REPORTING #LIVE FROM @BEARDFOUNDATION #JBFA #awards!

Posted on May 11, 2011 by

 

Tweeting My Way Through Beard and Reporting LIVE!

 

I may not have been going to the beard awards for the past 13 years like @foodwriterdiary has- but I do agree that the press room even in the past three years has gotten crazy crowded. Hey @BeardFoundation, time to either get a bit more selective about who enters the press room OR-even better, get a BIGGER press room. Come on, this is a good thing! Finally Beard is getting all kinds of recognition from tweeters and writers and bloggers and spreading the word far and wide across the world about the great chefs from everywhere in the world  who make the best food and write the best cookbooks in the U.S.! I say make the awards ceremony in the press room and put the bloggers in the audience arena. It certainly seems like there are more bloggers than attendees anyway right! Regardless of the size and crowds, this year we had amazing press room food. Last year we had caviar and cheese and cocktails, but this year we were fed more substantial fare like #meatballshop meatballs on polenta to help absorb those crazy gin bitter lady cocktails! The Bitter Lady cocktails were made with egg whites, which according to the microbiologist/mixologist making them, the booze kills the salmonella. So I felt safe drinking it!

 Which brings up an interesting point-the awards are pretty expensive and @Groupon was a sponsor –but yet, you can’t buy a discounted Beard ticket through @groupon and @beardfoundation tickets are pretty pricy! This year they ran about $450 bucks a piece! So I was totally confused about the whole Groupon sponsor thing-I mean I guess they were trying to send a message that in general you can get good restaurant deals via groupon, but I am curious as to how many @beardfoundation award winning chefs actually use the groupon service??

 Let’s just hope next year that Groupon gets us all a really good deal to the award show-not that I buy a ticket since I am an established writer with many blogs and hard copy publications (I earned my press pass-years of tedious writing about food science and culinary arts for magazines that deal with food science stuff like @ift and #researchchefassociation topics)

 I went into @beardfoundation awards blind this year. I didn’t do my normal review of who the nominees were, I didn’t create a cheat sheet to follow during the show-I just figured it would come to me while on the green carpet.  It didn’t really and I had to be one of the many bloggers who bugged Bret Thorn –asking him repeatedly “who won”! By the way, you should read Bret’s dry humor coverage  of the awards I always like living the awards vicariously through Bret, even while experiencing them live myself! 

Since I didn’t know who the winners were, I basically stood there in my media spot on the green carpet and called out chefs like Wylie Dufrense,  @andrewzimmern, Ming Tsai and Duff Goldberg  (the ace of cakes guy-he needs a #twitteraccount) and stumped them with random food science questions.  Highlights of the night included @Andrewzimmern telling me about how exotic corn based snacks from Africa will be all the rage in 2012 and that he was wondering where all the best after hour @beardfoundation parties were going to be!

and Duff giving me a blank stare when I asked him what he thought of the commercialization of his cake products. In Duff’s defense, I am proud to note that he promises to join the  #researchchefassociation -he promised during our interview.

I tried to get Ming Tsai to discuss with me the commercialization of HIS products but he mostly wanted to discuss combating obesity in America:

which is cool-I mean that’s important too I guess. He mentioned his whole wheat and brown rice chips that #KellogsCereal manufactured for him. He said that he wanted them healthy and the only resemblance to #pringles is that they would be so good that “no one could eat just one” GO MING TSAI!!! I love that guy.  You can watch all my goofy movies that I made with my brother Rob (no twitter handle)and I made together. We do @beardfoundation #jbfa awards together every year , except last year when I went with my high school art teacher David Magana who I hadn’t seen since 1990.

