We’re no strangers to food innovations and restaurant technology. Just a couple of months back, our team visited Asia for an “eating mission” and witnessed a restaurant using a very cool robotic wok that was used to cook perfect stir-fry dishes with minimal effort. We’re also no strangers to what makes a great pizza, so when we caught wind of a new pizza vending machine, we just had to find out more.

So, you might be thinking to yourself that a pizza vending machine doesn’t sound too novel — after all, there are already vending machines for sandwiches and the like. But this particular vending machine is not spitting out premade frozen pizzas and merely heating them up before dispensing your meal; it’s actually creating the pizza from scratch (flour, dough, water, yeast, cheese) and even baking it, delivering it you piping hot. Amazingly, this process takes just 3 minutes and you can choose from pizza varieties such as margherita, salame, and prosciutto for example. See the video below for more details about the pizza vending machine from A1 Concepts, Let’s Pizza:

As noted in the video, the machine is the first of its kind to be “the only machine in the world capable of making healthy and genuine pizzas using entirely fresh ingredients” highly emphasizing its human-free environment, high hygiene and freshness factors (e.g. single dose and vacuumed-packed toppings, no ingredients are frozen).

It still begs the questions: 1) would you try this? and 2) will the taste compare to your favorite pizza restaurant? The convenience and relatively inexpensive suggested retail price of just $5.95 for a freshly made 10.5″ pizza may prove that Let’s Pizza might very well be a hit in the U.S. We’ll be excited to find out.

Read more about this here: http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article/195667/Let-s-Pizza-vending-machine-ready-for-U-S-debut

A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, Move Over Bacon: Foodies Just Want the Smoke, discusses the passing of one food trend (e.g. bacon) and the emergence of a new one — smoke!  We cannot deny the appeal of smoke-flavored foods, from the distinct taste to the pleasant aroma, smoked foods are definitely rising in popularity.

The beauty of smoke is that nearly any food or dish can be smoked; smoked meats, desserts and even cocktails have been featured at various restaurants across the nation. All you really needs is some wood chips (such as hickory, apple, maple, cherry, ash, alder, mesquite etc.), a grill or smoker, optional herbs and seasonings, and your own creative imagination!

A BBQ master may have his own smoking technique down pat and might swear on it, but there are various ways you can smoke foods so it’s important to understand all your options and the basics first. There are a few types of smoking, including dry smoking and wet smoking. Aside from knowing how to pair wood  chips and food, you’ll need to know at what temperatures you need to smoke your food and on what kind of grill or smoker. Check out this Better Homes and Garden Article on How To Smoke Food for details and good tips.

Smoked dishes

Looking for some inspiration in your kitchen? Check out these great smoked dishes served up by imaginative restaurant chefs:

• Cedar wood infused Tequila at Smoke Restaurant in Dallas, TX (Find more by checking out Where to Drink Smoked Cocktails)
• Roasted Alaskan halibut with turnips, almond, pickled turmeric and smoked butter sorbet from Blackbird Restaurant in Chicago, IL
• Chocolate smoked sea salt ice cream at Humphry Slocombe in San Francisco, CA
• Smoked gouda mac & cheese from Wine Wood in Grapevine, TX
• Smoked ricotta ravioli, tomato and soft herbs at The Dutch in NY, NY
• BBQ chicken and grilled corn made from mozzarella, jalepeno, scallions and smoked tomato sauce from the Westside Tavern in Los Angeles, CA

Do you need help with sprucing up your menu with some smoked flair? Contact our menu development team at Synergy to learn more about improving your menu to attract more guests.

Whether you’re grocery shopping for your family’s dinner or for today’s dishes at your restaurant, home cook or revered chef, you know that selecting the best ingredients is key to a great meal. Mom may have taught us how to pick out vegetables by shape, size, smell and overall appearance but how would one know if the vegetables and fruit that we buy contain GMOs or if they’re organic?

PLU Codes, or Price-Look Up Codes, are found in many markets making produce shopping easy for consumers. How? Well, you may have noticed those little stickers on your bananas or tomatoes bearing the brand of the fruit but if you look closely, you’ll also see a four to five digit numeric code that’s designed to give you more insight on what you’re purchasing.

