2011 FOOD TRENDS: Fine dining cuppings, ‘visit situations’, rillets, Neanderthal vegans, and Armandino Batali’s cold cuts

The 2011 American Salumi Calendar

Reported by The Age in Melbourne, Australia:
Fine-dining establishments in Australia are increasingly suggesting pairings that replace wine with cups of coffee, often high-end single source java whose prices can rival the wine list. “We can create a wonderful dish to be paired with a specialty coffee. To find that right balance for both to complement each other and to fit into the structure of a menu is what we are all about as chefs, sommeliers and baristas,” says Vue de Monde chef Cory Campbell.

Reported by NDP:
According to NPD’s A Look into the Future of Foodservice report, which provides forecasts over the next decade of restaurant segments, categories, visit situations, and specific beverage and food products, finds that consumer demand for healthy/light foods at restaurants will continue to grow over the next decade. For example, servings of healthy/light sandwiches, one of the food groups under the healthy/light category studied for the report, are projected to grow by 13% over the next ten years. Included in the healthy/light sandwich group were grilled chicken and fish, turkey, cold cut combos, tuna and chicken salad, and veggie sandwiches.

Reported by: http://satedepicure.com/2010/12/2011-top-five-menu-itemsingredients:
If 2010 was the year of Salumi, 2011 will be the year of classic charcuterie. Across the country, charcuterie is making a resurgence with restaurants like Butcher in New Orleans and Sidney Street Café in St. Louis leading the way. In 2011 chefs will return to offering charcuterie items like country style pate, rillets, liver mousse, foie gras torchon, and other classical preparations as they reconsider the lost art of garde manger in modern cuisine.

Reported by: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2010/12/our_top_10_list_of_2010_top_10.php:
My Top 10 favorite food Top 10 lists includes:
- 7. Just Eat It! Eat It… Eat It… Eat It… Get yourself an egg and beat it! Yes, Weird Al’s version of Eat It sung to Michael Jackson’s Beat It was No. 1 on Slash Food’s Top 10 Food Songs of all time.
- 8. The slideshow of the Top 10 Desserts of 2010 on Serious Eats had me drooling on my keyboard. The big surprise? Not a cupcake in the bunch.

Reported by: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12071424:
Neanderthals cooked and ate plants and vegetables, a new study of Neanderthal remains reveals. Researchers in the US have found grains of cooked plant material in their teeth. The study is the first to confirm that the Neanderthal diet was not confined to meat and was more sophisticated than previously thought. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The popular image of Neanderthals as great meat eaters is one that has up until now been backed by some circumstantial evidence. Chemical analysis of their bones suggested they ate little or no vegetables.

Reported by: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2010/12/salumis_armandino_batali_featu.php:
While 2011 is The Year of The Rabbit, it’s going to be The Year of The Pig as far as I’m concerned with my new American Salumi calendar already hanging by my desk. The calendar features salumi specialists from around the country, a spectacular centerfold with every type of cured meat you can imagine (see how many you’ve tried), lessons on how to cure your own and a history of salumi making in this country. Which is where Armandino Batali comes in. “Before Armandino, there were only cold cuts,” the calendar reads.

Complaints, tirades, comments, critiques? lehndorffj@aol.com

John Lehndorff is co-author with Kim Long of the American Salumi Calendar 2011, the first calendar devoted to cured meat artisans in the U.S. Lehndorff is a former caterer, nationally distributed newspaper food columnist and restaurant critic, author of a restaurant guide book, and one of America’s foremost pie experts.

The 2011 American Salumi Calendar: www.americansalumi.com

2011 FOOD TRENDS: ‘Provenance’ is term du jour; The fall of mince; A beekeeper leaks; coconut water rises

Reported by: http://www.foodanddrinkeurope.com:
Ten trends will dominate the UK food and beverage industries next year, predicts Leatherhead Food Research. It identifies the 10 trends as: Reformulations and stealthy reductions, sustainability, health and wellness, riding out the recession, ever-expanding tastes, provenance, small indulgences, frozen foods, convenience and obesity.

