Tag Archives: Mammoth Burger

Bill Murray charms them in Manhattan (Kansas)

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A gentleman  (and a lady) is someone who never makes someone else feel uncomfortable. That’s what cool is. Not what music you listen too, not what clothes you wear, Not who’s the most popular. … But the person who looks you in the eye, who’s always there, that’s the person you’ll remember from high school.

That was the message actor Bill Murray delivered to Manhattan High School students, alumni and hangers-on like me and Amy in between the girls and boys basketball games tonight.

Murray was in town to pay homage to former Manhattan High School attendee Del Close, who was inducted along with three others to the MHS wall of fame tonight. Close was regarded as a founder of improvisational comedy favored by Chicago’s Second City, where he mentored a long list of Saturday Night Live alumni, including Bill Murray. The night before Close died in 1999, he held a live wake in his hospital room and declared he was tired of being the funniest person in the room. He bequeathed his skull to the Goodman theatre for a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Alas, poor Yorick, I hardly knew thee).

Murray was charming, heartfelt and funny as he paid homage to his late friend, and to the town of Manhattan (Kansas). His brother, Brian Doyle-Murray apparently lives in Manhattan (Kansas), although he’s in California working on a film, and there are stories of annual Murray brother sightings around town. Ask Kyle.

Afterwards, while Bill graciously talked to the locals, I got a chance to give him a barfblog and French Don’t Eat Poop T-shirt. He seemed amused (left).

Anyone who’s been here knows Manhattan (Kansas) really is in the middle of nowhere and really is in the middle of the contiguous 48 states. It’s not easy to get here. So yeah to Bill Murray.

Safe Food Cafe – Tailgating Tips

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This video comes from November when the iFSN checked out the food practices performed at a K-State tailgate. Our team didn’t win, but it was great to discuss food safety topics with serious grillers and sometimes, serious drinkers.

Best wishes to the University of Kansas — not Kansas State — which is playing in the Orange Bowl tonight in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, against Virginia Tech. It was a magical season for the Kansas Jayhawks until they met that other Big 12 powerhouse, Missouri.

And for you crazy, KU kids frolicking in the Florida sun, use a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer when sticking it in. Always.

Fatz Caf?: continuous training and reinforcement to establish a culture of food safety

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Chain Leader magazine reports that new kitchen employees at Fatz Café in South Carolina take a food-safety pre-test and must receive an 80 percent or higher before they can begin training. Workers take another practice quiz, then a final food-safety test. The company also promotes quarterly initiatives on food-safety topics that are discussed at the monthly operator-partner meetings. Handouts and new training tools are sent via mail and e-mail, and presented during pre-shift meetings.

Director of Training Sara Anderson said,

"We were already doing ServSafe [the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s food-safety training program] with our management, but we wanted to make sure that it was truly getting down to the front lines. …

"We really had to start marketing to them to get the buy-in on the importance of it. These habits take time to form. Educating people on why it’s so important has really helped make it happen and make it become real-life practices. We just keep adding more and more aspects of it. It’s become a part of our culture more than it ever was. … We’re sticking to basics and constantly talking about it."

Food safety information must be rapid, reliable, relevant and repeated. And to really create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, start marketing such efforts.

Meet iFSN: Amy Hubbell

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Salut! I’m Amy, a French professor gone food safety geek. I love to learn about food safety practices in different cultures, and watch how they play out on reality TV. No wonder why Doug’s converting our kitchen into the Safe Food Café. Although I’m more known for my blog posts on lait cru (raw milk) camembert and doggy dining, I write on exile and nostalgia in French autobiography for a living.
 
Ne mangez pas de caca, et donnez ce que vous pouvez pour soutenir l’iFSN.

(translation: don’t eat poop, and give what you can to support iFSN)

Emeril cancelled

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The New York Times reports that Emeril Live taped it’s last show on the Food Network and laid off a half-dozen staff members, bringing an end to an impressive 11-year, every-weeknight run.

The story says that viewers will not see a difference for at least a year as the new episodes that have already been taped are shown. But industry executives are scratching their heads over why the network canceled “Emeril Live” — which they speculate became too expensive for its softening ratings — without having a new deal in place, given the role that his program played in the network’s success.

I don’t really care. Cooking shows have the spontaneity and creativity of line dancing. And the hosts all seem to practice terrible food safety. A food safety error every 4.5 minutes.

Conspiracy alert: Safe almonds are part of big food agenda

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After two salmonella outbreaks in 2001 and 2004 were traced to almonds from California farms, the Almond Board of California, the marketing agency for California’s largest tree crop, decided to push for a regulation requiring nearly all almonds grown in the United States to go through a pasteurization process before they are passed on to consumers.

