Happy weekend! Food week April 19 found prices rising from commodity and transportation costs, climate positive meat and cracker products, Nestle mixing lasagna and mac n’ cheese, a whole banana banana bread recipe, broken ice cream machines and a deli worth $100 million. Enjoy!
MACRO
200 million vaccinations in US, over a billion worldwide.
Jobless claims continue to fall and consumer confidence continues to rise.
Meatable is a meat company charting a course of responsible meat production. Will concerns about climate and humane treatment drive some portion of meat consumer demand?
There has been considerable upward movement in commodity pricing, caused by transportation and pandemic disruption. Therefore brands are starting to raise prices.
For approximately the 10 millionth time, we are hearing that people who aren’t old are less brand loyal. However, brands did well during the pandemic. But now that we are approaching ‘normal,’ we are seeing strong store brand sales.
Lasagnamac. Lasagna manages to take several different flavors and make them indistinguishable from one another. Mac and Cheese takes two flavors and does the same. So sure, mix them together.
Crackers marketed by Post as ‘Climate Positive’. H. L. Mencken said. “No one ever went broke under-estimating the intelligence of the American public.” Let’s try for more meaningful efforts.
FOOD WEEK: RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
In the past year – April through March – 69,000 new restaurants and food service businesses opened in the US. That is down 11% over the previous 12 months but is very impressive during a pandemic. Food week April 19 2021 finds the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well
Travis Kalanick of, among other things, Cloud Kitchen, is calling his Asian restaurant concept, ‘Happy Endings.‘ No I am not kidding.
As far as I can tell, the broken machines are THE key marketing element for McFlurry’s. Making availability to really mediocre ice cream arbitrary and limited must be driving demand. That’s why the machines are always broken.
There is a single NJ deli that has a stock valuation of over $100 million. Even as a former resident and lover of a good deli, I find this puzzling.
FOOD WEEK: SUPPLY CHAIN
COVD and vaccine distirbution causing conflicts in Washington state as the annual influx of migrant workers begins.
The cost of containers coming from Europe to US and Canada has more than doubled due to shortages. As a result, imported foods are increasing in price.
Idaho ranchers decide to kill all the wolves. Environmentally and from a PR perspective this seems really stupid.
Mexico has been hard hit by COVID and now 85% of the country is in drought conditions. This will impact on their produce exports.
LAGNIAPPE
Here is an article on infusing Gin at home. The result is customized flavors. If you really are interested on how to do it, go here.
As a guy who likes to smoke and grill meat, I am a big fan of jacquarding, then rubbing. Here is an article on injecting flavor into meats. However I worry about distribution of flavors. I may just do some research this summer and report back.
As we have written about before, Mexico City is a culinary paradise. Can’t wait to return and use this guide to help me fill in any gaps. With the right hotel location you could walk to probably 20 world class dining experiences, many of them reasonably priced.
A technique using the whole banana, including the peel, to make banana bread.
