Food Week April 3 -9, 2023

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?