Reported by: http://www.jsonline.com/features/food/111822579.html :
The Art of Charcuterie. By John Kowalski and the Culinary Institute of America. Wiley. $65: An extensive textbook-stylebook that explains everything you never wanted to know about charcuterie, which the introduction describes as “involving the chemical preservation of meats as a means for the total utilization of various meat products.” The rest of us just call it sausages and forcemeats. The book is divided into chapters explaining all aspects of the process, from equipment to condiments. Among the equipment are items that sound like something out of Madame Toussaud’s – “skin buckets,” “teasing needle” – or worse – “vacuum massage tumbler.” (It is actually used to rotate the meat with the aim of bringing salt-soluble proteins to the surface to better absorb seasonings.) As for the recipes, what other modern cookbook can provide you with three recipes for pressed pig’s head, Tete Pressee, Head Cheese and Sulze Head Cheese? Stunning visuals portray the food as works of art. Many chapters also contain graphics that explain the cooking steps.

Reported by: http://www.nutraingredients.com/Industry/The-food-industry-in-2010-A-retrospective:
2010 has been a mixed year for the beverage industry, marked by continued growth in emerging markets and continued struggles in developed markets. Beverage companies have moved enthusiastically into niches offering solid growth opportunities in 2010. For example, in the US, big names have made investments in coconut water, ‘the natural sports drinks’, and, in European markets, US energy drinks have made an entrance.

Reported by: http://adage.com/article?article_id=147734:
Children and parents asked to rank 271 brands across 29 characteristics for market researcher Smarty Pants put Goldfish and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the top five. Brands whose rankings fell from last year include Starbucks, Burger King, Wrigley’s Bubble Tape and Mountain Dew.

Reported by: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mince-pie-the-real-american-pie/Content?oid=1267308:
“I can’t shake the feeling that the abrupt fall of mince signaled some profound but undiagnosed shift in American culture, some seismic rearrangement of who we are—since we are, after all, what we eat.”

Reported by: http://www.fastcompany.com/1709448/interview-with-a-bee-leaker-beekeeper-tom-theobald-discusses-the-epas-bee-toxic-pesticide-co
Tom Theobald’s honey crop this year is the smallest he’s seen in 35 years of beekeeping in Nwot, Colorado. “This is the critical winter for the beekeeping industry. I don’t think we can survive,” he says. “If the beekeeping industry collapses, it jeopardizes a third of American agriculture.” That’s because the giant agriculture industry couldn’t produce nearly as much with native bee pollinators alone; instead, the industry relies on beekeepers, who rent out their bees to pollinate everything from strawberries and blueberries to squash and cucumbers.

Reported by the New York Times in 1902:
“It is utterly insufficient (to eat pie only twice a week), as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.”

Complaints, tirades, comments, critiques? lehndorffj@aol.com

John Lehndorff is co-author with Kim Long of the American Salumi Calendar 2011, the first calendar devoted to cured meat artisans in the U.S. Lehndorff is a former caterer, nationally distributed newspaper food columnist and restaurant critic, author of a restaurant guide book, and one of America’s foremost pie experts.

The 2011 American Salumi Calendar: www.americansalumi.com

Kind words about the American Salumi Calendar 2011 from the Denver Post:
Early nomination for the best calendar of 2011: The American Salumi Calendar, masterminded by Front Range foodie (and former Rocky scribe) John Lehndorff. Each month features glam shots of preserved meats and cured sausagesfrom salami to coppa to pancetta. Bonus: An American Salumi Centerfold. Cost: $12.95 plus postage. Stock up for holiday gifts at americansalumi.com

“Here’s a great Holiday gift idea for chefs, farmers, foodies, students and anyone else who wants to learn about and enjoy one of the fastest growing segments of the national culinary scene. This American Salumi Calendar 2011 is co-authored by John Lehndorff, food-writer and former restaurant critic. We have ours…you should get one too! “ – Bobby Stuckey, Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder CO.