PLU Code Facts for codes beginning with the following numbers.

Source: PLU Code FAQ

PLU stickers with 4 digit codes that start with 3 or 4: Conventionally grown (e.g. 3010 for a conventionally grown cucumber)

PLU stickers with 5 digit code that starts with 9: Organically grown (e.g. 91350 for an organically grown tomato)

PLU stickers with 5 digit code that starts with an 8: Genetically engineered or modified (e.g. 86339 for a genetically engineered watermelon)

It is important to note that currently, the U.S. and Canada do not require the labeling of GMO foods.

More resources on how foods are grown

What does “organically grown” mean?

What does “conventionally grown” mean?

What are “GMOs” or “genetically engineered” foods?

The California Restaurant Association (CRA) has recently learned of fraudulent tactics being used to promote the filing of workers compensation lawsuits against restaurants.

Recently, representatives acting on behalf of Southern California law firms have walked into restaurant kitchens without invitation and, after ensuring a manager wasn’t present, questioned back-of-the-house staff about working conditions…

Read the entire article at the source, California Restaurant Association: Scam alert: Individuals sent by law firms into kitchens posing as workers comp reps

If you’re in the restaurant business, you understand how much energy is used in your kitchen — from ovens, grills, and stoves to freezers and refrigerators, the kitchen is most certainly a huge cost-center for overhead. How energy efficient do you think your kitchen is? Did you know that with a few simple additions and changes, you can save a lot of money and even time in your kitchen?  In turn, you can realize more profits and higher guest satisfaction due to quicker service!

Here is a list of some energy efficient products that you can replace in your kitchen.

• High-efficiency (low flow) pre-rinse spray valves: save water and increase performance with this simple devices. Flexible and powerful, washing / rinsing dishes is made easy with these valves and you actually also reduce gas and energy required to heat hot water

• Fully insulated food warmer

• Boilerless / connectionless steamer

• Infrared charbroiler: these get the job done with fewer burners

• Energy Star qualified fryer: shorter cook times and higher production rates help you save big on your utility bills

• Energy Star qualified griddle: according to EnergyStar’s website, “each ENERGY STAR qualified electric griddle can save businesses 2,270 kWh annually, or an average of $230/year on utility bills. Each ENERGY STAR qualified gas griddle can save 15 MBtu annually, or an average of $170/year on utility bills.”

Did you  know that you may also receive rebates for purchasing some of these energy efficient products? And don’t forget that energy efficiency can extend outside of the kitchen, too! Consider installing energy efficient lighting and cooling systems in your restaurant.

Pre-rinse spray valves

If you’d like more information about how to achieve an energy efficient restaurant kitchen or even on how to become a Certified Green Restaurant®, contact Synergy Consultants.

Greetings!

As restaurant consultants, we are often asked to predict what the hot new trends are going to be. While it’s impossible to have a crystal ball for everything, we’ve been thinking a lot about a few big game changers that we’re seeing today:

1. The focus on farm-to-table and local, sustainable foods will lead to a new spirit of authenticity on menus of all types
2. Continued pressure on food costs will inspire operators to look at more cost-effective ways to create signature dishes
3. Social media and internet-based technology will transform the face of restaurant marketing and operations
4. Bars-with-ambitious-menus and restaurants-with-serious-cocktail-programs will continue to blur the lines between the two segments

This month, we’re addressing two aspects of these trends, with our newsletter features on interesting chicken preparations and how to manage your online reputation. We’ve also got another hot-button issue for you with our coverage of energy conservation by Senior Operations Associate Michael Reynaga. Here’s hoping these articles give you some food for thought, too.

To your success,

Dean and Danny

Playing the Chicken

By Joan Lang

Rising beef prices and declining production, food safety concerns about Mad Cow and “pink slime,” disheartening reports about gestation crates for pregnant sows… no wonder American are eating more chicken.

And that means more opportunity for restaurants to get creative with poultry—all too often treated as a common denominator alternative that doesn’t deserve the same signature treatment as beef, pork, seafood and even vegetarian mainstays. Take the Amish Chicken, served with spring garlic, pearls barley, cucumber and burnt hay ash at Gwynnett St., a super-hot new farm-to-table restaurant in Brooklyn: this ain’t no grilled chicken breast folks. And chains like Popeyes are adding new dippable fried-chicken items that satisfy cravings poultry-based finger foods.

