Photo Courtesy of VegNews.com

Today vegetarianism is no longer simply a passing phase for the famous. It is becoming ever more mainstream. Millions of Americans have adopted this diet, and the converts are growing every day.

Even those who still enjoy meat are giving vegetarians greater respect, although we still find it difficult to imagine that a superstar athlete or a Commander in Chief would, or could, get to the top on a diet of beans and rice. T. Colin Campbell, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, says it well:

“It’s my guess that there’s hardly another myth in nutrition so insidious yet so intractable as that which encourages us to believe that consuming lots of high-quality protein — basically the stuff of animal-based foods — makes for fitness, bigness, and strength of body. Rooted in antiquity, this myth began to sprout in the minds of men (especially men, it seems) long before protein was identified and named.”

The myth took root in the belief that we could get our strength, our agility, and our ability to soar to unimaginable heights only if we consumed the flesh and bodies of animals.

Much later, in the early 19th century, when scientists identified protein as being more or less equivalent to the flesh of animals they worshiped, it was heralded as the treasured nutrient. In the words of famous chemist Justus von Liebig, it was none other than the very “stuff of life itself.”

A remarkable shift in perception is occurring.

Choosing a vegetarian diet is now equated with having respect for one’s own health and the health of the planet. Those who can afford to buy the best organically grown produce are building a wide range of new vegetarian meals and taking a fresh look at classic meatless dishes from around the world.

Innovative vegetarian dishes are appearing with increasing frequency on restaurant menus. Offered as a summer garden of colorful vegetables and fresh pasta in a bowl drizzled with fruity olive oil, a generous spoonful of Parmesan, and a handshake of freshly ground black pepper, which of us would feel deprived?

In Western industrialized countries, there are more vegetarians than ever before — yet in a parallel shift there are more hamburgers eaten than ever before. It’s also interesting to note that Eskimos, who eat a traditional diet consisting almost entirely of meat, have a very similar life expectancy to that of Indian Hindus who are strict vegetarians.

Go figure.

Jobs for Vegetarians

• Become A Produce Buyer for Restaurants: Buy a truck. Pick up the produce from a group of farmers and sell it to restaurants and retail markets.
• Start a Store: Sell vegetarian specialties.
• Write About It: Find a sponsor to finance a free newsletter to be given away at farmer’s markets, specialty food stores and grocery shops. Include seasonal recipes. Look to Vegetarian Times and terrific Mollie Kazen for inspiration.
• Teach It: Launch a vegetarian cooking class, even bigger, launch a vegetarian cooking school.
• Be Passionate About It: Look to VegNews.com as a start in your search.

Ben and Jerry said the ’90’s were the ’60s standing on their head. Seriously?! Six is a really important number. We should get to know more about six because it is a “decider” digit.

Every day we have to make decisions. Should I wear this or that? Go out? Stay in? Go to this restaurant or that one? Do I want the steak [cooked] rare or medium rare? Pepper? Blue cheese or vinaigrette? Smooth or chunky?  Small, medium or large? With or without? Regular or decaf? Law school, medical school or culinary school?

In order to survive, we have to narrow our choices. Otherwise, we’ll go crazy. If we decide to write a cookbook based on the Chicken Dishes of the World, we will drown. It would be far easier to compile the Chicken Dishes of Chicago.

Sheena S. Iyengar, the S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, is among the world’s experts on the subject of decision making. She delves into the relationship between how we choose and who we are.

The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyenga

I mention the distinguished professor because her most famous (at least to me) study, concerned the number ‘six’. The version I discovered concerns heuristics.

It was on Google that I tested a strawberry jam theory that goes like this. A customer wants a pot of strawberry jam so she “Googles” it.  Up pops about 5,260,000 strawberry jam references in less than 60 seconds: where to buy it, how to make it, etc.–all based on Google’s unique heuristics.

Delving deeper:

• One site offers 12 different kinds of strawberry jam. The customer is immediately exhausted. Twelve choices is six too many so she clicks to another site.
• Here only three kinds of strawberry jam are offered. Hmm. The customer decides this company is way too small. (If I give them my credit card number, they’ll probably steal my identity — and I’ll never receive the jam.)
• Click. And Eureka! Here are six kinds of strawberry jam. I think I’ll place my order this company. I submit my order. Done, and done.

