Marriott in the Kitchen

A Chef's Comfort Food

The Bromberg Brothers original Blue Ribbon restaurant in New York is rumored to have been built on fried chicken, or so would be believed if you listened to their fans. Personally, I agree, it is great fried chicken as is nearly everything else on their menu. Long before they were serious players on the New York restaurant scene, theirs was the place that the city's best chefs went to wind down after a long night. It used to be said that if you walked into Blue Ribbon at 2 in the morning, every chef in the city was there. Some still are in fact.

Now with Blue Ribbon outposts as far away as the Cosmopolitan (an Autograph Collection in Vegas) and being featured in a dozen Renaissance properties in the US, their fried chicken is easier to experience. Paired with their organic honey, the Northern fried chicken wings highlight a simple menu of a half dozen or so of the Bromberg's best, in Renaissance properties from Times Square to Arlington, Virginia, to Vancouver. If you can't get to the Village, maybe Blue Ribbon is already where you are.

Can't  share the recipe, but Bromberg's fried chicken is on my plate today... What's on YOURS?

Will 2012 food trends be any different?

If food is like fashion, then we are sure to see as many new trends in food '12 as this season's newest colors of the new fashion black.  Not really a fashion forward guy, you'll have to check out another blog for whichever shade of purple is in now. As to food and drink though, there certainly are a lot of prognosticators with already published lists.  Who knows, maybe some of them will be right.  I thought I would take a shot at what I see as the trends to watch out for over the next year, and who knows, maybe I will be right on one or two.

 Going soon

• Popups Pop-Out - could there ever be a sillier idea than to pop up a restaurant? Rather than spending months planning a restaurant for a 3-month life span, look to free-standers to design concept spaces that can live for two years and then flip to a fresh concept that requires no infrastructure redesign, and can use existing staff. A restaurant with an exit plan.

• Peruvian - I have heard for years this is the year for Peruvian. Love ceviche, but I am still waiting (see below).

 Gone

• Fennel Pollen
• $100 Burger
• Salt Menus
• Amuse Bouche
• Anti-Griddles
• Micro Anything

In and on the way in '12

• Designer Label Maple Syrup- Vintage and single grove, brix rated, long or short fired syrups from a handful of North country groves will make their way to power breakfast tables, and even show up on forward thinking hunter-gatherer pastry chefs' menus.

• Healthy Comfort Breakfast To-Go- a Whole Grain and Flax Organic Blueberry Muffin sure sounds like a healthy alternative.  Expect the oatmeal with creative toppings to expand. Thankfully though, the drinkable oatbased breakfast shakes will not be with us much longer...

• Dim Sum, the New Taco - Any trip to China is not complete with a proper stop at a Dim Sum house. Cute packages of steamed dough, awesome dipping sauces, perfect for the multi, small meals preferred by busy travelers. Look for these in lobby gathering spots.

• Peruvian - Is this finally the year of the (truly, it is) great cuisine of Peru? (see above). 

• QR Code Menus - Don't believe that sea bass is sustainable? Scan the funny looking block on the menu and learn the day it was caught, where, and by whom. View the recipe...link on to a virtual feed from the kitchen...or pick the best wine match. 

• Moonshine  Spirits- With a show all about distilling spirits now on reality TV, look for the Kentucky entrepreneurs to do for kettle whiskey what Phil and the Hansen brothers did for king crab.

• Coconut Water Long drinks - Brazil exported bikinis, so why not the national thirst quencher in a newly improved pina colada? 

• Trucks Stop - Tired of being chased away by irritated restaurant owners within 200 feet of their doors, look for food truckers to band together for communal prep spaces and rented parking lots to ply their wares. Also, look for fast food to start using mobile trucks to micro-test new ideas before hitting the real test markets.

• Speakeasy Reservations - Like the Premier line at the airport, social media reverse tweets give a badge to flash at the door for an immediate seat and recognition. Like a virtual secret knock, and you don't even have to be Mayor of FourSquare. 

• Free Foods - Gluten, Cage and Nut - Allergy concerned or socially aware, diners have more at stake than just flavor when they demand restaurants provide more detail about what is offered. Cage Free Eggs and the difficult topic of gestation crated commercial pork are next in the headlines.

• Local Treasures - Years ago the best street vendors in Singapore were hired to open Straits Kitchen, now let's see if the maker of It's -It San Francisco or the Saturday Chorizo sandwich guy at Borough's London Market moves to partner on a partial menu instead of the whole restaurant. Think Bromberg Bro's Blue Ribbon Chicken in gateway Renaissance cities? 

• Sodium the new Carb - Healthy now takes its aim at salt, so chefs will be reducing sodium with more flavored and acidic pickles, even replacing bread baskets with pickled local vegetables, maybe from their gardens.  Could be at the bar soon instead of salty carbs. 

