Culinary preservation--or gastronomic racism?

In April, I was invited to Italy for a primer on the food, wines and beers of Lucca, a Tuscan city striving to preserve the culinary traditions that have flourished within the medieval era walls encircling its core. The difficulty of the task was illustrated by the first restaurant our group saw within Lucca proper: A McDonald’s.

It was no surprise, then, to read this week that city officials have taken the controversial step of forbidding the opening of any restaurant within the walled-off area that does not feature Italian food. The leaders also want a recommendation that the menu of all new restaurants include local specialties like faro or savory pumpkin jam (usually served on cheese, not bread).

The move has been assailed by some as culinary chauvinism, by others as a hopeless effort to freeze time. That McDonald’s, after all, was noticeably busy, despite a fall-off in U.S. tourism because of the dollar’s weakness against the Euro. A considerable portion of traffic was presumably coming from locals.

Even the government of Tuscany, the city’s host province, reportedly condemned the move as “gastronomic or culinary racism.”

But you can’t fault the city’s leaders for trying to preserve foods and preparations that are as much a part of local heritage as the ancient walls for which Lucca is known worldwide. Few would dispute that a town or city has the right to govern architectural styles, building heights, commercial development or the destruction of historical facilities. New York has even legislated what some restaurants have to put on their menus (i.e., calorie information). Why not type of restaurant?

Maybe I’m just biased. It’s been more than nine months since I’ve some decent faro doused in true extra virgin olive oil from the Tuscan hills outside Lucca.

Fast-food zen: Think small for bigger checks

The big burger chains are going small so their tabs can grow larger. Let me explain, Grasshopper.

With Jack in the Box joining Burger King, McDonald’s and Hardee’s in experimenting with mini-burgers, already a staple in casual dining, the era of what McDonald’s calls the “fourth tier” may be the upon us. Value menus bring in the bargain hunters. Premium offers are targeted at those sports who might spring for something special, like BK’s premium-priced Angry Whopper. Sandwiched between those pricing strata are the chain’s workhorse options, like burgers and chicken sandwiches.

Now comes the fourth tier of sliders, as (we) aficionados call the mini-burgers. Last year, with the phenomenal success of its Snack Wraps, McDonald’s demonstrated that deal shoppers would pop for a few cents more if the trade-up landed an even better bargain than the cheap eats on the dollar menu.

The mini sandwiches, which are often sold in packs, carry that strategy a step farther. McDonald’s Snack Wraps and the knock-offs that followed were all priced around $1.29. Burger King has priced its BK Burger Shots at $1.49, for a pack of two.

Jack in the Box is similarly selling its new Mini Sirloin Burgers in a three-pack.

McDonald’s Little Tasters are apparently sold one at a time. But they feature such premium touches as being served on a mini-ciabatta roll. The chain hasn’t revealed the pricing to those of us on this side of the pond.

Meanwhile, you have to wonder when Wendy’s will fire up a slider experiment of its own. The chain is certainly no stranger to minis. In the late 1980s, it tested a 2-oz. option called the Hot ‘n Junior. Might we see a reprise?

Mich. hospital's Rx for ill economy: New culinary slant

In Michigan, where unemployment has already topped 10%, chefs, culinary educators and a hospital are collaborating on a project the Obama Administration should unabashedly steal and duplicate. It creates jobs, bolsters health, provides a new career path for displaced blue-collar workers, and meets a demand that will undoubtedly soar as the Baby Boomers age. They’ve started the first culinary school that’s devoted to teaching students how to prepare healthy hospital fare.

This is no Birkenstock & Yogurt U. The center is an initiative of the Detroit area’s new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, which functions in part on the principle that food is essential to health. Left unasked is the question, Why doesn’t it get more attention from the healthcare industry?

The center, which is slated to open in March, will reportedly take such steps as providing healthy cooking classes to patients, with demos provided by chefs. The foodservice will be provided by local but nationally renowned restaurateur Matt Prentice. When I interviewed Prentice last year for a Nation’s Restaurant News story, he explained that he felt obliged to do something about healthcare feeding after a teenaged daughter was hospitalized. The food, he stressed, was abysmal.

Prentice told The Detroit News that his patient, staff and visitor feeding operations will feature organic and natural fare, without a fryer in the facility. He also noted that halal, kosher, gluten-free and vegetarian meals will be readily offered.

The News story notes that a culinary school, run in cooperation with Schoolcraft College in nearby Livonia, will be part of the 80-acre complex. “This will bring additional revenue to the area as students from across the country will come to spend a week learning about this new industry of healthy hospital food,” Gerard van Grinsven, the Ritz-Carlton Hotels alumnus who serves as Henry Ford CEO, told the News.

Other culinary schools might disagree, noting that their courses provided the know-how to provide healthy hospital fare. Many could likely cite alumni who now work in healthcare feeding.

But the Ford program may be the only one that focuses not only on hospital fare, but healthy hospital food.

And it’s certainly the only one that was conceived in part to help Michigan’s beat-down economy, where conditions have been recessionary since long before Washington, D.C., started thinking about bail-out packages.

