whisky. 

Each sample drawn was then analyzed for it's unique makeup, marking out the chemical contents of the whiskey. Eventually an entire scientific paper would be creating sharing the results.  

But as every lover of the 'fine spirit' knows, whisky is far more than science - it's an art that captures place and character within a flavor as memorable as courage itself. And here is where the legendary million dollar nose of Richard Paterson easily replaces all the computers and tubes of any laboratory.

The result is his amazing flavor profile for Shackleton's whisky for the brave. It is a truly remarkable blend, now recreated by Whyte & Mackay for us all.  An Amazing Rediscovery! Many, many thanks to Richard for his great skill and effort to save the true taste of a whisky that sure to be treasured for another hundred years!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Before Starbucks There Was Arbuckles Coffee

Yes, there was coffee before the wonder of Starbucks everywhere. And if you had lived in the American West in the heyday of cattle drives and main street gunfights, your coffee of choice would have been Arbuckle’s, for sure. 

But to appreciate why Arbuckle's was so popular with all those cowboys and gunslingers, we have to go back just a little bit further than the rip roaring days of the West in the late 19th century.

Before Arbuckle's coffee became available, coffee beans were sold in the general store in their original state, unroasted and very green. The cowboy purchaser then had to take the beans, put them in a cast iron pan and roast them over an evening campfire.

If a single beam was burnt, which was very easy to do with only the stars overhead as light, the whole pan of beans had to be tossed. Even if the beans were successfully roasted, the roasting process was inconsistent and so was the strength of the much needed coffee at the end of a long and weary day.  

It's easy to see why then that prior to Arbuckle's, tea was the preferred American beverage, not coffee. Enter John Arbuckle, coffee savior and trail-blazing food vendor extraordinaire.

Back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, far from the dusty plains of the West, John and his brother were experimenting with new ways to seal the flavor and aroma of already roasted coffee into a package while working at their family's grocery store.

Arbuckle found that if he added an egg and sugar glaze to the beans after roasting and pack them while still warm in airtight paper bags they retained their original flavor and freshness.

Fantastic – improved flavor and increased product stability! He had a winner (and he knew it!)

Arbuckle promptly formed his own company. But he still had to get his product noticed. He designed a bright yellow package with distinctive red lettering that any buyer could easily recognize on a country store shelf without having to read the label. For as the movies often portrayed, many of the cowboys were not highly educated.

Arbuckle knew that and he knew that the life of the cowboy was a lonely one. Often months were spent with only a herd of cows and one’s horse for company. Moving with the herd meant traveling light – no books, and certainly no laptop, Internet, i-Phone or i-Pad. Just silence alone under the hot sun and endless night sky.

So he created informational trading cards that featured historical and geographical information and images and packaged them in every bag of coffee.

 He also included a stick of peppermint candy for sturring, just in case the cowboy didn't have a spoon. The peppermint flavor became so popular that local restaurants were forced to put similar small round candies to gain their business when the cowboys came to town. Still today many restaurants offer small peppermint candies at the end of the meal but most have forgotten how the tradition began.

But to return to the cards, so easily to carry, they were often called the “cowboy’s library”.They were so valued that cowboys even used them as money in a poker game. Arbuckle’s coffee is still available today and it's still as good. If you have never tasted the “Coffee that Won the West”, you should. It's literally history in a cup.

Just be sure, when you walk into a modern coffee shop today and see the news on the latest flat screen TV monitor or boot up the Internet to check the Market returns, to remember that your path links directly back to that solo cowboy - the one with a mug of Arbuckle’s coffee, gazing at a trading card and learning about the world beyond his campfire.  The past, in truth, is never really far away for the day we live today. 

That's something to remember because everything in our Industry has a history, a heritage- even a simple cup of coffee. Each and every day the past, as welll as the future, is with us as we work to serve our guests.

Post Note, November 8, 2011: After Arbuckle's introduced ground coffee, there was little use for the traditional hand-turned coffee mill until Joseph Glidden used it to twist common wire into barbed wire. With barbed wire came the end of the open range and the establishment of the great fenced western ranches. 

Once the boundaries of the ranches were established, roads (and general commerce) could be more easily developed. A small but interesting culinary fact - thank you once again, John Arbuckle. Small things often make a great difference in the course of history.  

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011