Pitmaster Rodney Scott Shares Secret Ingredient In His Famous Smoked Ribs
Rodney Scott, an award-winning South Carolina chef and pitmaster, recently teamed up with Today to share the secret ingredient that makes his famous Carolina-style smoked ribs great. “It may be a controversial ingredient, but I unapologetically use MSG in my seasoning rub. It is a flavor maker!” said Scott. “All the savory and hot spices and seasonings in my famous rub and sauce make these tender ribs unbelievably delicious,” he added. Monosodium glutamate, MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. Though glutamic acid is found naturally in many common foods such as cheese and tomatoes, the ingredient has been misunderstood and the subject of controversy over the years.
Michelin Inspectors Return To Evaluate NYC’s and DC’s Starred Restaurants
In the past five months, New York City and Washington D.C. restaurants have suffered enormous economic losses due to the pandemic, indoor dining bans, high food delivery fees, and even thunderstorms that cancel outdoor food service. Under these conditions, Michelin has returned to judge the best restaurants in both cities. “Inspectors have resumed restaurant visits in some areas, including establishments in the New York selection,” said a Michelin North America spokesperson. Many feel the inspections are surprising, given the restaurant industry’s current state of disarray. “We thought maybe this year [the Michelin guide] wouldn’t be released,” says Ellia Park, co-owner of 2-starred Atomix. “I don’t know if it’s going to be fair or not because some restaurants do delivery and some restaurants can’t do anything,” she says. “We are always trying our best here, but now we’ll be worried about [the inspectors] as well,” adds TJ Steele, chef-owner of Claro, a Oaxacan restaurant in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The Michelin organization has publicly acknowledged the unique situation for this year. “Our inspection team is fully committed to support and promote restaurants by being flexible, respectful and realistic as recovery takes shape,” says Michelin’s North American chief inspector.
Amazon To Buy 16% Stake In Popular UK Food Delivery Service Deliveroo
Amazon’s approval to buy a minority stake in Deliveroo came after a long dispute in which lobbyists tried to convince regulators that the deal would not violate fair competition regulations. Back in May 2019, Deliveroo announced that it had raised $575 million in funding carried by Amazon. Two months later, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority disagreed to the deal. Later last year, the CMA launched a formal probe to test possible anti-competitive implications of Amazon’s investment. But when the pandemic hit this year, the competition watchdog reconsidered. Last week, CMA issued its final decision, giving Amazon the green light to acquire its minority state in Deliveroo. However, regulators warned that if Amazon increased its control of the food delivery service, that additional investment would trigger further investigations.
A Peek Inside The Cratered Catering Industry
As weddings, parties, and other events continue to be canceled, the pandemic has left the nation’s caterers with almost zero business. David Cingari of David’s Soundview Catering in Stamford, Connecticut says that one wedding cancellation cost him $6,600 and a graduation party this spring would have brought in $300,000 if it hadn’t been cancelled. To make ends meet, Cingari caterer opened up a pop-up restaurant, but it’s $600 in earnings don’t compare to what he was making catering.
“It’s the year of the pivot,” said Holly Sheppard, founder of Fig & Pig catering in Brooklyn. Forty of Sheppard’s wedding events have postponed for next year, and the remainder were cancelled altogether. She has since invested in a barbecue pit and become a female pitmaster on an upstate New York roadside. “We’re creative thinkers,” said Peter Callahan of Peter Callahan Catering in New York, “and right now people are thinking about how to shape their businesses for the need at hand.”
Actor Morgan Freeman Joins Fight To Save Independent Restaurants
Morgan Freeman has partnered with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and his company, Intuitive Content, to produce a new video ad for the Independent Restaurant Coalition urging Congress to pass the Restaurants Act. The ad makes a fervent plea to pass the bipartisan bill to aid ailing independent restaurants with $120 billion in relief. It includes details on how the pandemic has disproportionately decimated independent bars and restaurants, the most prevalent small businesses in America. Within the clip, Freeman mentions the 15 million restaurant workers in the U.S. who would be affected by 85% of restaurants closing permanently. He also reminds us that one in four Americans who have lost their jobs in the pandemic are restaurant employees. “Without your help, our favorite places to eat will be gone forever,” Freeman says. Get the full story here at People or here at ABC News.
Italians Reopen Medieval “Wine Windows” To Maintain Social Distance
Wine windows, buchette del vino, are small hatches built into stone buildings that were once used to sell wine directly to Tuscany’s working class residents. The bubonic plague reached Italy in 1629 and by the time it had passed in 1631, nearly 1 million Italians lost their lives to the epidemic. During that time, some of the nation’s best winemakers such as Antinori (which is still a leading winemaker), would sell wine and take payment in a contactless transaction using a metal plate passed through the wine window. Now, for the first time in centuries, several wine windows have been reopened to serve food and drinks while maintaining social distancing guidelines during the current pandemic. The Vivoli ice cream parlor put its wine window to use by selling gelato and coffee through it. More than 150 of these historic wine windows remain throughout the city of Florence, all protected by the city’s Wine Windows Association. While the windows have been frequently vandalized due to their accessibility, Matteo Faglia, President of Wine Windows Association, hopes people change their attitude toward them in light of current social distancing requirements. Fagila told Insider, “We want to put a plaque by all the wine windows, as people tend to respect them more when they understand what they are and their history.”