“This is a centerfold calendar that we can really get excited about! That is some beautiful salumi – we plan on having some lovely meats and cheeses on our menus. But get the calendar – it will allow you to schedule your at-least-once-a-week visits. Co-authored by food blogger and critic John Lehndorff.” = Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar, Denver

2011 FOOD TRENDS: Meatball mania; Seasonal latkes; Artificially scarse McRib; world’s priciest beer;

Nibbles is a compendium of food, dining and beverage information and trends from the U.S. and the world edited by John Lehndorff (www.JohnLehndorff.com)

Reported by: http://ny.eater.com/archives/2010/12/new_yorks_10_new_ubiquitous_menu_items.phpNew York’s ten trendiest new menu items are the new buzz dishes that chefs and restaurateurs seemingly can’t resist putting on their menus:
10) Tacos: Tacos are one of man’s greatest weaknesses. Knowing this, a lot of savvy chefs have included them on their menus as apps or entrees, even thought the restaurant might not actually serve any other Mexican food.
9) Pickle Plates: Even though a lot people are grossed out by them, pickle plates hit the sweet spot of “Greenmarket + Artisan Cred + Touchstone to Old, Weird America” that’s so appealing to chefs these days.
8) Shrimp and Grits: In New York, we just don’t know how to cook a proper plate of shrimp and grits. Still, even if we always screw it up, this dish is now a staple of many brunch and dinner.
7) Roasted Beet Salads: With blood orange, fennel, goat cheese — whatever. Beets are the Glee of greenmarket vegetables: they’re cool in a dorky way and so hot right now.
6) Meatballs: Meatballs, without pasta, usually in a little crock with some sauce, have landed on the menus as an as an app, or mid-menu item at many of the big new Italian projects of the year.
5) Chicken For Two: Hey, it worked at Balthazar.
4) Not Your Grandma’s Tartare: The classic version is a no-brainer for steakhouses and French bistros, but recently New York has seen a lot of experimental riffs on the classic beef or fish dish with exotic greens
3) Charcuterie Plates: What happens when you put a few pieces of grilled bread, some house-cured meats, stone ground mustard, cornichons or those damn pickled vegetables on a plate? You get the appetizer that’s now mandatory on any French or Italian menu.
2) Octopus: In 2010, chefs loved including grilled, braised or plancha-seared versions of the cephalopod on their menus in salads with citrus, as an appetizer with peppers or greens and on a bun.
1) Ribs: Slowly but surely ribs are getting showcased around the city. They are frequently served in a small pile, lacquered with a seasonal glaze as an app, or braised and placed over a starch as an entrée.
Hot dishes of 2011?: fondue, all-starch po-boys, seasonal latkes, chimichangas, “a New American spin” on Ethiopian wat and injera, tarte flambé, vegetable shabu-shabu.

Reported by http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/whats-new:
A new beer from Perth-based microbrewery Nail Ale has claimed the title of ‘world’s most expensive beer’, with a single bottle of the beer, brewed from a chunk of melted Antarctic ice, auctioned for $800 recently in support of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherds. The limited edition beer, of which only thirty bottles were brewed, was created at the Nail Brewing headquarters at Edith Cowan University in Perth.

Reported by Bloomberg Businessweek:
McDonald’s recent limited-time relaunch of the perennially popular McRib sandwich illustrates what happens when companies use artificial scarcity to promote their products. When people are offered something for a limited time, even if there’s no actual shortage of the product, old instincts kick in, says psychologist Marie C. Gray. “Our nervous systems get activated and we move into that hoarding, greedy thing even though we know it’s not true.”

strong>Complaints, tirades, comments, critiques? lehndorffj@aol.com

John Lehndorff is co-author with Kim Long of the American Salumi Calendar 2011, the first calendar devoted to cured meat artisans in the U.S. Lehndorff is a former caterer, nationally distributed newspaper food columnist and restaurant critic, author of a restaurant guide book, and one of America’s foremost pie experts.

The 2011 American Salumi Calendar: www.americansalumi.com
Fancy Food Magazine reports: “The American Salumi Calendar 2011 celebrates a new generation of cured meat artisans who are changing the way we think about cold cuts the same way brewers transformed American beer, cheesemakers transformed American cheese and bakers upgraded the old squishy white loaf.”

Learning to make salami: www.ediblecommunities.com/frontrange/fall-2010/the-school-of-salumi.htm