Thursday, January 16, 2003


conversion story

"before he met norman saurage [of community coffee], chef brown didn't know it, but 'I was serving bad coffee all day long.'"
yes! a story of a chef who gets it, it being the importance of improving restaurant and food service coffee. it's so disappointing to go have a great dinner and then discover that the after-dinner espresso is horrible swill thrown together by an untrained busboy.

those toque-heads need to realize that coffee often has a better markup than liquor. you can make lots of money on those teeny demitasses, chef! and finally, we meet chef patrick brown, who has seen the light. hallelujah and pass the beignets!

later on in this article, one chef brigtsen remarks, "i think a lot of new orleanians judge a restaurant on the quality of its bread . . . and coffee." no wonder i've always been a big big fan of new orleans! because for the most part, the bread and coffee there is quite good.

this article also has a cute sidebar. . .

finally, we have to root here for the government of italy's struggle against the e.u. italians prefer chocolate without the addition of lecithin, and the government wanted to prevent the sale of chocolate with lecithin added. alas, this conflicts with the official e.u. definition of chocolate, which allows lecithin. thus, there was a court tussle, which sadly italy has lost.

obviously, we need to set minimum standards for pure and healthful food, and create labeling to protect consumers. but to prevent italy from maintaining or improving the quality of its food is ridiculous! i see no problem with the italian government labeling lecithin-free chocolate so that the public can understand what it is buying. . .

posted by fortune | 4:37 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments