Food Law Guide

1
INTRODUCTION
In general, the legislation listed in this guide applies to England and Wales only
(unless otherwise stated). Similar legislation applies to Scotland and Northern
Ireland. However, the Food Safety Act 1990, and new regulations made under it
from 1990 onwards, apply to Great Britain unless stated otherwise.
The Food Standards Agency became operational on the 3
rdof April 2000 in

Choosing Healthy, Low-Fat Foods

Eating healthy foods doesn’t mean losing flavor. You can choose and prepare low-fat foods that your family will enjoy. Just follow the advice below.
Breads, Cereals, Rice and Pasta
Whole-grain breads are low in fat. They are also high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. Choose these breads for sandwiches and as additions to meals.
Avoid rich bakery foods such as donuts, sweet rolls and muffins. These foods can contain more than 50 percent fat calories. Snacks like angel food cake and gingersnap cookies can satisfy your sweet tooth without adding fat to your diet.
Hot and cold cereals are usually low in fat. But granola cereals may have high-fat oils and extra sugars. Instant cereals with “cream” may also have high-fat oils or butterfat.
Avoid fried snacks. Try the low-fat or baked versions.
Vegetables and Fruits
It is important to eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits per day.
Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat, and they add flavor and variety to your diet. They also contain fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Margarine, butter, mayonnaise and sour cream add fat to vegetables and fruits. Instead, use herbs and yogurt as seasonings.
Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs and Nuts
Beef, Pork, Veal and Lamb
Baking, broiling and roasting are the healthiest ways to prepare meat. Lean cuts can be pan-broiled or stir-fried. Use a nonstick pan or nonstick spray coating.
Trim away outside fat before cooking. Trim any inside, separable fat before eating. Select low-fat, lean cuts of meat. Lean beef and veal cuts have the word “loin” or “round” in their names. Lean pork cuts have the word “loin” or “leg” in their names.
Use herbs, spices, fresh vegetables and non-fat marinades to season meat. Avoid high-fat sauces and gravies.
Poultry
Baking, broiling and roasting are the healthiest ways to prepare poultry. Skinless poultry can be pan-broiled or stir-fried. Use a nonstick pan or nonstick spray coating.
Remove skin and visible fat before cooking. Choose low-fat breast cuts. Chicken breasts are a good choice because they are low in fat. Eat domesticated goose and duck only once in a while because both are high in fat.
Seafood
Poaching, steaming, baking and broiling are the healthiest ways to prepare fish. Fresh fish should have firm, springy flesh, a clear color, a moist look and a clean smell. If good-quality fresh fish isn’t available, buy frozen fish.
Most seafood is low in saturated fat. Omega-3 fatty acids, found in some fatty fish, like salmon and cold water trout, may help lower the risk of heart disease in some people.
Cross-Over Foods
Dry beans, peas and lentils fit in the meat and meat-alternatives group or in the vegetable group. They make tasty low-fat main dishes that are good sources of water, fiber and protein.
Milk, Yogurt and Cheese
Choose skim milk or buttermilk. Substitute evaporated skim milk for cream in recipes for soups and sauces.
Try low-fat cheeses. Skim ricotta can replace cream cheese on a bagel or in a vegetable dip. Use part-skim mozzarella instead of cheddar cheese in recipes. Try low-fat natural or cheddar cheeses. Use 1 percent cottage cheese for salads and cooking. Use string cheese as a low-fat, high-calcium snack.
Plain nonfat yogurt can replace sour cream in many recipes. (To maintain texture, stir 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into each cup of yogurt that you use in cooking.) Try frozen nonfat or low-fat yogurt for dessert.
Skim sherbet is an alternative to ice cream. Soft-serve and regular ice creams are lower in fat than premium styles.