• Spatchcocked – This surprising named technique for butterflying a chicken or game hen allows the flattened bird to be cooked more evenly on a grill, with a better ratio of crispy skin to tender flesh, and there’s no denying the conversational impact the word can have on a menu

• Chicken Under a Brick – Called pollo al mattone in Italian, this increasingly popular dish results when you flatten an aggressively seasoned halved bird under a weight (such as a cast iron pan) and grill or roast it until crispy.

• Beer Can Chicken – A home-cookout staple that’s grabbing a lot more attention on menus these days; propping the bird up on a can filled with anything from actual beer to other flavoring agents not only makes for a tasty chicken, but also one that’s evenly cooked. At Bounty Hunter Wine Bar in Napa, CA, they even use this signature in pulled chicken sandwiches

• Perfect Roast Chicken – Many a French chef will tell you that the test of a restaurant is how they roast a chicken, and sure enough, a carefully roasted chicken is returning to trendy restaurants, often in the form of a whole bird roasted to order for two patrons. At Nomad, in New York City, it’s even barded with foie gras and truffles and priced at $78

• Specialty Birds – Free-range, all-natural, farm-raised, poussin and game hen, Amish, Jidori: The premium ingredient-trend also extends to the prosaic chicken, and true believers claim you can taste the difference, and charge for it

• The Fried Chicken Revolution: Thomas Keller may have started it all at his French Laundry, but scores of chefs now stake their claim to the ultimate fried chicken recipe, from David Chang and his fried chicken two ways (Korean and all-American) to the Sunday night Fried Chicken Dinners featured at restaurants around the country. At Food 101 in Atlanta, where the iconic Southern specialty has been on the menu for 12 years, there’s even a celebration of National Fried Chicken Day (July 6th)

• Dark Meat Returns – Breast meat, tenders, and wings are all well and good, but real chicken lovers appreciate the legs and thighs, which are not only less expensive, but also more flavorful and forgiving to cook in braises, stews and other hearty fare. Treated to signature preparations, just as you would duck legs, chicken thighs can be delicious; witness the popular Chicken Thighs with Almonds and Olives at Barbacco in San Francisco

• Brined and Marinated – Building flavor and ensuring juiciness is important when menuing lean, neutral flavored poultry. These techniques also make chicken more of a signature item, from spice-rubbed Jamaican jerk chicken to the refreshing citrus flavors of South American rotisserie chicken.

In fact, Richard Sandoval, the Mexican chef who has been so influential in bringing contemporary Latin flavors to the United States, has recently worked with Colombia-based Kokoriko to create the new Miami prototype for a planned fast-casual chicken chain. As Sandoval puts it, “How many more burger places can there be?”

For advice on how to make your menu more in tune with the times, contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

Maintaining your Online Reputation

By Joan Lang

For every example of how the internet can help a restaurant operator build sales—new marketing vehicles like Facebook and Pinterest; online ordering and reservations; iPad wine lists —there’s apt to be another one that represents a downside, including everything from malfunctioning website servers to inaccurate or malicious “citizen reviews.” (Think it doesn’t happen? According to a recent poll by SmartBrief, 62% of respondents claimed to have been threatened by a user of Yelp or another review site.)

And with it all comes the responsibility of managing and maintaining your reputation, not only in the real world but also in the virtual online one.

The Rules of (Social) Engagement

1. Tune in to the conversation – Find out what’s being said about you by local bloggers, review sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor, on your Facebook and Twitter pages, and other social vehicles. By using saved searches, page tagging, and automated services like TweetBeep and Google Alerts, you can see brand or name mentions in posts even if people are not fans or followers.

2. Familiarize yourself with and use tools, like Me on the Web or Reputation.com, that will help you manage the job of keeping your reputation clean

3. Recognize that like washing the dishes, monitoring and responding to what people are saying about you online is a never-ending task. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, enlist the aid of a trusted employee, marketing department, or PR specialist.

