CHICAGO —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
In seminars, exhibitor booths, casual exchanges and hard-nosed sales pitches, conversation turned to the trade’s expanding environmental consciousness and how much more the public would like to see being done. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
“The world is waking up to the environment,” said speaker Michael Oshman, executive director of the Green Restaurant Association. “If you’re a restaurateur, there’s a demand for things to happen.” —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
Heightened ecological awareness was one of several societal issues raised during the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, held May 19-22 in this city’s sprawling McCormick Place complex. More than 73,000 attendees who learned about the new responsibilities being foisted on their shoulders by a changing business and cultural climate. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
Protecting guests from food-borne illness was a frequent focus of exhibits and educational sessions, as it had been in past conferences. The emphasis shifted this year to averting infections from norovirus, the surface contaminant also known as the Norwalk or cruise ship virus. During a board of directors meeting held at the show, the NRA identified norovirus as one of the three most important food safety issues facing the industry, along with avian flu and an increase in food imports from nations with potentially lax safety standards. An official said a norovirus epidemic in Japan has been a national crisis for that country. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
The food safety villain usually cited in past shows, E. coli O157:H7, was addressed at the 2007 conference, but as a possible contaminant of fresh produce, not meat. That situation, various experts said, requires the industry to safeguard guests by pushing sanitary practices back on distributors and growers, right down to policing farms’ field-level lavatory setups. One speaker showed snapshots of portable toilets being lugged via trailer into the fields of farms in Mexico. Tom Chestnut, the Darden Restaurants alumnus who now serves as vice president of food programs and processors for the food safety organization NSF International, explained that the proximity spared pickers from having to travel hundreds of yards to the nearest bathroom, a trek that he suggested many forgo. After warning the audience, he showed pictures of human sewage in fields of produce about to be harvested. Other photos clearly showed animal feces nestled in spinach that was destined for American dinner plates. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
“You have to start in the field,” said David Parsley, senior vice president of supply chain management for Applebee’s International. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
The financial health of farms was addressed repeatedly during the show by chefs who advocated the use of local food, be it for flavor or the cause of not pushing production to levels that harm the ecological system. During a standing-room-only classroom session on organics and sustainability, famed Louisiana chef John Folse recounted how he buys three guinea fowl at a time from a stand at a local farmer’s market without any plans of putting the bird on the menu of his Lafitte’s Landing restaurant, because he wants the grower to pocket some money for the day. Fellow panelist Paul Kahan, chef-proprietor of Chicago’s acclaimed Blackbird, said he repeatedly complains via guest-comment cards to the management of his local supermarket because it features heirloom tomatoes from California when “tons of great tomatoes” are available from farms in the area. Kahan explained that he strives to buy locally because his definition of sustainable means minimizing the fuel needed to truck supplies to his restaurants. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
A need to define the terms commonly used in discussions of the industry’s environmental responsibilities and initiatives—descriptors like “sustainable,” “green,” “certified” or “environmentally responsible”—was cited often during the show. Oshman of the Green Restaurant Association suggested that even simple terms like “recyclable” or “compostable” may be misleading, or at least defined differently by different users. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
“My shoes are recyclable,” he said during his seminar, “Advantages of Going Green: Marketing to the Socially Responsible Consumer.” “This microphone is recyclable, in that it could be used again.” But, he added, that doesn’t mean it would be. Similarly, products touted as compostable may not actually be channeled to a compost heap, but might end up in landfills instead. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
Oshman’s presentation coincided with Folse and Kahan’s educational session, which was called, “Local, Sustainable and Organic: America’s Culinary Leaders are Changing the Way We Eat.” The latter focused more on food and farming than Oshman’s session did, but it did touch on matters that have traditionally been characterized as green, such as livestock farming methods and protecting ocean wildlife. Oshman, meanwhile, covered organics in his forum, noting that one out of every four U.S. consumers had purchased an organic product the prior week. —Red, white and blue were the backdrop colors at the industry’s convention here in late May, but green might have been a more appropriate choice.
Outside consultant to help NRA devise new 5-year plan CHICAGO —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA. The outside firm would be hired “to kind of envision where we will be five years from now,” Kaufman explained to the association’s board during a meeting at the show. He described it as a “no-sacred-cows, not-based-on-history-or-anecdote, hard look at what the association should be.” —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA. “We really need to enlist the help of a firm that can devote 24/7, probably for three to four months, to see what we should become,” Kaufman said before the board voted to proceed with the initiative. Kaufman estimated the cost at “no more than about a million, plus or minus.” —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA. He noted that a similar project was commissioned several years ago by The Culinary Institute of America, and “we have seen a 20- or 30-to-1 return on that investment.” —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA. The process would not begin, he said, until the association hires a new CEO to fill the resignation earlier this year of Steve Anderson. Insiders say the field of candidates has been narrowed to six finalists, with a final choice likely to be made this summer. —Peter Romeo —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
Oshman’s definition of green extended far beyond food or business practices to such matters as restaurant building supplies, including toilets. He recounted how an unnamed restaurant operation had approached his organization in hopes of being certified as a truly green restaurant. The association recommended that the brand use water-conserving toilets, but a supplier quoted a price of $1,000 each, compared with the $300 price tag of a conventional model. Oshman said his group was able to negotiate the price down to that level, and urged attendees similarly to challenge premiums in pricing for green items. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
He noted that the 500-unit Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf chain recently became the largest operation to be certified as green by the Green Restaurant Association, but did not name other chains that have sought the group’s advice and sanction. However, he did mention that he had met recently with the chief executive of a chain that ranks among the industry’s 10 largest. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
In contrast, a number of suppliers boasted about their recent efforts to be more environmentally minded. At least two of the show’s biggest exhibitors showcased more concentrated versions of their liquid products. By taking water out, they stressed, operators would need fewer containers and would have to replenish dispensers less often. Yet the advantages they stressed were the savings in cardboard, fuel and water, not the beneficial impact on store-level labor requirements or storage space. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
The NRA currently is seeking examples of chains that have enhanced their businesses through efforts that simultaneously help the environment. The association has indicated that it would use those examples to encourage more green activity on the part of other operators. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
During the show, the association announced that it was forming a Green Task Force “to help educate and inspire restaurants of any size and concept to conserve natural resources.” —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
The action was one of two structural changes disclosed during the NRA’s board meeting. The other was splitting up its Research & Regulatory Affairs committee into two groups, with the regulatory-affairs half-focused on food safety. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.
“It is on the minds of our guests, it is on the minds of our industry, it is on the minds of the whole country,” said NRA director Ken Conrad. —The National Restaurant Association plans to retain an outside consulting firm to plot the association’s evolution over the next five years. The comprehensive strategic plan would then serve as a road map for whomever the association hires as its new chief executive, said Michael Kaufman, the New York-area restaurateur who is serving as this year’s vice chairman of the NRA.