Food

Today we are highlighting the work of Eric Vogel, owner of local Walnut Grill locations in St. Louis, as our foodservice hero.

The Walnut Grill has opened a new location, and will be donating 100 box lunches to front-line workers at hospitals near its restaurant locations.

As restaurateurs worldwide are discovering, sous-vide preparation can restore sanity to their kitchens in stressful times.

Sous vide techniques, along with other methods, “offer consistent levels of performance while simplifying cooking processes, allowing for smaller kitchens, and requiring less staff,” writes Jean-Michel Dixte, global vice president for food & beverage for Dusit International. 

Not only that, but vacuum-sealing and sous vide prep can help manage rising food costs and unpredictable swings in demand, operators have found. The only hurdle is investing in the equipment — and that’s where Hamilton Beach Commercial can help. The AcuVide™1000 immersion circulator is, quite simply, a commercial immersion circulator that offers chefs a full suite of high value features for a lower investment than the competitors .

Today, we are sending a shout out to business owner and foodservice hero Earl Handy.

Earl Handy is the 3rd generation owner of Handy's Lunch (@handyslunch) which has been a landmark in the Burlington, Vermont community for over 75 years.

We are honored to present our next foodservice hero from Atlanta, Georgia. Lesley Samad, along with her husband Jamal, own Samad Mediterranean Grill and Market in Sandy Springs, a city nestled inside Atlanta.

Today, we're sharing the story of Cody Anderson, a foodservice hero from Draper, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.  Cody is the Food Service Director with Thomas Cuisine (@thomascuisine on Instagram) at eBay in Draper, Utah. He and his team have been preparing fresh meal kits to-go in conjunction with a local group called Citrus Pear (@citrus_pear on Instagram).

Restaurants everywhere were making their operations more sustainable — and then the COVID pandemic struck. Takeout took over, resulting in an avalanche of individually wrapped plastic cutlery, straws and disposable containers. Concerns about single-use plastic and food waste were eclipsed by the fear of germs.

But waste-reduction efforts can’t be abandoned, advocates say; they just need to adapt. Prior to the pandemic, one-third of consumers were actively trying to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics, says Nell Fry, Sodexo’s senior manager of sustainability. The threat of pollution and climate change has only temporarily been eclipsed, she says; “As soon as we have this pandemic under control, there’s going to be this whiplash… ‘What are you doing about plastics? We want this done yesterday.’”

Safety and sustainability don’t have to be at odds. We’ll look at a few ways restaurants and other foodservice operators are maintaining their commitment to green operations while adapting to the realities of business during COVID-19.

Meet Bruno Serato of @caterinas_club, a #foodservicehero from Anaheim, California with a long history of service. 

Today, we are shining the spotlight on @chefrexhale for his work providing meals for those in need in St. Louis, Missouri.

This week's foodservice hero is Priscilla Nesbitt from Georgetown, Ontario. She is a member of the foodservice industry working as a Purchasing Director for Best Western Hotels.

[If she looks familiar, we featured her on our Instagram feed back in May -- but we felt we could highlight her again.]

This week we're highlighting a foodservice hero from Garden Grove, California. Bill Bracken is the Founder and Culinary Director of Bracken's Kitchen, a 501(c)(3) organization which has supported the community for several years by doing what it can to make sure children and families don't go hungry.