Braising’ new trails – use of braising as cooking technique – Culinary Currents

The term “braising” doesn’t have as much sex appeal as grilling, roasting, sauteeing or even frying, but it does suggest robust flavor, comfort and warmth.
At a time when cheap cuts of meat are valued for their price points and many diners are craving home-style food, braising is a cooking method restaurants are embracing.
“With braising, an otherwise unattractive cut of meat is turned into a very attractive classic item,” said Michael Ayoub, chef-owner of Cucina in Brooklyn, New York.
According to Ayoub, Cucina’s two braised items are currently the hottest sellers on the menu: loin of pork braised in Barolo wine stuffed with raisins and pine nuts, $14, and osso buco with pappardelle noodles, $18.
For the osso buco, Ayoub uses huge veal shanks, which he browns and then bakes for three and one-half hours with vegetables, red wine and brown veal stock, a recipe learned from relatives in Milan, Italy. He cooks the dish uncovered.
Braising typically combines browning and slow, moist cooking in a covered container, either in an oven or on a stove top. The method differs from stewing in that less liquid is used in a braise and the braised item is often larger then stewed items.
Fibrous foods are traditionally cooked for a long period of time to ensure tenderness and to impart a mellow marrying of flavors. Braised foods can be prepared in advance of service, and they are ideal for quick service since the pressure of cooking to order is minimized.
Tom Meyer, corporate chef for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, based in Washington D.C., is especially attracted to items that are fast to dish up during lunch service because many diners are in a rush. Clyde’s restaurants are 350-seat saloon types with $7 check averages at lunch.
Meyer said braised dishes do well at the nine Clyde’s restaurants since most of the neighboring restaurants do not offer similar hearty braised dishes.
At Tomato Palace, in Columbia, Md., which Clyde’s Restaurant Group planned to open on March 1, Meyer is test marketing braised chicken with sausage, fresh plum tomatoes, peppers, red onions and garlic, $10.95.
Braising can be successfully applied to fish as well as meat. Randy Cysyk braises monk fish in apple cider, $10.95, at Dakota’s in Boston. He browns the fish on the bone, in olive oil, then halfcovers it with cider and finishes it in a hot oven.
Dakota’s corporate chef, Jim Severson, said, “braising is associated with old-style cooking because it isn’t spectacular since there is no color or texture separations. It isn’t for arty-type chefs. But I think you will see more of it because inexpensive cuts will become popular with the increase of value-driven dining requests.”
“It’s an autumn-winter-type dish, but it doesn’t have to be reserved for then. You could do a braised lamb or vegetable in the spring,” Severson added.
Vegetables are being braised by some stylish chefs. Among them is Joel Robuchon of restaurant Jamin, in Paris, France. Included in “Simply French: Patricia Wells Presents the Cuisine of Joel Robuchon,” is braised endives. Instead of browning the endive first, Robuchon simmers it in water with lemon juice, salt and sugar; then he browns the vegetable in butter just before service.
Other braised vegetables showing up in restaurants around the country include braised black eye peas served with charred salmon fillet, 16.95, at the American Festival Cafe, in Manhattan. And shallots braised in balsamic vinegar are as a garnish for veal scaloppine at the 16 units of Sfuzzi.
In California the Cypress Club’s chef Cory Schreiber has a braised balsamic-glazed rabbit on his dinner menu, $19. He marinates the rabbit in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey and mustard and then drains the rabbit and roasts it in a hot oven to brown. He finishes by baking the rabbit in the marinade.
At Asta in San Francisco, about half of the customers are unfamiliar with braising, according to the dinning room manager, but chef Jay Lyons continues to prepare braises, such as braised short ribs with winter vegetables and herb dumplings, $11.50.
“I think people ate more braised dishes when they were kids than they eat today,” Lyons said. “It is a time consideration. At one time Mom would start a stew hours before dinner. Now Mom and Dad are getting home a half hour before dinner. There may be a whole generation of kids that are braising-illiterate.”

