Word: chefs
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JACQUES PEPIN has more than enough credentials to assess the role of Ray Kroc and McDonald's. But he turned out to be a better choice than we initially thought. Not only is Pepin a great chef, food writer and TV host on PBS (Jacques Pepin's Kitchen: Cooking with Claudine), but early in his career he learned about American cuisine by working for Howard Johnson's, thus becoming a veteran of the fast-food wars...
Among the army of burger flippers at work across America in the 1960s was a French chef putting his training to use at Howard Johnson's on Queens Boulevard in New York City. I worked for HoJo's from the summer of 1960 to the spring of 1970, doing my American apprenticeship, learning about mass production and marketing. The company had been started in 1925 in Massachusetts by Howard Deering Johnson, and by the mid-1960s its sales exceeded that of Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's combined. There would be more than 1,000 Howard Johnson restaurants...
That the new chef has come from Mistral is less than shocking. The food is not aiming for haute cuisine, but it is far from simple. The new Harvest menu rests in the trendy nexus of haute comfort food, with such offerings as "Fried Green Tomatoes with Peeky Toe Crab and Spicy Cucumber Louis Sauce ($13)." Fried green tomatoes, sure, yet peeky-toe crab radically changes the complexion of the dish. Foie gras from Hudson Valley is another appetizer, toned down into a 'sandwich' on homemade brioche with pancetta and dried cherries ($14). Alternatively, a dish enigmatically billed as "Pumpkin...
Finally the first rodizio waiter came to our table, offering a skewer of beef. It's described on the menu as "Top Butt Sirloin--Chef Exclusive grade!" in fact. Um, how appetizing. Certainly better than a mediocre cut of butt, I suppose. However, the beef was disappointingly dry and fairly bland. Barbecuing usually gives meats a rich smoky flavor, but this was sadly not the case here. Still, the quality was not consistent across meat lines. The barbecued lamb and pork did have more flavor. And standout was the linguica sausage, which distinguished itself as the best of the skewers...
...great managers today are switching companies more often. Buying a stock for its management has become a bit like picking a restaurant for its chef. You need to check in once in a while to make sure old Pierre is still there--and that he isn't suddenly trying to cook Chinese. Here are four questions to ask when reviewing the management menu...