I didn’t ask @RickBayless any questions, I did tell him that for the first time I was able to get served at one of his restaurants without a reservation, that would be his new Frontera Grill in terminal B (Gate B10 United airlines) at @ORD airport! Amazing Tortas. He was happy that I picked his place over @McDonalds -right next door-#mcdonaldsfriesaremyweakness

 I didn’t really know who the nominees were but I kind of didn’t care too much. Everyone who is nominated totally rocks anyway and its just splitting hairs right-they are all winners. But if you must know who technically won, here is the official list without bias or opinion, posted by the @beardfoundation folk .  I just reviewed the list of winners and can totally see how @Uchiaustin in Austin and @Cochon555 in New Orleans won awards. I love both those places! Years ago –back when I used to work at a Japanese company that encouraged expensive customer dinners, I took a customer to Uchi and we got to cook our own meat on a rock, which was quite avante garde back in 2007-but now I guess everyone cooks their own food at the table.  I was happy to see that @lotusofsiamlv won, I actually ate there per @d_rosengarten recommendation back in 2006.  Although several bloggers like @chandrasplate @foodwritersdiary noted that Tyson Cole  (@uchiaustin) was none too pleased that he had to share his award with @lotusofsiamlv.  I have also eaten at Cochon several times and I always get this crispy red fish dish that is so good that I encourage everyone to go there and order it at the @ift AKA www.ift.org conference in New Orleans this summer #tradeshowsrock @iftmedia!!!!   Lastly, I have been to @zingermans (best chef, great lakes) but not lately so no comment on that.

Wylie didn’t win best chef, but he did tell me all about a new edible egg made out of clay, a new exciting food science inspired dish that he is serving up at @wd50

 All in all, a great time was had by all. I didn’t stay out too late because I accidently got stranded after the first party at @dbnewyorkny , had been hanging out with Wonder boy AKA @greg_grossman who is this up and coming rising culinary superstar who can’t legally drink yet. Greg and I had dinner at El Bulli in January, thanks to Gerry Dawes who somehow miraculously got us a last minute reservation. You can read about that HERE! and part TWO of that Bulli Story HERE

Since I am not from #NYC , and since @beardfoundations did not exactly PAY for me to be a media attendee, I had to pay for this trip myself. How much did it cost me?

12,500 United Airlines Flyer Miles (SFO-NYC)
$380 dollars OW ticket (NYC-SFO)
$203.50 hotel room on 36th street between 8th and 9th
$48 Taxi’s and assorted transportation
$0 food @beardfoundation was kind enough to provide me with food
 

Total COST!!! PRICELESS  -#foreverythingelsewegotmastercardright! IT was @BEARDFOUNDATION awards for foodssake!!

 
 

 Can’t wait till next year!!

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Video: Beard Awards Food Safety Interview With Andrew Zimmern May 2010

Posted on May 5, 2011 by

 

The James Beard Awards are coming up. Last year I got to chat with Andrew Zimmern about food safety. Who will I speak to this year on the red carpet???

Posted in Food Safety, James Beard Awards, Videos | Leave a comment

Walnut Based Sauces-All The Rage!!!

Posted on April 26, 2011 by

Super High in Omega's!

 

It’s official! Spain has been deemed the “New France” for foodies, and Spanish gastronomy has become one of the hottest international cuisines in the U.S. It started with the tapas craze in the 1990s, but since then Spanish main dishes and ingredients have caught on quickly, filtering down from fine-dining to fast-casual venues. More important, the acceptance of Spanish cuisine has been a gateway to the cuisines of other regions, such as North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, whose fare had previously been limited mostly to pioneering urban-chic restaurants like minibar in Washington, DC, and Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now that the trends are finally catching on with mainstream foodies, the time is right for food scientists, chefs, and product developers to start tapping into the unique flavors and ingredients of the Mediterranean table.

Mediterranean fare like tomatoes, garlic, peppers, olive oil, and nuts are all produced in the U.S. and available industrially, which allows developers to easily recreate authentic Mediterranean-style soups, sauces, and spreads. Global sauces have been exploding in both the retail and fast-casual markets because of their versatility, crossover capability, and customization potential. Sauces are a multitasking menu component: They can be manufactured in a concentrated form but can also be diluted at the dining establishment or by the retail customer and transformed into a soup or a spread. A base sauce can also be enhanced with additional ingredients such as vinegars, herbs, and fresh vegetables.

Using nuts to thicken sauces was originally an Arab technique that now is a staple throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Walnuts are an ideal choice for a nut-thickened sauce because their polyunsaturated fats contributes to a smooth and creamy mouth feel, and the finely ground nut flour has superior thickening power. Most Mediterranean countries have their own unique versions of nut-thickened soups, sauces, and condiments, but they clearly all shared the same realization that walnuts not only contribute a great flavor and texture, but they also add nutritional value to the sauce as well. In addition to the antioxidants and essential ALA/omega-3 fatty acid, an ounce of heart healthy walnuts provides a convenient source of protein and fiber. California walnut meal is an inexpensive, largely untapped industrial ingredient that allows developers to create a value-added sauce without substantially raising the cost. Flavor inspiration can be found in restaurants serving food from Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Greece, Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East.

