Welcome to Food Week April 3. Happy Easter. This week, lots of contradictions. Salmon in hot dogs, salmonella in flour, human grade cat food, a wet martini and that olive oil in coffee thing that we all knew wouldn’t work. Enjoy!
MACRO
- Steady job growth may lead to more interest rate hikes. Restaurants one of the biggest engines.
- Stock and bond markets weird, at least to analysts.
- Is America emptying out?
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Consumers unsatisfied with dairy replacements. But not enough to go back to milk.
- Salmon hot dogs, from Norway, now here.
- Attempts to reduce SNAP benefits finds resistance.
- Multi-state outbreak of salmonella from cookie dough batter. But the authorities are saying it came rom the flour, not the eggs.
- Apparently the way to appeal to cat owners is to offer a cat food that is ‘human grade’
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Starbucks Olive Oil coffee apparently tastes okay. But it has um… other gastric repercussions.
- Sweetgreen and Chipotle in a dispute over the name of one of the former’s dishes. If you name your chain after an ingredient this is kind of inevitable.
- Red Sox fans up in arms about change in ketchup at Fenway. Then I learned it was on their hot dogs and I lost all sympathy.
- Breakfast let the way to restaurant recovery.
- Restaurant tech trends.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Global food prices fell for the 12 month in a row, sugar still high.
- Central de Abastos in Mexico City, one of the largest (2 sq/mi.) food markets in the world, severely damaged by fire.
- Americans are very slow in adopting tofu.
- Get yer maters – big glut of tomatoes right now. I’m planting them anyway because mine are better.
FOOD WEEK APRIL 3 LAGNIAPPE
- I could warm up to a wet martini except that the dry white vermouth generally available is terrible. I may try with a good Spanish one.
- Critic and food writer Mimi Sheraton dies at 97.
- What to read to understand wine. Tying it all together. here’s a 97 rated Ribera to try.
- I am pretty unenthusiastic about branded swag but I think I would rock a a Pizza Hut bucket hat.
- India is a hotbed for sought after rums. Who knew?
[…] predicted here over a year ago. even Starbucks can’t make olive oil in coffee a thing. Things are generally […]