Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

CULINARY GIANTS: James A. Beard

Writer, cookbook author, teacher and consultant, James A. Beard freed the United States from its dependence on European forms of cooking, especially French. From 1940 until his death at 81 in 1985, in more than 20 cookbooks, countless newspaper and magazine articles, and in his teaching, he extolled the delicious virtues of American foods and dishes, inspiring generations of cooks, writers, restaurateurs, purveyors and chefs to explore the nation's bounty — and their own creativity.

Beard initiated and then presided over a postwar cultural revolution that changed how we cook, eat and think about food. To his close friend, cookbook author Barbara Kafka, it was that pioneering first-ness for which Beard will be remembered and honored.

"Jim was writing about American food when no one was writing about American food," she said in a telephone interview from New York. And though Beard was not alone in championing American cuisine, he was pivotal.

Beard's food philosophy remains relevant today, said Clark Wolf, the restaurant industry consultant and author.

"Eat locally, seasonally, and if you are to use good food well, use it in the thriftiest way possible," Clark said. "His viewpoint is what we're finally working our way back around to."

Even in death, Beard continues to influence the American food scene, through his books, through his teaching, through his papers and through the scores of people he taught and inspired.

Full article here

So long, Charlie

If you aren’t interested in gastronomy, you probably haven’t heard of Charlie Trotter. If you are, you know that Trotter exploded onto the dining scene 25 years ago. His Chicago restaurant, Charlie Trotter’s, soon became one of the top – many said the top – dining destinations in America, known for groundbreaking cuisine as well as Chef Trotter’s driven, obsessive personality. And if you’re a chef or other food professional who’s had any association with Trotter, you’re sure to have opinions about him ranging anywhere from love to loathing.

Almost entirely self-taught, Trotter was just 27 when he opened his eponymous restaurant. After finishing a political science degree, Trotter traveled throughout Europe, dining only in fine restaurants. Returning to Chicago, he worked in a now-defunct restaurant for just a year before opening Charlie Trotter’s.

Then there was the foie gras flap. In 2002 Trotter quit serving foie gras for humanitarian reasons and was influential in the Chicago City Council briefly banning it in 2006. But the city’s move – and Trotter’s role in it – was controversial. “I’ll listen to what he says about bird care when I hear he’s nicer to his line cooks,” said radio food commentator Clark Wolf. And Trotter was less than humane in published comments about chefs who disagreed with him, especially the slightly hefty Rick Tramonto whose restaurant, Tru, was ranked as highly as Trotter’s: “Tramonto’s not the smartest guy on the block….We ought to have Rick’s liver for a little treat. It’s certainly fat enough.”

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What's cooking next year?

Do we really only have four days left to wring out the rest of 2011 and ring in the start of 2012?
We'd better get started. We went through the year in food and picked our favorite recipes. We put together some sources of information and cooking help, too.

But first, we looked at the predictions for the 2012 food trends. More meatballs and fewer food trucks? Cooking dads and kimchee?

Is any of it likely? We assembled a list of six trends that sounded interesting. Then we took them to two trendwatchers: National restaurant consultant Clark Wolf and Peter Rose, senior vice president of The Futures Co., headquartered in Chapel Hill, which releases the yearly Yankelovich Monitor of consumer attitudes.
So, gentlemen: Hot or not?

1. Round appetizers, from arancini to meatballs. Rose loves arancini - fried risotto balls - while Wolf dismisses them as a "fadlet." Both say meatballs are definitely coming on, as part of two trends: An interest in affordable, easy-to-use ground meats, and a desire for small servings. Rose calls it "life in bite-size quantities."

2. Hot food countries: Korea or Scandinavia?
"Scandinavian food is only hot in Scandinavia," says Wolf. But they agree on Korean food such as kimchee, above. It's exotic but easy to eat. "There's a trend around experimenting with a culture, but in a safe way," says Rose. "We're risk-averse." Who doesn't understand Korean-style fried chicken?

Full article here

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Our national culinary identity is all wrapped up in meat.

Meat has taken on such a prominent role in the American diet that it’s become so ingrained into our national identity that most Americans, when eating a steak or biting into a juicy cheeseburger on any given day of the week don’t give this delicious luxury a second thought.

But it’s worth some consideration as evidenced by the fact that restaurant consultant Clark Wolf recently convened a whole panel of experts to discuss this very topic. Wolf notes, “The drought in Texas causing prices to rise, a greater basis of sustainability in animal practice, a strong interest in community husbandry, and the start of the holiday season make this [American’s consumption of meat] an important timely topic.”

