Welcome to Food Week September 6, 2024. So many questions. How do Doritos make mice transparent? Why are Moscow mules in copper cups? Is Veganism over? How about COVID alcohol consumption? What is chartreuse? Who invented doner kebabs? Who invented Altoona pizza and why? And more . Enjoy.
MACRO
- Hiring is slowing. Only 142k jobs added in August. But unemployment rate still fell.
- 13.5% of US households feel food insecure.
- California moves to ban 6 dyes in food and drinks.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- The Boar’s Head outbreak is the largest in 13 years. 8 dead, 57 hospitalized.
- Has Veganism lost its momentum?
- An act of shelf-checkout revenge at Walmart.
- COVID home drinking has reached and end: it was not a particualrly boozy summer and consumer alcohol brands are feeling it.
- The best grocey store cold brews.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Social Bites is going Yum brands one better, creating something between a mall food court and university dining, frestanding and with 5 or more food outlets. Maybe they are trying to socilaize all the people dining alone.
- Success has many fathers: Germany and Turkey fight over the paternity of the doner kebab.
- We are tolerant of all pizza cultures here at fork pitch but the Altoona style pizza sounds awful. Why? For starters, two words: American cheese.
- Red Lobster resturcturing plan complete.
- The Boba phenomenon hasn’t really gone away.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Drought in the Ohio Valley.
- Cargill, the largest private company in the US, saw its profits halved as commodity prices fell. Of course they still made $2.5B in profits in their most recent fiscal.
- The bat population crashed because of pesticide use. Farmers, because of the increase in insects, started using more pesticides. Which led to an increase in infant mortality of 8%. BTW this is in North America, not a poor and distant land.
- Freedom for e-coli! The relationship between non-pasteurized milk and the right wing.
DRINK CORNER
- The Cortada in the Madiera island is something very different than the coffee drink. Also Don’s Mai Tai is a variation quite different from the on you are used to.
- The Golden Calf (Veau d’or) Martini sounds good but also like a punch in the face with 110 proof gin. Bonus: bartenders go-to gins.
- Why are Moscow Mules in copper mugs? The answer here, but mostly just because.
- The scandal/non-scandal of Tito’s Vodka and Tito’s ex-wife, fueled by, of course, social media.
- Explainer on chartreuse.
FOOD WEEK September 6 LAGNIAPPE
- The chicken nugget cake: an unholy wedding of bored product development and social media marketing.
- The favorite drink of all (ALL) the US presidents.
- The Walnut Room: America’s oldest department store restaurant.
- Speaking about dyes, there’s one in Dorito’s that make mice transparent!
- Grapefruits are weird: they will mess with your medications. Also banana peels aren’t really that great in the garden.