Eating & Drinking

Satisfy your cravings with our Eating & Drinking category for Los Angeles. Discover the best restaurants, bars, and cafes in the city, and stay updated with the latest news and trends in the food and beverage industry.

Vegas Loves Rum! Renowned premium rum brand Flor de Caña Rum honored with “Environmental Initiatives Award” at the 2024 SEAL Awards

Vegas Loves Rum! Renowned premium rum brand Flor de Caña Rum honored with “Environmental Initiatives Award” at the 2024 SEAL Awards

Flor de Caña, the renowned premium rum brand celebrated for its exceptional quality and unwavering commitment to sustainability, is proud to announce that it has been honored with the “Environmental Initiatives Award” from the prestigious SEAL Awards in the United States.


FlavRReport.com on YouTube

FlavRReport.com on YouTube


This recognition highlights Flor de Caña’s leadership in championing environmental stewardship and fostering a greener and more sustainable future.

The SEAL Awards is a global, multi-industry platform that showcases trailblazing companies that demonstrate measurable contributions to sustainability and spearhead innovative initiatives with positive environmental impacts.

Flor de Caña’s carbon neutral certification, the planting of one million trees since 2005, and its use of 100% renewable energy to distill its rum have been pivotal in earning this esteemed accolade.

Flor de Caña is a fifth-generation, family-owned brand and the world’s first carbon neutral and Fair Trade certified spirit.

It has garnered international acclaim for its award-winning portfolio of premium rums from Nicaragua, aged naturally in bourbon barrels without the addition of sugar or artificial ingredients.

Notably, Flor de Caña’s 12 year-old, 18 year-old, and 25 year-old rums stand out for their distinctive flavor profiles and exceptionally smooth finish, exemplifying the brand’s commitment to excellence.

About Flor de Caña
Flor de Caña is a premium rum brand and the world’s first Carbon Neutral and Fair Trade certified spirit.

From an 1890 family-owned estate, it’s distilled with 100% renewable energy and naturally aged at the base of an active volcano without sugar or artificial ingredients.

The brand is recognized as a global leader in sustainability, receiving distinctions such as “World’s Most Sustainable Rum Brand” (USA), “Ethical Award” (UK) and “Sustainable Spirits Producer” (France). www.flordecana.com

What Does Paris Order in Vegas! Paris Hilton Brings Back The Cosmo with new Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection

What Does Paris Order in Vegas! Paris Hilton Brings Back The Cosmo with new Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection

Absolut is officially announcing its brand partnership with artist and businesswoman Paris Hilton and her next-gen media company, 11:11 Media, as two icons bring back the Cosmo in culture through a new drinkware line, music and events.

Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection

Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection

As the Official Vodka of Coachella, Absolut and Paris gave fans an easter egg of the collaboration at the ultimate mixing grounds with her surprise appearance at the Absolut.LAND activation, and now, the Sliving Cosmo festival serve is getting a new drinkware glow up to enhance everyday happy hours.

Introducing the Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection – an all-new blush pink Cosmo-inspired drinkware line available exclusively on Amazon starting today.


FlavRReport.com on YouTube

FlavRReport.com on YouTube


Building on Paris’ best-selling cookware line, the collection marks Paris’ first foray into drinkware that includes three styles of short-stemmed, hand-blown martini glasses available in a set of two ($29), as well as an insulated pink cocktail shaker with gold accents and a gold jigger ($25).

“From teaming up with Absolut

for my first live show last summer

through personal celebrations and professional events

this year, I’m so excited to announce my new drinkware line

designed to be enjoyed with an Absolut Cosmo,”

Paris Hilton

CEO of 11:11 Media

“Let’s live our best life this summer by bringing the Cosmo back – whether entertaining at home or at one of my upcoming shows.”

Crafted using Absolut Citron with its fresh, real citrus flavor, the Absolut Cosmo is a light and refreshing cocktail that can be sipped casually at home, yet sophisticated enough to be at the center of any event.

 

Absolut Citron is part of the history and culture of the Cosmo going back to the ’80s, and now decades later, this cocktail continues to be an icon. While you can make the Cosmo with different flavors of Absolut like Wild Berri or Watermelon as a versatile cocktail, the classic is made with Absolut Citron.

“The Absolut Cosmo is an iconic cocktail for a reason, and with its latest resurgence, we’re thrilled to be partnered with Paris Hilton to bring the timeless allure of the cocktail to life through this new drinkware collection,” said Matt Foley, VP of Marketing, Absolut. “As a brand born to mix, Absolut looks forward to bringing people together this summer over Cosmo-inspired celebrations.”

To purchase the Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection and learn more about Cosmo recipes, please visit www.absolut.com/en-us/Cosmo and follow @AbsolutUS.

ABSOLUT SLIVING COSMO
1 1/2 Parts Absolut Citron
3/4 Part Triple Sec
3/4 Part Cranberry Juice
3/4 Part Lime
Garnish with orange twist
Fill a shaker with ice cubes. Add all ingredients. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. ABSOLUT® VODKA. PRODUCT OF SWEDEN. 40% ALC./VOL. DISTILLED FROM GRAIN. ©2024 IMPORTED BY ABSOLUT SPIRITS CO., NEW YORK, NY.

ABOUT PERNOD RICARD USA
Pernod Ricard USA is the premium spirits and wine company in the U.S., and the largest subsidiary of Paris, France-based Pernod Ricard SA., the world’s second largest spirits and wine company.

Pernod Ricard employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI) and is part of the CAC 40 index.

The company’s leading spirits include such prestigious brands as Absolut Vodka, Avión Tequila, Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlúa Liqueur, Malibu, Martell Cognac, Olmeca Altos Tequila, Beefeater Gin, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Código Tequila, Monkey 47 Gin, Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin, Malfy Gin, Hiram Walker Liqueurs, Midleton Irish Whiskey, Redbreast Irish Whiskey, Aberlour Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Lillet, Jefferson’s Bourbon, TX Whiskey, Smooth Ambler Whiskey, Rabbit Hole Whiskey, Pernod and Ricard; such superior wines as Jacob’s Creek, Kenwood Vineyards, Campo Viejo and Brancott Estate; and such exquisite champagnes and sparkling wines as Perrier-Jouët Champagne, G.H. Mumm Champagne and Mumm Napa sparkling wines.

Pernod Ricard USA is headquartered in New York, New York, and has more than 1,000 employees across the country.

As “creators of conviviality,” we are committed to sustainable and responsible business practices in service of our customers, consumers, employees and the planet. Pernod Ricard USA urges all adults to consume its products responsibly and has an active program to promote responsible drinking.

For more information, visit: www.pernod-ricard-usa.com.

ABOUT 11:11 MEDIA
11:11 Media is a global, next-gen entertainment company at the center of pop culture – connecting content, community, and commerce – founded by Paris Hilton and entertainment industry veteran Bruce Gersh in 2021.

The company spans a broad array of businesses including film, TV, audio, music, books, consumer products, digital and web3, with passion points around lifestyle, fashion, beauty, wellness, art, travel and more. Elevating brands, building communities, and driving social impact through the power of storytelling, experiences, and products is the core mission of 11:11 Media.

 

“Exhilarating and Breathtaking” Eve Bushman Covers Riesling in Germany’s Mosel Region

“Exhilarating and Breathtaking” Eve Bushman Covers Riesling in Germany’s Mosel Region

I found myself describing the experience as both exhilarating and breathtaking, and these two words have now taken on a new meaning for me, probably forever. Raimund added to my thoughts when he said that here, we “always sit in the green.” 

Middle Mosel, aka Mittelmosel, wine region of Germany

Middle Mosel, aka Mittelmosel, wine region of Germany / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

Have you been to the Middle Mosel, aka Mittelmosel, wine region of Germany? I had learned about the area, saw photos of the steep vineyards and their ancient stone sundials dating back hundreds of years, during a tasting with Raimund Prum from S.A. Pruem many years ago. Fast forward to this year, and we planned our first trip there, where we stayed at the S.A. Pruem guesthouse and visited with Raimund again! We also toured and tasted with Eifel-Pfieffer, C.A. Immich-Batterieberg, Villa Huesgen and Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler.

A sundial in their vineyards

A sundial in their vineyards / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

Know before you go: Rieslings are not all sweet! They range from bone dry to sweet. And though “Riesling is King” in the Mosel we enjoyed sparkling wines and rose, as well as Pinot Noir during our tastings. Not all wineries are in Bernkastel-Kues, many are in towns all roughly within 30 minutes of each other. 

Wineries to Tour and Taste

S.A. Pruem: We must start with this winery as they are the reason we traveled to the Mosel for wine. I had met Raimund Prum in 2013 when he led a class for Ian Blackburn of Learn About Wine. Fast forward to this past May 2024, when I finally got to see Raimund again – this time at his home and winery. Raimund inherited the 800-year-old family winery in 1971 and has “expanded from 8.6 acres to 27.9 acres.” 

His family had used money that they made from their apple farms to fund their wine growing business. Back in those days 100% of the people living in the area worked in the wine industry according to Raimund. Nowadays young people may leave, but they come back.  

Raimund is a busy man, representing the winery almost all over the world. But he doesn’t do this alone. Raimund’s wife Pirjo, a WSET Diploma graduate, represents the brand in U.S. and Finland. Saskia, their oldest daughter, took over as the owner in 2017.

