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Sarring Chef Jordan
Episode 1 - Pandemonium… Put a lid on it!

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America’s Second Harvest today announced that sales of the U.S. Foodservice cookbook Recipes From the Heart™ has thus far raised more than $395,000 to help feed the nation’s hungry.

Recipes from the Heart™ is a 336-page cookbook filled with more than 350 delicious recipes, together with many heartwarming stories from the hearts and kitchens of associates of U.S. Foodservice. Net sales of the cookbook, priced at $24.99, are donated directly to America’s Second Harvest.

The cookbook is one of four components making up the U.S. Foodservice’s “Full Plates, Full Lives” campaign. Other events include the Independence from Hunger giving campaign in July, the inaugrual Drive Away Hunger golf tournament in September, and a Scare Away Hunger food drive in October.

“U.S. Foodservice has made bold, innovative, and extremely generous plans to help end hunger in America,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. “Engaging their employees in the creation of the cookbook and in their other fundraising efforts on our behalf has served an invaluable purpose – raising awareness of the pervasiveness of hunger in our country, and inspiring thousands of people to join the fight against hunger.”

“At U.S. Foodservice we know food, and we understand the bounty food brings. Yet in America, a staggering one out of 10 people live with constant uncertainty about the source of their next meal,” said Bob Aiken, president and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Foodservice. “That is why we have partnered with America’s Second Harvest, the largest charitable hunger-relief organization in the country, to help bring food to those in need.”

This beautifully illustrated cookbook, with a foreword by celebrity chef Paula Deen, tells the story of how all Americans can help put food on the table of those in need.

Recipes were submitted by U.S. Foodservice employees from across the nation as part of a company-wide campaign to raise $1 million in cash and product donations to help to end hunger in America.

Recipe fare includes everything from Apple Dip to appetizing Crab Fluffs and Tortilla Pinwheels; time-honored biscuits and yeast rolls, plus aromatic Cardamom Orange Braid, with whipped orange butter. Breakfast fare includes not-so-traditional quiches like Hot-Dog-Pie.  Entrée recipes run the gamut from Deb’s Meatloaf and Chuck Wagon Chili to Upper Peninsula Pastries, Spendini and New York Maple Lamb Brochettes, Grandma Striney’s Pierogi, Mom’s Chicken and Dumplings, and Macaroni and Cheese with Bechamel Sauce. To go with your entrée, try Janet’s Spinach Kugel, Carrot Soufflé Supreme or Hoppin’ Juan’s Black Beans and Rice. There is a broccoli salad, a Hawaiian Chicken Salad, a cookie salad and more; chowders and squash soups, a microwave French onion soup and even a Mac-n-Cheese Soup. And then there are the desserts: 116 of them. Bars, puddings, cheesecakes; cookies of all kinds, including Andy’s Suspension Cookies and Date Pinwheel Cookies; Fresh Peach Pie and Concord Grape Pie; Coconut Clouds, apple crisp and strudel, Missma’s Pear Preserves, fudges, To-Die-For Lemon bars, and lots more.

The net proceeds from the cookbook (about two-thirds of the cost of each book) will be donated to America’s Second Harvest.  Every dollar donated helps provide 20 pounds of food and grocery products to people that face hunger in the United States.  Each year, America’s Second Harvest member food banks provide more than 2 billion pounds of food and grocery products to more than 25 million people at risk of hunger– 9 million of whom are children.

To preview or purchase a copy of “Recipes from the Heart” or to learn more about U.S. Foodservice’s “Full Plates, Full Lives” campaign, please visit: www.FullPlatesFullLives.com.

A limited number of review copies are available to credentialed member of the press by contacting Kara Kozimor at U.S. Foodservice at 443-259-2004 or Kara.kozimor@usfood.com
 

About U.S. Foodservice
U.S. Foodservice is one of the country’s premier foodservice distributors, offering a broad range of products and an array of services to its more than 250,000 customers. The company proudly employs more than 26,000 associates in 70 locations nationwide who are poised to service our customers beyond their expectations. As industry leaders, with access to resources beyond the ordinary, U.S. Foodservice provides the finest quality food and related products to neighborhood restaurants, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, hotels, government entities and other eating establishments. To find out how U.S. Foodservice can be your “partner beyond the plate,” please visit the company’s website at www.usfoodservice.com.

America’s Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through its network of more than 200 member food banks, America’s Second Harvest annually provides assistance to more than 25 million people in need, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each year, America’s Second Harvest secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of food and grocery products to support feeding programs at approximately 63,000 local charitable agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. To learn more, please visit www.secondharvest.org.