Romesco and muhammara are both classic examples of tomato- and pepper-based nut sauces. Romesco is a classic Spanish dipping sauce with nuts, olive oil, bread, vinegar, garlic, and nyora peppers, which give the sauce its red color and a hint of heat. In Spain it is served with blackened calçots (green onions), but its versatility allows it to go well with seafood, pasta, and roasted vegetables. Muhammara, a thick and spicy Middle Eastern red sauce that can be used for dipping or as a spread, has many variations. The core ingredients are pomegranate, roasted red peppers, ground walnuts, and bread crumbs. Muhammara is simultaneously sweet, salty, spicy, and tart — and tastes great with grilled fish, on a sandwich, or with pita chips. Both romesco and muhammara can be used on a pizza or as a dip, but the end user can also thin them out for a pasta sauce or add vinegar to make a dressing.

The heat stability of the ingredients, all of which are available industrially, enables red nut-based sauces to be made into cost-effective shelf-stable products. They also can work as a non-sterile refrigerated item with a shorter shelf life. For a product to be commercially sterile, it must be heated to 185°F to 200°F for several minutes and must have a final-equilibrium pH below 4.6, which inhibits the outgrowth of Clostridium botulinum. If your nut-based sauce has more than 10% non-acid ingredients (such as red pepper, walnuts, and garlic), the pH of the finished product may exceed 4.6. To make this product shelf-stable, take three essential steps:

  • Establish the thermal process with a processing authority.
  • Acidify the product with an FDA-approved acidulant like citric acid or lemon-juice concentrate to bring the pH below 4.6 (possibly making the sauce slightly tangier than the gold standard).
  • File the product with the FDA as an acidified food.

FDA rules on acidified-food manufacturing can be found in Chapter 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 114. A refrigerated version allows the manufacturer to use little heat during processing and have better control over the final flavor profile. No acidification is required because refrigeration is the microbiological inhibitor. However, this product’s shorter shelf life compared with the shelf-stable version is likely to dictate a higher selling price, and it will need to be shipped and stored at a temperature lower than 40°F.

Some pureed dips should not be heat processed at all because too much heat will break down the carbohydrates and leave the finished product with a mealy texture. Greek skordalia and Armenian bean and walnut spread are both comfort foods that combine walnuts and garlic with a bulky base. Skordalia brings together walnut meal with garlic, potato, vinegar, bread crumbs, and olive oil. It goes well with fish, spread on bread or as a simple side dish. Armenian bean and walnut spread is a blend of walnut meal, red beans, onions, dill, garlic mint, and pomegranate. These purees can be made and distributed as a refrigerated food service or retail item. The acid ingredients such as vinegar and pomegranate will naturally extend the finished product’s shelf life.

The ingredients in these sauces are familiar, but sometimes the names can be intimidating to Americans who have not come across words like muhammara and salbitxada. Instead you can use consumer-friendly names that accurately describe the sauce, such as “red pepper walnut puree” or “tomato-walnut pesto,” without discouraging customers from taking a chance on a new dish. Once they taste the amazing flavor and texture of a nut-based sauce, they will quickly become repeat buyers!

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We Are All Bacteriosapians…Would YOU Drink Raw Milk?

Posted on April 11, 2011 by

A Happy California Cow

Way back in 1991 my college friends and I drove to Washington DC (a typical college roadtrip). I was not quite a food scientist yet but I knew that Washington was where the F.D. A. lived and it was an important organization that I would probably need to know more about in my future. I walked for miles trying to find the building, found it, walked in the lobby-and realizing that it was mostly just offices –left. It was one of those zen food science moments and the only thing I remember about that trip.

For years I never had a reason to question the FDA or doubt anything they said about food.  They told me how to label products, they told me what claims I could and could not use on my labels and they confused the heck out of me with their vague instructions on filling out form 2541A   the FDA food process file for all methods except low acid aseptic!

