New Press Event for Cocktails

I’ve been working on a new Food Fete media event lately, and am excited to announce “Food Fete Cocktails.”

It’s based on the same model as my original Food Fete events for food companies, but this time for cocktails. The idea is to give spirits brands and mixologists from Bay Area bars and restaurants dedicated time with the media.

The cocktail is experiencing a strong renaissance, with lots of attention being paid to micro-distilled spirits and fresh, local ingredients being used by very talented mixologists and bar chefs.

You can find out more at our micro-site, www.foodfetecocktails.wordpress.com, where you can also download an event brochure.

Food Fete Cocktails takes place November 6 in San Francisco, with a focus on holiday cocktails for short-lead and online media/bloggers looking to pass along holiday drink ideas to their readers.

Kindly spread the word by telling friends or colleagues who work for/represent premium spirits brands, or Bay Area bars and restaurants who want to show off their best bar work to the Bay Area food, drink and lifestyle media and bloggers.

Dumbest Kitchen Gadget of the Day

I don’t even need to try it to know why this…

is NOT better than this…

Food Fete Winter ‘09 Event Brochure Now Available

The next Food Fete is now officially scheduled for Monday, Jan. 19, 2009 in San Francisco.  I haven’t produced a west coast event since Jan. ‘07, so there’s some exciting catching up to do.

Media attendance at our San Francisco Food Fete is more regional than the New York summer event.  It’s a great chance to get new products in front of the influential west coast food press, who are very farm-to-table-focused, given the abundance of locally-grown foods and artisanal products made from them.

Download the Food Fete Jan. ‘09 Brochure here.

Cocktail Trends from “Tales of the Cocktail”

Tales of the Cocktail Barchef Competition

My first trip to the wildly popular “Tales of the Cocktail” event in New Orleans last weekend was an eye opener.

Not surprisingly, there are some hard-core drinkers at this event.  New Orleans and its legendary bar culture couldn’t have been a more suitable backdrop for an event when you start sampling cocktails at 10:30 a.m. (during the seminars and tastings, of course), and not concluding until late in the evening.  I couldn’t keep up.

I arrived in New Orleans on Friday in time to attend a barchef competition, then bought a day-pass for Saturday.  My favorite seminar was “Regional Trends in American Cocktails,” hosted by a panel of bar consultants, writers and journalists.

Here are some takeaways:

• “Culinary Cocktail” is the the new catchphrase for today’s sophisticated cocktails.  As with food, consumers are becoming more informed and discerning and adventurous in their cocktail choices.
• California is seeing a strong Asian influence in cocktails.
• The SF Bay Area is experiencing “market-driven” mixology, referring to the abundance of local ingredients found at farmers markets.
• Hyper-seasonal cocktails. Bartenders are getting in more touch with local, in-season ingredients and how to use them in their cocktails.
• Given the focus on culinary cocktails, the area behind the bar is looking more like a kitchen than a traditional bar.  Skills with a saute pan and chef’s knife are become more and more valuable among mixologists and barchefs.
• Cocktail and food pairings:  Like wine and chocolate have been paired with foods in recent years, cocktails are now getting more pairing attention among restaurants wanting to offer something new. Cocktails made with tequila, absinthe and rye were mentioned among those spirits being paired with certain foods.
• Micro-distilling: Artisinal spirits from small, regional distillers (often using locally-grown grains) are all the rage, particularly among bartenders willing to experiment with new products.
• Rediscovery in “regional pride” for cocktails.  Cocktails typically associated with specific parts of the country (i.e. The Manhattan) are finding new life among mixologists who want to make the classics the very best they can be, or with their own twist.
• Innovative garnishes: natural and edible flowers, dried and dehydrated fruits, pickled foods, locally grown herbs, smokey garnishes were among those mentioned.
• Wine as a cocktail ingredient.  Wineries are beginning to hire mixologists to create coctktails using their vintages.
• Innovative bar snacks that complement cocktails are growing in popularity, in some cases as an alternative to a full meal.
• Yesterday’s trends.  Several flavors and ingredients got the “thumbs down” as drink trends that may have run their course. Among those mentioned are cucumber/mint, anything mixed with Red Bull, pomegranate-flavored drinks and sparkling cocktails.

Tales of the Cocktail Event

I just confirmed my plans to attend the Tales of the Cocktail event this weekend in New Orleans.

It’s a five-day event featuring award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs and designers — all taking place in the New Orleans French Quarter.  Also part of the event are dinner pairings, cocktail demos and tastings, seminars and mixing competitions.