As more operators, commercial and non-commercial alike, continue to embrace the notion of sustainable foodservice, they seem to do so with an emphasis on the ingredients they use. And much like the morning glories that continue to grow rampantly in my backyard, the movement seems to show no signs of slowing down.

The notion of bringing the farm to the restaurant table by having the foodservice operator source locally, or regionally, grown, seasonal ingredients is a pretty good one. I like it because it seems to me as if changing ingredients with the seasons challenges operators to keep their menus fresh, which should spur further creativity and keep consumers like myself engaged.

As refreshing as this seemingly new-found emphasis on ingredients and their sourcing may be to all of us, it does not take the emphasis off some of the most fundamental aspects of operating a foodservice facility, namely food safety.

Want proof? Look no further than the salmonella outbreak from earlier this year. Initially, the authorities suspected that tomatoes were the main reason for this outbreak, when it was first reported back in April.

Just last week, though, the FDA declared it was OK to eat tomatoes again and indicated that hot peppers, such as raw jalapenos and serranos are under investigation to determine if they played a role in the outbreak. The people who grow tomatoes and have menu items that prominently feature this key ingredient, probably breathed a sigh of relief at the news despite the fact that the residual effect of this outbreak is that many people remain wary about the safety of everyday foods.

Foodservice Buyers Be Aware
And that wariness extends to their view of foods purchased away from home. In an effort to shore up consumer confidence, some major multi-unit operators have launched significant advertising campaigns that showcase the great pains they take to ensure quality ingredients. Of course, none of this matters if they are not able to maintain a food-safe environment at the store level.

While I encourage foodservice operators to embrace the concept of sustainability by shopping farmers’ markets and sourcing their ingredients in other ways that make sense to their business, it’s important to remember to examine what effect these changes will have on your ability to maintain a food-safe environment.

That’s because in reality, the most sustainable practice of all is building a growing and thriving foodservice operation that can withstand the tests of time.

Other Suggested Articles:

Sustainable Equipment for Sustainable Food

Operating a Food-Safe Environment

Designing a Food-Safe Kitchen

Author: Joseph Carbonara :: Foodservice Equipment & Supplies

iTrade Webinar Offers Range of Suggestions for Maintaining Profitability
In order to protect margins in the face of today’s economic deceleration and overwhelming food cost inflation, foodservice supply chain trading partners must tightly and precisely manage their businesses and relationships, according to three operators that participated in an iTradeNetwork webinar earlier this week. 

The margin-protecting solutions were not only meant to remove costs but also drive business to restaurants.

Michael Barner, vice president of field system solutions, Compass Group, advised the industry – manufacturers, distributors and operators – to consider solutions from a supply-chain perspective. Barner suggested that company leaders must manage suppliers, control order entry, facilitate purchasing of the right products, and measure procurement while searching for improvements.

Distributors can play a beneficial role in this situation by working with operators, notably multi-unit ones, in developing competitively priced private-label programs. Michael Ochs, vice president of supply chain services, IDQ/USCI, related how the chain operator is negotiating with distributors that are apprehensive about stocking some special-request products because they already stock products that are similar to their own brands.

“The problem with most distributor-label products that are purchased by restaurants such as Dairy Queen is that they have huge mark ups that make them uncompetitive with private labels. We can do our own private label tortilla much cheaper than the same tortilla marketed under the Sysco or U.S. Foodservice label because of their margins,” Ochs said. “But if we can work together and eliminate an SKU for distributors and save the money that we’re trying to save then that could be a win-win situation.”

In response to question about the advisability of aggressive operator marketing at this time, a course of action that distributors could proactively prescribe to their customers, Ochs emphatically replied “yes.” He said it is one of the approaches that Dairy Queen has always been stressing to its unit operators.

“What we’re stressing even more now is community involvement because at times like this people support the ones who support them. Dairy Queen is in small towns not urban centers. We really try as much as we can to get operators to support their local communities because when times are tough, they’ll support the people who supported them,” Ochs said.

Replying to a query about best practices that maintain competitiveness in a challenging environment, Ron Hall, vice president, Senior Resources Alliance, a senior living facility, recommended that operators reengineer their menus and product mix with an eye toward understanding what is being bought.

Dairy Queen’s Ochs elaborated on this point, suggesting that operators pay close attention to making sure the negotiated price isn’t tampered with and that they’re buying the right products from optimum vendors.