4. If you really don’t have time, consider turning to an online reputation management service—not surprisingly, there are lots of them. Good ones can make negative content less visible in search engines, and find positive or fresh content that will push to the top of search to re-establish your reputation, among other things.

5. Claim your listing on the local search sites, to maximize SEO (search engine optimization); the more complete your listing is (e.g., your website URL, hours of operation, special features like patio dining, and so on), the more likely it is that you will get found—since this is also a convenience to potential customers who may be trying to find a place to have lunch outdoors on a beautiful day, for instance. Make sure you update them whenever something changes.

6. Develop a response plan. Decide whether to acknowledge and address each review or comment publicly or privately. Although there are arguments for both (telling your side of the story vs. not embarrassing a commenter, for example), it may be that you’ll want to decide each case pretty much individually. Never underestimate the power of an old-fashioned phone call to let a commenter know they’ve been heard—it may even result in their changing a negative online review.

7. Whatever you do, do it quickly. Social media works faster than the speed of light. A review posted at lunchtime can affect another patron’s dinner choice. One bad comment can trigger a chain reaction, and it only takes a few days of online life to spoil your business prospects for weeks to come.

8. Resist the urge to delete negative Facebook comments —it makes you look like you don’t care, and could enrage commenters. Deal with them instead

9. Think of posters as secret shoppers who don’t happen to be working for you. Smart operators take criticism constructively, discern patterns, pay attention to early warnings, and take steps to correct legitimate problems that commenters may be pointing out. We know one restaurateur who changed his bread service when he noticed how many online reviewers commented about staleness

10. Remember that the social web can be mined for priceless intelligence of who your customers are. Analyze metrics to get a better sense of your customer demographics. Use a tool like Site Meter or statcounter.com to find out how users are coming to your website or listings. Look at commenters’ profiles to find out who they’re friends with and what other brands they follow.

Keeping Cool – and Conserving Energy

By Michael Reynaga, Senior Operations Associate

Summer is here and you know what that means: It’s time for the constant reminders about energy conservation. It seems that whenever the temperature rises, so does the need for all of us to conserve energy. Restaurants are in a unique position to help conserve energy while also lowering their operating costs. Let’s explore four ways to do this:

1. Let’s start with walking in the door first thing in the morning. Many operators turn everything on the moment the first employee walks in; lights, ovens, ranges, and other equipment. Instead, gradually turn on the equipment as you need it. In addition, powering down your equipment during slow periods of business (say between lunch & dinner) can also reduce your usage. Being diligent about your equipment use can save you upwards of $200 annually.

2. Now let’s shed some light on some other simple cost-saving measures. One of the easiest ways to save money while reducing your energy usage is to switch from incandescent to fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent bulbs use 1/4 to 1/3 of the energy compared to standard incandescent bulbs, and on average every light switched to fluorescent can save you $34 annually. On a side note, your choice in lighting can also affect your air-conditioning costs, as fluorescent lights do not generate heat like incandescent light bulbs do. Generally speaking, every watt that is reduced by switching bulbs can save you the same amount of wattage used to power your air-conditioning unit.

3. Another cool idea to reduce usage is to take charge of your thermostat, and set it to 76⁰F for cooling and 68⁰F for heating. You can save about 4% for every degree you modify in your heating and cooling settings. If your restaurant doesn’t have programmable thermostats, it might be worth it to purchase them: Many of today’s newer thermostats have multiple settings for different dayparts. This would allow you to program the thermostat to run at certain peak times, and stay idle when nobody is in the restaurant.

4. When it comes down to it, there are many opportunities to reduce your energy usage, but one of the soundest ways for long-term conservation is to buy equipment that is Energy Star compliant. This specialized equipment is engineered to run more effectively on less power. If you’re looking to upgrade any of your current equipment, talk to your local equipment vendor to see what Energy Star rated models are available. It may also be worth it to replace some of your older items early, as the energy cost savings can help pay for the new equipment over a relatively short period of time.

Being smart about your equipment and how it’s used can pay off financially as you move to become more energy-minded. Contact the Synergy Restaurant Consultants team for more information.

