Joe Ricchio has posted the pilot episode of his new effort, The Food Coma Show. In this initial episode Joe and four friends get together for a meal at Bresca.
Category: General News
Chef on Thanksgiving, Vegan Conversion, Thanksgiving Wine
The Press Herald checked in with 10 Southern Maine chefs about what they typically do on their Thanksgiving day off,
Do they hang up their pots at work only to have to take them down again at home? Does their family expect them to create some spectacular spread every year like the ones you see in the Thanksgiving issues of glossy food magazines?
Or are they allowed to chill on the sofa, for once, and watch football while someone else does all the work?
The Food & Dining section also includes an article about WGME news anchor Jeff Peterson’s conversion to a vegan diet,
The change to an all plant-based diet literally happened overnight. He and his wife, Laura, watched the 2011 documentary “Forks Over Knives” in February of this year and it opened their eyes to the health consequences of the standard American diet and the healing powers of vegan food.
“I remember looking at my wife and I thought that would make a good story for News 13,” Peterson recalled.
and Joe Appel’s wine column makes recommendations for your Thanksgiving meal.
You get a twofer today. I want to introduce more people to an importer of exceptional French wines, Cynthia Hurley, and it’s time to think of wines for Thanksgiving. Happily, several of Hurley’s wines I’ve recently drunk are not only remarkable in their own right, they also will make a splendid show at a Thanksgiving table.
Kids at Restaurants
Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd shares her thoughts on children at restaurant.
Like most things, starting young is crucial to developing good restaurant behavior habits. Without them, things don’t go well. Overtired parents usually get the lion’s share of dirty looks and passed judgment, fellow patrons are simultaneously sympathetic and annoyed, and the hungry, confused kids wonder why they aren’t at Joker’s.
TV x Restaurant List
I Love Portland Maine has reviewed recent TV shows about the Maine food scene and compiled this handy list of which restaurants where visited by each show.
In the past couple of years alone, we’ve had four shows filmed right in the Old Port, and that’s just for our (apparently world class) restaurant scene, where Food is being elevated to the level of Art. It doesn’t even count all the movies that needed a quaint, reclusive backdrop for their sets. Actually, with all the camera crews that must’ve been milling around I can’t believe I haven’t stumbled into one of them by now…
ILPM has also posted an interview with chef Chuck Hughes whose TV show, Chuck’s Eat the Street aired an episode about Portland earlier this week.
ILPM: Why did you pick Commercial Street in particular?
Chuck: Because it’s a mix of the working waterfront, locals, and tourists… it’s a showcase of fresh food– simple and authentic.
The Portland episode of Chuck’s Eat the Street will be rebroadcast on The Cooking Channel this Sunday at 4 pm.
Food Trucks in Falmouth
The Forecaster reports that Falmouth is considering legislation to formalize authorize the operation of food trucks.
Two food trucks, Love Cupcakes and Della’s Dogs, did business in town this summer, but the future of these and other mobile restaurants could depend on an ordinance yet to be drafted.
Bill Lunt, chairman of the Falmouth Economic Improvement Committee, said the Town Council asked the committee to look into drafting an ordinance to govern food trucks, but that he doesn’t expect anything to happen before next spring.
November Down East: 50 Reasons to Love Portland
Tandem, Bunker Brewing, Urban Farm Fermentory, Allagash, Standard, Bard, Speckled Ax, Otto, Pocket Brunch, Cloak & Dagger, Petite Jacqueline, Boda, and Local 188 are all called out in the Down East cover story, “50 Reasons We Love Portland”.
The article isn’t online yet but you should be able to find a copy of the November issue at your local newsstand.
Baum+Whiteman Food Trends
Grace’s Whole Beast Feast is cited as an example of high-end “bundled” meals in Baum+Whiteman’s predictions for food trends in 2013.
Grace Restaurant in Portland, Maine, has a “whole beast” lamb dinner for six to eight people at $65 a head, including harissa-spiked lamb tartare, cured lamb “bresaola,” rigatoni with smoked lamb shoulder, and leg of lamb stuffed with pine nuts and corn. Like many such feasts, it requires 72 hours’ notice.
Building Customer Loyalty
Natalie Ladd’s column in the Portland Daily Sun list the factors that help restaurants build a loyal customer base.
We all know it’s about food freshness and quality (the place in question is just so-so), the atmosphere (by most standards, the place in question needs to be sandblasted and rebuilt from the ground up), the price points (nothing noticeable one way or the other here), service (no fine dining experience for sure) and relationships built.
It is here, in this last element, where they excel and I have created a short checklist for restaurants and bars to follow, based upon proven success in such a generally mediocre establishment.
Phoenix on UFF Expansion
The Portland Phoenix has announced that they plan on providing ongoing coverage of the UFF’s expansion in Bayside.
In the former ABC Taxi headquarters (the company moved to Bishop Street recently, out off Warren Avenue), Cayer has gotten contracts and city permits for the kernel of something he hopes will be much bigger.
In the coming weeks, the Portland Phoenix will be exploring different aspects of this new endeavor, including talking with the businesses that will be moving there and setting up operations.
Boston Globe: The New New England Cuisine
Chefs Mike Wiley of Hugo’s and David Levi from Vinland (still under construction) were interviewed by the Boston Globe for an article on “The New New England Cuisine”.
If chefs like Wiley have their way, fine dining menus, with their unlimited year-round fresh produce and expensive cuts of meat, will soon be replaced by a cuisine that is a more specific expression of New England’s seasons, landscape, and culture. Chefs are elevating humble ingredients that have always grown here. When our short growing season is over, we may have cold temperatures but we have plenty of light. Cooks find hearty greenhouse greens or stored root vegetables, or they ferment carrots, beets, cabbages, radishes, and other firm produce. In the North Atlantic, fishermen head out for some prized fish that are at their best in the cold months: sea urchins and their roe, Jonah crabs, smelts, monkfish, wolffish.