He also recommended that operators not only negotiate good distributor programs but deal with good distributors as well. He qualified that to mean distributors that can get products “where they need to be, when they need to be there.”

Ochs said a “soup to nuts” approach to technology must be used so that e-commerce transactions are verified and confirmed down to the unit level.

Carolyn Littlefield, senior product marketing manager, iTradeNetwork, listed key steps that operators, with the help of distributors, can take to reduce food costs:

• Understand your spend opportunities and capabilities
• Perform complete audits of contract pricing
• Optimize products and vendors – make sure that operators aren’t buying 100 hotdog brands and that they aren’t diluting their spending dollars with too many products and vendors; focus spending dollars on particular, high-quality products
• Work with vendors that are not only competitively priced but competitive in all areas of the business relationship
• Reengineer menus by highlighting more profitable products
• Control portions
• Manage purchasing compliance and waste
• Measure yourself against the market and verify your competitive position
• Deliver value, offer patrons good experiences and don’t skimp on service and quality
• Manage promotions, which can be positive to the bottom line but if they’re not managed then they can adversely affect the customer experience and inventory
• Investigate extending into different day parts that may be attractive to consumers.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration issued the following press release:

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced international visitation to the United States rose 15 percent, and visitor spending increased by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over last year. In March 2008, visitation to the United States climbed substantially to 4.7 million, an increase of 19 percent over March 2007.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration issued the following press release:

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced international visitation to the United States rose 15 percent, and visitor spending increased by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over last year. In March 2008, visitation to the United States climbed substantially to 4.7 million, an increase of 19 percent over March 2007.

International visitors spent a record $11.4 billion in March, accounting for the 20 percent increase from March 2007. Spending by international travelers while in the United States, including travel receipts and passenger fares, is defined as a U.S. export. Travel and tourism to the United States contributes positively to the overall economy.

“America’s success is its openness, and being open to international travel and tourism to the United States boosts the U.S. economy,” said Commerce Assistant Secretary William G. Sutton. “Rising international visitation continues to have a positive impact on our travel and tourism industry. The strong start in the first quarter of 2008 builds on the momentum set in 2007, a record-breaking year for international arrivals and receipts.”

Highlights of International Arrivals to the United States for March and the First Quarter, 2008

• Overseas arrivals (excluding Canada and Mexico) increased 10 percent for the month compared to March 2007 and also for the first quarter of 2008.
• Visitation from Canada was up 26 percent for the month and 21 percent for the quarter.
• Mexican travel to the U.S. interior was up 31 percent in March and 18 percent for the quarter.
• Visitation from Western Europe increased 15 percent in March and 14 percent for the quarter.
• Arrivals from the United Kingdom were up 3 percent in March and 6 percent for the quarter.
• Visitation from other top Western European markets all increased by double-digits for the month of March 2008 as well as the first quarter compared to last year. German, French and Italian arrivals were up 20 percent, 11 percent and 36 percent, respectively, in March compared to March, 2007. The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Sweden were up 17 percent, 48 percent, 24 percent and 25 percent, respectively, for the month.

Background:
Manufacturing and Services’ Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) collects, analyzes, and disseminates international travel and tourism statistics for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Statistical System. To view OTTI visitation data tables, please visit: http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/m-2008-I-001/index.html.

US Fed News—US Fed News, June 23, 2008 Monday 1:44 AM EST

Over the years I have bought and sold several rental properties. One of my recent houses needed some work done since the yard sloped toward the house and caused a water problem.

I was going to build a deck but first I needed to work on solving the water problem.

I started with a shovel. That lasted about 15 minutes. I knew there had to be a better way so I headed to the equipment rental company.

After I arrived and looked over the options, I decided on a Bobcat. A Bobcat is a small tractor with a bucket on the front that scoops up the dirt. The person renting me the equipment asked if I knew how to operate it. I said “of course,” thinking to myself: “how hard can it be?” I hooked it up to my truck and headed home.

I pulled up behind my house, sat in the bobcat seat and prepared to pull it off the trailer. I started the engine, let out the clutch and lost control.

It jerked ahead and by the time I figured how to stop it I had run into the gas meter and caused a gas leak. I immediately called the gas company and they were there in a matter of minutes to fix it.

I got back on the Bobcat and, as I was turning around, I lost control again and destroyed two sections of my fence.

As soon as I started digging my wife opened the door and said the TV cable was out. I told her to call the cable company and she said the phone didn’t work. The only thing I didn’t damage was the water main.