Which is why I am so conflicted after attending a “Share the Secret” presentation on raw milk dairy products, presented by Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pasture Dairy Co www.organicpastures.com . Mark made quite a few convincing claims about raw milk and the FDA and the food industry in general that contradict what my text books, university professors, and food science friends say, but actually resonated quite well with my organic free range happy cow loving non food science friends that I hang out with at the farmers market with every weekend.

Here are a few “facts” that Mark McAffee presented to a seemlingly organic audience (little did he know that the non rule breaking food microbiologist/intrepid Culinologist was hiding in the audience!)

  1. We are bacterio sapiens-We have more bacteria in our body than genetically human cells. We have to feed and nourish these protective colonies of good bacteria.. Modern medicine has depleted our beneficial bacteria colonies resulting in immune depression.
  2. The FDA is sterilization happy. They have turned us into germaphobes, and their efforts have resulted in all of us having weak depressed immune systems.
  3. He vaguely implied that Nestle seems to own the FDA and plays a role in their raw milk rules and regulations.
  4. Lactose Intolerance should be renamed “pasteurization intolerance” because the lactase enzyme that is created by the beneficial bacteria that should be in our body, is not always there-however, drinking raw milk will allow the good bacteria to re-colonize our system, produce lactase enzymes and allow lactose intolerant people to drink milk once again.
  5. Organic Pastures Milk is safe. Mike spends over $2000 dollars a month on mandatory testing that only applies to raw milk sold for human consumption. The results of the raw milk testing must pass the same bacteria count standards that are required of pasteurized milk.
  6. To date, not one pathogen has ever been detected in raw milk!

Marks 400 + cows live on a 585 acre farm grazing on forever green grass and are never given antibiotics, hormones or GMO’s. When one of the seminar attendees asked “what do you do if a cow gets sick” Mark replied “we just let it die… naturally”.

Always the skeptical “I have to defend my field and the FDA and my whole career” food scientist I did alittle reading to see what my *text book peeps had to say.

* Microorganisms in Food 6, 1998 Blackie Academic and Professional

  1. Raw milk receives no processing, thus there is no opportunity to reduce potential health hazards. Refrigeration prolongs shelf life but does not eliminate the hazard.
  2. Refrigeration of raw milk can slow down spoilage growth, but encourages  psychotrophic (cold loving bacteria) growth-which has rancid, malty, yeasty, bitter fruity flavor producing enzymes
  3. Consumption of raw milk was the cause many of milk-born disease outbreaks in the 1930’s, including typhoid fever, salmonellosis, septic sore throats, tuberculosis and diphtheria. Pasteurization decreased these outbreaks dramatically.
  4. Listeria, Campylobacteriosis, Yersinia Enterocolitica, Escherichia coli, Staph aureus and assorted viruses have all been isolated from raw milk.

 

(however, Mark will be happy that my food microbiology text confirmed that a 1987 study showed that the percent  Listeria isolated from raw milk across the U.S. was around 4.2%, none were isolated from Californian samples!)

My textbook concluded that raw milk can and often will be contaminated with pathogens, even from certified “pathogen free” herds.

Is it possible for small highly controlled dairy farms to produce safe raw milk for human consumption, probably yes, but the measures are strict and expensive.

  1. Animals must be healthy, and fed pathogen free feed
  2. Regular cow screening of milk from individual quarters of the udder and proper antiobiotic therapy
  3. Regular cleaning of tail, udder and all equipment surfaces that come in contact with milk before milking
  4. Fresh drawn milk should be chilled immediately to slow microbial growth
  5. A very sanitary personnel staff
  6. A strictly enforced HACCP program

Organic Pastures Farm (San Juaquin Valley, CA) does follow the utmost extreme sanitation and safety practices, and because of this, you can buy their milk at Whole Foods and other natural stores in California for the low price of $9 dollars per half gallon. The benefits of drinking raw milk (AKA a “living food”) are endless. Strengthened immune system, elimination of lactose intolerance and ear ache free children.  Cheaper than medicine, it can (according to Mark) reduce your health care bill and provide you and your children with strong immune systems!

BUT even Mark cannot guarantee pathogen free milk. He states in his literature “We have never detected a pathogen in our raw milk, although we cannot guarantee this will continue forever, we can guarantee that if you consume bio-diverse living raw milk your immune system will be stronger than ever…”

I cautiously drank a glass of raw milk during the seminar and it was pretty tasty. I admit, I liked the idea of healthy gut improving microbes taking over my immune system. I felt fine the next day, no side effects at all.