Chefs showcase unsung flavor of soybeans

For years promoters of soybeans seemed so proud of the healthful qualities of their product that they forgot it actually could taste good. Tofu, tempeh, salted and roasted whole soybeans, soy milk and other products intended for human consumption have made the leap from specialty stores to supermarkets even though they aren’t exactly stiff competition for potato chips.
But chefs have found uses for soybeans that emphasize their flavor, which is earthy and fresh, and the creamy texture they have when pureed.
These days soybeans still in their pods usually are called by their Japanese name, edamame. They have become a popular premeal table snack at Japanese and Asian-fusion restaurants, like chips and salsa in Mexican restaurants. But quite unlike tortilla chips, soybeans have the added public-relations benefit of a ruling by the Food and Drug Administration that says eating 25 grams of soy protein a day might help reduce the risk of heart disease.
“They’ve become an excellent point of sale,” says Daniel Van Der Beek, chef-owner of Babette’s in East Hampton, N. Y. “If I add them to any dish, it jacks up the interest tremendously.”
He sautes them with tempeh, hijiki seaweed and corn kernels, to which he adds garlic-roasted pecans, diced tomatoes, scallion, garlic, marjoram and chervil. He finishes the mixture with butter if it’s being used as a bed for pan-roasted salmon fillet.
For a vegan dish, instead of salmon, he uses house-smoked tempeh marinated in a puree of cilantro, mirin, tamari, dark sesame oil and a little chili sauce and lime. Rather than butter he uses carrot juice and ginger juice reduced by about two-thirds, strained through paper, thickened with kudzu dissolved in mirin, and flavored with sea salt, sherry vinegar and harissa.
“It’s a great upsell on the ticket,” adds Chris Cheung, chef-owner of Tiger Blossom in New York. As a preappetizer, he steams the edamame, salts them and sprinkles them with an “Asian herb dust,” that includes galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and a variety of Chinese ingredients. He charges $1.50 for the dish.
Cheung adds steamed, shelled edamame to the vegetable medley he serves with tiger prawns, along with wax beans, haricots verts, snow peas and sugar snap peas. He also uses a puree of steamed edamame as a sauce base for the prawns. “I always loved the flavor of edamame,” says Cheung, who was introduced to the product as a line cook at Nobu in New York. “It has a nice, earthy flavor to it, it purees easily and it has a nice color.”
Ed Brown at the Sea Grill, also in New York, says soybeans make “a beautiful puree,” with a smooth and luscious texture that is an excellent accompaniment to soft-fleshed fish. So he poaches Chilean sea bass in Greek olive oil and serves it on a puree made from soybeans cooked with shallots sweated with thyme. The soybeans are light enough to puree in a sturdy blender, says Brown, who finishes the puree with a little butter, “and it gets super smooth.”
“They just have this weird feel in the mouth that you wouldn’t expect from a bean,” says David Coleman, the new chef at Atlas in New York, intending the remark as a compliment. He compares the taste to the mouth feel of toro, the super fatty premium tuna.
In fact, Coleman uses pureed soybeans for his big eye tuna “cru.” He cuts the fish into cubes a little smaller than an inch and he serves it with pureed fresh boiled soybeans with some cucumber juice.
“I like the refreshing aspect of cucumber, and most people don’t say, ‘Wow, that tastes like cucumber.’ They go, ‘Wow, those are some nice soybeans.’”
The dish is served with a salad of soybeans, micro red shiso, smoked tofu, diced cucumber and tomato jelly tossed with a vinaigrette of white soy and dashi and drizzled with mustard oil.
Michelle Bernstein, executive chef of Azul in Miami Beach, Fla., uses soybeans, both pureed and whole, with her tuna tartare. “[Customers] can nibble on the beans and take on the flavor of the puree,” she says.
She makes vinaigrette out of soybean puree, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, yuzu, and sauteed ginger and shallot. The whole beans are mixed in with the tuna itself, along with pineapple, ginger and roasted peanuts. The vinaigrette is drizzled around it, and the plate also is garnished with whole soybeans.
“With the vinaigrette I love the color, and after you puree [edamame], they have a great earthy quality,” she says.
Bernstein also adds soybeans, whole and pureed, along with whole and pureed English peas in her risotto.
“Lately I’ve been throwing them in the duck consomme broth for my foie gras,” she adds. More traditional fava beans are in the broth, too, and the difference in color and texture adds variety to the dish, she says.
Back in New York, Alex Lee, the chef at Daniel, buys fresh edamame from farms in upstate New York because, he says, they’re much more tender than the frozen variety. He steams them with sea salt, shells them and purees them with salt and a little garlic and sesame oil. “I find the consistency very much like chickpeas, almost like a hummus,” he says. Since hummus often is served with tahini, a sesame sauce, the sesame oil was a logical addition. As with the butter in the puree at the Sea Grill, the sesame oil makes it “almost voluptuous on the tongue,” Lee says, noting, “It’s creamy; it’s rich.”
The puree goes under a seared tuna dressed in mustard vinaigrette with toasted sesame seeds, and it is served with an herb salad of celery leaves, chives, cilantro, watercress, a little mint and, when it’s available, micro shiso.
At Pod in Philadelphia, executive chef Michael Schulson shells raw edamame and blanches them in a caramelized shallot broth. Then he purees them with heavy cream, butter and truffle oil and uses the result as a filling for ravioli, which he serves with caramelized shallot and Sauternes broth flavored with essence of thyme. “It’s a big seller, a big vegetarian dish,” Schulson says.
He also has made edamame blinis by mixing blanched, pureed soybeans with flour and milk and folding in egg whites. He finishes them with essence-of-wasabi oil and tops them with sesame-crusted scallops.
Rick Laakkonen of Ilo in New York drops a few glistening, green soybeans into each bowl of his “tidal pool,” a clear, briny seafood broth with oysters, sea urchin and gooseneck barnacles. Wakame seaweed and silver ear and wood ear mushrooms also go in the bowl, along with a couple of rings of the pale green part of a leek. The soybeans add “a really nice vegetal note to the dish that you don’t get from the seaweed or other ingredients,” Laakkonen says. Also, he says he likes the effect of the three different shades of green from the wakame, leek and soybeans.