Twice during the day my neighbor, who is about 85 years old, walked over, looked at what I was doing, shook his head and walked away. At this point I really didn’t need any criticism.

At the end of the day – after eight hours - my yard sloped the right way. I was putting the Bobcat back on the trailer when my neighbor came over. I was expecting him to tell me I was crazy. Instead he said something that turned out to be the best compliment I have ever received. He said there are two kinds of people in the world. There are “spectators” and there are “doers.”

And then he walked away.

I have been selling my whole life and I know hundreds of selling techniques. But there is only one thing that will make you any money in the selling profession: you have to take action.

In a recent study about why ceos fail (based on researching about 30 ceos who had failed in the past 10 years), one of the most interesting things discovered was that once a failed ceo resigned, many of the organizations quickly rebounded under a new ceo. It would seem the ceo was the difference.

However, the study came to a fairly simple conclusion. ceo s don’t fail due to lack of strategy or a grand vision. They fail in execution: They simply don’t take action.

The same is true of sales professionals and their account relationships. A colleague of mine was recently doing interviews for a client to determine why some customers switched to the competition and others hadn’t. Many of the sales people who lost the accounts made reference to problems with the product, delivery, service, etc. My colleague’s investigation showed the only common denominator was not the problems, but whether or not the sales person took action to solve the problems.

5 ACTION STEPS TO SUCCESS

• Under promise over deliver
• Don’t put it off – get it done now
• Attack with a sense of urgency
• Always be selling – always be closing
• Go the extra mile for every customer

The bottom line question is: Are you a spectator or a doer?

-Bob Oros, CSP, CMC, is president and founder of More Gross Profit Institute. A long-time contributor of sales training articles to ID Access (and ID). Would you like to know how to cut two years off the learning curve of your newest rep and save $25,000 on your investment? Visit his website. The Institute’s website is located at: http://www.MoreGrossProfit.com , where more details can be found.

By Bob Oros

“In the 50 years that I have been involved in foodservice distribution, I have never experienced such a challenging atmosphere for our industry, which also includes our customers and vendors,” said Stephen Horowitz.

The closest period I can remember is when we had price controls, which caused great problems.

Restaurants are facing far higher costs of product, ever increasing labor and other operating costs, and lower revenues. With fewer customers, restaurants are reluctant to adequately pass along their cost increases.

In this business climate, you are going to see the following categories of responses:

• Many will do nothing, and hope for the best.
• Some will either sell, merge or buy a competitor with the hope that the business combination will make them better able to cope with these challenging conditions.
• There will be more strategic alliances where two companies will combine or work together in certain parts of their operations with the idea of reducing costs, increasing revenues, or both of the above.
• Some will attempt to get more market share from their competitors.
• Some will try to dramatically lower operating costs as a way to get through tough times. Companies need to be careful about cutting so deep that they can’t sell or service their accounts as before the operating reductions.

While all of the five approaches have merit, I believe in a more aggressive sales effort, and I look at this difficult period as a great opportunity. Some distributors tell me it costs approximately $100 per delivery. If you only deliver a $500 order, that is a +20% cost just for the delivery. If the order is $3,000, it might cost $140, or less than 5%.

Hopefully, both you and the customer can share in the savings. If there is ever a time the customer should be open to consolidation, to cut costs, it should be now. Of course, with consolidation, your customer will place fewer orders, process fewer deliveries, and have more time to build his business. This is the time to tell this story to customers who have multiple vendors.

Look for more acquisition activity. My own company is presently involved with 10 transactions.

No doubt, the times are challenging, but if you attack the market aggressively, you will be far better positioned when business conditions improve.

- Steve Horowitz is principal of Stephen Horowitz & Associates of Beverly Hills, CA, and a member of the ID Editorial Advisory Board.

By Stephen Horowitz

By FES Staff—Foodservice Equipment & Supplies

More than half (54 percent) of people who dine out regularly are cutting back on restaurant spending because of the economy, according to a recent report published by Mintel, a Chicago-based research firm. Rising gas and food costs, home foreclosures, and a fear of recession have caused many Americans to curb out-to-eat spending, the report said.

Seventy percent of those trying to cut back are saving money by going out to eat less, rather than by choosing cheaper entrées or dining at less expensive restaurants, Mintel said. However, the survey still showed consistent restaurant usage; three-quarters of survey respondents went out to dinner at least once in the past week. On average, people who dined out reported eating 2.3 evening meals from a restaurant in the past seven days.
 

