Food for Thought - July 1, 2003

By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 7/1/2003

Hospitable Alliance

Two of the country’s premier hospitality schools are broadening students’ horizons with a crossover of curricula. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., and the Cornell School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, N.Y., have formed an educational alliance designed to capitalize on each institution’s strengths.

The program’s first initiative involves a culinary arts immersion program that serves as an elective course for Cornell students. Students pay tuition to the CIA and, if they pass, receive class credits at Cornell. For three weeks in early 2003, the first six-member Cornell contingent attended courses from the CIA’s culinary arts degree program alongside traditional students. Three more Cornell students studied at the CIA in early June, with another group set for August. Visiting students can select from the institute’s global-cuisine series as well as baking and pastry or seafood and meat identification and fabrication classes.

Eventually, the two schools hope to achieve a “body-for-body” exchange among students, says Victor Gielisse, CIA associate vice president and dean of culinary, baking and pastry studies. Gielisse envisions CIA baccalaureate graduates attending Cornell for master’s degrees and, correspondingly, Cornell graduates enrolling in the CIA’s Advanced Culinary Arts Certificate Program.

“There are strengths in both institutions that are very unique,” he says. “It’s a great program not only for Cornell but also for the CIA and the students.”

Midcourse Correction

The economy is nothing great, but it could be worse,” says Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Chicago-based Technomic Inc. In fact, the economic picture is bad enough that the research firm has lowered its projection of the foodservice industry’s nominal (not adjusted for inflation) growth in 2003. What in January had looked like a 3% increase for the year now looks as though it will yield a 1.3% nominal increase over 2002, the lowest year-over-year growth in the 30 years Technomic has tracked the numbers. Nominal growth in 2002 was a lackluster 2.4%.

The limited-service restaurants (revised to 1.5% growth from 3%), travel and leisure (lowered to -6.1% from -0.7%), and business and industry (down to -5.5% from 0.5%) segments are the biggest drags on overall growth, Goldin says. “I think consumer burnout with QSRs is a problem, because it’s certainly not lack of value. In fine dining and high-end casual dining, we see appetizer, dessert and side-salad sales softness. Frequency is down a little, but spending is soft,” Goldin says. “Travel and leisure and B&I are more [about the] the economy, and as it improves, those segments will improve. All in all, this is a tough, mature business.”

MENU FOCUS
Diners intent on indulgence or just delicious, delicate flavor find that lobster fills the bill. And while lobster entrées don’t fit every food-cost ceiling, the crustacean’s cachet can provide value and panache as a center-of-the-plate attraction, a high-profile ingredient or side dish.

BOSTON
Icarus: Asparagus soup with lobster timbale

CHICAGO
NoMi: Tomato with warm lobster salad
Red Light: Crisp lobster spring roll with Chinese mustard-ginger vinaigrette and lobster niçoise salad

ITHACA, N.Y.
Cornell University: Lobster ravioli with grilled radicchio and tomato cream sauce

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
Chi-Chi’s: Lobster enchiladas filled with lobster and Cheddar and Jack cheeses, covered with chipotle cream sauce
Red Lobster: Grilled salmon with lobster mashed potatoes; lobster pizza

NEW YORK CITY
Dos Caminos: Tequila-lime marinated shrimp and lobster with pineapple salsa
Ida Mae’s Kitchen-n-Lounge: Poached Maine lobster with grilled grits, creamed leeks, apples and crayfish-butter foam

PHILADELPHIA
Tangerine: Lobster trio of lobster tail with coriander-orange reduction, tempura lobster claws with ponzu sauce, and poached lobster with asparagus and baby lettuce

Changing Hands Again?

Dutch retail conglomerate Ahold has declined comment on reports that it wants to sell all or part of U.S. Foodservice (USF), the Columbia, Md.-based company that is the second-largest (after Houston-based SYSCO Corp.) broadline food distributor, serving 300,000 restaurants, hotels, healthcare facilities and schools. London’s Financial Times broke the story early last month.

In February, Ahold announced the discovery of at least $500 million in overstated earnings (including prepayments related to promotional allowances) by USF. Subsequently, that amount increased to $880 million, resulting in the departures of Ahold CEO Cees van der Hoeven, CFO Michiel Meurs, USF President and CEO James Miller and several others.