Founder of online ordering service calls marketing key to competitive edge

BOSTON — PlanetBistro.com, a new on-line restaurant delivery and takeout service, plans to pursue a marketing-driven strategy because “marketing is definitely, absolutely vital” to ensuring success, company founder Timothy Healey said.
The service, which was launched last fall, entered the on-line business world in the wake of numerous dot-com failures, but Healey, who once headed U.S. marketing efforts for the Allegra brand of Aventis Pharmaceuticals USA, said he knows why those companies went out of business and how to avoid a similar fate.
“Dot-coms fail for three reasons,” he said. “First, because of a poor business model; second, because of incompetent management; and the third reason would be misappropriation of marketing funds. That third element turns out to be key to having a competitive advantage.”
Although Healey declined to discuss specific numbers, he said PlanetBistro.com would devote about 20 percent of its operating budget to marketing activities, “and over time it may go up slightly.”
The company kicked off its marketing efforts by taking a road trip of sorts. It retrofitted a school bus with a powerful stereo system and 24-foot banners painted on the sides and traveled to “wherever there were lots of people,” Healey said.
“We had fairly loud music with a disco theme,” he said, “and we had about 10 young people working for us who were dressed up as chefs while they were dancing to the disco music.
They also distributed informational material as part of a technique known as “guerrilla marketing,” a type of quick-hit promotion that occurs without advance notice to consumers.
“One of the basic tenets of guerrilla marketing is that you want to take your marketing to the people,” Healey explained.
In-store material at the more than 100 restaurants that have joined PlanetBistro.com plays a major role in marketing efforts.
“That’s important,” Healey said. “Many people are already customers and might use [the restaurants] more if they had the convenience of on-line ordering.”
To boost brand awareness in New England, the company recently forged a strategic alliance with Takeout Taxi, the nation’s largest multirestaurant delivery service.
“They are very advanced in their thinking,” Takeout Taxi founder Kevin Abt said of PlanetBistro. “We had some desires in the online food-fulfillment arena that weren’t being done, so we felt this made a great strategic partnership.”
Takeout Taxi delivers thousands of fax and email communications every week, and “every one of those is an opportunity to co-promote PlanetBistro,” Abt said. “The level of receptiveness to interactive ordering is probably a thousandfold more prevalent than it was a year ago.”
Healey said that competently run on-line ordering services should have a long and successful run, and PlanetBistro.com hopes to expand outside of New England after establishing itself in that market.
“There’s a huge demand for on-line services that are good,” he said. “Total purchases [in 2000] were a 50-percent increase over ’99. That might be smaller than forecast, but it’s tremendous growth. Philosophically, I believe the Internet is just another communications channel. For some people it’s become the preferred communications channel. It may become the dominant channel as it gets more and more convenient.”