They produce many still and sparkling wines, from dry to sweet Rieslings to Rose of Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines. I had the opportunity to try most and had a hard time not finishing every sample that was offered. And though other places in the world make Riesling, Raimund said that the “character of the wine is different here” which began over 2,000 years ago by the Romans. (Many Roman pressing stations have been found along the Mosel.)  

Weingut Eifel-Pfeiffer

Weingut Eifel-Pfeiffer / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

During the days we visited we had many opportunities to talk, but at our appointed time for our interview Raimund took us on a drive to the top of one of his vineyards, and it happened to be the oldest one that also is famous for its sundial. His tallest vineyards are 336 meters high, and the Mosel River is at 136. The ground is a combination of lush earth, wildflowers, and different types of slate rock – the rock in particular adds to the minerality found in the wines.

mother and daughter Tanja Gorgen-Eifel and Mia-Katharina Gorgen. 

Mother and daughter Tanja Gorgen-Eifel and Mia-Katharina Gorgen from award-winning Weingut Eifel-Pfeiffer.  Photo credit: Ed Bushman

Eifel-Pfieffer: Did you know that award-winning Weingut Eifel-Pfeiffer has been in the same family since 1642, and is currently worked by three generations? We had a fabulous tour and tasting with mother and daughter Tanja Gorgen-Eifel and Mia-Katharina Gorgen

We also learned that they only produce Riesling wines, have the coveted 1A rating which means that some of their vineyards are considered the best in the area, motivated Romanians work the steep vineyards, rainfall can’t always be counted on as it changes from year to year, and they have a total of 10 hectares over 30 kilometers in the Middle Mosel. 

Their low-alcohol, not-overly-sweet, fresh, and mildly acidic wines are made from single vineyards – and also a blend of different vineyards that are only from the same area. Riesling “show character of each vineyard that you can really taste in the wine…the structure, minerality and acid” according to mother and daughter. 

There are less winemakers now than there used to be: several of the smaller wineries have been absorbed by the larger ones as it’s been noted over time that it’s too cost prohibitive to run a small one-hectare winery.

2021 Mia from Trittenheimer Altarchen

2021 Mia from Trittenheimer Altarchen / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

These Rieslings pair well with all types of food – German, Indian, Chinese to name a few – and China just might be the largest importer of Eifel-Pfieffer wines. I was super impressed with all of their wines, from dry to sweet, but must give a special nod to a 1990 vintage from Trittenheimer Apotheke and the 2021 Mia (made by Mia while she finishes up winemaking school) from Trittenheimer Altarchen

Immich Batterieberg

Immich Batterieberg wine roster / photo credit: Ed Bushamn

Immich-Batterieberg: This time we had the opportunity to sit down and taste with winemaker Gernot Kollmann while learning all about Immich Batterieberg. Let me just start by saying we liked every wine that Gernot opened for us. Most were very dry, all are organic, and 96% of the wines that they make are Rieslings. 

Immich-Batterieberg where we were able to sit down with winemaker Gernot Kollmann

Immich-Batterieberg where we were able to sit down with winemaker Gernot Kollmann / photo credit: Ed Bushman

What makes them special: they are the largest owner of old and ungrafted vineyards in the Mosel, all rocky and steep, and the winery dates back to 1425.  

Seventy-eight percent of the 80k bottles they produce a year is exported to Japan, Italy, U.S., Switzerland, and the U.K. They receive top scores from Suckling and Parker, and those top-scoring wines sell out quickly.

The wines are a perfect example of the trend toward dry white wines (which means not sweet) and the continual production of lower alcohol wines.

Pic credit: Ed Bushman 

Villa Huesgen: If you are looking for a grand tasting experience, Villa Huesgen is it. Of course, if you have the opportunity to be charmed by Adolph Huesgen VIII himself, then it’s even more special. Adolph’s wine curriculum vitae is almost as interesting as the winery alone! He regaled us in stories of his many collaborations (from Australia to South Africa), work in wineries in California (he started his career at Robert Mondavi as the European sales director with Michael Mondavi) and what he and his family have currently achieved (sparkling, still, rose in the original blue bottles Riesling were first made in) at Villa Huesgen. 

Adolph Huesgen VIII

Adolph Huesgen VIII / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

The Huesgen family established the vineyard nine generations before, in 1735. The art nouveau-styled estate was built in 1904. They grow Riesling and Burgundy grapes, currently have their first block of Chardonnay in barrels and make more dry than sweet wines. They import to 35 countries.

We tasted ten wines, one of which recently was listed as one of the top nine Rieslings in the world by the Robb Report April 2024. We would have a hard time not liking any Villa Huesgen wines.

Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler

Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler: This estate is right in the popular part of Bernkastel-Kues, and just adds to the beautiful Mosel landscape. We were greeted by Stefan Pauly, who led us on a tour of the building and the many tasting areas for their guests. As this was the last tour of our trip, we “drank it up” for the history, and of course, the wines. We tasted many Rieslings, and even a beautifully made Eiswein, and were thrilled to discover that our local Total Wine stores has the exclusive label, Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler, and it’s very reasonably priced though it sells out every year. (Made a mental note to go there as soon as we get home!) 

Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler

Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler // Photo credit: Ed Bushman

We learned that the winery was founded in 1556, they own 22 kilometers of vineyard along the Mosel, and they even offer an alcohol-free wine. One of the tasting areas we saw had a slight walkable ramp and was large enough to “seat a whole boat” of tourists that preferred not to climb up or down ancient steps for a wine tasting.

Stefan Pauly for Dr. Pauly Bergweiler wine estate

Stefan Pauly for Dr. Pauly Bergweiler wine estate / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

When to Visit

We happened to be in Bernkastel-Kues area of the Middle Mosel during Open Wine Cellar Days, which this year began on Germany’s Father’s Day. The holiday and the multi-day event brought many German tourists to the area, which added to the trip for us to “pick up some local color” so to speak. The event shows off many wineries not just during the day for tastings but also for night for tastings, meals, and live music. We chose to stay at the guest house at one winery, S.A. Preum, which made it even more convenient to walk over each night. We have been told that there are always wine festivals, so I highly recommend that you look at the calendar for these before planning your trip.

Raimund Pruem from Weingut S.A. Pruem

Raimund Pruem from Weingut S.A. Pruem / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

We got to Bernkastel-Kues from the Frankfurt airport, we rented a car and enjoyed the easy freeway routes and arrived just under two hours. We went in May, as we tend to pick times of the year when tourist areas are less crowded with summer travelers.

Bernkastel-Kues city

Bernkastel-Kues area / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

Besides wine tasting many tourists rent bicycles and e-bikes, tour on motorcycles, rowboat, parasail, take a boat tour and hike the vineyards. It’s a very walkable area in town with many wine bars, brew pubs, restaurants, and shops along the cobblestone streets. In other parts of the Mosel River, you can find sandy beaches and even water skiing.

Gastehaus at Prum

Gastehaus at Prum / Photo credit: Ed Bushman

There are many hotels along the Mosel River, we chose to stay in a suite at the Gastehaus at Prum and we would definitely return. Beautiful accommodations, locally sourced breakfast, and of course wine! 

 Find on Instagram: @VisitMosel @EifelPfieffer @ImmichBatterieberg @VillaHuesgen1735 @Weingut_PaulyBergweiler @S.A.Pruem

Eve Bushman has a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a “certification in the first globally-recognized course” as an American Wine Specialist ® from the North American Sommelier Association (NASA), Level 1 Sake Award from WSET, was the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video (over 16k views), authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and has served as a judge for the Proof Awards, Cellarmasters, LA Wine Competition, Long Beach Grand Cru and the Global Wine Awards. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits.

 

Ordering Chinese food in Vegas? Hungry Panda want to Help

Ordering Chinese food in Los Angeles? Hungry Panda want to Help

Leveraging their industry-leading delivery services, the Hungry Panda app seamlessly connects food, people and culture.

Hungry Panda goes further with Chinese Food  in Vegas

The ‘Golden Panda Award’ is a symbol of excellence in the global overseas Chinese food industry, setting the highest standard for culinary achievement.

It stands as the world’s exclusive international honor specifically dedicated to recognizing restaurant businesses in the food delivery sector. This prestigious award embodies commitment to promoting and celebrating outstanding achievements in the realm of international Chinese cuisine.

Kitty Liu from HungryPanda

Kitty Liu from Hungry Panda

Joe Winger: 

We are here today with Kitty Liu from HungryPanda

Help me get to know HungryPanda.com 

Kitty Liu: 

Hungry Panda serves a niche market for Asian communities.  We were established in 2017, founded in the UK when our CEO and the founding team were studying in Nottingham University.

The platform was born from a very simple, but compelling need experienced first hand, by the founders as international students, struggling to find authentic Chinese food in the UK. 

From that outset, Hungry Panda started to really focus sharply on that particular niche market, tailoring our user experience with Chinese interfaces to overcome culture and language barriers.

That’s how our app got started.  We are very lucky enough to be growing really fast within the past six years. 

Now we expanded into 10 different countries, including: US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Hungry Panda

Joe Winger: 

Different cultures, maybe different ways people use their phones, different apps.

What challenges has Hungry Panda faced as you enter the very competitive North America market?