The new regulation applies to growers who sell more than 100 pounds per day to an entity, typically retailers and restaurants. Generally, farmer’s markets and roadside stands will remain unaffected.

That exception is not enogh for some folks.  Vinicio Penate says that eating a raw almond is like eating the almond tree, stating,,

"All that strength, all that force, all that information, all the genetics. They’re all there. They’re just untouched."

Jean Chevalier of Taber Ranch in Yolo, whose almonds will now be pasteurized, called the regulation ridiculous, adding,

"I eat ’em raw right out of the field. I still have both legs and I’m not sick."

Judith Redmond, owner of Full Belly Farms in Capay Valley, who has grown organic almonds since 1985, said,

"The mode of industrial agriculture is that instead of addressing the cause, they deal with the problems.”

Apparently the cause is being a farm larger than an acre. And while we’re all delighted to know that Chevalier still has both legs, those who have barfed on almonds in the past may prefer the pasteurization approach.

Almond board spokeswoman Marsha Venable said,

 "As an industry, we have our consumer’s health and safety in mind."

Should homemade snacks be banned from schools?

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The Glamorgan Gazette reports that Mynydd Cynffig Junior School in Wales has banned home-made cakes and biscuits from its Christmas fair to protect pupils’ health and safety, following the 2005 E. coli outbreak, and fears that ingredients could trigger pupils’ allergies.

The Welsh Assembly Government issued a ban on the sale of home-made products in schools in areas affected during the E. coli outbreak, but this guideline was withdrawn when the outbreak was over.

Neil Davies, headteacher of Mynydd Cynffig Juniors, said the school had made its decision to protect pupils, and the school had not received any complaints from parents or grandparents.

“I have got to guarantee the health and safety of the pupils. I’m not doing it to upset anybody.”

As we wrote a couple of years ago, food safety isn’t a game, but having the health umpires around to make sure things are running smoothly isn’t a bad thing.

List season begins: Top 10 food trends for 2008

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Mintel has kicked off the top-10 list season with its predicted food trends for 2008:

1. Clean labels: Clean labels — ingredient labels that read like a home recipe.

2. Transparency throughout the system — where ingredients come from, how they are manufactured and how they are packaged.

3. Junk-free foods —  additives, preservatives, colors, flavors or otherwise unknown ingredients listed on food labels.

4. Salt, a positive and a negative — sea salt rather than mineral salt, and "place" salts, like Hawaiian red clay salt.

5. Faux genomics — products designed to be consumed all at once, like a supplement, and deliver a very specific single benefit will become increasingly popular.

6. Experiential shopping –more in-store dining, warmer lighting and familiar display fixtures at the supermarket.

7. Carbon footprint — manufacturers will start discussing their company-wide environmental initiatives instead of just focusing on the carbon footprint of a particular product.

8. Fairtrade expansion — more Fairtrade and Fairtrade-certified products appearing in the United States, Latin America and Asia.

9. Ancient and sacred grains — such as amaranth and quinoa moving from niche markets to mainstream.

10. Bottled water backlash — consumers will become more aware of the environmental impact of shipping water from remote locations to local supermarkets.

Repeat restaurant offenders? Open by breakfast

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Nashville, Tennessee’s News Channel 5 reviewed state restaurant inspection results and discovered that some of the dirtiest eateries get written up over and over.

The news team ended up at the Jade Dragon in Clarksville,

one of the worst offenders around when it comes to dirty kitchens; in the last two years, the Jade Dragon has repeatedly failed its surprise inspections, getting scores as low as a 58, 52, even a 47.

The manager told us, "Everything’s clean."

The TV crew poked around and discovered what appeared to be many of the same violations the joint had been cited for previously.

Eventually the manager of the Jade Dragon asked, while the cameras rolled,

"Can we get everything stopped? I don’t want to be on TV at all."

Hugh Atkins with the state Health Department was quoted as saying,

"We don’t allow an unsafe restaurant to remain open," and that if a restaurant is open, it’s safe.

Ronnie Hart with the Tennessee Restaurant Association said,

"The bottom line is fix the problem. You can’t put a band-aid on it. Fix the problem," adding that his group has little patient for repeat offenders and is now pushing for mandatory food safety training.

We agree.

The Amazing Race: Who’s ready to work up a thirst?

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On the Amazing Race tonight, the teams traveled to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where their challenge was to milk a camel and then drink a bowl full of raw camel milk. I was anxious to see if any of the teams would reject the challenge, as it can be a health risk. Yet, the only risks they were worried about were getting stepped on, the flies, the bugs, and the smell related to the warm milk. One of the contestants simply flipped out.

The first to finish, TK, said he had some trouble getting the milk down, “It was a little grainy. A little sweet and a little warm.”