This seemingly totally irrelevant stuff is actually valuable information.

If a fast food restaurant offers more than six choices, the line slows and everyone quickly gets grumpy. If a bakery offers six kinds of cup cakes, the buyer will buy at least one, maybe all six. Offer six bagels, and we’ll buy ‘em all even if we had planned to buy only one.

Many chefs figured out that it is shrewd to offer six choices on the menu, particularly on holiday menus. For Easter, there must be: lamb, ham, a fish, a vegetarian dish and two other selections. Keeping the number of choices to six means there is briefer interrogation of the server and  the tables keep turning, and the reservations are honored on time.

(Except, on Thanksgiving, the menu should be turkey, turkey, turkey, more turkey, no turkey and only one other choice.)

Prix-fixe menus with six choices work well particularly when guests are less interested in intricate preparations and more concerned about how much time they have before returning to work or getting to the theater on time.

Linda Duke, the CEO of Duke Marketing, says promotional sentences should be only six words long (or actually, short). Any more, and readers lose interest. She urges restaurateurs to try describing their restaurant this way:

“Ask yourself what makes your restaurant different? Define what you do best? Now try expressing your entire philosophy with six words. Great food. Great service. Finger-licking good — (though not too great if you have sanitized hands).”

Will you ‘deep six‘ this commentary, ‘take the road less traveled’ or when it ‘comes to a fork in the road, take it’?

You decide.

Ms. Patty Melt Food Truck

The term “truck stop” has an entirely new meaning these days.

Rice pudding, exotic ice cream, cupcakes, flavored popcorn, French Fries, Korean tacos or hot soup and artisainal bread are just a few among the literally dozens of street foods offered and flourishing.

A proprietor of a small operation in a busy location can literally make a fortune providing healthy, hearty, homemade sandwiches for the lunch crowd.

Not So Hidden Costs

“Food trucks typically earn a profit equivalent to about 40% of sales,”reported The Globe and Mail. And this is after obtaining licenses and permits that are far from cheap. A new mobile catering permit from the San Francisco Police Department is $9,300.

A used hot dog style cart costs about $2,000, while refurbished trucks for driving and vending can run considerably more than $40,000, with some costing as much as an astronomical $100,000.

Occasionally an investor/partner may be willing to foot the bill for a start-up food truck, but the hope of getting a bank loan may spring pretty much eternal.

Food truck insurance is an additional not so hidden expense not only to protect against the fear of food borne illness, but also in recognition that the truck may be carrying one, or several propane tanks. The chef may be cooking over an open flame or using a hotter’n’hell pizza oven.

And, bad weather is a variable that is impossible to factor into a profit projection.

Sales are likely to plummet on national holidays except for the few, who may prefer to get a turkey taco from a truck rather than committing to a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day.

Permits

The permit permits the purchaser to park in a public place for up to five locations. Each parking spot must be at least two blocks or 300 feet away from a similar food vendor, either a brick-and-mortar business, or another mobile catering vehicle.

If a truck is parked too close to a regular brick and mortar restaurant, it can, and often does, raise an objection citing unfair business practice.

Parking on private property is strictly forbidden and laws are vigorously enforced.

Permits are non-transferable, and the waiting time to get one can extend not for months but years if the city council restricts the number of mobile vendors already allowed to operate.

Some municipalities allow the food to be prepared in a different (but licensed) facility, while others demand all the food preparation be done in the truck itself and properly refrigerated. (It can’t be sloshing about in a Styrofoam cooler.)

Safety First

In many cities, food truck vendors face Health Inspectors who vigorously enforce high sanitation standards.

Spreading the Word

Social media and food truck apps continues to play a large role in food truck success. For instance, more than 50% of Gorilla Cheese’s customers track its location through social media. They tag street locations like tagging friends on Facebook.

In the end, despite all the possible road blocks, owning a food truck could set some feet on the road to happiness.