Kitty Liu:

Local regulatory requirements that we need to meet.  Every country, every region has different regulations, and especially with food delivery.  

The U.S. is actually coming out with all the new regulations lately, therefore that’s one of the challenges as well.

Also intense competition from established local and global brands. 

When we entered the North American market, Door Dash, Uber, the giants, had already occupied the mass market.  In the Asian food delivery market, we also have competitors like, Chow Bus and others.

Obviously we were the new brand going to the market. 

Therefore, that’s the main challenge that we faced. But, we were actually quite confident and, lucky enough because we have a very good team structure. All of our team members have experience opening markets in different countries.

So unlike Uber or DoorDash, when they are opening a new market, for example, North American market and Australian market is very different. People have different consumer behavior. But for us the good thing is, although we are in different countries, we are serving the same type of people, which is the  overseas Asian customers, therefore the consumer behavior is rather similar.

Although we have the challenge, it’s easier for us to actually dive in and then adapt in a rapid rhythm.

HungryPanda

HungryPanda

Joe Winger:

Is North America the toughest audience when it comes to regulations?

Kitty Liu: 

With regulations, we’re talking more towards the drivers, how do we protect them?

Obviously there are minimum standards. Because what we call the “gig economy” is still considered a new industry, no matter what part of the world.  

North America, Australia, the UK, all the countries are coming out with new regulations to actually protect this particular industry.

We are all at the same stage, growing from a new industry to a more mature industry.

Joe Winger: 

Your company released a food trends report from 2023.  What’s the biggest takeaway? 

Kitty Liu: 

Consumer interest in the authenticity and quality in food.  

When you talk about Chinese food in North America or  the UK, the first thing you think of is actually Cantonese food because [it] arrived first.

Now we can see all the hot Sichuan hot pots and malatang, all these are more modern and, trendy or more northern cuisine start to really get in the picture. popularity. 

This is something that’s blowing our mind as well.

It’s a strong signal to the food industry to really focus on the authenticity, offering high quality ingredients. This is something I think is actually quite interesting.

Joe Winger: 

Talking about trends, anything was surprising?

Kitty Liu: 

The most popular category is definitely Boba tea.  Now, as.

As we can see the hot pot, stuff actually, coming on top of, all this fried chicken, bubble tea and stuff. That suggests our local consumers start to really adapt into a more authentic flavor Chinese food instead of people always ordering honey chicken, spring side pork. 

They learn to really understand, oh, that’s you know, Chinese people eat in China, they really start to learn and understand and admire about the spice actually in the food.

This is something actually I find quite interesting.

Joe Winger: 

That’s really a big change. 

Based on your 2023 report, any predictions for 2024?

Kitty Liu: 

The rise in the family demands, so AOV ( average order value) keeps growing. Food delivery is not growing accommodating only for one person, two person, but it’s starting to expand, for more towards a family’s demands. 

We can anticipate the age group that actually accepting or keep using the food delivery services actually start to grow and expand as well. 

Also predicting new services for delivery companies. We can actually see the trend that many people start to order.

Pick up orders  from the app and you can go straight to the restaurant to pick it up without waiting.  It’s helps you jump the queue.

When you order a pickup it’s actually cheaper than ordering at the shop itself.

 Therefore, this is actually one of the trends that we can see. It’s actually start to grow.

Joe Winger: 

How do your users want the experience to go for them?

 

Kitty Liu:

During the pandemic, everything had to be contactless. Therefore the pickup feature was actually created during that period and blossomed afterwards.

Joe Winger: 

Now you just mentioned the pandemic. Your company learned a lot from that experience, like how much packaging matters. 

Can you talk a little bit more about what you learned about packaging?

Kitty Liu: 

First thing we need to discuss is the difference between Asian food and Western food. 

When it comes to Chinese food, generally it’s very heavy on sauces. Therefore, restaurants have to elevate the packaging standards to ensure the food quality can remain consistent.

When you order Chinese food, you expect it to still be hot, to have the best of flavor. Iit often [comes] with soup and if the packaging is not good, it actually leaks. 

That has always been a challenge that Asian food delivery faces.

China created a new trend with laminate packaging to make sure all the packaging is sealed and kept warm. That helped the whole industry globally to maintain higher standards.

Joe Winger: 

There’s nothing worse than when you get the package to your house and it’s broken,  ripped, it’s spilled.

The superior packaging isn’t about looking pretty necessarily. It’s about keeping your food secure.

Kitty Liu: 

That’s right.  Another thing we have to consider is [being] environmental friendly.

The Chinese food industry has been blamed for using too much plastic to begin with. Therefore, the new packaging uses aluminum.

Sorry, this part, you probably need to edit, The metal

Joe Winger: 

So your Hungry Panda app itself has a lot of features. Can you let’s talk through some of the most popular features?

Kitty Liu: 

Comparing with other apps, one thing we find quite convenient is that on the front page we have a very full restaurant list with tabs: by distance, by popularity, by discounts, by reviews, by delivery times. So it’s very easy for you to access. 

Other apps  have the categories but limited restaurants. 

Joe Winger: 

What’s the best way for an Asian restaurant to make the most of this opportunity of this new food trend?

Kitty Liu:

I think In the age of technology leveraging online platforms for visibility, working with a food delivery platform is definitely one of the ways to help them really engage with consumers.

When we talk about foodies, they are young, they’re always on social media. They’re always online. Therefore, promoting yourself in front of them is very important. 

We use our channels to really promote different restaurants to help them to expand their reach within their comfort zone.

Joe Winger: 

What’s your favorite food? What would you order on your app?

Kitty Liu: 

My favorite food is [the same as] the trend report.  Sichuan malatang.

So that shows the report’s authenticity.  The audience like the food like a real Chinese person.

The reason why I like the malatang is because not only is it delicious, but it’s actually quite healthy as well.

It’s a hot spicy soup, but you put in fresh vegetables, fresh meat, it’s like you’re cooking your own hot pot

And it’s a very balanced and nutritious meal. Flavorful when you put all these different ingredients into one pot of soup. Brings you more flavors and it’s very fast [to make].

Joe Winger: 

What is Hungry Panda’s user coverage look like?

Kitty Liu: 

We have about 30 cities covered in the U. S. Obviously, New York, L.A., all major cities itself. I would be more than happy to provide you with the full on city list. We’re in Canada as well and just over 80 cities all around the globe.

Joe Winger: 

For the audience who’s watching and listening right now, what’s the best next step? How can they enjoy this app? 

Kitty Liu: 

If they haven’t downloaded it yet,give it a try.

For new users, we actually have new user vouchers available for them to have a few free deliveries. 

You can order to deliver, you can order to pick up it’s very convenient to use, very simple.  Obviously we have a much wider supply for Asian food.

Therefore, if you are a Asian food lover, you should have Hungry Panda on your phone.

 

Las Vegas hosts Wine Spectator Grand Tour 2024, Eve Bushman Reports Back!

Eve Bushman‘s Wine Spectator Grand Tour 2024 Las Vegas

Last Saturday night, at Resorts World Las Vegas, Eddie and I covered our very first Wine Spectator Grand Tour tasting!

Eyeballing this one for a while, as all the wines scored 90 points or greater – any 90-point and up wine awarded blind by Wine Spectator means a lot in my opinion – and there were 235 wineries represented!

Las Vegas hosts Wine Spectator Grand Tour 2024, Eve Bushman Reports Back!

Las Vegas hosts Wine Spectator Grand Tour 2024, Eve Bushman Reports Back!

I had some California favorites I wanted to try, and of course dozens from around the world.

But, knowing me, covering the event was going to take most of my time and I would be lucky to hit up just so many tables, with that in mind these were my favorite wines and their numerical scores:

Vina Almaviva Puento Alto 2021, 96.  

Cakebread Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Benchland Select 2019, 91.

Bodega Catena Zapata Nicolas Catena Zapata Mendoza 2009 (Cab and Malbec), 94.

Cesare Amarone Valpolicella Classico, 2018, 91.

Louis Roederer Brut Champagne Collection 244 NV, 93.

Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Signature 2019, 93.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne, NV, 93.

Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain Family Reserve 2019, 94.

Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2021, 94.

Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District 2021, 94.

Croft Vintage Port 2017, 97.

Cuvaison Pinot Noir Napa Valley Los Carneros Small Lot Spire 2021, 92.

Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Signature 2018, 92.

Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021, 92.

Frank Family Chardonnay Carneros 2021, 92.

Hall Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Kathryn Hall 2016, 96.

Laurent-Perrier Brut Rose Champagne Cuvee NV, 92.

Marques de Caceres Rioja Gaudium Reserva 2018, 91.

Mollydooker Shiraz McLaren Vale Velvet Glove 2019, 94.

Pasqua Amarone Della Valpolicella Mai Dire Mai 2013, 91.

Pio Cesare Barbaresco 2019, 93.

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019, 91.

Roederer Estate Brut Rose Anderson Valley L’Ermitage 2015, 93.

Sandeman Tawny Port 20 Year Old NV, 92.

Schramsberg Vineyard Brut Rose North Coast 2020, 93.

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District S.L.V. 2018, 94.

Taub Family Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Beckstoffer Vyds Georges III 2019, 93.

Tensley Syrah Santa Barbara County OGT 2021, 94.