By FES Staff—Foodservice Equipment & Supplies

In front of a capacity crowd of more than 340 foodservice professionals, FE&S named Zena Dater of Oswalt Restaurant Supply in Oklahoma City, its 2008 DSR of the Year. Dater accepted the award during FE&S’ annual Dealer of the Year & Industry Awards Gala at the Chicago Four Seasons Hotel.

Since joining Oswalt more than 12 years ago, Dater has watched her sales climb steadily and they should approach $8 million this year. Prior to joining Oswalt, Dater spent more than two decades working in the restaurant industry on the operator side.

“Zena’s product knowledge, passion and ability to treat all customers with the same level of respect, regardless of their size, has helped fuel her impressive growth,” said Brian Schilling, FE&S’ publisher. “And thanks to Zena’s efforts with the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, her track record of giving back to the local restaurant community she serves is exemplary.”

Also making headlines during the evening was Tacoma, Wash.-based Bargreen Ellingson, which was recognized as FE&S’ 28th Dealer of the Year; and Rodney Wasserstrom of The Wasserstrom Co., who earned the magazine’s Hall of Fame Award.

Other individuals receiving awards include:

• Top Achiever-Dealers: Paul Watts of Associated Food Equipment & Supplies Inc., Gulfport, Miss.; and Loubat Equipment Co., New Orleans
• Top Achiever-Consultant: Michael Johnson, Culinary Design Center LLC, Atlanta
• Top Achiever-Service Agent: John Swanson, Bildon Parts and Service Inc., Livonia, Mich.
• Top Achiever-Manufacturers’ Rep: Jeffery Couch, PMG, Van Nuys, Calif.
• Facility Design Project of the Year: John Egnor of JEM Associates for his design of Harrah’s Waterfront Buffet, Atlantic City, N.J.

By Mike Hughlett, TRIBUNE REPORTER—Chicago Tribune, Chicagoland Final Edition

The restaurant industry unveiled a big push to go green Monday, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Or a worse time, depending on your perspective.

At its annual convention in Chicago, the National Restaurant Association launched an initiative to lessen the industry’s environmental impact—cutting energy use, reducing waste and so on. While clad in feel-good green, such an initiative could also have long-term economic benefits for restaurants.

But in the short term, many restaurants are hurting, battling a soft economy and soaring ingredient and labor costs. The upshot: Restaurant chains with deep pockets, like McDonald’s Corp., are likely to seize the moment and sink money into going green. And small operators with shrinking cash flows are more likely to hold back.

“They just don’t have the reserves to invest,” said Chris Muller, restaurant management professor at the University of Central Florida.

“The richer companies, typically significant chains, they can pounce in times of economic adversity and use [going green] as a competitive advantage,” he said. “In a down market, you invest capital because you know the market will come back.”

Going green is a that can easily become mere marketing babble. In the restaurant business, “we really don’t know how to define what green really means,” Muller said. Still, green practices generally would decrease energy and water use, while increasing recycling and cutting back on waste.

The National Restaurant Association is trying to spread the green word through a program called “Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability.” It features a Web site with tips ranging from inexpensive advice to information on major projects.

Major investments can have long-term paybacks, said Richard Young, senior engineer at Fisher Nickel, a California-based food-service research firm. For instance, a restaurant can choose to buy a new fryer for $800, or shell out $3,400 for a more energy-efficient model. The latter would likely last twice as long and save an operator more than $2,000 in energy costs in an eight-year period, Young said.

Most restaurant operations are full of cost-saving and energy-saving opportunities, he said. And restaurant companies are looking even harder at them now as their other costs, from ingredients to labor, are rising at a fast clip, Young said.

Oak Brook-based restaurant giant McDonald’s began paying attention to conservation during the 1970s energy crisis and has bolstered its efforts in recent years. Its strategy is based on purchasing the most energy-efficient equipment—from grills and fryers to heating systems—coupled with everyday energy-saving practices, such as running equipment only when necessary.

Last year, McDonald’s said it cut carbon dioxide emissions by 200,000 tons and made a 3.75 percent reduction in energy use at company-owned stores. Those energy-saving measures saved the company $30 million, said Jill Scandridge, a McDonald’s spokeswoman.

McDonald’s is building its first full-scale “green restaurant” on Chicago’s South Side. It will include low-flow toilets and skylights that allow for natural light during the day.

“It’s really our learning lab for sustainable tactics,” said Max Carmona, McDonald’s senior director of U.S. restaurant design. “What works here we can take to a larger scale in the future.”

(Page compiled from Tribune staff, wire reports)