American fast-food chain buys Mexico, skewers symbol—not

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s national symbol, an eagle with a snake in its beak, was skewered by this city’s newspaper last month in an April Fool’s-style prank.
On Dec. 28, known in Mexico as Day of the Innocents, La Jornada reported that an unnamed American fast-food chain bought the rights to the eagle, which is immortalized on the flag.
According to the newspaper, a spokesman for the restaurant firm said the symbol was going “to be fried like a chicken.”
The Associated Press, however, reported that the story was part of a traditional holiday prank that is played every Dec. 28. The report noted that the day gives local newspapers the chance to satirize things like Mexican president Vicente Fox’s perceived pro-Americanism and his zeal for privatization.
Other newspapers ran headlines about Fox’s purported love life, active volcanoes being found in Mexico City and a decision by Mexico’s gold-medal-winning female weightlifter to become a lingerie model.

The After Party Party

You may have just hosted a marvelous holiday meal—the table was breathtaking, and the food, divine; the guests felt pampered and happy—but it’s only after the bird has been relegated to Tupperware and the torn gift wrap tossed into recycling that the really good times kick into high gear. “The day after, the pressure’s off and entertaining isn’t about performance cooking,” says O at Home’s entertaining maven, Susan Spungen. “That’s when you can just hang out with people, get into smaller conversations, or play parlor games.” Picture it: The refrigerator-door hinges get a workout as people nosh their way through the day. You can actually be with them all, while mulled cider and soup simmer at the ready.

Informal doesn’t have to mean haphazard, and your groaning board will be all the more inviting if it’s beautifully laid out. Planning ahead is key, Susan says. You’ll save time if you combine shopping for the big meal with shopping for the aftermath. And several recipes can be made ahead, which frees you up for the universally beloved post-holiday activity: gossiping about who misbehaved the night before!

Casual trend gains ground; new ideas challenge many independents – dining scene in the United States

With the emergence of American-trained chefs and a new and highly sophisticated customers base, the once-solid underpinnings that have characterized the fine-dinning scene in the United States for decades are beginning to wear thin.

A host of innovative concepts, featuring multiethnic cuisines, unstructured menus and fresh regional ingredients, are combining to put the squeeze on traditional, European-dominated establishments.

Among the latest victims in that changing environment is Narsai’s in Berkeley, Calif., where owner Narsai David has for 13 years maintained a rigid adherence to classical French cuisine and service. The restaurant will close its doors next month because of a steady decline in profits and patronage, according to its general manager, Don Link.

The problem for Narsai’s and other traditional Bay area fine-dining spots is that customers–particularly on the West Coast–have begun to redefine dining priorities. Owing to the efforts of such innovators as Alice Waters, whose Chez Panisse in Berkeley has become one of the trendsetters of the new movement, patrons have discovered less expensive, more informal and highly exciting alternatives to the traditional European mold.

“Things are becoming much more competitive,” admitted John Wan, manager of Fleur de Lys, one of San Francisco’s classical French restaurants. Sales at the restaurant, he added, are down substantially from those of last year.

IN THE Los Angeles area, where Wolfgang Puck’s Spago has taken the restaurant scene by storm, old-line establishments are also feeling the pinch of increased competition.

Already, Ambrosia–a once-popular top-of-the-line restaurant–has passed into memory while Perino’s another long-established classical dinning spot, is struggling to retrench after filing for Chapter 11 reorganization last year.

“The days of having only elaborate restaurants with high prices thought of as the best are over,” stated Spago’s general manager Tom Kaplan, adding that the restaurant buys many of the same ingredients purchased by pricer restaurants in the Los Angeles area but sells them for less.

“We’ve found that the people who have the most money don’t necessarily want to spend it,” Kaplan concluded. “The taste and food satisfaction here is much the same as at the fancier and more expensive places, although the atmosphere is not as subdued or elegant.”