Torbreck Grenache Barossa Valley Hillside Vineyard 2021, 93.

Trimbach Riesling Alsace Frederic Emile 2016, 94.

Vina Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Vineyard 2021, 96.

Vina Montes Purple Angel Colchagua Valley 2020, 93.

Yalumba Cabernet-Shiraz South Australia The Caley 2018, 95.

Zenato Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 2018, 92.

Event Notes

You can get there 30 minutes or so in advance to check in, get your wrist band and wine glass voucher.

Lots of people lined up to get in, but once the clocked chimed the appointed hour, we were in the large tasting room within minutes.

The dining room had plenty of seating, with different food options – Italian and Mexican – and a dessert table. We went for the pasta, carbo-loading for our stamina, which we enjoyed after the first hour.

Bathrooms were close by, plenty of water stations, pour out buckets and if there was a line at a table you could just go to the next one.

IMHO there is no reason to wait at a particular table at this event as you know everything they are offering is a top-scoring wine. The winery representatives were extremely knowledgeable about their wines.

View the wineries that participated here.

Eve Bushman has a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a “certification in the first globally-recognized course” as an American Wine Specialist ® from the North American Sommelier Association (NASA), Level 1 Sake Award from WSET, was the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video (over 16k views), authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and has served as a judge for the Proof Awards, Cellarmasters, LA Wine Competition, Long Beach Grand Cru and the Global Wine Awards.

You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits.

Vegas Begs for Better Coffee, They Traveled the world to find it, Dr Christina Rahm from Rahm Roast Coffee

Vegas Begs for Better Coffee, They Traveled the world to find it, Dr Christina Rahm from Rahm Roast Coffee

Today we’re talking coffee!  The rich and delightful taste of Rahm Roast, crafted from carefully selected coffee beans straight from Guatemala.

Dr. Christina Rahm is a scientist, supermom, devoted partner, and the ultimate coffee aficionado! 

With a passion for detoxing and a mission to uplift lives, she’s not just about the lab coat life; she’s out there exploring the globe in pursuit of both science and the perfect cup of joe.

Today’s conversation has been edited for length and clarity.  For the full, un-edited conversation, visit FlavRReport’s YouTube channel here

Joe Winger: 

So what I love the most is your introduction, Dr. Christina Rahm, “Mother. wife, scientist and coffee lover.”

Dr. Christina Rahm: 

Thank you. Yeah I always start with mother. Now my kids are older. I’m like, am I supposed to say mother to adult children? They were such an integral part of my life. And hey, that was the reason I started drinking coffee. Just to be honest, I had to stay awake to take care of them.

Joe Winger: 

Do you remember what first inspired you to get interested in coffee?

Dr. Christina Rahm:

Motherhood, basically.. 

I grew up in a home where everybody loved coffee but me. I remember when I had my 1st child, and I was thinking, how do all these mothers stay awake? 

I worked back then too. It was a lot, working and taking care [of my first baby].

I was delusional because I thought I’m going to have my son, and I thought, I’ll go back to work on Monday. Cause you don’t know. I remember that Monday getting up and calling my mom and saying, “This is not doable.  What am I going to do?”

I had a job where they let me take him to work, but still it was a lot. And my mom was like, you’re going to have to drink coffee. 

So I started drinking coffee. 

My parents loved it growing up. They would offer us coffee with cream and sugar when we were little.

I grew up on a farm and  they would offer it and I’d be like, no, I don’t like it. I was the only one in my family that didn’t like it, but I learned to love it after I had a child. 

Then I three more [kids]. But I love the taste of it. 

Also, as a scientist, I had a pituitary tumor and different types of cancer.

When I started researching, you can’t ever claim that a natural substance cures anything, but I did notice there were certain types of coffee and coffee beans that caused cancer cell death, apoptosis. 

So it was one of the things that I added to my regimen. 

What happened was, the cancer metastasized and I was trying to eat everything from spirulina to coffee to resveratrol.

I did give up alcohol for a while. 

Then someone said one glass of alcohol is good because of the resveratrol. 

So I  added wine back in [to my diet].

But like I learned to love [coffee].   The more I researched it, the more I understood that it had mold and mitotoxins and it had all kinds of things.

Even though the pure bean could help from a physical perspective and from a healthcare perspective because of the pesticides and GMOs in the land, air and water that we have. 

I hate bringing up the topic because people [think] the environment’s not that bad. 

The problem is, regardless of your political stance, our environment is not healthy like it used to, because we’ve had so much pollution/

Nuclear war and when a nuclear war happens, it does not leave the stratosphere. 

It disseminates across our world. 

So a our things – plants and herbs and roots and seeds – you have to be very careful where you get it. 

Most of my career I focused a lot on detoxification and really helping clean out the environment.

Things I’ve worked on… You can go to the store and buy coffee or buy vitamins and they can have heavy metals, lead, mercury, horrible things in it. 

I don’t want to scare people.

Instead, I’ve worked on creating some things that hopefully will help people feel, look, and be better because we just all need to be as great as we can be. 

There’s no easy, one pill solution, right? 

Coffee was definitely something for me.  

People drink [it] every day, and if they’re going to drink it, I’m hoping they drink something that’s, free of mitotoxins, that has a good pH level, that is fair trade.

I had a whole list of things that were so important to me.

When Rahm Roast launched I was very happy because we ended up getting a 91% cup score. We worked really hard for that. Only 1% of the coffee in the world has a score that high.

But I think what was more important than a score, what’s that going to do for you? 

What really matters to me is that the coffee did not have toxins and the coffee did not have heavy metals and it hadn’t been exposed to GMOs or pesticides.

If my name was going to be on it it better be something that’s really helping people and making their life better. That was important to me.

Joe Winger: 

Two words you said a second ago, let’s connect them: coffee and detoxification.

What does that process look like for Rahm Roast?

Dr. Christina Rahm: 

I went all over, even to Ethiopia because [they] have great coffee.

I would meet with different coffee plantations and different owners trying to find a really good place. We ended up being able to find a place in Guatemala that was on top of a mountain, which had never been exposed to GMOs and pesticides.

The water’s clean, the air’s clean. 

It was a very isolated place.  We decided we wanted to partner with a business that was small.  All they cared about was making something that was just really unique and special.  [Unlike most other businesses] they were not worried about mass production.

They’re worried about making sure that it tastes good, which taste was important to us. 

But the biggest issue was let’s make sure that everything is fair trade, the organic, the vegan, we wanted everything. I wanted to be sustainable. 

For me, sustainable is not enough. 

We need to remediate things because you can to be sustainable. It’s not completely accurate, right? 

I have a lot of patents based on remediation of things and making sure that you’re not just detoxing, but you’re helping the plants and you’re helping everything grow.

Because we should have this much top soil [gestures to 6 inches] and now we have this much top soil [gestures to 2 inches] and there’s not enough nutrients in it that help the plants and the roots and the seeds.  They’re just not the same. 

We explored all of that and came up with a process to clean the beans and detox the beans of any kind of monotoxins, mold, fungus, bacteria, viruses, anything surrounding it. 

I developed that in 2015. I started by basically writing a series of patents that had to do with getting rid of nuclear waste.

The regeneration of land, air and water and the human body and also the reversal of aging.

What I’ve learned as a scientist and as a human being is to admit failure every day, and then to admit that I’m going to try to be better every day. 

And that’s what happened with the coffee. 

It was a one step process that involved a four day process to make the cleaning and it’s made from basically a zeolite silica trace mineral vitamin mixture which goes in and cleans the beans.  

I think that’s the reason our cup score is so high because the PH level basically getting rid of all those minor toxins, all the things, the beans that are harmful or could be harmful creates a ph level that is very conducive to our body.

I don’t know if you know this, but our Earth is composed of silica and water, right?

As humans, we are too. 

So when you put something in your body, you want to make it compatible bioavailable to the body. And I would say that’s another proprietary thing that I do. And I work on things I’m working on. 

Understanding the DNA of a coffee bean, and understanding our DNA and then understanding how they would work copacetically together.

Another thing that was really close to me that I actually have not talked about in any interview is the fact that. With coffee and coffee enemas and different things that people have, there’s like a 70 percent increase right now in colon cancer. It’s horrible. And I would credit that to the environment and to all the things we’re being exposed to.

And even vegans are getting colon cancer. Even younger people. You can look it up. 

It was in the New York Post, everything else. So I wanted a coffee that a doctor decided functional med doctors or doctors in other countries wanted to help with this area that could use it as a colon cleanse as well.

Again, I have not talked about that anywhere, but for me, it was essential because as a person that’s had so many different types of cancer, I want to put things in my body that will help my body. 

What’s interesting about what I do for a living now, I used to work in pharmaceutical and biotech and we could say.

We don’t cure bronchitis, but here’s zithromax to help with bronchitis and it does right from my perspective. 

Giving people things that make their body, make them achieve the greatest thing they can, that, which is to be their best self, it’s so important.

And if those things that we give them can also improve the cellular health of their body by making the healthy cells healthier and making the cancerous or the sick cells not even wanna be there, then that is a goal. 

There’s been all kinds of studies, there’s all kinds of information which shows that could be possible.

But again, the problem is in theory, yes, that can help people in different areas of health. 