It may be a much-needed bright spot in an otherwise grim situation.

BK is 'brandjacked'

The Twitter voice of Burger King, it turns out, was a fake. A wag named Caleb Kramer acknowledged on his blog today that he'd "brandjacked" the chain's kingly icon and posed as a true spokesperson for the fast-food giant through his posts as theBKlounge.

Full disclosure: I was one of the people who were taken in.

At least I wasn't alone. TheBKlounge has 1,500 people who "follow" it, or receive every message that is posted under that name. Often, the posts sounded as if they might've really come from BK's Miami headquarters. There was the cease-and-desist controversy, for instance, where theBKlounge sent a tongue-in-cheek notice to a Twitter denizen called WhopperVirgin to stop using that name. The MTV humor in the back-and-forth seemed to perfectly fit the off-beat approach BK has taken in its real marketing efforts.

In 'fessing up today, Kramer noted that he'd garnered press around the world. He explains how he familiarized himself with the brand's advertising and posted accordingly. Needless to say, it was a convincing performance.

What's left unanswered is why BK let him continue the ruse for two months. Maybe there was some behind-the-scenes communications with lawyers that Kramer has yet to disclose.

NYC's next food crusade: salt

Last fall, officials of the restaurant and food processing industries were invited by feared New York City health commissioner Thomas Frieden to a meeting about salt consumption. Or at least that’s all we keyboard jockeys were able to learn at the time. Frieden’s office would neither confirm nor deny that such a get-together was even happening, never mind the content. Nor would suspected participants acknowledge whether or not they were part of the confab. It was completely hush-hush, which of course usually means something big is developing.

Yesterday’s New York Times finally cleared up all of the mystery-- except why there was such intrigue in the first place. It also included the bombshell that restaurant-chain executives will be summoned to Gracie Mansion next month for another salt-focused luncheon.

The story recounted how Frieden told participants that he wanted them to cut the salt in their most popular and sodium-rich foods by 25% in the next five years, and by another quarter in the succeeding five years. As Frieden readily admitted to the Times, failure to heed the the “suggestion” could prompt the city to seek “legislation.”

The latter is in quotes because it usually signifies action by a legislature. But in New York’s case, Friedan has enacted restaurant-related laws by fiat. The city became the first municipality in the country to mandate calorie disclosures for all standard chain menu items, a requirement put on the books by the health department's decree. California, several Pacific Northwest counties and a number of municipalities have since copied that model--and sometimes the mode of enactment. Health departments have become lawmakers.

Frieden was also the instigator of the city’s trans-fat ban, another model for areas from coast to coast. This is not a man who poses idle threats.

That may be evident in the subsequent actions of several fast-food giants. Yum! Brands, the parent of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, noted last month that it’s cutting back on the sodium in its food. And Burger King said it’d switch to low-sodium items for its kids meals.

When Frieden convened the October luncheon, I was still at Nation’s Restaurant News, and we were able to confirm that restaurant-industry officials were part of the gathering. The February session will apparently include restaurant chiefs, not the association executives who were invited in the fall.

More weirdness from Burger King

Burger King's Twitter voice, theBKLounge, has just posted three cryptic indications that whoever pens the social media contributions may be passing the quill to a new author. Yet, taken another way, the messages could be a pssst that The King may be backing away from his figurehead duties, clearing the way for a new icon.

"The next King will be chosen by democratic means," says the most recent post. "The mask will be passed as well," says the one that proceeded it. "Tomorrow is the big day. I will begin the process of stepping down from the Twitter throne and preparing it for my heir."

This could be one of those instances where that mystery-speak makes sense to a younger person who adores The King. To those of us who find him sort of creepy, it's just puzzling.

Maybe the chain has decided that a wooden-faced, middle-aged king isn't the best icon to represent the chain within the popular social networking phenomenon. There is a King, Jr., after all.

A quick review of other fast-food chain icons: Wendy's, using the name 3conomics, features a Wendy with a monkey. Hardee's and Carl's Jr. both use their stylized names with the Famous Star logo. Taco Bell hasn't posted in so long that I suspect Gidget the Chihuahua spokes-dog might've been the image that was used.

In any case, The King says he'll clear up the mystery tomorrow. Be sure to watch CNN.

BK's newest weird promo

Burger King's latest viral marketing campaign seems to be a quiet tie-in with the new Steve Martin movie, "Pink Panther 2: Inspect the Unexpected." The chain is apparently giving away 30 pendants studded with diamonds and pink sapphires, though it's unclear how patrons can try to snag one. Indeed, the whole program seems tougher to figure out than Inspector Clousseau's English.

Twitterer OhThatLaura! asked BK's "voice" on the social networking site, TheBKLounge, if the rumored giveaway was real or cyber myth. TheBKLounge cited a blog post indicating that the promotion is being touted in a women's magazine.

As blogger Lisa Paladino suggested, even an advanced Google search doesn't turn up any info about the giveaway, which is supposed to run for a 30-day stretch beginning Sunday. But that's normal for these sorts of hush-hush campaigns. Indeed, a big part of their buzz seems to come from the secretiveness.

Oh, no--I'm a BK pawn again.