USF, which was acquired by Ahold in 2000 for $3.6 billion, had 2002 sales of $17.4 billion. Financial Times’ story suggested that a sale of USF would help Ahold reduce its $12 billion debt (approximately $14 billion).

Finger Food

Students will press the flesh for lunch as Akron Public Schools adopts fingerprint-identification technology for meal payment. In September, 15,000 middle- and high-school students will be asked to provide fingerprint scans that will serve as personal identification as well as payment, replacing cash or meal cards. Funds remitted by parents will be credited to students’ meal accounts and debited by the fingerprint-based transactions.

The school district believes scanning will reduce labor costs and ensure greater accuracy when reporting information for federal and state meal reimbursement (about 58% of Akron students are eligible for free or discounted meals).

While fingerprint scanning raises privacy issues, Akron Foodservice Coordinator Dawn Wheeler believes the system will increase privacy by reducing stigma felt by students in free or reduced-cost meal programs. The technology also will reduce incidents of lost or stolen meal tickets, forgotten PIN numbers and cash-short students, she says.

Akron follows the lead of Garfield Heights Schools in suburban Cleveland, which adopted the technology two years ago. The scanner system, created by a Tacoma, Wash.-based security research and development firm, cost Akron Public Schools $700,000.

Waist Management

As dialogue about Americans’ eating habits flows fast and thick, one state has moved beyond talk to action. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, in partnership with nonprofit organization NC Prevention Partners and other sponsors, is helping consumers identify more-healthful dining opportunities through its Winner’s Circle initiative.

The program currently is in place at local franchises of such chains as Subway and Golden Corral as well as at more than 75 independent restaurants, sports facilities and college, hospital and business cafeterias. The idea is simple, says Kristen Shaben, registered dietitian with North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County Health Department. Winner’s Circle nutrition guidelines emphasize whole grains, fruits, vegetables and high-calcium foods low in fat and reduced in sodium.

Local coordinators work with interested foodservice facilities to complete a nutritional analysis of their recipes. Meals with less than 30% of calories from fat and 1,500 mgs sodium earn the Winner’s Circle distinction and are marked on menus with the program’s logo, a purple star and gold fork. The initiative also includes training for front- and back-of-house staff to ensure that participants stay within the proper guidelines and that employees can explain the information to customers.

Ring in the New Law

Determining that traditional hotel-restaurant concepts no longer fully serve consumer needs or the bottom line, Carlson Hotels Worldwide is preparing to open the first two of what it hopes will be a string of new restaurants that stand apart from the hotels that house them.

“The marketplace dictates that we be more creative in driving revenues,” says Steve Hedberg, vice president for food and beverage at Plymouth, Minn.-based Carlson. “Freestanding restaurants are our hotels’ competitors, so we’re going after their customers as they’ve come after ours.”

The first of the new concepts is Fire Lake Grill House & Cocktail Bar (l.), opening this month on the first floor of Minneapolis’ Radisson Plaza Hotel. With its own street entrance, the restaurant replaces a third-floor hotel dining room that attracted too little local traffic. The 168-seat Fire Lake’s menu will focus on grilled and rotisserie-cooked steaks, game and seafood. Expected check averages are $10.50 at lunch, $21.50 at dinner.

Planned for a fall opening in La Crosse, Wis., is Three Rivers Lodge at the Radisson Hotel La Crosse. In the past, the hotel had a fine-dining restaurant and a casual pub. “We decided it needed one great three-meal restaurant with local appeal,” says Hedberg. The interior design includes a large trestle table from which a breakfast buffet can be served; the table then can be used for larger parties at dinner. According to Hedberg, Carlson expects only about 30% of the restaurant’s business to come from hotel guests. The menu will lean heavily on locally sourced fish, cheese and other foods.

Both restaurants have been designed by Royce Ring, principal in Deerfield, Ill.-based Knauer Inc. and previously a senior vice president of the E-Brands division of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, Dallas. Carlson has since divested the E-Brands properties.

Ivy Idea

At the end of each spring semester, Bowling Green State University Dining Services (Ivy ’91) in Bowling Green, Ohio, honors its more than 750 student workers with an evening of appreciation. Students enjoy a dinner (served by management staff), vendor premiums and an awards presentation. The Student of the Year, chosen from among the top student workers at all facilities, receives a financial award.

Contributors: Scott Hume, Allison Perlik, Margaret Sheridan, Laura Yee.