NRA Show Blog

Foodie delights at NRA Show 2011

 
By Caren Anderson, Contributing Blogger

This year’s National Restaurant Association, Hotel-Motel Show exhibit floor was filled with foods to delight a wide variety of show-goer tastes. Here is a list of the unique and delicious foods we saw trending on the Show floor.

NoOodles™

This calorie-free, fat-free, gluten-free and low carb noodle, made with high-fiber yam flour and water, keeps you fuller longer and slows absorption of glucose due to its high-fiber content, making it great for people with diabetes or on a diet. At Show, I tasted these slippery suckers Thai-style with tofu. Although tasteless, NoOodles fully absorbs any flavor you cook it with and aren’t a bad substitution for all the pasta I tend to enjoy!

Positive Spikes, Operator Optimism Prevalent at NRA Show 2011

 
By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief 

The 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, held May 21-24 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, and International Wine, Spirits and Beer Event (IWSB), held in conjunction with its big sib the NRA Show on May 22-23, showed positive spikes in attendee and exhibitor numbers. 

Increases in both numbers reflect the NRA Show’s position as the restaurant and hospitality industry's best place to source new products, services and information operators from all 50 states and more than 100 countries need to promote, grow and manage their business. 

“The growing energy and optimism of restaurant operators, dealers and distributors were tangible at this year's NRA Show," said C.W. Craig Reed, Convention Chair for NRA Show 2011 and Director of Food and Beverage, Broadmoor Hotel.

Reed added, “The business solutions and product innovations by our exhibitors, coupled with the inspiring ideas and broad expertise of our speakers, created an environment where attendees could find all the products, services and know-how they need to enhance their productivity and profitability. These tools, resources and insights will help the restaurant industry continue its economic recovery, which in turn will positively affect the nation's economy." 

ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston Introduced Sweet Things at NRA Show 2011

 
By Caren Anderson, Contributing Blogger

Lamb Weston (a brand of ConAgra Foods) showcased their Sweet Things® Mini Tater Puffs® at the 2011 National Restaurant Association, Hotel-Motel Show. A recipient of the first annual Food and Beverage Product Innovations Awards, which celebrate breakthroughs in consumable products, Sweet Things was a Show floor hit!

This past winter, ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin joined Lamb Weston President Jeff DeLapp and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to open ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston's new state-of-the art, environmentally friendly sweet potato processing plant in Delhi, La. Situated in a prime sweet potato growing region, the Delhi plant is uniquely equipped to process high-quality sweet potatoes, using cutting-edge proprietary processing and packaging technologies.

The plant produces products for the Sweet Things® line for foodservice, which includes sweet potato fries, and puffs, as well as mashed sweet potatoes. The plant also produces ALEXIA® retail grocery brand sweet potato products.

Top Chef's Tom Colicchio in his element at NRA Show 2011

 
By Nancy Kruse, Menu Trends Contributor

Tom Colicchio is not just another hot celebrity chef. In addition to his television presence, he’s busily building an empire. In fact, his stable of seven full-service and 15 quick-casual restaurants make him one of the select few restaurateurs to operate effectively across segments. 

He’s come a long way since he started working at age 13 as a short-order cook in a club in his native New Jersey. And he’s the first to tell you how critically important the long years of hands-on, in-the-trenches training have been to his current success. 

That’s why he was in his element on Sunday afternoon at the 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show as he interfaced with students enrolled in ProStart, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s nationwide two-year program that puts high-school students into foodservice kitchens. 

The great debate: are Yelp reviews a good or bad thing?

 
By Jennifer McLaughlin, Contributing Blogger

Ever had a bad review on Yelp? If you are anything like Chef Stefan Richter, “Top Chef” runner up and restaurateur, you may have lost sleep over negative Yelp reviews. With 50 million unique visitors each month, it is hard to ignore the influence of Yelp. It has turned the tables on how diners discover new places to eat and how restaurants operate. 

At today’s education session, 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show attendees listened to a lively discussion with Stefan Richter, Luther Lowe, director of business outreach for Yelp and moderator Corby Kummer, senior editor, The Atlantic.

As a business owner, Richter opened the discussion with his own personal experience with Yelp. “I just opened my restaurant in L.A., and the first three Yelp reviews were horrible. They hated the place. The food was bad. Service was bad. Everything was bad. And you start to think, how could this happen? I cook everyday, I buy the best ingredients—it can make your head spin.

NRA Show Daily Deals Program Proves Group Buying is Here to Stay

  
By Caren Anderson, Contributing Blogger

This year, the National Restaurant Association introduced the NRA Show Daily Deals program, the first global trade show-based group buying service at the 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, which served as a spring board to bring buyers and sellers even closer together at Show. Powered by Bizy, a Chicago-based business-to-business deal company, the NRA Show Daily Deals program allowed buyers to purchase deeply discounted deals online and fulfill them face-to-face with sellers on the exhibit floor.

The offers included products and services from several exhibitor categories, including equipment, food, technology, services and uniforms. Each NRA Show Deal of the Day represented a savings of 50 percent or greater on an item or package with an original value of at least $500. 

The Smoked Olive: A Hot New Product of 2011

 
By Caren Anderson, Contributing Blogger

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, smoke is on the list of 2011 food trends. This year at the National Restaurant Association Hotel-Motel Show, we discovered The Smoked Olive, a new olive oil that has been praised by celebrity chefs, specialty food buyers and food enthusiasts around the country.

The Smoked Olive is produced in Sonoma County, California by creators Brenda Chatelain and Al Hartman, who began with the freshest, high quality California olive oil. Their new process imparts real wood-smoked flavor to the oil without degrading the delicate extra-virgin olive oil.

 

Stefan Richter Improvises at World Culinary Showcase

 
By Caren Anderson, Contributing Blogger

Runner-up in the fifth season of ‘Top Chef,’ Stefan Richter showed off his skills under pressure at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show’s World Culinary Showcase. After all of his ingredients were lost on their way to the Show, Richter managed to create three amazing dishes, which were later judged by his audience.

“I was scavenging, I was everywhere,” says Stefan. “Richard Blais left asparagus and I went to all the booths on the floor.”

 

Digital Dining: Touchscreen Tablets Make Tableside Ordering Possible

By Amelia Levin, Contributing Blogger

You sit down to the table at a restaurant. You scroll through the menu on a touchscreen tablet. You key in your order, page your waiter when needed, and pay when ready to go. This is the service model of the future, at least in the eyes of many tablet-ordering companies popping up this year. Starting out in the bar and nightlife industry, this tableside ordering technology has made its way to the restaurant and foodservice arena with a glimpse of 21^st century digital dining.

Floored! stopped by the eTab booth #5656 to get a demo of the tablet.

Party on the Concourse: Gale Gand and the Foodie Flash Mob Dance

By Amelia Levin, Contributing Blogger 

Foodies and show goers donned bright green shirts labeled with the NRAEF’s ProStart program for high school students and gathered in the Grand Concourse for the second annual Foodie Flash Mob Dance to Pink’s “Raise Your Glass.” Led by Gale Gand, pastry queen and chef/partner of Tru in Chicago, the elaborate dance was choreographed by Austin Lim exclusively for the show.

Floored! caught up with Gale Gand to get her thoughts on this year's dance party.