Food for Thought - October 15, 2003

By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/15/2003

Starting the School Day Right

Breakfast is now free for 1.1 million New York City public-school children, regardless of need. The policy announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in September is intended to ensure that no children begin their days hungry and to encourage low-income families to apply for free or reduced-price lunches.

The cost to the city is expected to be $500,000 a year, offset in part by increasing to $1.50 the price of daily lunches for students whose families do not qualify for subsidies. Children who eat regular, healthy meals are better able to concentrate and learn, according to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

New York City has the largest public-school system in the country and serves 810,000 school meals per day. Breakfast menus vary throughout the city’s five boroughs, offering items such as French toast, omelets, muffins, turkey sausage, cereal, fruits and juices. The Bloomberg administration’s other programs to improve child nutrition include reducing fat content in schools’ cheese pizzas and Jamaican beef patties, and making water and selected juices available in vending machines.

Congress this year is scheduled to reauthorize the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.

Fine Dining Meets QSR

Rick Bayless, chef-owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill and Topolobampo restaurants, appears in a television spot touting Burger King’s Santa Fe Chicken Baguette, one of its three new low-fat sandwiches.

Short Cuts for Ruth's Chris

In the ongoing nutrition debate, experts say eating less can be just as important as eating light. Metairie, La.-based chain Ruth’s Chris Steak House is helping customers follow this advice with a smaller-portion menu called Ruth’s Prime Temptations.

Six reduced-size entrées now are available in 10 locations, including Fairfax, Va., Kansas City, Mo., and Boca Raton, Fla. Items include an 8-ounce, blue-cheese-crusted flat-iron steak and an 8-ounce North Atlantic salmon fillet, both reduced from 12 ounces, and a 12-ounce New York strip steak, pared from its previous 16-ounce size. Prices, which vary slightly by market, have decreased accordingly.

“All of us are becoming more health-conscious,” says Deborah Hinson, vice president of marketing and public relations for Ruth’s Chris. “We understand that it’s great to go out and enjoy special things—a glass of wine, a great steak, pasta—but everything in moderation. And we realize that a certain segment of our guests would appreciate some smaller cuts.”

Hinson says the more-petite portions also appeal to the chain’s retiree customers, who often choose to share entrées rather than order large meals.

Menu Focus

Domestic or imported, lamb offers chefs an alternate protein to test their creativity and satisfy customers eager to try something different. While chops and loins are most prevalent, other more-economical cuts appear on menus as well.

CLINTON, N.Y.
Hamilton College: Herb-crusted rack of lamb with mashed sweet potatoes and apple-mint chutney

NEW YORK CITY
Marseille & Kemia Bar: Lamb moussaka and lamb loin with eggplant purée and cinnamon-scented sauce
San Domenico: Basil-scented lamb loin with braised endive and lamb jus (above)

OVERLAND PARK, KAN.
Café Paris: Lamb shank in rosemary sauce with baked tomato and mashed potatoes

PITTSBORO, N.C.
The Fearrington House Restaurant: Roasted lamb loin and lamb shoulder with buttered leeks and glazed shallots

PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Porterhouse: Chargrilled lamb steak with seasonal vegetables

SALT LAKE CITY
Log Haven Restaurant: Grilled lamb and roasted-beet-cabernet reduction with soft and crisp potatoes, roasted garlic and horseradish-creamed pearl onions

SAN FRANCISCO
Scala’s Bistro: Braised lamb shank with cannellini-bean ragoût, pesto, roasted tomato and natural jus

First-year Failures

The axiom that nine out of 10 restaurants don’t survive their first year is accepted by many, but not by H.G. Parsa. An associate professor of hospitality management at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Parsa says his research finds that while survival is difficult, the odds are not as bad as commonly believed.

Working with the local health department, he looked at data from 1996 to 1999 for restaurants in the Columbus area. The first year was, indeed, the toughest, with 26% of restaurants he tracked calling it quits before their first anniversary. Another 19% of the original number folded in the second year, and 14% closed their doors in the third year, for a total failure rate of 59% over three years. Personal problems rather than insufficient profits played significant roles in many of the closings, Parsa says, with many of the operators he interviewed saying the long work hours proved too great a sacrifice.

Sex Appeal

When it comes comfort foods, the favorites of the sexes vary dramatically. Women want snacks, candy and chocolate. Men go for cooked items such as pizza, pasta, steak and casseroles. Women feel guilty about their choices; men don’t, according to Brian Wansink (r.), director of the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Two separate surveys of 1,436 people found potato chips, ice cream and cookies to be Americans’ favorite comfort foods, followed by chocolate, pizza or pasta, steak/burgers, casseroles, soup, vegetables and salad. Why choices differ by gender is a matter of socialization, Wansink explains. Men are more conditioned to associate hot or labor-intensive meals with being cared for or pampered; women want convenience and foods that require minimal preparation.

Comfort foods can be healthy, he adds. People get the same psychological comfort from healthful foods as from sugary or fatty items, he says. The trouble is, more-healthful choices often are less convenient than less-healthful ones.

Ivy Idea

At Four Seasons Resort Hualalai’s (Ivy ’03) Pahu i‘a restaurant, guests tempted by all of the evening’s specials needn’t settle for just one, according to Director of Public Relations Donna Kimura. For those who can’t decide, Pahu i‘a offers a nightly sampler of specials with complementary dishes, served in an elegant Japanese bento box.

The Big Chill

Almost every U.S. state faces a serious revenue-shortfall crisis. Thirty-seven states cut an aggregate $12.8 billion from budgets in 2002, according to a National Governors Association report, with an additional $8.3 billion trimmed by 23 states in fiscal 2003. In several states, the budget squeeze is being felt acutely by agencies charged with foodservice-operation health inspections. A solution under discussion in Alaska is simply to do away with health inspections and allow foodservice operators to police themselves.

Kristin Ryan, director of Alaska’s Division of Environmental Health, told the Associated Press that the agency is mandated to inspect foodservice units from one to four times a year (depending on an operation’s risk factor). To do so would cost about $10 million annually, Ryan says, but the inspection department’s 2003 budget is only $2.7 million, and it has a total of 32 employees. That’s not enough to do the job of food-safety inspection adequately, she says.

By December, Ryan’s office plans to issue—and invite public comment on—a proposal that would call for operators to inspect their own facilities. Restaurants would be required to have a manager on site who is food-safety certified and to provide safety training for all employees. Operations also would be required to have written food-safety procedures (covering topics such as temperature monitoring) and inspect their facilities using checklists similar to the state agency’s. Records would have to be maintained for state audits.

American League All-Stars

Emphasizing the former part of its mission to wine and dine customers, the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group has recruited wine wiz Kevin Zraly (above) as a company vice president. Zraly, who served as wine director at Windows on the World for 25 years and founded the restaurant’s wine school, will work with Smith & Wollensky Director of Wine Danielle Price on several new staff- and customer-based initiatives.

Zraly’s hiring coincides with the steakhouse chain’s debut of its Great American Wine List, featuring only offerings from this country. First on his agenda will be launching a lecture program for restaurant staff and developing a new seminar series focused on American wines for customers across the country. Continuing this theme, Zraly also will work with Price on a book covering American wines. Zraly will continue teaching classes through his Windows on the World Wine School.

In other wine-related news, Philadelphia’s historic City Tavern, which prides itself on offering an authentic 18th century dining experience, is adding a California Treasures section to its wine list. The menu will include merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and others chosen by Chef-proprietor Walter Staib. The change comes in response to requests, mainly from local customers, for upscale American wine choices.

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