Word: balzers
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...this: Schwan's Home Service is offering Top Chef--branded frozen meals. The idea that hard-core fans who study contestants' knife skills every week would choose to order from a giant company that's been delivering frozen food to rural America for 57 years doesn't surprise Harry Balzer, who tracks food trends for the market-research firm NPD Group. "You're going to eat four to five times today, and the one thing I know you're going to do is try to get someone else to prepare those meals," he says, noting that after two decades...
...ordered all five of Schwan's Top Chef meals--which cost $10 to $12 each--and invited my friend Jonathan Karsh, a reality-show producer and an excellent home cook, to try them. The first thing we noticed was how right Balzer was about the way we embrace prepared meals. Several times I said I had better "start cooking" when I meant "start microwaving." I was able to open the boxes with a knife from the Top Chef cutlery set the show sent me and pair the food with a Top Chef--branded Quickfire cabernet sauvignon (which was surprisingly good...
...chief industry analyst Harry Balzer doesn't attribute the meal's increasing popularity to its social aspect, but to its promise of large quantities of food for a startlingly low price. "People are not going out without a deal, and brunch is the No. 1 deal," Balzer says. Nationwide, the average brunch eater's check is $6.48. (See the top 10 TV chefs...
...interesting subset of brunchers on the rise: men ages 21 to 34, a demographic associated more with late nights on the town than cheery mid-morning group meals. But even in the current era of Judd Apatow bromance movies, Balzer still believes the increase in bro-brunches (bronches?) stems from the desire to eat cheaply combined with a serious lack of skills in the kitchen...
...have been spending about 10% of their income on food for the past 25 years or so, rising prices do not mean people are eating less--they're just buying cheaper stuff. "We're seeing less meat and more pizza, sandwiches, Italian pasta and casserole-type dishes," says Harry Balzer, who tracks food trends for the NPD Group, a market-research firm. "The real change that occurred in the last bout of inflation was that one of the cheapest meats became more popular: chicken...