But in reality, I don’t feel like it has because I think the coffee beans and coffee has been exposed to so many things in our environment that then sometimes we’re putting more toxins into our body. 

So that was really a major focus for me when I worked on the coffee.

We drink coffee every day and we deserve to have really good coffee. 

I’m not saying,me making spaghetti and saying my spaghetti is the “best spaghetti in the world.”

I will tell you that I’ve traveled to 89 countries and I’ve studied this for years and this has been a topic of mine since I was in my twenties, that has been important to me. 

Then my oldest son, my Mom used to give him the coffee with the sugar and the cream and he would just keep drinking it.

And I would get in an argument with my Mom about why are you giving my Son coffee now? 

He’s bouncing off the walls. He just loves it. 

So he put fire under my feet on it. I was like, I’m too busy working on all these other projects. 

He was like, “Mom, you have to make good coffee.”

Because some people drink four or five glasses a day. So it needs to be healthy for you. 

It’s just like water. If you’re going to drink water, you want to drink healthy water; and water is part of the process when I make the coffee too.  It’s a specific type of water that helps clean the beans. 

It’s interesting. I tried to do it in the United States. I could not find a master coffee maker that could do what I wanted.

I found one in Cyprus [Greece]. 

So I was in Cyprus introduced to an award winning coffee grinder coffee maker.

He’s won awards all over, [ he] understood my process, understood how to do it. 

Then after you tasted it, after it went through the process, he was like, this is amazing. This is the best coffee ever. And again, it makes sense.

Like when we’re healthy, we look better, right? 

When coffee beans are healthier, they taste better. They’re better. 

It’s just simple and I love it. 

I think it’s magical how science works and how all of our DNA is connected. We’re connected to a leaf on a tree. We’re also connected and able to bring coffee to the world that’s going to help people.

I think it is probably one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most in the last three to four years of my life.

Joe Winger: 

That’s beautiful.  Obviously you have a huge scientific background.  Our audience is into the flavor. Food, spirits, wine, coffee based on flavor. 

I’m sure you can understand how science can intimidate so many of us.

Is there a very simplified way of explaining what makes Rahm Roast good for the body, good for the planet? 

Dr. Christina Rahm: 

It’s like going to an organic farm up in the mountains where everything’s perfect and tasting a bite of a watermelon and it just tastes so great. 

Or of strawberries. 

When you go to these places on these islands that have never been exposed to GMOs and pesticides.

And you’re like, why does this taste better? 

Sometimes in the United States, you’ll buy a rose for someone and it doesn’t even smell like a rose, but then you’ll go to a tropical island where they don’t use GMOs or pesticides and it smells so beautiful.

This is the most beautiful rose. It smells so amazing. 

The coffee was made and sourced from a single source in a place that was the perfect environment that we could find. We looked everywhere. 

Then the process. That was made basically cleaning it until it was beautiful and perfect. It’s like you brush your teeth, you take a bath, you look better.

If you don’t shave or brush your teeth or take a bath for two years, then you may not look the same as you look today. 

This coffee has been cleaned in a very holistic way, organic way using only natural.

It tastes amazing. It tastes almost like chocolate.

It’s very smooth.

Using zeolites [like they] used to line the ducts of the Aztec and Incas and Mayas and the pyramids. It’s documented throughout history and all I did was take a process and make sure it was cleaning so that it would look beautiful.

I think it’s simple.

I sourced it from the most amazing place that had not been exposed to pesticides and GMOs, that was fair trade, that everything was a sole source farmer.

We knew everything about the history.  I want your audience to also know this. 

It’s not just the beans and the plants.  

It’s the parent plants and the genetics behind it. 

When you see race horses. They breed, right? You pay a lot of money if you have a winner from the Kentucky Derby.  Because it’s genetics. 

There’s a genetic component and there’s always this debate about genetics and the environment.

Which one’s better? 

And so to me, both are important. 

So I looked at the genetics of the plants and the seeds

I made sure the environment was a really good environment to raise a healthy environment to raise these amazing coffee beans. And then we just cleaned them and made them even more beautiful so that everyone could taste how amazing they are.

Scientists made GMOs to try to make plants bigger, better, right? That failed. 

So as a scientist I went back to school, I went to Harvard and studied nanobiotechnology for a very different reason than most people think. 

I studied to see how we could reverse it.

Things naturally from things that we’ve put into our world that weren’t natural, that have hurt us. 

Joe Winger: 

Incredibly inspirational.

From a corporate point of view, can you talk a little bit about what inspired you to pursue the social responsibility of the company?

Dr. Christina Rahm: 

In my career, I worked for the government. I’ve worked for a lot of the top pharmaceutical and biotech companies. 

I would say I failed at that in many ways.

Our economy depends on spending a lot of money on health care.

It was a hard time for me, but I never gave up. 

From my perspective. Since I had cancer, since I had Lyme’s disease, since I had a child that had cancer, I’ve devoted my life to trying to do the right thing.  I have an opportunity to be alive for a reason.

It was a blessing, even though I didn’t feel like it was a blessing when I was diagnosed. I have a warrior strength of fighting anything.

We’ve just got to be better humans, right? 

My goal is to make every person have the longest, best life possible.

That means mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And as a scientist, I feel like it’s on my shoulders and my responsibility to tell the truth and to do it in a positive way instead of being a whistleblower blowing things up. 

I want to offer these things that can help people.

About 8-9 years ago, I started really stepping up and talking about social issues, working on female empowerment. I just always try to talk about how we can empower.

When you have gifts, if you have influence, if you have money, if you have power, your job is to protect those weaker than you or that need help.

And somehow we’ve lost that in our move for success.

We think we don’t we forget about that. But for me, that’s my motive to make social change is to it’s my responsibility to be a good human. I’m going to die someday. And I’m going to have to answer for everything I’ve done on this earth.

So I have to try every day to be better. 

The coffee was something that was for a social change that I think we need to be aware of without scaring everyone. 

And so that has led me to move past that. To run companies. I have 22 companies actually under DRC ventures and a lot of people don’t know that. So there’s 22 companies that I’m actually in charge of right now, trying to make some good social changes in the world.

Joe Winger: 

For our audience who wants to learn more about your and Rahm Roast Coffee, what are the best ways? 

Dr. Christina Rahm: 

DrChristinaRahm.com is my website.

I’m on social media at Instagram, LinkedIn

The root brand sells Rahm Roast at RahmRoast website.  We also donate from every bag of coffee to philanthropy as well. 

Food That Seduces: Daytime TV Star Thaao Penghlis Seducing Celebrities in his newest Project

Daytime TV Star Thaao Penghlis Seducing Celebrities wants to Give You a Taste at his next dinner party.  Read all about it in his new book.

Thaao Penghlis has starred in some of the biggest TV shows of all time – including playing on daytime TV’s “Days of Our Lives”.

Thaao Penghlis new book Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time

Now in Thaao’s new book, Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time he reveals seduction in the dining room by creating incredibly delicious for his famous friends.

Today’s conversation has been edited for length and clarity.  For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here

Joe Winger

Congratulations on your new book.  It’s a tasty read and a fast read. 

Thank you for joining us for a conversation today.

Thaao Penghlis: 

Thank you for inviting me.

 

Joe Winger: 

You’ve done a lot of work in your life. We’re going to go to food and books as quickly as possible. 

When you’re at an airport or in public, what is the most common thing people remember you from?

Thaao Penghlis:  

Certainly Days [of our Lives]. There’s a big Armenian contingency out there who always comes at me at the airports, [Days…] was in 152 markets. Especially when you’re in New York and it’s an international port. When Mission [Impossible] was on. I certainly enjoyed that. I think it had a large male audience because of the action and that I liked it was interesting. That kind of prepared me for the masks that I did on Days [of Our Lives]. So it was a real challenge. Working in daytime; I think the biggest challenge is remembering all those lines and giving it some kind of conviction and taking those lines off the page.

And a lot of the time, because there’s too many lines, we’re just on the edge, and so because I have a certain intensity I’m able to cover. I think through all those years people, airports probably are the biggest. I’m going to do a PA [public appearance] at the Grand Canyon in August. 

It’s a very special train ride through the Grand Canyon with just 22 fans.  It’s going to be a very intimate affair. So over the years, you get the older people who are the real followers, because the youth today have different appetites.

Just like they do with food, they’re not always conscious about what they’re eating. Unless they’re educated about it or they’re raised on good food. And I think today food has become a convenience rather than a celebration. 

Joe Winger:  

You use wonderful words in your book. It feels almost like poetry. “Food is the magic of our universe.” Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Thaao Penghlis: 

We’ve been given such diversity as far as food is concerned, that we have that many choices, especially in countries that can afford food. But to me, once you’ve grown up tasting octopus – we used to hang it on the [clothes] line for three weeks until it dried out. There’s no blood in the octopus, therefore, it doesn’t rot – that was mouthwatering. 

Some of the fruits you have in life, like mangos.  When you can appreciate the way they’re being served.  It’s not like eating an apple. If you eat a mango and you slice it, then cut it up in quarters, there’s a different texture to it.  The flavor.  To the eye it becomes attractive. I think food, when you think about what you can control in your life and you are blessed to have it. I think food is magical because of that. 