Distance from Napa, CA to Bismark, ND

I was shocked to hear from my brilliant friend and colleague, noted Wine Professor Steven Kolpan, (see his blog!), that a profound consequence of global warning “may shift the American center of wine from Mendocino or Napa, California to North Dakota (possibly over 1,500 miles!) in order to maintain the desired balance of acidity in the grapes.” Further, that “Warming temperatures will encourage infestations of pests as is already occurring in Germany. And nobody knows what to do about it.” (Will sustainable farmers be forced to spray or have to rethink the idea of releasing millions of ladybugs to gobble the newly emerging noxious pests?) By the end of this gathering, my little grey cells were electrified with new ideas and my emotions were further stimulated by meeting old friends and making new ones. I mention these things to remind myself that there is simply nothing to compare with maintaining what I once heard was described as a ‘mind alive’. I’m already on the look out for the next food conference. I hope to meet you there wherever it will be.

“What we eat and why we choose the foods that make up our daily diet; the ceremonies that surround food; how it underscores our sameness and differences; its mythic and symbolic importance; the joy of plenty; the fear of famine and deprivation — all are occasions for reflections on the human condition.

Why do we tolerate the prevalence of widespread hunger in a world of abundance? What roles do culturally determined food preferences or the power of science, politics, or global trade play in determining who will be well fed and who will starve?”

There is an unending trove of material available, if you want to enliven your cooking classes with some food stories, or enrich your copy if you write about food, or even develop a syllabus for a new  high school or college level course.  For example, this is how I approached a unique series of gastronomy lessons.  I developed some menus and used the prism of food to talk about several areas that I personally found interesting.  Happily the students did too. This is one of my menus:

Oysters Garnished with Sevruga Caviar

Roast Beef

Or

Spiced Crispy Chilean Sea Bass in Ginger-Cardamom Broth

Locally Grown, Organic Mixed Green Salad Seasoned with Salt & Pepper

Lemon Juice and Virgin Olive Oil Dressing

Red Wine and Imported Sparking Water

Cheese Platter and  French Bread

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Tea  or Coffee

This menu provides the framework for discussing the following:

The history of oysters: trade issues involved in banning of imported caviar

The carnivore and the vegetarian diet

Role of chefs in boycotting endangered fish i.e. bass and politics of foie gras

The discovery of fire and its role in the evolution of the human race

Organic farming and genetically engineered crops

The impact of citrus fruit on the global economy

The symbolism of olive oil

The history of the spice trade

The physiology of taste and smell

An examination of issues related to appetite and hunger

The changing face of wine and the influence of advertising and packaging

Water: the most vital issue facing the world

The reasons behind the recent interest in artisanal cheeses and slow foods

The history of bread

Flourless chocolate cake as it relates to fads and trends

The impact of tea and coffee on the health of the consumer

The inevitability of change and present and future impact of technology on upscale dining.

What fun!

If we had to identify the most obvious food trend it would almost certainly be green. We must eat green to get in the pink. We are deeply obsessed with healthy food.

Right.

Why is corn on the cob good but popcorn bad? (Garrison Keillor observed, “Sex is good but sweet corn is better.”)

We are ignoring dire warnings about the evil of salt. But. Sea salt was prominently listed on 2,621 European product launches last year. Here, lawmakers hint darkly they will soon ban salt in restaurants. O.K. We’ll have fleur de sel instead.

Q.  Why do we love the In-N-Out  restaurant chain?

A.   Because it is healthier. Really? Eat This Not That (Rodale Books, 2008) says: ”The In-N-Out Chocolate Shake might be made with real ice cream but it still has as much saturated fat as six burgers!” Yikes.

Americans eat 818 hot dogs every second! Every second! Hot dogs are rarely described as healthful or gourmet, but New York Magazine reports: restaurants are bridging the gap between “dirty water dogs” sold on street corners and high-quality cuisine. Say “Good Dog” to green $10 dogs with organic, healthy toppings.

Why oh why do we love Jell-O? Why do we adore potato chips? Why do we crave pizza? Macaroni and cheese annual sales are up 25 percent to $802 million. None of these are health foods. They are not even green.

Is it kind to kill a chicken humanely just so we can eat it?

Why do we dote on donuts and bagels? Is it because they are hole foods?

The product most frequently bought in the supermarket is diet soda. Why? Possibly because it contains O. It’s  just a cool can of fizz.

Why are we addicted to chocolate? Scientists have recently decoded the DNA of single estate chocolate. Molé

An article published in the Science of Food and Agriculture allows us to consider the astonishing suggestion that beers containing lots of hops may (or presumably may not?) promote better bone health. This theorizing advances a hypothesis based on a hypothetical. Nice try though.