Tip of the Month

Online Technology Marches On

Wondering if your customers would like the option of online payment? Thinking of developing a smartphone app for your brand? Don’t know if people use online nutrition information? This data from the National Restaurant Association answers all those questions and more about technology use in restaurants.

For those of us less familiar with the foods of Asia, the words “fish” and “sauce” wouldn’t particularly sound like a tasty combination in the culinary sense. But if you enjoy savory and salty tastes such as soy sauce (think “umami”), we believe you may just start to warm up to fish sauce.

How do you make a sauce out of fish and bottle it up? Similar to how soy sauce is made, fish sauce is produced by the fermentation of fish (instead of soy beans) with salt and water added. Actually, anchovies are the  kind of fish that are commonly used to create the traditional Southeast Asian dark caramel-colored fish sauce you see at a restaurant or supermarket. As ketchup is the go-to condiment in America, fish sauce is as just as ubiquitous in Southeast Asian cuisines like Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, and is also used in countries such as Philippines, Japan, Korea, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia. Interestingly, as common as fish sauce is in Asian cooking, history finds that it was actually the Ancient Romans who were found to have first utilized this condiment. In fact, Italian chefs today still use “garum” fish sauce in their dishes to add a strong depth of flavor.

This powerfully salty and savory sauce can be used in many ways, particularly to impart that fifth taste sensation, umami, to various dishes . We encourage exploratory chefs and foodies to try fish sauce in these ways:

• As a dipping sauce: if you’ve ever eaten Vietnamese egg rolls (chả giò) or any Thai dish, you’ll notice an accompanying fish dipping sauce. The Vietnamese prepared fish dipping sauce version is called “nuoc mam cham” and is actually sweet, salty, spicy and zesty since it incorporates water, lime, Thai chilies, garlic and sugar to the fish sauce. The Thai version, “nam pla prik,” is more concentrated and consist of simply fish sauce, lot of chopped Thai chili peppers, shallots (optional) and a splash lime juice (optional).

• In soups: instead of adding salt, experiment by adding a few drops of good fish sauce to your soup.
• In salad dressings or marinades: we found this delicious looking recipe for fish sauce chicken wings that uses fish sauce as a marinade

How to choose a good bottle of fish sauce

We found a wonderful recommendation from Kasma Loha-unchit of thaifoodandtravel.com on what to look out for when purchasing fish sauce. She states, “look for fish sauce with a clear, reddish brown color, like the color of good whisky or sherry, without any sediments. If the color is a dark or muddy brown, the sauce is likely to be either a lower grade, or one that is not properly or naturally fermented; it may also have been sitting on the shelf a bit too long. Good fish sauce also has a pleasant aroma of the sea, not an overwhelming smelly fishiness, and should not be overly salty.”

By Mark Bunim, Wok and Run Restaurant Solutions

The versatility of tablets are amazing – if you’ve caught any iPad commercials lately (or any tablet ad for that matter), you may have noticed the amazing things you can do with one, from playing games, and watching movies to reading books and creating documents and ordering food from your favorite restaurant. No, we didn’t make that last part up; restaurants are implementing the use of tablets as digital menus.

Guests can take their seats, and browse through a menu with the tap and swipe of their fingers. Does that burger look tasty? Just tap the screen to order. Do you want any sides to accompany your meal? Adding those are just as easy. Innovative companies are catering to consumer’s technological preferences and restaurant owners’ eagerness for efficiency by creating tablet menus that take orders, send orders to the kitchen and even allow guests to pay their bills on the spot.

The advantages are large; restaurant owners can increase efficiency and improve throughput reduce costs, increase guest satisfaction and sales with these tablet ordering systems by recording more accurate orders, decreasing wait staff, lowering wait times for guests, and creating an easy way for guest to purchase more items on the spot. 22 year-old Specialty’s Cafe and Bakery have implemented tablet ordering stations near their checkout lines, open to all guests – you can imagine how well it speeds up lines during the lunch rush hour. There are even restaurants who offer tablet ordering just for their beverages — Marc Vetri’s Osteria Restaurant recently introduced a wine, beer and cocktail ordering system utilizing iPads.

While still a relatively newer concept, we are slowly seeing more restaurants integrating this technology.