Star Chefs Fade As Restaurant Teams Enter The Spotlight
For centuries, the work of chefs remained behind closed doors. But in the 1970s, more chefs entered the spotlight and agents promoted their charismatic personalities, landing them higher-profile cooking engagements and appearances. At L.A.’s Ma Maison and Spago, Wolfgang Puck hob-knobbed with Hollywood celebrities, becoming a public figure unto himself. In New York, Mario Batali transitioned from distinguished chef at his flagship restaurant Babbo to Food Network star, host of ABC’s television show The Chew, and author of numerous cookbooks. By the 2000s, the celebrity chef had become a widespread, if relatively new, phenomenon. Despite the gleaming reputation of star chefs, they often ran kitchens where the staff who did most of the work rarely got credit for their contributions, even if they created dishes on the menu. Many chefs allowed a notoriously harsh and inhospitable restaurant kitchen culture to continue, or they even encouraged it. But the pandemic has blown the kitchen doors wide open, and hospitality workers are getting organized and more vocal about inequities in the industry. At Tartine in San Francisco and Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon, workers have unionized to lobby for their rights. In Chicago, 20 employees at the popular Fat Rice restaurant levied charges against the chef for creating a hostile work environment, leading the restaurant’s closure. The pandemic has leveled the restaurant playing field, and the value of a restaurant’s entire hospitality team has come into stark relief. It takes more than a great chef for a restaurant to survive and succeed.
QR Codes Continue To Replace Physical Restaurant Menus
As contactless transactions become highly desirable in the time of COVID-19, QR code menus are replacing more and more traditional restaurant menus. Codes are being placed on tables, hostess stands, walls and doorways, allowing customers to capture the code with their phone cameras and peruse the menu on their own screens. In some cases, QR codes offer both a digital menu and an online payment method. “It’s so easy. Literally you just open your camera and you take a picture and it pops up,” said Julie Zucker, CMO of Branded Strategic Hospitality. Nearly one third of consumers say disposable and single-use menus would make them feel safer, according to Technomic. The QR code technology can also facilitate and simplify customer satisfaction surveys, loyalty programs, and the option to easily split the check at very low cost, allowing restaurants to engage more fully with customers at low cost. Not everyone is catching on, however. “Some people just look at you kind of weird like you’re talking a foreign language” when they’re given the option to view the menu on their phone, says Danielle Baerwald, owner of Erv’s Mug in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Restaurants with younger clientele have embraced the technology, while those with older customers have been more reluctant to make the switch.
McDonald’s, Dunkin’ And Starbucks Permanently Close 1,400 Combined U.S. Locations
McDonald’s revenue dropped 30% in the second quarter of 2020 and is permanently closing 200 of its 14,000 locations in the U.S., including all restaurants in Walmart stores. The company said Tuesday that the move has been planned for more than a year, but low sales due to the pandemic have accelerated the company’s plans. Dunkin’ saw a 20% drop in second-quarter revenues this year and is closing 800 of its retail locations by the end of 2020, including 450 Speedway outposts as a result of terminating its relationship with the gas company. Starbucks saw a 38% drop in net sales in the second quarter this year and is closing 400 locations by the end of 2021 while simultaneously investing in pandemic-proof solutions such as mobile pick-up and drive-thru ordering. Several restaurants have shifted to takeout and delivery models to survive the pandemic, according to a study by Harvard Business School. Statistics from search giant Yelp show that 26,160 U.S. restaurants have closed during the pandemic, the largest number of closures among small businesses registered on the platform.
Rare Blue Lobster Found At Red Lobster Is Donated To Zoo
About 1 in every 2 million lobsters are blue, due to a genetic anomaly. In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a Red Lobster employee spotted one of these rare blue lobsters in a recent shipment to the restaurant. Instead of cooking it, restaurant management set out to give the lobster, which they named Clawde, a new home. Red Lobster is a partner at Seafood Watch, the sustainable seafood organization run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seafood Watch helped the Ohio Red Lobster management team secure a new home for Clawde at the Akron Zoo. Soon afterward, one of the zoo’s veterinarians determined that Clawde was a female lobster, so they renamed it Clawdia. “Shortly after we introduced Clawdia to her aquarium,” said Vince Jeffries, director of marketing and public relations at the zoo, “she started moving rocks around to create her own cave. That was a good sign. It means she’s doing well.” .