Joe Winger: 

One more line of food poetry from your book.  “You discover your body’s secrets by the way you feed it and how it feeds you back. “

Thaao Penghlis: 

When we who are in the Greek Orthodox church, we go through a fast to the last day [of holidays like Easter] before we go to the church and get the bread and the wine.

You start to appreciate the food that you can’t have because of its limitations in the religion. The last day you’ll have olive oil on bread with some sugar, things like that. So when you get to food and understand it, when you stop eating and cleanse your body, sometimes it just juices, you become hungry.

You get to understand what food does to the body by emptying it out. If you don’t eat well, or if you eat late, then the next day, you’re not going to feel great.

So you get to understand what the body can take and what, and when, are the limitations to eating and at what hour, if you drink too much wine.  

As an actor, I don’t drink very much.  But if I have wine, the next day, my eyes are going to show it. So it tells me something about the kidneys, because the eyes are connected to the kidneys. So it’s understanding how the machine you’ve brought into life carries your soul. How does that express itself in the best way possible?

As actors, we have a responsibility because of that body being presented on camera as a certain responsibility to the producers to the show and to your audience. So you get to understand.  I would go through a four day fast with Bela’s broth, Celsius broth.  I would find that would cleanse me through the days I did like a liver cleanse, which got rid of stones.

You get to understand what the organs are, that you can do things naturally without having to take all those dreadful medicines and those pills. 

The body is all we’ve got. Why have I overcome certain things in my life? It’s always been through nutrition.

Joe Winger: 

Your journey, the things you’ve learned, and you touch upon that in the book a little bit, lessons you learn from different actors and producers and people you’ve worked with, but that’s another great lesson is as far as using it as a medicine.

The book is called Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time. It is an enormous undertaking: beautiful pictures, recipes, Hollywood stories, your family. There’s a lot going on. 

What inspired you to write the book?

Thaao Penghlis: 

The hardcover has all the colored pictures inside. So it has a different dimension to it when you actually see it, because let’s face it, presentation is very important.

So when you see color, when you see something displayed you want to get into it. If something looks like someone just piled something, it’s not attractive to the appetite. 

My manager called me one day and he said, “You always talk about food. Why don’t you do a cookbook?”

I went, “Oh, I don’t know how to do a cookbook. Everything that I’ve caught has come out of my head.”

I remembered, I learned when I worked at the UN [United Nations] for a year when I was in the diplomatic corps. In my youth I went into kitchens where they had chefs. I saw presentation. I understood the etiquette of arriving there on time.

45 minutes later you’re having the hors d’oeuvres, maybe it’s champagne, maybe it’s some caviar or whatever they presented. 

Then it was time to go into the dining room and sit there. It became a ritual. And so you got to appreciate the time, the presentation that someone put in.

So all these memories came into my head. I said how would you think? How do you think about food? I said it’s really seducing people, isn’t it? 

By the way you create an atmosphere, by the way you look at a dish, and by the aroma. So I said, Let’s call it “Seducing.”

I said who have I seduced? 

How about celebrities that I’ve met and worked with? That’s how it came about seducing celebrities. One meal at a time.   

I always like to serve the first, second and the third course. But usually, I don’t join the guests on the first course, because I’m busy preparing the main course.

So I present the first course to them. Then I’m in the kitchen. The actor, Danny Kaye in the old days.  He used to be an expert of Chinese food and around the counter in his kitchen is where his friends sat and he just fed them.   That was something that was so gratifying for him. 

So I understand if it’s done well, and your friends leave.  They take it for granted.

People don’t cook these days, or they’re intimidated because of the way you’ve presented it.  So therefore let’s take you out instead. So you don’t get that personal touch that I think is so important.

When you sit around your watering hole, as I call it, that “table”, which is something if when I leave this country eventually and go home to Australia, that is one thing I’m going to take with me is that table because it has a huge history to it. 

To me the table and how you decorate it and how you present it is very important to the appetite of the person joining you.

Joe Winger:  

I’m thinking of your table, sometime in the future when you do move, that could be a heck of an auction item. The amount of people who sat around it and heard stories and shared stories. 

Speaking of those stories, you’ve named huge Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson George Clooney, amazing actors, Joanna Cassidy, William Hurt.

Your Hollywood life has been so many decades of work and amazing people.  What was the process like deciding who makes it into the book and deciding who you had to leave out?

Thaao Penghlis: 

You don’t like everybody you’ve worked with and everybody you’ve met, food is very personal

In the old days they serve you poison. In the French 18th century, you’d be sitting there and if you were an enemy, they’d serve you a dish with poison. That’s how they got rid of enemies. But I don’t know. 

Dame Edna, who I was best man at his wedding, which is Barry Humphries. He was very particular. He was also a person who loved art.  So he would walk around my house looking at what kind of a collection and made his judgment on it. 

The same thing with the food, he would taste it. He would give you that quite qualifying look that he approves. 

Omar Sharif was different. When I worked with him,  we had champagne and caviar every day, because that’s the way he lived.

[He would be] telling me stories of Lawrence of Arabia and many of his other films and I think, because I look like his son, he was very taken not in the beginning. In the beginning, he was quite rude and quite distant.  It wasn’t until I was about to start the first scene with him where he comes into the room and when I met him, he was distant, shook my hand and said, “Hello”.

So when he comes into the room, he’s supposed to slug me after something I say.

He says to me, by the way, “Please, when I hit you do not go over this 18th century table and break it. It’s very important that we are respectful about this table.”

And I said, Oh, I’m not going anywhere. And he says, what do you mean?

I said, “Oh, Omar. I said, if you hit me and I go flying off that table, where do you and I go for the next four hours?”

He says “What will you do? 

I said, “I’ll probably adjust my tie.” 

He started to laugh and that’s how it started.  

How do you infiltrate a person’s personality who comes in defensive working with Bill Hurt in “Altered States”.

I had some very difficult dialogue because it was very technical. How do you make it real?  I started to do this sequence and he says to me, “Is that how you’re going to do it? 

And I said, “Why is that how you’re going to do it?”

And from that moment, he goes, “You’re an arrogant son of a…,”

And I said, “So are you.” 

From that moment, we clicked.  When we joined hands in Mexico, away from Warner Brothers, we had a good bond. 

I never stood for his star attitude. You have to call it. So I don’t like it.  When someone brings that, I leave that, I go outside.

 

Joe Winger: 

Doris Roberts, after dinner once wrote you a note. I took that idea as an incredibly loving gesture.

if you could talk a little bit about that note, and then any other amazing gifts from you dinner parties?

Thaao Penghlis: 

When I approached Doris and she would write the introduction, her comment was, “Oh, darling, why don’t you do that?” 

I said, Doris, you’ve been coming here for dinner for years. So why can’t you just get in touch with your heart and write something pleasant?

And that’s what she wrote. 

Because every time she came, it’s like my friends who come over always know they’re going to get a good meal. I never go cheap on the thing. I’ve seen people come in the house with daisies in their hand. I said, “Does this house look like it collects daisies?” 

Or they’ll bring me Two Buck Chuck.

I said, are you bringing that so I can put it as a wine for the food, because it’s certainly not going on the table and things like that.

Where people are not experiencing you or contributing and also shows you how cheap it is. And even when Doris, who used to get crates of champagne from Dom Perignon for free, because she was connected to somebody who worked there, she would come in.

She would say “Darling, here’s some Dom Perignon, put it in the fridge.” 

I said, “Oh, okay. Thank you.” I think, Oh, this is a person who understands quality. 

Then five minutes later, she’s sitting at a chair. She says open the champagne for me, will ya?. So I realized it wasn’t for the house.  It was for her.  So she didn’t bring anything. 

Here’s this woman who makes an enormous amount of money. I’ve studied with her for over 20 years with Katsalis, the director, and then she would come in and sit at the table and she would look at the flowers and then she would look at the presentation of everything and then she would smell the food and so through that experience –  you don’t always get respect, you have to earn it.

With her, because of my work as an actor, and because of my success as an actor, and also now writing some people will say to you, “Are you writing another book? 

But they say it in such a derogatory way.

Whereas Doris said, “I’m so proud of you.“

I went out with Doris, just the two of us went to movies because she always had to have company.  She was like Joan Rivers. She had to have every night filled. She couldn’t stand just being on her own. So when she was invited to my home, she always remembered the presentation and the flavors of that evening. 

Joe Winger: 

Let’s talk a little bit about what was the process of writing the book like this time?

Thaao Penghlis: 

Recipes are in my head.

So I had to cook in my head. For six months I started to think, Oh,I never wrote anything down. 

I would call friends and say, “What was your favorite meal I cooked?”

Then I would say, Oh, okay, that’s good; and then I would just test my friends and they would tell me what they like the best.

So I got all these recipes that were still in my head. And I somehow remember what I put in it. My sister in law in Australia says to me, the difference between you and I as chefs is that I have to have a cookbook in front of me. You open the fridge and say, what are we going to eat?

I spent six months going through recipes. 

Then finally I said, what did my mother cook? The Greek traditional foods or the Greek desserts. And my sisters are very good at cooking desserts. 

Then slowly I collected the foods and started to make them. 

Joe Winger: 

That’s an incredible journey. 

We’ve pushed toward the idea of an impolite or a bad dinner guest.  How do we find an appropriate dinner gift? And then what would be a definite no?

Thaao Penghlis: 

People will ask me, what can we bring?