In nearby Beverly Hills, Mike Bedalian recently opened Bistango, dubbed by some “the working man’s Spago” because it produces fine, inventive food at moderate prices in a facility expansive enough to handle a large drop-in clientele. Bedalian predicted that first-year sales would top $5 million with a pretax margin of more than 20%.

While restaurants like Narsai’s have resisted change with catastrophic results, some fine-dining operators have managed to alter their approach to suit the younger, less-affluent “foodies” who now comprise a growing percentage of the fine-dining customer base.

At Le Dome in West Hollywood, co-owners Eddy Kerkhofs and Michel Yheulo have taken the restaurant’s menu through a series of changes–from brasserie fare to classical to nouvelle to the current mixed-bag menu of mostly European country dishes–to survive the flurry of food trends that have swept the Los Angeles area.

Now, Kerkhofs and Yheulo are about to open a second concept–Cafe Colorado–geared specifically to the new-wave customer. The restaurant will offer a more-downscale menu than does Le Dome, based on Belgian and French country dishes and featuring a “Spanek method” vertically roasted chicken. Cafe Colorado is slated to open next month.

“WHAT WE’RE trying to do is give a full plate of good, simple, basic food at a low price that today’s customer can afford,” said the Belgianborn Kerkhofs.

While California has been the spawning ground for much that is new in the fine-dining arena, the wave of changes has swept East. In Chicago, where Bob Nyman’s classically oriented Enzio’s has closed, a spate of chic regional northern Italian establishments spearheaded by the Levy Organization and Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has become the new “in” spots. Levy’s Spiaggia and Melman’s Avanzare head the growing list, which also includes the less pretentious Carlucci.

In Philadelphia, Steve Poses has introduced Frog’s, which specializes in a multiethnic mixed bag of cuisines. Under one roof, patrons can order from a menu that includes French, Thai or Arabic dishes.

AND IN New York City, the bastion of the country’s old fine-dining order, Jonathan Waxman, who made his culinary mark at Michael’s in Los Angeles, has returned to New York to open Jams.

Meanwhile, Larry Forgione’s An American Place has taken the city by storm with its innovative brand of American cooking that is now being widely imitated.

For all the new trends, however, the best of the traditional European fine-dining establishments–mostly dominated by a strong management personality or an extremely talented chef–continue to thrive in the old school.

Indian gourmet: one hot trend: gourmet Indian cuisine could well be poised to become the next major trend

