Apr 30
Vittoria, mio core
Les Schirato, the CEO of Cantarella Bros, says it was not easy to introduce strong coffee to Australia. Initially, Schirato was laughed at when he tried to persuade supermarket owners to distribute Cantarella’s products. At that time, it seemed impossible to make Australians drink strong coffee. Schirato persevered and his persistence paid off. Cantarella now controls 43 per cent of the domestic pure coffee market. Schirato, who has been at the helm of the company since 1993, is proud of his achievements. The Australian Financial Review, May 2008
Apr 30
Olive crops thrive under downpours
As one of the Hunter’s biggest olive groves prepares to begin its harvest in earnest, the rain is pouring down. Unlike the region’s wine, this year’s wet conditions in the Upper Hunter are not going to threaten the crop at Pukara Estate near Muswellbrook, owner Bruce Eglington says. “The soil is very forgiving; free draining,” he said. “Moisture makes it a little difficult to press but the oil varieties tend not to bloat.” It is Pukara’s sixth harvest after its establishment in 1999 and rain has never been a serious issue, Mr Eglington said. “We’ve pretty much been in drought ever since we started,” he said. “The last two years have been extremely challenging.” Compared with the frenzy of the wine harvest, getting the olives off appears positively laid-back. Mr Eglington said the grove set a model yield of between seven and eight tonnes a hectare, or about 100,000 litres a year, when it started. Newcastle Herald, April 26.
Apr 30
Hungry miles: how far has your food flown
In January last year, British supermarket giant began placing little red stickers depicting an aircraft on certain goods. According to Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy, customers had told him they were worried about their carbon footprint and climate change. Leahy reacted by labelling products to show shoppers they had been airfreighted. He also pledged to work towards using air transport for only one per cent of Tesco’s products. It all sounded about as batty as Heather Mills telling people the planet was in environmental danger and we should all stop eating meat because cows fart. But within months, the Tesco branding had caught on. Suddenly, almost every retailer in Britain, from giant chains to corner shops, were at pains to flag their green credentials. Food Miles had taken off—and the only country not taken for a ride was Australia. That has since changed. As mad as it sounds, Food Miles—coined in the 1990s by a food-policy professor at London’s City University to measure the distance food travels from field to plate, and the ensuing environmental impact—is changing the face of global business. The concept is woolly at best, fundamentally flawed at worst. Sunday Telegraph, April 27.
Apr 30
The party’s over Mixed drinks up $1 a bottle in binge war
The cost of pre-mixed drinks will jump by about $1 a bottle from today after a dramatic move by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The Rudd Government doubled the tax on ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages from midnight last night. Drinks targeted included Bacardi Breezers, rum and coke, Vodka Cruisers and UDLs. Some are equivalent to three standard drinks. Drinkers will pay more for the products, whether sold in supermarkets, bottle shops or pubs. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show young people are more likely to drink RTDs and teenage girls in particular are introduced to alcohol through RTDs. The Rudd Government swooped last night to avoid a rush on bottle shops. But shoppers may still be able to pick up a bargain. Some prices will stay at current levels until stocks are sold. Sunday Herald Sun, April 27.
Apr 30
Rosemount gets back in vogue;
They have changed the shape of the bottle, added a sophisticated sauvignon to their mainstay cheeky chardie and are even marketing the idea that wine should be served on the rocks. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing Fosters’s marketers is convincing a younger generation that Rosemount is the tipple of the trendies. New television advertising trumpeting its sponsorship of Australian Fashion Week appears on screens tonight. Rosemount is into the second of a five-year, multi-million-dollar naming rights deal, and its $8 million marketing campaign aims to go beyond the fashionistas to a wider market. The ads are the latest but perhaps most high-profile element of a campaign aimed at putting the once-mighty brand back on the map. Since Foster’s acquired it from Southcorp for $3.7bn three years ago, along with a swag of other brands including Lindemans and Penfolds, Rosemount has underperformed, leaving investors impatient for a return. Sales are increasing in Australia and Britain but are flat in America as cash-strapped drinkers turn to cheaper brands and old stock stubbornly hangs around shelves. Foster’s insists, though, that when Americans see and taste the relaunched lines, they like them. It is the gains that it has made in Australia that Foster’s is talking up as evidence that it is working. Sales of Rosemount have grown 55 per cent in value and 37 per cent in volume in the three months to the end of March on a like-for-like basis, according to Nielsen ScanTrack Liquor data. The overall wine market grew 4.6 per cent in value and shrank 1.8 per cent in volumes in the same period. Sydney Morning Herald, April 28.