It’s a silly question because you can’t bring food. So you, what do you bring wine?  Or flowers? Or whatever enhances the atmosphere?

But something that’s not here, but sometimes when they keep asking me that, I say, bring cash. And that always throws them because they take it seriously.

So sometimes I won’t answer that question. I said, “Surprise me. But make it expensive.”

So I like to play with them.  

I said to a friend of mine once, your hands are always empty.  They never spoke to me for three years after that. They turned around and left. 

There’d been guests who arrived when you had a seven o’clock dinner and arrived at 9:30. I’ll open the door and say to them, “I’m sorry, we’ve already had dinner. We’ll talk another time.” And then I closed the door because I find it disrespectful.

It tells you who people are and their consciousness. I don’t like unconscious people, but we’re  going through a very difficult time in the world. 

And it’s all because people are not conscious of others. It’s always about them. And so to me, the wonderful thing about serving food and expecting something in return, something.

Even if it’s – we used to write notes in the old days, a phone call – but texts now have become such a convenience.

Why don’t you just call me and tell me where I spent two days preparing this, that you can’t afford a five minute phone call, but you’ll text me in one sentence and that’s it. 

Things like that I don’t approve of. 

I think that kind of communication short changes [the memory of the experience].  I want to be at times where you want to cook again. If you’re not gonna share something about yourselves, call me the next day and say, I had such a wonderful evening. Some people think it’s enough when they leave, or they got here, 

But they don’t understand how you complete things.  Completion is very important. Just as an actor, you have an arc in your character, it’s complete. 

The same thing with food. 

When I serve food, it’s complete. I have an order: I have hors d’oeuvres. I have a first course. I have the main course. And then I have dessert and maybe some Greek coffee or tea or whatever people need and the wines.

But I just find people are unbelievable. They don’t understand what it takes to put an evening together. 

If you don’t know how to treat me, I’m going to show you. So that’s what I said there.

Joe Winger:

Have you ever played with the idea of a cooking show? Is that something you see at all for yourself?

Thaao Penghlis: 

It’s a lot of work.  All that preparation. I’ve done it as a guest here and there. 

Joan Rivers used to join guests and everything, she always made some wonderful jokes.

Dame Edna would make wonderful jokes. 

I’m doing a book signing May 22nd at the Grove in Los Angeles at a Barnes and Noble.  I’ve got to do a cooking show. I thought what are we going to cook?  Something that’s not difficult. 

So I’m going to do a vegetarian dish, which is not in the book, but it’s with shiitake mushroom, truffle oils, mint, basil heirloom tomato, raw peas and pine nuts. Then I will mix that in with the pasta and some olive oil and then some truffle oil and with some herbs and that’s about it. 

That’s so convenient and it’s such a delicious dish with Parmesan cheese over it. 

Joe Winger: 

The book is called Seducing Celebrities: One meal at a time 

You breezed over Joan Rivers for a moment and I wanted to touch upon it because In that chapter, you help us see her in a different way than what we always think of her as, especially being in the car with her daughter, Melissa as a young girl.

When I think of Joan Rivers, the stereotype, I think of outrageous, and you have one or two moments beyond her, Barbra Streisand, there’s a little bit of outrageousness there, are there any outrageous moments that you didn’t include that you thought about including?

Thaao Penghlis: 

I don’t I don’t mind telling stories, or privately telling stories.

There’s got to be a borderline, just like etiquette.  If I’m expecting for people to behave a certain way.

One time, there was a famous guest, which I won’t mention, who was having problems with their daughter, and they were sitting around the table. The phone rang in the middle of dinner, and he answered it, he starts screaming on the phone, and telling his daughter off.

I just lost it, I got up and I said, “If you don’t mind, take your bloody phone call outside, we’re not interested in your private business and how rude of you.”

Because I don’t like people bringing phones into the house.

The inner chatter that goes on with people’s minds, where they’re so distracted with life instead of just being there.  Being present. 

With Telly Savalas as well. There have been times also with people with Days [of Our Lives] and I couldn’t tell those stories because firstly, I have to work with him again. Secondly, I don’t think it’s everybody’s business.

There was a book that Hustler put out all the stories about those magnificent stars of the [1940s] and talked about their sexual proclivities. 

Someone said, “Why would you do that?”  Why would you betray your friends that way? 

You smash the myth. They spent years creating a myth.  But when you start getting into the nitty gritty, you make those people ordinary. And show business is not about being ordinary.

So I try to refrain from telling things that go beyond the norm. I want to be able to see these people later in some time, even though they’re gone,

I still believe we’ll see them on the other side that they did more good for me. Otherwise it’s a matter of respect and keeping someone’s dignity there.

Joe Winger: 

Your book starts almost like a love note or a Valentine to growing up with your family. Your mother, your father, their first trip to L. A., to your grandfather George’s herrings and olive oil tin.

Thaao Penghlis: 

Yeah, that was something to watch growing up.  

To see my grandfather bringing his knowledge of food from the islands of Greece. 

What I remember the most, even my grandmother, you’ve come down in the mornings and you can smell the cinnamon toast. She would be dipping wicks into wax and creating candles for the church.

Joe Winger: 

Seducing celebrities one meal at a time. 

Can you give us a tease about what you’re looking forward to in the future?

Thaao Penghlis: 

I just finished exploring the Holy Families. 

I did a two week trek up and down the Nile to these sacred places. So I’ve written a story because most of the things we see about religion are postcards or lovely paintings. What do we do when we explore it within ourselves and follow those routes? Something else happened.

I’ve written a teleplay. It’s very interesting the way it begins and where it begins and how it follows through into The Great Escape. 

Find Thaao Penghlis’ new book on Amazon at  Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time

 

Perfect Passover Wines for 2024, Revealed by Kosher Wine Expert

Perfect Passover wines for 2024, Revealed by Kosher Wine Expert for Passover 2024

Passover starts Monday April 22 at sundown and ends April 30th. But today’s conversation is about the flavors of Seder dinner.  

Jay Buchsbaum

Royal Wine and Kosher.com’s Jay Buchsbaum visits to talk about flavor, tradition, tastes for every family member and what’s exciting in the wine world for 2024.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.  For the full, unedited conversation, visit our FlavRReport YouTube channel.

 

Joe Winger: Jay, welcome back.  I appreciate that you’re returning.  Last time was great and we learned alot.

Jay Buchsbaum: Thank you for having me. Wow. This is great. So getting invited back for a second date, that’s really cool.

Joe Winger: Passover is just around the corner and we want to talk about different over wines to enjoy during the celebration and some great wine pairings.

I wanted to start off with what might be one of the popular new bottles – Carmel Black Cabernet Sauvignon.

Jay Buchsbaum:  It’s very hot and the reason it’s very hot is because people want something that’s rich and flavorful, especially the American palate, what we call the New World style.  

Opulence, fruit forward, but they don’t want to spend a fortune like you’d have to from some fancy vineyard in Napa or from Judean Hills. When it comes to Israel or the Golan Heights, and this is one of those wines where they’ve put together this at the beginning of opulence, lots of fruit forwardness, 14 months in oak and about $25.

So it’s really one of those really wonderful wines. What I noticed, and they say they forgot to do it, but I noticed that it does not have an appellation specific, except for Israel.  The reason I believe the winemaker did that –  I don’t know for sure – he talks about it on the back [of the bottle] that they brought the grapes from some of the finest vineyards.  He chose small amounts [of grapes] from the best vineyards from different places and put them all together, carefully crafting it so that it’s big and rich and flavorful and still under $30 bucks.

Joe Winger: That sounds amazing. What are some good food pairings that you’d recommend with it?

Jay Buchsbaum: A roast would be great. On the first and second night of Passover, we don’t officially roast anything because we don’t want people to think that it was a sacrificial lamb that was done in Egypt because we don’t have it today yet.

Until the reestablishment of the temple on the Temple Mount at some future time. 

So people cook a roast in the oven, it’s not barbecued. That’s what they’re talking about from a historical, spiritual sense –  but a delicious roast, maybe chicken marsala, where you have mushrooms and caramelized onions, you have a really rich flavor to go with that.

A lot of the Sephardic foods are like that too. We talked about traditional foods. Traditional foods from where? Sometimes it’s Eastern Europe, sometimes it’s Middle Eastern, and sometimes it’s Sephardic.

Lots of seders have a mix of all [cuisines] because you have melded families.

 

Joe Winger: Royal Wine currently has a wide roster of wine suggestions for Passover  Something for every adult at the table, from Grandpa to 25 year old Grand-daughter and her boyfriend.

 

Jay Buchsbaum: That’s a great point.  I’m going to give you the last one first only because I thought this was so much fun when I thought about it and I actually might do it. 

Let’s say the boyfriend is coming over. He wants to bring you something and he doesn’t know what to get you because, he’s not that observant..

So I thought, why don’t you end the meal with something Sparkling. The Momentous Rosé. That might be fun. You go out with a pop, so to speak. There’s Vera Wang’s  Prosecco Rose that’s also wonderful.   Both around $20.

But if you want to go really high end, why not go with the Rothschild Brut Rosé from Champagne, which is magnificent.  It’s 100% Pinot Noir, and about $100 a bottle.

So you have great diversity and  accessible and quite delicious sparkling wines.