In a recent poll, three out of four adults said that they were trying to eat healthier than they did two years ago yet research reveals menu items that are identified as being healthy are some of the least popular items. When fast food chains set up a salad bar in a prominent location what happens? Sales of cheeseburgers soar.

Nearly 20 percent of consumers say they’d be more likely to eat out for breakfast on weekdays if options were more healthful. Restaurateurs are skeptical. (This kind of thinking parallels the astute observation by a sports commentator who opined: “If it had gone in, it would have been a goal). Duh!

Those who worry about our health warn us that French fries are junk food but mashed potatoes with butter and cream are very good. Indeed, many consider a decent size serving of mashed potatoes is one that will accomodate both buttocks.

The sugar in cookies is bad. The sugar in honey is good. Is it true this is the same sugar as that found in high fructose corn syrup?

Everything cooked at home by Mom is good, even if this means Mom tossed a box of spaghetti into boiling (salted) water, unscrewed a jar of pasta sauce and sprinkled the pasta with “cheese” from a green container. This is a homemade meal because it was made at home even though processed food is bad.

Everything that comes in a can or from a freezer or is processed in any way is not good even though canned and frozen veggies are processed the moment they are harvested and “fresh” food may have languished in the supermarket before being put in the home refrigerator for several days, losing nutrients every second of every day. Even so all fresh vegetables are good. Cauliflower is particularly good, though it consists of 90 percent water. Cucumber may be cool and iceberg lettuce even cooler but these vegetables are mostly shaped green water.

Frozen fish is not as good as fresh fish though fish, frozen at sea the moment it is caught is fresher than fresh fish that has been sloshing around in the hold of a ship for several hours.

Some folk are willing indeed eager to pay a huge amount of money for raw unpasteurized milk that is truly terribly bad for their health. The same people refuse to accept the idea of irradiated food though many thousands die from preventable food born illnesses every year.

We throw away tons and tons of food fearing hungry people might sue us if they eat the food that we eat when we could quite easily provide them with a pencil and politely ask them to sign a waiver.

Worldwide four people are killed by sharks.  Everyone in the world is afraid of sharks.

During the past 25 years there have been 139 deaths from mad cow disease. The odds of contracting mad cow disease are one in 10 billion. This doesn’t mean the risk is zero but it is as close to zero as you can get.

There has been a huge increase in those who choose to be vegetarian. Weekday vegetarians are all the rage. Meatless Mondays is an idea that is galloping forward. Wellness advocates denounce the use of additives in our food. Additives prevent the salt from clumping, the ice cream from crystallizing and prevents the eruption of bugs of bugs in the flour.

A homemade cake contains the same ingredients as a cake bought from a bakery or baked from ingredients found in a box.

Some folk prefer to eat an apple with a worm in it as this proves it has been organically grown without pesticides.

Life expectancy in Japan is 86 years. Japanese people snack on a bar made of dried sardines and slivered almonds. Maybe it just feels like 86 years?

Life expectancy in Switzerland is 84 years. Could it be due to the chocolate and fondue?

Life expectancy in France is 84. years. Could it be due to the butter, red wine and garlic?

Life expectancy in Italy is 83.5 years. Could it be due to the pasta and pizza?

Life expectancy in the United States is 80.8 years. Could it be due to all that bacon? In the U.S. there is bacon, bacon everywhere. Even, it is rumored in the new Coke… Bacon mania marches on with Bakon vodka.  How long before we swoon for male underarm bacon antiperspirant?

Tapas taps into the need for more being less or is it the other way round?

14,408 people are murdered every year, many by their spouse. So let’s ban marriage for everyone.  Lets all live in sin, eat what we want when we want it, be happy and live for ever.

Audrey Hepburn as My Fair Lady

If you saw the glorious fashion parade in My Fair Lady, you will know exactly what to wear when Her Royal Highness invites you to Ascot to bet on the horses.

The rules are clearly spelled out: “A hat must be worn to cover the crown of the head, and shoulders must be covered. Overseas visitors are welcome to wear the national dress of their country. Uniforms may be worn.”