Apr 30
Hip bar on the market
One of the city’s most sceney bars, Distill in Rundle St, is up for sale. The watering hole, a regular for Adelaide’s hip set, is co-owned by local brothers Jake, Mike and Martin Greenrod, and London-based fitness guru James Duigan. “There are a few reasons for selling up,” Jake said. “We always had a two-year plan, plus each of us wants to concentrate on different projects. Mike wants to put his energies into his filmmaking, Martin and myself will concentrate on GoodLife (restaurants) and James is working on opening more Bodyism gyms in London.” Distill will be officially on the market on Tuesday, with the lads looking for expressions of interest. Sunday Mail, April 27.
Apr 30
From a top spot in South Yarra to the fresh culinary fields of Footscray
When Sean Donovan told colleagues he was resigning as executive chef at the Botanical to run a kitchen in a nondescript pub in Melbourne’s west, they responded with support - and concern. South Yarra institution ‘The Bot’ had just been sold to a large hotel investment group and the new owners wanted Donovan to stay. “For me, if I’d stayed on, there would have been great opportunities . . . without the risk,” he says. But Donovan had his sights set on transforming the Station Hotel, in Napier Street, Footscray, into his own gastro pub and was ready to trade in his view of one of Melbourne’s most adored gardens to do so. Some friends asked him if it was the right time, the right place, the right area. “Having not seen where we were, people have this perception of Footscray as being at the end of the earth, not five kilometres from the city, which it is,” he says. The move got Melbourne foodies talking. Part of the reason Donovan, 36, says he became co-owner of the pub with his brother-in-law, Greg Fee, was that he had grown too comfortable at the Botanical, a two-hat restaurant. Other reasons included timing and coincidence. The Age, April 26.
Apr 30
$1000 a tonne Why the price of rice is sending shockwaves around the world
Adelaide consumers will pay up to a third more for rice in restaurants as a world shortage begins to hit home. As fears grow about its availability, some Adelaide consumers have begun stockpiling the staple food of billions around the world. It follows a move by Thailand, the world’s major exporter, to cut shipments to Australia as it rations scarce supplies. The world price of rice reached $US1000 ($A1064) a tonne this week, fuelling growing concerns over world food security. It has soared from about $US310 ($A330) a tonne in 2006-07 due to fears of shortages, export bans by some countries, stockpiling and rising costs. The demise of the Australian rice industry from a one million-tonne crop in 2005-06 to only 18,000 tonnes this year has had a significant impact on world prices. Adelaide supermarkets and restaurants yesterday said the world shortage was causing steep price rises. At Bangkok Bites, in Chinatown, Mily Ly, niece of the owner, Sam Loi, said a bowl of steamed rice would rise next week from $1.50 to $2. The Advertiser, April 26.
Apr 30
Gourmet glossary
When is a raviolo not a raviolo? One of my pedantic dummy spits is over menus that misuse culinary terms to bastardise their meanings either through ignorance or in a misleading attempt to dress things up—terms like salsa sauce, confits that aren’t confits and so on. Take ravioli for example. We all know that it means those small filled pockets of pasta. Then, as the description moved out of Italian eateries into the mainstream, we began seeing menus listing raviolo and learned that it meant one, usually larger, pillow while also, if you were so inclined, learning the difference between the plural and singular masculine noun endings in Italian. So if you order a raviolo of crayfish from a menu and it comes as crayfish sandwiched between two flat sheets of tomato jelly, rather than in a pasta pocket, are you disappointed? The restaurant has obviously called it raviolo because it sounds sexier than sandwich, but have you been misled? Probably. Certainly it’s not what most of us would reasonably expect. Sunday Tasmanian, April 27.
Apr 30
Portion distortion
How do you know if you’re eating too much? It’s a question that’s bothering Australian health experts, who have found that many of us are piling over-large portions onto our plates, with restaurants serving up larger and larger meals to customers. Dr David Cameron-Smith, a researcher at Deakin University’s department of food science in Melbourne, confirms that the food industry is serving up cheap food in larger and larger portions, meaning that many of us are eating more than we need. “The aim of the global food industry is to supply us with more food, but the population isn’t growing anywhere near the level of food sales,” he says. “The rate of food consumption is exceeding the growth of the Australian population.” Dr Cameron-Smith explains that overeating is happening in all facets of society—from restaurants to burger chains and even our own kitchens. “In today’s restaurant culture you expect to walk away from a meal feeling beyond-full, and supermarkets sell bite-size foods designed to be eaten on the go, so you think you’re not consuming as much,” he says. Sunday Herald Sun, April 27.