Grandpa, or if you have a real fine wine guy. You have beautiful wines from the Rothschild vineyards, the Haute Medoc. which is in the upper $30s, and then you even have Grand Cru’s LesCombes, Grand Cru Margaux as an example, and some amazing wines from the Herzog Winery in California like the Alexander Valley Herzog Reserve, or the Napa Valley Herzog Reserve.  

We have a beautiful Lake County Reserve Cabernet from California. Big, opulent, delicious, mouth filling. 

I start my Seder usually with a rosé.  The reason for that is because you’re starting your Seder, having eaten nothing pretty much since the morning. So you’re on an empty stomach and the tradition is to finish at least the first glass. So I try to start with a rosé.  It’s a little lighter, a little lower in alcohol, a little lighter in texture and, and I like to start with an Israeli wine first.

Joe Winger: Iis there a hidden gem as far as just high quality with amazing value?

Jay Buchsbaum: There’s a really wonderful wine from New Zealand.

It’s a white wine, not a red wine. It’s made by the Rothschild family, but it’s made in New Zealand, called Rimapere Sauvignon Blanc. Less than $30 for sure.  Fresh, sweet lemons, but with enough acidity and structure, almost like a palette cleanser.

Joe Winger:  Anything that you’re looking forward to in the next few  months that wine lovers should be getting excited for?

Jay Buchsbaum: We were missing rosés from Israel for a whole year because of the sabbatical year. We skipped that vintage of roses, and so they’re back for the first time in 24 months for this Passover.

I love some of the new Italian wines. One of them to take a look at is Cantina Giuliano.  it’s a boutique winery. They make 3,000 – 4,000 cases maximum. It’s run by a young couple and I just had them over at my house for Sabbath Shabbat.  His wines blew people away.

I think the most exciting thing is our new winemaker and what our new winemakers is doing with our grapes. His selection and his final product over at the Herzog Wine Cellars. And that could be

Our new winemaker, his name is David Galzignato. He’s with us about three years and he has a background that is with some of the finest and smallest, medium sized boutiques. 

He was going to be moving to France, going to go for his MW [masters of wine] and they asked him if he’d come and consider working with us and he did. He has been making literally blow your brains out wonderful wines so our Napa Cabernet, our Alexander Valley Cabernet are just up and down the line, the wines, especially the reds are just rich and opulent.

He got Joseph Herzog to buy a visual sorter, they range in cost between a $100,000 – 1 million dollar machine.

What they do is when the grapes come in [during harvest] and there’s something called sorting tables.

Done by hand [vineyard workers literally sorting through the harvested grape bunches, looking for]  damaged or a little beat up or whatever, and they only allow the perfect grapes to go through. 

This visual sorter does this electronically by computer, so nothing is missed, zero. As a result, the grape quality is much higher

Famously said in The New Yorker Years ago, “There’s only three things that matter in good winemaking. Good grapes. Good grapes. Good grapes.”

So, the fruit that we get and the fruit that we end up making wine out of is literally the most important thing.

By using these kinds of methods, which are not inexpensive. But the quality is through the roof. We’re looking to make a 100 point wine one of these days and I think it might we might get close this year. 

Vegas Gets Caffeine Fix: Nitro Black, Double Espresso, Flat White! Chameleon Organic Coffee Introduces Ready-to-Drink Cold-Brew Cans

Vegas Gets Caffeine Fix: Nitro Black, Double Espresso, Flat White! Chameleon Organic Coffee Introduces Ready-to-Drink Cold-Brew Cans

Chameleon Organic Coffee®, the original purveyors of handcrafted bottled cold-brew coffee, today announced the expansion of its ready-to-drink category with the debut of four ultra-convenient 8 oz. cold-brew cans.

Handcrafted with 100% organic beans, Chameleon’s new ready-to-enjoy canned cold-brew line features four distinct flavors with sweetened and unsweetened options.

Each delivers unparalleled convenience by offering sustainably sourced coffee in a shelf-stable format, providing optionality for retailers and customers alike.

“We recognized the growing demand for variety and ease of convenience in the RTD coffee segment without compromising on quality and flavor,”

Andy Fathollahi

CEO of SYSTM Foods

“Our new canned cold-brew line provides our loyal customers with another delicious, no-prep option to enjoy their daily coffee ritual on-the-go, anytime.”

Each 8 oz. can contains approximately 130mg of naturally occurring caffeine, providing the perfect boost on the move or at home.

Flavors include:

Nitro Black: Chameleon’s first nitro cold-brew offers a smooth, creamy experience in every sip.

Double Espresso: Bold and smooth organic cold-brew made with dark roast espresso beans delivers a flavorful kick.

Sweetened Black: Black cold-brew lightly sweetened with just the right amount of organic cane sugar.

Flat White: Black cold-brew blended with whole milk creates a traditional flat white experience with a creamy, velvety finish.

The upcoming line complements Chameleon’s existing portfolio of award-winning products, including a variety of organic ready-to-drink 10 oz. cold-brews and 32 oz. multi-serve concentrate cold-brews; each handcrafted to match every mood.

Launching just in time for summer, Chameleon’s Nitro Black, Double Espresso and Sweetened Black 8 oz. canned cold-brews will be available for purchase online at ChameleonCoffee.com and Amazon, as well as at select retailers nationwide starting June 2024 with Flat White availability to follow.

For launch updates, please visit ChameleonCoffee.com.

About Chameleon Organic Coffee®
Founded in 2010, Chameleon Cold-Brew is Austin’s original purveyor of bottled cold-brew coffee. Providing a one-of-a-kind, completely customizable coffee experience, Chameleon uses certified organic, responsibly sourced coffee. Chameleon’s proprietary brewing process produces a super smooth, less acidic, highly caffeinated coffee that can be enjoyed hot or cold. The brand’s portfolio of organic coffee offerings includes ready-to-drink cold-brew varieties, cold-brew concentrates, and now whole bean and ground coffee.

For more information, please visit ChameleonCoffee.com.

Las Vegas hosts International Pizza Expo: Pizza expert Colby Strilaeff Reveals 2024’s Top Pizza Trends

Las Vegas hosts International Pizza Expo: Pizza expert Colby Strilaeff Reveals 2024’s Top Pizza Trends

Fresh off yet another showstopping display at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, Hormel Foods, the maker of the best-selling retail pepperoni in the United States and a market leader in foodservice pizza toppings, is again driving the conversation on what’s trending in the pizza-topping industry.

Pizza expert Colby Strilaeff reveals 2024 Pizza trends

Pizza expert Colby Strilaeff, brand manager of Foodservice at Hormel Foods, helps the company keep its proverbial finger on the pulse of the pizza-topping needs of foodservice operators, and after experiencing the annual Las Vegas trade show, Strilaeff identified the top-five pizza trends to watch out for in 2024:

  1. Ribbon pepperoni: This topping needs no introduction in Canada, where shredded pepperoni is a staple, but Strilaeff expects the same trend to take off in the United States. Inspired by the pizza stylings of Windsor, Ontario, the introduction of HORMEL® Ribbon Pepperoni is already a game-changer for American foodservice operators, allowing for quicker pizza preparation with pepperoni that spreads as easily as shredded mozzarella. Ribbon pepperoni is also a foodservice-friendly option for non-pizza applications like pastas, subs and calzones.
  2. Giardiniera: A condiment with deep Chicago roots, giardiniera is a celebrated tradition in many Italian American households. Giardiniera, which means “from the garden” in English, is a pickled assortment of vegetables like peppers, olives and cauliflower, submerged in a tangy mixture of vinegar and oil. The result? A flavorful medley that perfectly complements a variety of dishes, especially pizza. Italian sausage and giardiniera is a particularly delicious and increasingly popular flavor pairing on pizza.
  3. Global flavors: Culture continues to reveal itself in pizza. “New international flavors are always being introduced in pizzerias across the country,” Strilaeff said. “It’s one of the fastest growing trends in the industry.” Flavor profiles from far and wide are featured on menus across the United States, with familiar profiles like Mexican, Cuban and Indian flavors emerging as commonly sought-after favorites. Global ingredients like chimichurri, gochujang and miso are also adding a flavor twist to popular slices.
  4. Post-bake creativity: Cooking a pizza isn’t the final step of the pizza-making process, especially these days. “We’re seeing a lot more people get creative with what goes on pizza after it is taken out of the oven,” Strilaeff said. Ingredients like chili-infused oils and hot honeys have emerged as popular post-bake pizza toppings. Shaved Parmesan is another commonly applied accompaniment, as are basil and other leafy greens; rocket, arugula, etc.
  5. Sesame seed crust: While not a traditional ingredient in pizza-making, sesame seeds are an increasingly popular addition for those craving an extra crunch in their pizza crust. “It adds a delicious, nutty undertone, which people really enjoy,” Strilaeff said. Whether garnished over a glistening, buttery crust or folded into the entire dough ball, look for the trend of sesame-seed crust to take off.

Hormel Foods has a long-standing reputation for creating innovative and delicious products for foodservice operators, including ROSA GRANDE® Cup & Char Pepperoni and FONTANINI® Cup & Char Sausage, both of which were successfully debuted during last year’s International Pizza Expo.

For more information on HORMEL® Ribbon Pepperoni and all other Hormel Foodservice products, visit hormelfoodservice.com.