The national dress? Now, right away, here’s a problem. Obviously it wouldn’t be right and proper to show up barefoot and draped in a leopard skin or indeed any other kind of animal skin that reveals not only bare shoulders but other naked parts too.

Native Indians would feel horribly out of place wearing feathers on their heads. Feathers are permitted but they must be affixed to hats. Exposed knees are never ever proper unless a Scotsman is wearing a kilt. Western religious garb is socially acceptable; clergy may wear clerical collars and black raiment, but ladies would not be expected to show up in the Royal Enclosure enveloped in a blue burqua.

Similarly when a fine dining restaurant allows you to “come as you are,” it definitely doesn’t mean that you can expect the welcome mat if you arrive in your brown work togs if you have a job at McDonald’s or UPS.

Numbered, orange-colored, one-piece jump suits and ankle bracelets are distracting for other diners.

Shirts should never be worn as reading material.

Except in Texas, it is not considered normal to wear a cowboy hat indoors though, some think it stylish to wear cowboy boots.

Sombrero’s and reversed caps advertising a feedlot or oil company are uncouth.

Uniforms identify police and firefighters, nurses and masked surgeons, astronauts and train conductors, airline pilots and beekeepers, mechanics and cheerleaders and judges, bathing beauties and baseball players, speed skaters, bikers and ballerinas, and, ever so briefly — brides.

Bubble-wrapped Brideand gowned academics, bikers and ballerinas, and, ever so briefly — brides.

It is rare for any of these people to show up at a nice restaurant, clad in their ‘work’ clothes, saying “ Four for dinner please.”

Jaws would drop. Conversation would cease. The sky would fall.

Even queens leave their tiaras at home when they go out to eat.

It’s not accepted behavior to wear jewels on your head, but it is socially satisfactory to flash diamonds around your neck or on your fingers. Rings through the nose and tongue are upsetting.

Piercings are permitted in the ears but only if costly baubles dangle from them.

Permanent tattoos are generally unwelcome though more transiently-painted faces and hands are highly desirable.

Breathtakingly-plunging neck lines and skirts slit all the way up to the “howdy doody” are only to be worn on formal occasions, when there are more than five glasses at each place setting. A gentlemen guest is required to remain tightly buttoned up in his tuxedo,

Some restaurants refuse to seat a gentleman, who is not wearing a length of colored fabric knotted around his neck. A jacket is required to eat the lobster if it has been pried out of its shell. A bib is worn to eat a whole lobster.

Can a restaurant insist the gentleman not only wear a jacket but also keep it on until he leaves the premises? What if he drapes it over the back of the chair and reveals his suspenders? Should he be reprimanded?

What if Larry King comes for dinner? Is it O.K. for him to reveal his suspenders to many but not to few? Most restaurants request “casual chic” attire in the evening. This highly ambiguous phrase seems to mean different things to different people.

Joe Baum (right) with Alan Lewis & Chef Andre Renee at Windows on the World

So to make things perfectly clear we should remember the words of the late, great (inscrutable) Joe Baum, chairman of Windows on the World and The Rainbow Room, and inventor of 167 other dining entertainments.

He said, “A restaurant doesn’t create the times as Dior creates a fashion. A restaurant reflects the times. Restaurants are living things and reflect the generations in which they exist. Like religions, they keep changing and adapting.  We are organized, equipped and staffed to supply pleasure, at a profit. This means that any threats to pleasure are bad for business.”

Deciding what to wear when dining at a topless bar may not be the most pressing problem of the day but the topic of dress codes in restaurants is an issue that gets a lot of people hot under the collar. Arbiters of good  taste may consider a job as a teacher of dining etiquette.

Japanese Sushi Chef Ken Kawasumi with his Sushi Obama creation

The mid-term elections are fast approaching. I’ve been wondering why candidates running for high political office seem to feel it is necessary to eat what the locals eat. I suppose it’s a way of establishing solidarity with the voters.

When politicians fly to Buffalo they make a big deal about eating a wing. They become “ein Buffalo-er,” which is the next best thing to being ein Berliner or a Philadelphian — when they gather together together to scarf down a cheesesteak.

It’s the same deal when we declare our brotherhood by eating a hot pastrami sandwich.

Toss down a couple of belts of hard liquor and the world applauds. There’s nothing like beer to solidify a candidate’s credentials. Wine is another thing altogether.

