Manufacturer Spotlight September 2006
Foodservice suppliers provide a look at products designed to make an operator’s job easier.
Financing
Minding food safety in your produce purchase
With health and freshness two of the major forces driving menus today, produce is top on operators’ purchase orders. Indeed, restaurants have been making a big effort to put more fruits and vegetables on the plate. But this effort hit a roadblock with recent E.coli scares and salmonella outbreaks. As a result, food safety has become the priority for suppliers and buyers of fresh produce.
Whether on-premise or off, catering can be a lucrative extension of your brand. But just as with the in-restaurant dining arena, the economic downturn has changed the rules of the game. Corporate events and high-ticket expense account dining have dried up. Weddings and other social events are smaller in size and budget. Fancy and formal are out; casual, creative and flexible are in. Caterers' new marching order: Do more with less—a lot less.
With offal-loving chefs touting innards, it was only a matter of time before bone marrow climbed the menu-placement ladder from near obscurity to cult status. Simply roasted with a side of toast points, or lending richness to risotto or pasta, diners can’t seem to get enough of this luxurious treat.
Jeff Harvey’s formula for innovation goes something like this: Enthusiasm plus ownership equals creativity and a willingness to take on challenges. Since he’s been at the helm of Burgerville, the 39-unit chain based in Vancouver, Washington, he’s proven the formula time and again, most notably with a seasonal, gourmet LTO program that hit its stride this year and saw the company improve its new product introduction time from 12 months to 6 weeks—and helped keep sales from declining in the down economy.