It will be my first time to attend this relatively new event, and I look forward to learning more about what many describe as an American renaissance of the cocktail.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Food Fête Summer ‘08 Concludes

The fourth annual Food Fete media event took place on Monday (6/30) in New York, and it was by far our busiest and best event to date.  Lots of interesting new products and a room packed with press.

Positive comments from our exhibitors and media were unanimous, with AOL Food’s Kat Kinsman reiterating for a second time that Food Fete is “my favorite food event of the year.”  Thanks Kat.

Though we’re still tallying the numbers, media attendance exceeded 100, with many of the top publications represented — Food & Wine, O the Oprah Magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Epicurious.com, Marthastewart.com, Food Network Magazine, SELF, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Chocolatier, Men’s Fitness, Parade, TIME and BusinessWeek, among others.

As I mentioned earlier, Chris “C.J.” Jacobsen of “Top Chef” Season 3 attended on behalf of the California Strawberry Commission, making his own recipe for a delicious Strawberry Mint Sangria.  C.J. shared with me that life after Top Chef has been great, and he’ll soon be opening his new restaurant in Chicago.  I wish him well with that new venture.

Here a few early photos:

Thanks again to our exhibitors, sponsors and media attendees for helping make Food Fete a great event.

Food Fête is Full

Boy, I hadn’t expected to write this post.

The media response to next Monday’s Food Fête media event has been so high (50% more than last summer), that media RSVPs have reached the venue capacity.

That means we find ourselves in a position to evaluate all additional media requests even more closely.  As someone who produces media events for a living, the idea of potentially turning away journalists is hard to get my arms around.

Sure, there are always some no-shows at events — freeing up space for a few on-site registrations — so we hope to accommodate as many media as possible.

Food Fête has always focused more on quality than quantity, but it looks like we’re accomplishing both this year.

Frito-Lay’s New Not-So-Salty Snacks

I’ve already gone on record that snack chips are one of my weaknesses.

That said, one of my long-standing issues with Frito-Lay brand products, in particular, is that they taste excessively salty. I know they are called “salty snacks” for a reason, but for my palate, it’s often too much.

Good news for me and like-minded snackers. Frito-Lay recently launched a lower sodium version of its more popular products called “Pinch of Salt.”

I recently tried the Ruffles and Fritos varieties, and was happy to taste a noticable difference between the regular and lower salt varieties. They also make Pinch of Salt Tostitos.

According to the company, the Pinch of Salt chips have 30-50% less salt than their original counterparts. By comparison, a 1 oz serving of Lay’s Classic potato chips contains 180mg sodium, while the lower salt version has 75mg. That’s pretty significant.

Flavorwise, there is a slight difference, but one that I welcome–especially when eating chips the way they were intended — swooping them into a bowl of dip that also probably has more salt than you’ll admit to your doctor.

Thanks Frito-Lay.

Loews Regency Park Serves Up Gourmet Nostalgia

I’m a product of the late 50’s — a Baby Boomer who grew up in a simpler time, and a period in culinary cultural history where cooking for the family was all about convenience.

Like many of my generation, one of the “meals” my mother made from time to time was the classic TV Dinner. You know…Swanson… badly cooked proteins (usually greasy fried chicken or salisbury steak with faux grill marks smothered in mystery gravy) coupled with either soggy or dried out vegetables in a sectioned foil tray. Oh yeah, almost forgot the cobbler.

My secret hope is that this experience was the motivation behind my appreciation of finer foods today.

Well, the Loews Regency Park Hotel in New York City is putting a gourmet twist on the TV Dinner by offering its guests three retro-turned-modern dinners: Slow Braised Pot Roast; Park Avenue Fried Chicken; and Wasabi Crusted North Atlantic Wild Salmon.

I gotta say that the sheer novelty of what Chef Andrew Rubin is doing by taking this approach gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling; harking back to my childhood of literally sitting in front of the TV with my TV dinner. An updated difference, however, is that Loews’ gourmet TV dinners are $30 each, not 3 for a buck!

The dose of reality, however, is that my mother would have never ever attempted serving us salmon — unless it came from a can.

Sorry mom.

C.J. from “Top Chef” Season 3 at Food Fete

(photo: Bravo)

I’m a huge “Top Chef” fan, and am very excited to announce that Chris “C.J.” Jacobsen, a contestant from Top Chef Season 3, has been confirmed to attend Food Fete on behalf of the California Strawberry Commission.

I love it when high-profile chefs attend our events (C.J. is not the first. Chef Adam Perry Lang attended last year), and I look forward to possibly getting some of the inside scoop from the show.

Should be fun!