JFK and Jackie O. received high marks for their elegant state dinners. That was then, though.

Eat French food today and the other side will make a mockery of you. Admitting to enjoying chardonnay and arugula has become shorthand for a lack of patriotism.

French food is only O.K. only when it comes to fries. Fried is probably the best bet for almost everything, especially chicken.  KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is wildly popular throughout the world, or many parts of the world. Forget about quiche.

Throw a barbecue on your million acre ranch and what are you?  Why, you are a man: A REAL MAN!  A red-bloodied American man.

Declare your favorite food to be caribou stew or moose burger and you pass muster in certain necks of certain woods. Right on!

You are pretty safe if you can eat whatever is offered to eat with your hands, or if worst comes to worst, a plastic fork is sometimes allowed (or forgiven).

Mention you are a vegetarian and you’ll be confessing to ‘wimpitude’. (Hitler was a vegetarian.)

Pastor Rick Warren recently pondered whether an atheist, even a non-practicing atheist, could become the Commander in Chief. He didn’t reflect about whether a vegetarian had a prayer.

If I was a campaign adviser I’d suggest that my client stay clear of all cheese except Velveeta or when campaigning in Wisconsin.

It’s odd that desserts don’t carry any weight in this public display of togetherness chomping.

While some foods are considered cool, others pose a problem. For instance, sushi would have been taboo in years past. Now sushi is sold at Wal-Mart, in supermarkets and food courts everywhere.

Sushi is the new pizza. It’s become a kind of upscale fish finger.

The galloping popularity of sushi opens up splendid new career opportunities for chefs. Sushi culinary schools have opened in California, and we can confidently expect to see more MASA restaurant derivatives. MASA in New York occupies a place in the restaurant stratosphere where dinner for two can cost as much as $1,000 before tax and gratuities.

Fish is gold.

Fish ‘n rice clearly occupy a far more exalted status than fish ‘n chips, so this seems like a fine time to sashay into sushi and sashimi.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

You’ll undoubtedly remember the Mad Hatter’s tea party?

“There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter and the Doormouse were having tea at it: The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it.

`No room! No room!’ they cried out when they saw Alice coming.

`There’s plenty of room!’ said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.”

(Having seats, gaining and losing seats is another matter of considerable importance, even today in these high stress political times.)

And by the way, I recently learned that hatters became quite mad after inhaling fumes from chemicals that were used in the hat-making process.

Thus, another element of controversy is introduced into the tea party equation.

“Teas, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual.” said Thomas De Quincy in his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, an autobiographical account written in 1821 about his opium and alcohol addiction.

Now we are becoming addicted to tea.

Tea cafes are opening everywhere.

Tea parties are booming.

Sell a customer a glass of iced tea for $1.50. Then offer a “free” refill. The guest will be delighted! Wow!! Free tea!!!

No wonder: both hot and iced tea are experiencing a renaissance in North America. Even Starbucks, the quintessentially coffee purveyor, offers a wide range of Tazo® Teas including tea lattes.

Iced tea accounts for a dramatic increase in the total tea drinking partly because it has developed a profile as a healthy, inexpensive, low calorie drink that  can challenge  the popularity of carbonated sodas.

And look at the profit to be made!

What is the average cost of preparing a glass of iced tea? 3 cents? You do the math.

(The slice of lemon must be calculated separately as it will probably cost more than the tea.)

Sell a few hundred glasses of iced tea in a year, and you’ll rake in enough to pay for many bottles of gin.

Hot tea service in a restaurant is even more astonishingly profitable than iced tea, particularly when there is s modicum of ceremony involved. This involves an investment in charming tea pots, and delicate porcelain cups and saucers, maybe milk jugs; certainly sugar bowls that contain tiny sugar cubes and silver tongs to transport the sugar into the cup of tea.

Here are some sample words to seduce the senses that I’ve stolen from an actual tea menu whose provenance I regret to have forgotten:

• “African Nectar” African Rooibos Leaves Teeming With Tropical Fruit and Blossoms, Antioxidant Rich.
• “Orange Jasmine,” A Rich Dark Brew of Black Tea Teeming with Notes of Orange, Vanilla, Bergamot and Jasmine.