He continues, “In a different economy our iconic protein warrants discussion. Our job is to highlight the many viewpoints not always addressed.

Wolf led the spirited discussion titled “The Changing Center of the American Plate” at New York University’s Fales Library. Joining him was Jenifer Harvey Lang, food journalist and Managing Director of the renowned Café des Artistes in Manhattan, Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, writer and self-proclaimed Semitic Swinologist, Mark Gilman, cheese maker, and Betty Fussell, Food Historian & Author of Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef.

Full article here

Taste Matters - Episode 13 - Taste Trends

This week on Taste Matters, Mitchell Davis has a conversation with food luminary and restaurant business consultant Clark Wolf. They discuss current American food trends and explore the history of the food revolution in this country; from Sonoma County and San Francisco to New York City. Learn about everything from the history of tomatoes to the burgeoning restaurant scene in Las Vegas. This episode was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.

Listen here

Hungry Money and Mario

There’s no doubt that the oft-beloved Mario Batali made a Rick Perry-like blunder when he put an evil couple of faces on some very bad behavior by some very big and sometimes faceless companies. Banks are not Hitler and Stalin.

But this whole kerfuffle brings up some truly difficult issues for anyone who wants to own one or more high-end restaurants.

I’m all for capitalist success. I help people build businesses, for goodness sake, and I’m happy for people to be successful. That’s why it’s frustrating when we have an economic mess like the one we’re in and systemically flawed publicly traded and tax-payer supported institutions aren’t more carefully regulated and punished — and rewarded — for specific behavior.

When a restaurant caters to folks with pots of money — or anyone at all — you simply have to have the good manners to leave your opinions at the door. Lead by example. Use organic and sustainable foods if you can. Impose your values on some Masters of the Universe palatably. Maybe change a few minds and hearts at the table, or with a fork. Use the seductive powers at your disposal for the better. There are plenty of good people with money.  And plenty of people with money who may well do good.

It’s a little easier out here in the West where pots of cash have been made by high techie wunderkind billionaires who roll up on their Vespas to have major meals and let us all dip into some world class wines.  They’re rolling in it because they’re creating new possibilities, whole new industries, and along the way have helped get a lot of us out of suits and ties at so-called fancy restaurants.  They’re likeable for a lot of reasons.  It’s tougher in New York when some of the people in the dining room might be Bernie Madoffs in training, or just hyped up barbarians selling questionable “financial opportunities” and celebrating the demise of competitors.

We in the food — and yes, hospitality — world simply have to speak another language. When making strong statements, it’s important to be specific and careful. I know how easy it is to toss off a catchy, bitchy, mean snap but now that chefs have reached daytime TV notoriety, the game has simply changed.

Tell people what you’re FOR and how it might be good for them and everyone. Hitler is not a helpful food group.

I forgive Mario — and those angry Wall Streeters would do well to do so, too. He was just expressing the frustration of many about the excesses of the few. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and an emotional and philosophical bail-out.

C’mon guys. You want great food don’t you? Otherwise, why have all that money?! Don’t punish yourselves by punishing him. Bankers should not advocate boycotts of any kind. That’s a very last resort kind of thing that should rarely, if ever, be trotted out. Like comparing someone to Hitler.

Full article here

Beef Will Be What’s for Dinner for a Long Time, Panelists Say

Have you been persuaded that beef is waning on the American plate because it’s too destructive to the ecosystem, too hormone-pumped and too corn-fed artery-clogging?

“American steak is here to stay — it’s iconic and you don’t bring down icons,” said Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.

Betty Fussell, the food historian and author, most recently, of “Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef,” was emphatic that “meat is making a comeback, even among some vegetarians, thanks to the thoughtfulness” in the production of locally raised American beef.

They had gathered on Thursday in the Fales Library of New York University for a panel discussion on “The Changing Center of the American Plate,” and beef seemed right there at the bull’s-eye of the platter

“Meat is still at the center of a lot of plates,” Dr. Nestle said, adding that in Manhattan, “23-ounce steaks are not that unusual, even now.”

Ms. Fussell added that beef has always been an American staple “because steak is raw, violent, macho, sexy and big.” Her book offers an indictment of confined feeding operations where thousands of steer are raised, and the way that beef cattle became commodities. As panelist she traced the historical ascendancy of beef over pork in America “to the refrigerated railroad car, when people had the opportunity to taste fresh beef instead of the previous ho-hum salt pork.”

