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A Newsletter for Foodservice Executives
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News, trends, science, design and tidbits that influence
food,
foodservice and foodservice equipment
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Where do Ideas
come from?
When
I meet with a new client for Ideas Well Done, I am invariably asked some
version of the title question - where do we get the next best, greatest
idea?
Like many thought-provoking questions, there are as many answers as there
are questioners and no one answer is right for everyone. I usually
answer with a question like: "what is your biggest problem?" or
"what is your best customer's biggest problem?" I try to
turn my prospect's thoughts away from looking for that one great idea and
toward observing what problems need to be solved. Someone once said that
problems are just opportunities in disguise.
As an illustration I offer the following story. I study great
people and their accomplishments and George Westinghouse is one of my
industrial heroes. He was a kind man and a brilliant inventor as
well as a pioneer of the industrial revolution; he changed the face of
the world we live in.
Pittsburgh was a transportation hub at the time Westinghouse moved there.
Railroads were expanding to meet the needs of the growing nation and
young George Westinghouse was looking to fund and found a manufacturing
business. He designed two devices: one to aid putting train cars
back on track after derailing and the "railroad frog" to assist
where two rail lines came together. Useful ideas but not world changing.
Westinghouse however had trained his mind to observe problems.
During the 1860's stopping a train was cumbersome, dangerous and
inefficient. Brakemen rode on top of train cars and when the
engineer signaled a stop, they would screw brakes against the powerful
metal wheels, then jump to the next car and repeat the process until all
cars were braked. It took up to two miles to stop a train. The
newspapers of the day reported many wrecks and fatalities.
Westinghouse was personally touched by a horrific crash in 1866 and
decided he needed to develop a solution; he gave himself the assignment
but didn't have an idea of how to accomplish it. He studied the problem
but a viable answer eluded him. Other engineers and inventors came up
with ideas for better braking systems but the carnage continued.
Meanwhile, trains were becoming longer and more powerful.
As so often happens, the answer came in a flash from an unexpected
source. Westinghouse was reading a scientific journal about a French
company that was building an eight-mile tunnel through the Alps. The
company had been using two new innovations: a hammer drill bit from an
English inventor and an air motor providing air to the drill from up to
3000 feet away, from an Italian inventor. Westinghouse knew that this was
the answer: applying brakes by air and braking all cars at once by
connecting them with air pressure. He used the two designs and patented
the railroad air brake system in 1869, which eventually was adopted by
the great railway companies and provided the foundation for Westinghouse
Corporation.
New ideas come from studying problems and often from unexpected sources.
It is why we visit international trade shows on a regular basis and why
we study areas outside food service. We think about problems and we
keep our eyes, ears and minds open to the solutions we will find in
different places.
Call us if you have a problem.
Mike Colburn
mcolburn@ideaswelldone.com
877-312-1706, ext 101
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Paris
Dining...
Fish
la Boissonnerie, 69 rue de Seine (phone 01 43 54 34 69). Owned by
the delightful New Zealander Drew Harre. Fun and captivating flavor
combinations, attentive staff, reservations highly recommended.
Outstanding wine list supplied by Drew's nearby wine store. Warm
bread from bakery at the original Cosi across the street.
Vegetarian options. Seared scallops with roasted chives,
caramelized endive in an orange/honey sauce - wow.
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Everyone here at Ideas Well Done wishes you a very happy holiday season.
We are thankful that you take a minute to view our newsletter and we
hope that we provide you with useful and entertaining information and
insight.
We wish you good health, resilient families and the
ability to make the best of these difficult times.
Mary Esther Treat
metreat@ideaswelldone.com
Mike
Colburn
______________________________________________________
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Equip'Hotel,
Paris
Equip'Hotel is a nice regional show. The
foodservice equipment portion of the show took us a few hours to
walk. We did not cover the entire show, having little interest in
bedding, bathroom fixtures, lighting and that sort of stuff, which took
up four or five large halls. As a comparison, it took us a good
three days to cover the foodservice equipment halls at the Milan Host
show last fall, where whole sections would be devoted to all the
manufacturers of slicers or combis. On the other hand, small
manufacturers from France and neighboring countries are more likely to
be seen at Equip'Hotel and we found some interesting ones.