Among the many tea-related jobs to be found are: tea importer, tea broker, tea auctioneer and tea taster.

A table-top consultant is a specialist who scours showrooms for six or more tea service samples to present to the chef or restaurant owner who selects and places the order for the preferred style. The consultant schlepper then returns the samples.

Clearly fortunes are to be made by reading the tea leaves correctly.

Courtesy of Escobar Highland Farm

A Ahhh: the A – Z of The Year in Food in Review!

B The buzzwords this year were “bacon, bacon, bacon,” butchers, back-to-basics cooking, Balloon Boy Batali, Barefoot C. D. Bouley, D. Boulud and db Bistro Moderne. The Beer summit with O_bama sent bloggers a-blogging. Blight (as in tomato) and the Big Bee Buzz Off also made news. Bottled water fell in trickle down economy.

C New cheese course in restaurants resulted in food jobs for cave men. Terrance Brennan, Chef-Proprietor of Picholine Restaurant and Artisanal Bistro and Wine Bar was nominated as Le Grand Fromage. Cup cake sales surpassed Pop Tarts. Copia, Napa’s bankrupt center for wine, food and the arts, was in the soup after amassing $78 million in debt.

D Doughnut claims proved to be full of holes.

E Epstein (Jason) wrote Eating: A Memoir.

F What began as “sugar-free” morphed into “salt-free,” “calorie-free” and “cholesterol free.” ‘FREE for All’ became the brand new and improved marketing concept. Let Freedom Ring! “Farm to table” was considered a brand new concept though, admittedly, this is the way people have eaten since the beginning of time. (The cost of a home-grown tomato was estimated to be in the range of $100. Gardening also took up heaps of free time.)

G Gordon Ramsay swore innocence in alleged sex affair. Government legalized marijuana. Rumors suggested that the appointed leader of a new agency would be known as Mr. Pot Head. ‘Green’ was declared the only way to go for those who wanted to get in the pink.

H Hospitals began replacing the rules of hospitality; some treated themselves like ‘out patients.’ They opted for a diet of denial. Dem(ocrat)s preferred smoothies. Healthy cocktails became all the rage.

I I will launch my web version of the Great Food Almanac in the new year.

J In the movie, Julie (Powell) blogged but Julia (Child) mastered our hearts.

K Kellogg dropped immune-boosting claims for sugary cereal — sweet gesture. Kraft’s courtship of Cadbury was rejected. Chocolate lovers turned dark and bitter.

L Happy No ‘L’ to All!

M Michelle (Obama) planted a vegetable garden. Martha (Stewart) tried to dig out from a 3rd quarter $11.7 million debt. Mobile foods kept on trucking.

N NASA located ice on the moon; still searching for scotch on the rocks.

O Organic lost its charisma; “sustainable” was the newfound concept. Obits for Sheila Lukins (of the Silver Palate) and Café des Artistes were written. Gourmet (magazine) bit the dust. Tavern on the Green is now on life support, but soon will be resurrected.

P Po’ Boys were getting poorer. Petite sweets were big and getting bigger.

Q Q’s were forecast for health care reformers by grim death panels. Q’s were eliminated by self-serve check outs in supermarkets. Barbeques remained popular with Dads, who prowled their backyards with a beer and a spear.

R NRA (National Restaurant Association) pegged future profits to rising Tide. Many restaurants washed up, leaving line cooks out to dry. French Laundry Executive chef Thomas Keller ironed out his issues and revealed a softer side.

S This year we appointed two supreme judges: Sonia S(otomayor) and Sam S(ifton). One is a fed, the other is a foodie. Both were well grilled before taking their hot seats — one on the bench, the other on the banquette. Both thanked their lucky stars.

T T-baggers made a big splash. Tweeters’ ‘Rec.A.P’s got even shorter.

U U still here?

V tV Food Network cooked up only contests and conflicts that generate a stampede of students into culinary schools.

W Increased cooking school enrollment led to more cooks, less home cooking. WOW!

X XXX and XXXX designates grades of confectioners’ sugar that is dusted on Xmas cookies.

Y Yellow fins were sinking. Yellow tails are rising.

Z SEASONings EATings to all and to all a white knight! Zzzzzzz.. Tweet Tweet… The  Nd

Cordially,