The moderator was the restaurant consultant Clark Wolf, and the other panelists were Jenifer Harvey Lang, who long ran the Café des Artistes restaurant in Manhattan; Mark Gillman, a Connecticut specialty cheesemaker who offers his $20-to-$30-a-pound product at three New York Greenmarkets; and Jeffrey Yoskowitz, a student of pigs and pork who identifies himself as a “swinologist” and who said he was “curious to see if, increasingly, American steak becomes a status symbol in China.”

Full article here

Foie Gras and the Ban’s Fight Against Finesse

The foie gras ban is about to kick in, on the first of July 2012, so this is perhaps the last FFF (freely flowing foie) holiday season in California. It’s a good time to reflect on food, politics, what feels like (or passes for) luxury dining these days and how it all connects to the greater focus on farming and cookery.

I have good friends and trusted colleagues who used to be vegetarians (I was, for a while in college, but just got cranky and sick), but they are now practitioners of a sensible nose-to-tail sort of thinking that makes good sense and good business, especially in these more difficult economic times. I haven’t asked them specifically about gavage or the coaxing of birds to eat like teenagers (which they do in preparation for serious migration in the wild, as the Egyptians discovered thousands of years ago), and I know things change – even in Egypt – as we make different choices and have evolving priorities. But I can’t imagine they’d want to waste any part of an animal sacrificed for food.

In fact, I’ve always been a very pro-choice kind of a guy, so this one has been a puzzle. From what I’ve seen myself and from what others have written (including Dr. Marion Nestle, as quoted in The New York Times on 10/15), the birds in question seem to head towards the feeding tubes, a fact that obviously offers something on the plus side of a complex equation.

I do appreciate that the bill gave farmers time to figure out how to get out of the business and into something else, or find a “more humane” way of treating what are not humans, but I still find the whole thing beyond ridiculous.

And if you’re an animal activist who sees this as part of the march to an all-veg diet, feel free to sign off now. You have the right to eat — and even advocate — what you want, but stop strong-arming and showing off. Have a piece of cheese and let others be.

Thing is, there has always been a need for luxury foods, even in tough times. It’s nature’s reward for hard life. Now, many types of caviar are deeply problematic, foie gras is controversial at best, and culinary pyrotechnics seem slightly unseemly, but just how much pizza can we eat? We have truffles, but even there, people are now trying to grow what for generations has been hunted. We really do seem to want to capture and control everything.

Along with taste and texture, some of the luxury of very special foods will always be the difficulty, the rarity, the challenge, and even the danger of bringing them to table. It’s why wine from a beautiful stemmed glass is more appealing than from a plastic tumbler. It’s why puffer fish appeals to some daredevil folks who hope the poison has been properly trimmed away.

And it’s why we’ll all probably head over to Las Vegas for foie gras. I’m thinking about a duck farm in Northern Nevada right now.

Full article here

Restaurant Foods That Are Ripping You Off

If you thought you bagged a bargain by skipping the $29 burgundy-braised short ribs and opting for the $18 baked ziti with mushrooms, marinara sauce and chicken, you’d be wrong. With food costs only accounting for about 18% of the menu price, the pasta dish is where the restaurant is making the most profit. Believe it or not, the beef is actually the better deal, since it costs nearly half the menu price to source and prepare it.

If price alone isn’t the best indicator of value on a menu, what criteria should we use to ensure the most bang for our buck? “Choose labor-intensive, time-consuming, complex dishes, that call for hard-to-find ingredients,” suggests New York-based restaurant consultant, Clark Wolf. “If you can whip it up yourself in 20 minutes with stuff from your kitchen cupboard—do that,” he says.

Wolf has a point. Avoid the ubiquitous, low-cost chicken breast dish. Dishes comprising of everyday, bulk ingredients like pasta or rice are cheap to prepare and as simple for the restaurant chef to put together as it is for the home cook. For this same reason, restaurants love brunch when they turn out highly-profitable, egg-centric meals, and bread, flour and dairy-based dishes, such as French toast, waffles and, pancakes.

Then there’s making the most of specialized equipment—and relationships—that eateries have. Steakhouses, for example, Clark adds, not only have dry-aging cabinets to hang meat to develop flavor and add value, but the best ones have built links with suppliers that deliver the most prime cuts that aren’t available in retail.

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Fall at Shone Farm

 

Shone Farm on Pick Your Own Day.  So beautiful, and great to see families out there gathering and snipping and sniffing and hay riding...  What a perfect spot to learn about how much goodness grows.