India is a continent that is home to more than a billion people. With over 15 distinct languages spoken in 31 states and territories, no one particular cuisine or style of cooking could honestly represent them well. Understanding the many, many flavors of the sub-continent requires years of ongoing study. However, openness toward trying new flavors and seeking new foods on the part of Americans signals the trend toward this many-colored cuisine.
In the Limelight
Michael Batterberry is one of the world’s most highly respected experts on dining. Chairman of the food advisory committee for the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival, he is on the board of the French Culinary Institute and the Rockefeller Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Additionally, he is in The James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America and founded both Food & Wine and Food Arts magazines with his wife, Ariane. During the recent Research Chefs Association national conference in Houston, Batterberry was asked to moderate a key session on coming flavor trends. As part of his opening remarks he said, “Fine Indian cuisine may not be available in every small town in the U.S. today, but it soon will be.”
The annual Worlds of Flavor Conference held in Napa Valley, Calif., sponsored by the Culinary Institute of America, often showcases flavors, ingredients and culinary techniques that will become the next hit items on America’s restaurant menus. A big part of the 2005 event was the wonderfully beautiful and amazingly flavorful recipes being demonstrated by one of the world’s highest-rated TV food stars. Surprisingly. it was chef Sanjeev Kapoor from India. A third of a billion viewers worldwide watch chef Kapoor create exciting, delicious traditional recipes every week. However, he was not the only expert in Indian cuisine speaking at last year’s conference.
Chef Hemant Mathur, owner of Devi, one of the hottest restaurants in Manhattan, also demonstrated some of his best selling recipes. Chef Abhijit Saha, executive chef for the Park Hotel in Bangalore, and chef Suvir Saran of New York, were among the most popular speakers. Each shared the same message: “Indian cuisine is hot!” (and they were not talking about spicy).
Indian cuisine is poised to become a significant cuisine in America. We have seen numerous articles telling us so, and those same articles mention the same familiar dishes and spices. They tell us how culturally diverse India is and how many languages are spoken.
The time is right for Indian cuisine in the U.S.. but what factors set the stage for this “perfect storm” of flavors? The trail was blazed first by Cajun/Creole cooking and then Mexican/Latino cuisine. The intense flavors and exotic aromas of East Indian foods might have been too extreme for most of our grandparents. Today, we are a nation ready for new tastes. Americans are far more accepting of wild, exotic flavors and ingredients. Three groundbreaking chefs may have made this possible.
The Groundbreakers
In the early 1980s, chef Paul Prudhome, of the famous Commander’s Palace Restaurant in New Orleans, made Americans enthusiastic about Creole cuisine. While the spicy, sometimes intense flavors of New Orleans were exotic and exciting, they also were familiar enough to be accepted by the mainstream consumer. Chef Prudhome clearly was a trendsetter and a culinary genius. His fabulous recipes and techniques (remember blackened redfish?) opened our eyes to new culinary experiences, and prepared us for what was to be the next enduring culinary shift.
In the mid-1990s, chef Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill in Chicago became a prominent restaurant. The menu items served at his establishment were very different from the tacos and burritos Americans had believed were typical Mexican food. Bayless offered amazing upscale haute cuisine mexicano. The never-ending flow of new immigrants from across the southern border ensured a growing demand for Latino products and ingredients. These newly available foods and spices quickly found their way into the hands and onto the menus of chefs all across the country. Latin fusion cuisine became popular in every major city, and it continues to gain popularity. Spicy no longer is a scary word to most knowledgeable diners.
Today’s consumers are ready and eager for the next flavor hit, and chef Maneet Chauhan shook up the Chicago restaurant scene in 2004 with a new style of cuisine. Along with her partner and co-owner Rohini Dey (both originally from India), the two blend Indian and Latin American cooking. The groundbreaking restaurant, Vermillion, combines the similar ingredients (spices, rice. chilies and vegetables) of two very different cultures into a wonderful symphony of flavors and aromas. Chef Chauhan quickly became a national media darling, and she addressed the nation’s top food professionals as part of this year’s National Restaurant Show in Chicago.
It should be no surprise that an exotic, ethnic cuisine would succeed in New York. Chef Suvir Saran’s new cookbook, based on foods featured in Manhattan’s Devi Restaurant, already is a bestseller. That the culinary glitterati in Chicago or New York would flock to the latest trendy spot is expected. However, when the editor-in-chief of Food Arts magazine starts quietly recommending a tiny, ethnic restaurant in a non-descript Texas suburb, we may be seeing a true national trend in the making.