Our favorite: a modular mobile cart by Rieber (Germany) that
could be joined to a second cart by placing a bridge
piece between them. The bridge could hold cooking equipment, like
a grill or induction hob, as could the cart itself. And the
cart's two compartments could be any combination of warm, cold or
hot. Very slick. You can see some of Rieber's products at www.rieber.de. The Hybrid Kitchen will be
available in January 2009 - similar products on the site are varithec
servo cuccina. They are not available in the US.
Second favorite was Magic Buffet (Belgium), a wonderful example of a good idea executed simply and
neatly. Magic Buffet holds 6 large trays inside a mobile box
equipped with eutectic plates that can be frozen and will keep food
below 40°F for up to ten hours. When you arrive at your catering
location,
you unlock the crate, lift the trays up (there's a hydraulic lift
incorporated), swing the trays out in different directions and you have
the equivalent of 23 linear feet of serving presentation space.
See it at http://www.magicbuffet.eu/uk/magicbuffet_accueil.html .
Granuldisk (Sweden)
uses small blue plastic beads (plus water and a small amount of
detergent) in their own potwashers to clean the dirtiest pots, pans and
utensils. The granules can be used for 2,500 cycles - the machine
keeps count. A new "combi" washer provides both dish
and pot/pan washing. It appears to be available in Canada, but
not the US. See the website www.granuldisk.com. I want one at home.
We're working on waste issues and were intrigued by ECP
Group's shredder/compacter (France). Their display at
the
show
had the usual kitchen waste products entering the machine, plus wooden
crates, tin cans, soda bottles. www.ecp-group.com
We're always intrigued by small cookers that produce easy to
prepare/easy to eat snack foods - a potential option for c-stores that
want to provide something unique. RoboQ is a compact barbeque that grills skewered meat, fish or
vegetable snacks in two minutes. It's simple - it switches on its
two IR heating elements when a skewer is inserted and off when the
grilling cycle is finished. The company offers their own
"bamboos" product line of snacks as well and is looking for
partnerships with large operators. www.roboq-europe.com. We've seen these in
Japan for years - maybe they'll make it to the US soon.
Sous-vide components are prominent at Equip'Hotel, as they were at Host
in Milan last fall. We saw a number of vacuum packaging units and
reheating systems. The Hybrid Kitchen mentioned above can handle
retherming sous-vide.
Silex (Germany)
has a conveyor fryer, SF-360 Fritex, that takes raw or frozen product,
sprays it with oil and cooks it using much less energy and oil than
traditional frying. The SF-360 Fritex uses 30 liters of oil
compared to the 400 liters used by a traditional vat fryer. The
company says it can produce 1000 pieces per hour. www.silex-de.com
Nayati (Indonesia) is
pushing hard to compete in Europe. They are able to produce
equipment at a much lower cost, even factoring in transportation.
Their new Gourmet Master
combi-steamer
has a cantilevered control panel (held away from the heat of the door -
see photo) that can hold 32 groups of products with 20 programs in each
group - a logical way to organize recipes. Gourmet Master has
automatic cleaning, automatically controlled humidity adjustment,
integrated grease extraction system. www.nayati-indonesia.com.
OEM (Italy) showed a nicely designed curved vent hood.
www.oemali.com
Vauconsant places tiny lights between pieces of glass shelving for
an eye-catching look. I couldn't find the shelves on their
website, however. www.vauconsant.com
At both trade
shows in Paris we saw Japanese food art being made at a booth -
beautiful delicate work.
In a few weeks
we'll tell you about what we saw at the food production equipment show
in Paris.
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Check
Please
A tip from a friend in France - if you want to check true currency
exchange rates, find out the price of a McDonald's hamburger in each
country.
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Please forward this newsletter to anyone who would be
interested in
foodservice equipment design, development and invention.
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