Tweets? Flash mob? Food miles? If those sound like words from some secret code, you haven’t kept current on the foodservice vocabulary. The industry glossary is constantly evolving as the business adapts to forces like social media and the green movement.
But fear not: We’ll soon have you tweeting (posting on Twitter) all the latest phrases. You’ll be the hit of the TweetUps (real-life gatherings of Twitter users, like the one held yesterday on the Show floor), able to text all the fresh lingo as you bust a move at Tuesday’s Foodie Flash Mob (a mass gathering pulled together via social media for some silly activity, in this case to dance in unison to a Lady Gaga song).
Here are some of the phrases we’ve heard often enough at NRA Show 2010 to suspect they could become a part of the industry vernacular:
But fear not: We’ll soon have you tweeting (posting on Twitter) all the latest phrases. You’ll be the hit of the TweetUps (real-life gatherings of Twitter users, like the one held yesterday on the Show floor), able to text all the fresh lingo as you bust a move at Tuesday’s Foodie Flash Mob (a mass gathering pulled together via social media for some silly activity, in this case to dance in unison to a Lady Gaga song).
Here are some of the phrases we’ve heard often enough at NRA Show 2010 to suspect they could become a part of the industry vernacular:
- Food miles: Consumer demand for local foods has left the industry groping for a definition. Does “local” mean something from five miles away? 150 miles? Five hundred miles? Some restaurateurs and green experts prefer to gauge sourcing in terms of food miles, an evaluation that factors in the time a product travels from farm to fork as well as the distance. Since the goal is getting fresher fare, just-picked tomatoes shipped overnight from 200 miles away may represent fewer food miles than ones that were harvested a week ago on a farm in the next county.
- Source reduction: A considerable area of interest at the NRA Show was composting and recycling. Several expert speakers advised green-minded operators first to consider source reduction, or minimizing what comes into their restaurants from the get-go. By studying what goes into the trash, explained Andrew Shakman of LeanPath, a manager can spot servings that might be too large or items that aren’t being eaten. Cutting back saves money—and possibly landfill or commercial compost space. Such simple steps as using wooden toothpicks without plastic tassels can have an effect, since the fancier picks can’t be composted, noted Holly Elmore of Zero Waste Zones.
- Vermiculture: Sometimes flippantly called “worm wrangling,” the practice was mentioned by several speakers as a new but increasingly popular way of turning food waste into compost or improving the soil in kitchen gardens. Instead of relying merely on bacteria to do the job, chefs like Helen Cameron of Chicago’s Uncommon Ground are using worms to help with the breakdown of food scraps.
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