Indika Restaurant is hidden away in a tiny suburb of Houston. Yet, on any given evening, there are reporters flom the world’s top food magazines, celebrity chefs, gourmet food reviewers A and Texas oil barons searching the neighborhood for this hidden gem. Chef and owner Anita Jaisinghani has taken the wonderful recipes and flavors of her childhood in India and brought them to life in Texas. Chef Jaisinghani says, “When I opened Indika, I had one simple objective, to represent Indian cuisine [my cuisine] to the best of my ability. It is not intended to be fusion. I have tried to introduce as much Indian street food–which I believe is the best food in India–as possible. Chaat [an Indian word meaning snack] is now a common word around here. We only serve the food I grew up with. My family is from Sindh [in Pakistan]. However, we do travel back to India twice a year to study food and learn all we can. Of course, it would be an injustice not to incorporate the culinary techniques that we have seen and learned in this country. My food is not fusion. It is, however, Indian cuisine lifted to a new level.”
A Coming Trend
By recognizing and understanding a coming trend, and taking advantage of it, manufacturers will better meet the future needs of customers. Clearly, this spicy aromatic style of food has a following in urban centers. It has taken root and succeeded in a few unlikely small towns. But will it go mainstream? Consumers’ tastes and purchasing patterns are evolving. Indian cuisine is becoming more acceptable and more appealing to an ever-widening section of the American population.
However, there is risk involved in being first. New culinary trends are difficult to predict. Consumers are fickle even at the best of times. When consumers buy a TV dinner, their choice is generally one they consider “safe.” The frozen TV dinner is not a trip to the latest trendy hot spot. America’s freezers are filled with staples, foods customers buy again and again. And today, in a supermarket freezer case near you, you might find Indian cuisine, or Indian TV dinners!
More than one small manufacturer is now creating frozen dinners based on Indian recipes. When the number one manufacturer of natural and organic dinners starts introducing Indian entrees, we can be sure the fad is becoming a true trend. Amy’s Organics is the leader in organic and natural frozen dinner sales. Additionally, it is a nationwide distributor and the nation’s leading natural frozen food brand. This rapidly growing niche manufacturer has introduced three new frozen dinner flavors from India. These delicious Indian meals are designed to appeal to those who appreciate fine Indian food:
* Indian Vegetable Korma: Tender organic vegetables in a curry sauce with a rich, mild flavor that comes from coconut milk and organic raisins, cashews and slivered almonds, combined with organic tomatoes and authentic hand-roasted Indian spices. On the side are fragrant golden basmati rice and a dal consisting of a mixture of six delicately spiced lentils and beans.
* Indian Mattar Tofu: A non-dairy variation of the traditional mattar paneer, using tofu along with organic peas in a light, delicately seasoned sauce. On the side are fragrant basmati rice and what they call “Swarn’s Golden Lentil Dal,” which is simmered with organic tomatoes, onions and hand-roasted spices.
* Indian Samosa Wraps: (10oz, suggested retail price: $3.79) Two delicious Indian-style wraps filled with a blend of lightly spiced organic potatoes, peas and tofu. A satisfying hand-held meal.
The greatest rewards, in terms of sales and profits, go to those who first recognize a new opportunity, and take advantage of it. Those research chefs and product developers who recognize that India’s ancient and complex history of cooking offers a never-ending source of flavors, aromas and colors will be the trendsetters. Food formulators who offer them to their customers now will be gaining the chef‘s edge.
Key Indian Flavors and Spices
Asafetida powder: Dry powdered ingredient made from a native Indian plant. Used to add a savory flavor note to recipes, its taste is similar to a blend of onion and garlic.
Cardamom: An aromatic spice used in both savory and sweet applications.
Chaat: The word used to describe a wide range of Indian snacks and street foods.
Coriander: An aromatic spice made from the seeds of the cilantro plant.
Curry leaves: Small leaves of the kari plant. Used both fresh and dried to add a distinctive flavor.
Dal: Any variety of Indian legumes used in numerous recipes. Dal is also used as the name of some recipes when lentils, beans or peas have been used as the primary ingredient.
Garam masala: A very popular spice mixture used widely in northern India. Cardamom, cinnamon, coriander and black pepper commonly are used in this blend; many variations exist.
Ghee: A shelf-stable type of clarified butter that is very flavorful; used primarily as u cooking oil.
Nigella seeds: Very small black seeds used widely in southern Indian recipes. This ingredient provides a nutty, onion-like flavor note.
Rasam power: Very spicy/hot blend of spices generally used to flavor southern Indian soups (rasams).
Tamarind: A very sour and tart fruit used to bring a counter point flavor note to many Indian recipes.

List of fruit & vegetable stores in Nevada

Store Name

City

Category

• Smith’s Food & Drug Centers Inc – Sparks- Grocery
• Sparks
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Branding Iron Cafe-Gold Ranch Casino
• Verdi
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Scolaris Food & Drug Company – Main
• Gardnerville
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Smith’s Food & Drug Stores
• Henderson
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• El Mexicano Grocery & Video
• Reno
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Smith’s Food & Drug Centers Inc
• Las Vegas
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Seven Eleven Food Stores – Store No 21397
• Reno
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Seven Eleven Food Stores – Store No 14087
• Reno
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• 7-Eleven – Stores- Las Vegas
• Las Vegas
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets

• Safeway Food & Drug – Bakery-Floral- Zephyr Cove
• Zephyr Cove
• Grocery Stores & Supermarkets