• Customized Healthy - Ok, I am sure the broccoli spread is a fine alternative to butter, but really, is that my only choice? Diners want to eat better, but the food better make sense and be balanced with the experience they are paying for. Reminds me of the time I ordered 12-course vegetarian tasting menu at a to-be-unnamed Chicago restaurant..then stopped for a burger on the way home because I was still hungry.

Not going anywhere:

• Burgers
• Deluxe Fried Chicken
• Food Trucks
•  Nose-to-Tail Eating
• Gardens
• TV Food
• Arabic Mezze
• Organic Everything
• Offal Saturdays
• GreenWashing & Calling out Greenwashers
• Brussels Sprouts
• Fast casual Chinese
• Foods with a Story
• Cupcake Mania

What's on YOUR plate today? 

A New Game in Town

For the 70 million people said to be playing Facebook generated games at any one time, there is now a new option. Rather than worrying about when to harvest the cyber vegetables or feed the virtual goats, gamers can now feel the rush of adrenaline that comes naturally to chefs on a restaurant line, especially when tickets start to back up and the servers get grouchy…or is it the chefs?

  Launched today on Facebook and accessible by visiting the the Marriott Careers page, www.facebook.com/marriottjobsandcareers,  My Marriott Hotel™ offers a virtual glimpse into what happens in the heart of the hotel, the kitchen. Gamers set up their facility by selecting equipment and ingredients, planning a menu, and ultimately preparing the orders for waiting guests. As I said in my first blog, “You’re only as good as your last meal”. Here, the chef watches for guest satisfaction (by way of a clean and green returned plate) while balancing the restaurant manager mood as the restaurant gets busier and busier. Serve a lot of meals to happy customers, the manager smiles…make the manager deal with disappointed guests, not so many smiles.

 

We started working on this many months ago with the idea of linking the unique opportunities of a career in hospitality with the surge in social online gaming. Available globally and in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Mandarin), My Marriott Hotel™ will build on the kitchen experience with future modules of restaurant service, housekeeping, front desk, etc. Each of these departments represent where the majority of today's hotel leaders started their careers, and with 50,000 positions to fill this year alone, we hope to be tapping the prospect of a hospitality career of those playing the My Marriott Hotel™ game.

 

As part of the launch, over 350 Marriott HQ Associates joined our test kitchen team for a tour through the game and a non-virtual snack. With mini burgers flying off the grill, it gave the sense of playing the game for real. There is nothing more exciting than a busy restaurant, so if you want to try running one of your own, check out the game and how it works on You Tube at http://bit.ly/MyMarriottHotelOverview .  

What’s on YOUR plate today? Check out the game and see what’s cooking!

Sustainable Gardening

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to tour Alice Waters’ Sustainable Schoolyard garden at the Martin Luther King School in Berkeley, California.  I was incredibly impressed with the facility and humbled by the good work being done. It began our discussions about garden friendly hotels. In the ten years since my visit to Berkeley, we have built many similar gardens throughout our system- JW Marriott Grande Lakes, Boston Marriott Burlington, Cleveland Airport Marriott, JW Tucson Star Pass, and now our Corporate Headquarters.

Constructed in April and just planted on May 5 (a bit late, but we will take full advantage of the Washington summer), the Corporate Kitchen Garden will supply the development test kitchens and the surplus will go to support a local school’s culinary training program. The Culinary team gardeners also plan at least one Farmers Market this summer for the colleagues at headquarters.

While in Napa Valley recently, I popped into the Napa Valley Marriott and got a chance to s ee for    the first time the exceptionally designed lobby; their new bar, Vin Eleven; and their huge garden. Even by Napa standards, to see Chef Brian Whitmer’s garden is an impressive glimpse into what so many of our hotels are doing to activate our sustainable goals.

Brian Whitmer says “Our menu takes inspiration and guidance from the seasons,our new heirloom garden, supporting local artisans  and a passion for great food”. Seafood is sourced sustainably of course, but Brian also uses local cage free eggs, single farmstead cheeses, natural beef and poultry and additional organic produce. In fact, Brian is not alone when it comes to implementing our approach to integrity minded food.

 
The JW San Antonio Hill Country is a benchmark example. I wrote about this spectacular property in February of 2010 and talked about what they were doing, but recent vistors there have come back just raving about the food Chef Ryan Littman’s team is preparing. Breakfast in Cibolo Moon features items such as Huevos Rancheros with cage-free eggs. In fact, all of the shell eggs are cage-free, as is the case at many of our properties. Our JW Life approach to organic, sustainable, and responsibly-sourced food has included cage-free eggs as a key component. I have met with and continue to meet with the Humane Society of the United States, suppliers and distributors, and global sourcing as we discuss our desire to achieve a completely cage-free egg for our shell egg uses. Similar to FutureFish, our global approach to sustainable seafood, our approach to sourcing eggs and other protein hinges on humane treatment of animals and support for the environment. 

What’s on YOUR plate today?