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Defining Flow -Food Vs Wine

Posted on April 3, 2011 by

A few years ago I began to read more about wine and realized the only way I would ever understand this topic would be to evaluate it in the only way I know how-scientifically, accurately and repeatively. As I began to read about wine I saw words like acidity and sugar and brix and salt. This was good, these were all definitions I could relate to and I liked the way some wine writers would actually correlate their wine descriptions to something that I could actually measure in the lab (and possibly prove them wrong if necessary and insist that they start putting the word “perception”, since sometimes acidity increases salty perception, or sweetness can decrease perception of acid-thus making a wine writers statements of this wine is more acidic than that wine very confusing for someone that actually would go out and measure the two wines and find that what a wine writer wrote was not true.. only to realize later on, they were referring to perception and not reality.

 I know I can’t hold a wine writer accountable for what they perceive, but I firmly believe that wine would be a whole lot more approachable if descriptions were based on readings and perceptions were described as exactly that-with the logic of those perceptions written in a book somewhere as well. There are wine writers out there who do just that-describe their wine objectively and accurately using words that are well known in the wine and science world. Karen McNeil, chairman of the CIA Greystone wine department and writer of the award winning The Wine Bible is one of those writers.

Most words like salt and acidity have the same meaning for both the wine novice scientist (me) and the wine writer. But one word in particular can be very confusing-viscosity.

 In the world of R&D, viscosity, as it relates to food is a very specific measurable quality that is applied to that food. But because there are different ways to measure viscosity, the terms “high viscosity” or “low viscosity” are not a good way to describe what viscosity really is- the measure of the resistance of a fluid.

 Examples will help clarify this confusing point:

 Everyday terms: Viscosity means “thickness” thus honey, which is thick, has a high viscosity, but water, which is “thin” has a low viscosity.

 When wine writers are describing a wine that is “full bodied”-they are referring to high alcohol, which in turn, they refer to as “viscous” or “high viscosity”. But something with a thick mouth feel might not necessarily always be high in alcohol, so a viscous wine does not always mean “full bodied” or  “high alcohol”, which is why no assumptions can ever be made when reading a wine writers words, everything has to be taken in context and related to anything else being said about the wine.

 Brookfield Terms: Brookfield Engineering  is a Massachusetts based company that sells equipment that measures viscosity. They describe viscosity as “ The internal friction of a fluid, caused by molecular attraction, which makes it resist a tendency to flow”.  Viscosity = sheer stress/sheer rate

 When using a brookfield unit to measure the viscosity properties of food, one generally can see that thicker products (like honey and corn syrup) will have higher readings than thin products like water or rubbing alcohol.

 Which is why, when the wine reader says that high alcohol = full body = high viscosity, the scientist is confused. We automatically start thinking of honey and how the Brookfield readings on honey would be much higher then that of a glass of wine. But honey has no alcohol…

 Bostwick Terms: Lastly, to confuse matters even more, is when viscosity is measured by a bostwick. Bostwick measures the distance a material flows in a given time interval. Viscosity, when measured with a bostwick is reported in centimeters. In this case, if something is very thick (like honey) it does not flow very far in a given period of time, as compared to something very thin, like water. Thus in bostwick world, the higher the reading, the LOWER the viscosity of the material!

 Thus, when the wine writer says that a wine has a high viscosity, the food scientist who regularly uses a bostwick to measure materials (like I did when I worked in the tomato sauce industry) will automatically think that they mean very thin and runny. But actually, if the wine writer is being constant with the standard wine writers definition, it would really mean the exact opposite.

 There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to viscosity, but it is important to always define the terms and equipment using to measure a material. It’s also important when comparing two products side by side, you use the same measuring device (be it the general verbal technique, bostwick or Brookfield) on both samples.

 In conclusion, its easy to see how a strict food scientist who has not done any time in the wine world can be very confused when presented with a wine writers description of the word viscosity. Culinologists, get out there and take a wine class because I don’t see the scientists/wine writers and technical experts at Brookfield Engineering getting together any time soon to have a conference on how to make it easier to understand this concept and terminology!

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