seasonal

Cinco de Mayo

The holiday of Cinco de Mayo may draw its origins from Mexican culture, but it has firmly established its roots in the American restaurant scene. Operators across the country are gearing up for the fiesta on May 5 with celebratory food, drink and other activities.

Consumer Trends

Moms Run the Show on Mother's Day

Sunday, May 12, promises to be a high-grossing day for restaurants, as families across the country take mom out to eat for Mother’s Day. According to Caroline Potter, Chief Dining Officer of OpenTable.com, “Mother’s Day has always been one of the biggest dining holidays of the year—and with good reason. Being a mother is one of the most important jobs in the world.”

Chef Cory Bahr passed his crown and the title of “King of Louisiana Seafood” to Chef Keith Frentz of LOLA in Covington, La. at the 5th Annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off. The cook-off, held by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, was part of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience, an annual five-day festival.

Vermilion’s location in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria is a stone’s throw from Virginia’s rolling farmland and Chesapeake Bay’s fishing grounds. That’s allowed executive chef Tony Chittum to develop relationships with dozens of farmers and fishermen.

Tea doesn’t seem to command the same devotion and geekdom that coffee does here in the U.S. While coffee houses boast Rube Goldberg contraptions for brewing java, many operators still throw a tea bag in a cup of hot water—which doesn’t cut it for tea lovers.

We asked chefs to name some of their favorites; as we would expect, apps that make chef’s lives in the kitchen easier are the most popular.

Many Asian restaurants rely on imported dried and canned ingredients to create dishes close to the originals. But that’s not the way chef Gregory Gourdet cooks at Departure, a modern Pan-Asian spot in Portland, Oregon.

For chefs, music is often as important as the knives they cart around. While chefs tend to avoid music during restaurant service, prep is another matter.

Greg Atkinson was buying and promoting local foods long before it became the routine thing to do for top chefs. The former chef of Seattle’s Canlis then took time off from cooking in restaurants to teach culinary arts and write about food. Now Atkinson is back at the stove in his newly opened Marché on Bainbridge Island in Winslow, Wash., where he’s again preparing the most indigenous ingredients he can get his hands on.

That morning cup of joe is getting dressed up for the fall season at several of the large coffee-centric chains. They are offering seasonal drinks that promise to keep customers warm as the temperatures fall.

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