hotels articles

New York City health committee chairman Joel Rivera is taking a stand against the raging levels of obesity in his city by lobbying to slow the uncontrolled growth of fast-food chains.

“(Fast-food restaurants) make good-tasting, affordable food, but unfortunately, it lacks nutrition,” said the slim and fit Rivera.

The Democratic leader of the Bronx is worried about the increasing levels of obesity in New York and the subsequent health risks. His plan for controlling the problem is to persuade the U.S. Health Department and fellow politicians to use zoning laws to limit the number of fast-food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods, where obesity-related diseases like type 2 diabetes are most rampant.

“What I want to do is limit the number of fast-food establishments within specific proximity of each other, and try to give incentives for healthy alternatives and give people choice.”

Rivera is aware that he has challenged a powerful adversary in threatening the fast-food giants, but he notes that this strategy has already worked in other cities across the United States.

Big names in fast food are not the only people standing against Rivera, however. Some locally-owned fast-food businesses stand to be shut down, should the zoning laws be changed. Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Scientific Health, also feels Rivera’s plan is weak.

“I think it’s an absurd solution, not just from the point of individual choice. It just wouldn’t work. If you love fast food and you’re fat, you’d just go to another neighborhood; and you probably wouldn’t jog there, you’d probably take a cab,” she said.

Many members of the public, however, admit that they only eat at fast-food restaurants for the convenience factor, and would gladly eat healthier fare.

One New Yorker said, “Burger King, Popeyes, KFC is right there. It’s what we have. We could get better, but we don’t get better.”

Many experts name Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s franchise, and Walt Disney as the pioneers of child-focused marketing, since they first recognized children as a separate marketing demographic from adults in the 1960s. For Kroc and Disney, the decision was a pragmatic business move. “A child who loves our TV commercials and brings her grandparents to a McDonald’s gives us two more customers,” Kroc once said. More than 40 years later, the McDonald’s franchise remains at the forefront of child-directed marketing, a source of concern for both consumer groups and parents who believe that McDonald’s purposely markets unhealthy food to children.

McDonald’s currently spends more money on advertising in general than any other brand in all industries combined, helping it replace Coca-Cola as the world’s most famous brand, according to “Fast Food Nation” author Eric Schlosser. The fast food franchise operates more playgrounds than any other American private corporation, is the namesake for McKids, which is the bestselling line of children’s clothing in the United States, and is one of the largest toy distributors. In 1998, 89 percent of American children under age 8 had visited McDonald’s at least once per month. Furthermore, according to a research study of American children, 96 percent of those surveyed could recognize Ronald McDonald, making him the second most identifiable fictional character after Santa Claus. All this has led Schlosser to conclude, “The impact of McDonald’s on the way we live today is hard to overstate.”

Unfortunately, the company that has such a large impact on our society sells food and beverages that also appear to increase risk for the chronic diseases that plague our population. The “McLibel” trial — when the McDonald’s Corporation took two working class, British citizens to court for passing out anti-McDonald’s leaflets — ended up working against the plaintiff, as the trial’s widespread popularity made the defendants’ condemnations of McDonald’s more well known than if they would have just been allowed to pass out the leaflets. “Not only had the trial focused public attention on ethical issues related to McDonald’s marketing to children of diets high in calories, saturated fat, and sodium, but it also had illustrated the time and expense to which a food company was willing to go to stifle criticism of such practices,” Marion Nestle writes in “Food Politics.”

A new study found that residents in large cities who live farther from grocery stores than fast-food restaurants are more likely to die prematurely of diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Researchers conducting the study for LaSalle Bank examined Chicago’s south and west sides, where “food deserts” contain few grocery stores but abound in fast-food restaurants, and where the majority of residents are African-American.

The study measured block-by-block distance to the nearest grocery store versus the nearest fast food restaurant, and found that an average African-American block is located twice as far from a grocery store than a fast-food restaurant. Consequently, people in such areas are more likely to die early from heart disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes.

More than a half million Chicago residents live in food deserts, with 400,000 more living in areas that have imbalanced food choices, where it’s easier to gain access to junk food than healthy food.

Lead researcher Mari Gallagher says the study provides a “statistically significant” link between food choices and health conditions in such food deserts, and that such areas can “pose serious health and wellness challenges to the residents who live within them and the city as a whole.”

The study found that in general, obesity increases as access to a grocery store decreases — regardless of income levels.

(NewsTarget) New York City health officials recently unveiled a proposal that would ban artificial trans fatty acids from the city’s 24,600 restaurants, just three years after prohibiting smoking in eateries.

Most trans fats are found in shortenings, margarines and frying oils, and can be found in foods ranging from french fries and doughnuts to pie crusts and fried chicken. The proposed ban would require national fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dunkin’ Donuts to change recipes and cooking methods to eliminate the fats.

If passed, the proposal would require restaurants to eliminate trans fats from cooking oils, shortening and margarine by July 1, 2007, and from all other foods by July 1, 2008. The ban would not apply to grocery stores or to foods that contain naturally occurring trans fats, such as some meat and dairy products.

“This measure would help protect consumers from one of the post poisonous adulterations of fatty acids in our food supply,” says consumer advocate Mike Adams, author of “Grocery Warning.” “Hydrogenated oils and trans fatty acids are so universally dangerous to human health that the World Health Organization recommended their outright ban three decades ago.”

New York Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden says the ban would be a challenge for restaurants, but that trans fats can be easily replaced and substituted with healthier oils that taste better. “It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient,” Frieden says. “No one will miss it when it’s gone.”

Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the NYC chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, says he is stunned that officials would try to ban a legal ingredient used in millions of kitchens in America. “Labeling is one thing, but when they totally ban a product, it goes beyond what we think is prudent and acceptable,” he says.

Hunt says the proposal would force cooks to scrutinize every ingredient in the pantry and re-invent recipes. Restaurants would be subject to fines if inspectors found ingredients containing artificial trans fats, which has led some to call the proposal unnecessary meddling by the government.

However, Adams says government regulations protect Americans from toxic substances in the water, air and environment, so foods should enjoy similar protection from toxins. “This isn’t a regulation that attempts to dictate the way you eat,” Adams says. “It’s simply one that seeks to remove a known toxic substance from the food supply.”

Have you ever noticed that when you go out to eat at an Italian restaurant, or even to your favorite grocery store, the choices of pasta is nearly limitless? There is every kind of different shape and size of pasta that you can imagine. Truly, it can be overwhelming at times trying to figure it all out. What are all these different kinds of pasta for? How can you determine what is what? Let’s take a closer look at all the various kinds of pasta and what they are used for.

Spaghetti. This is an easy one. It’s one food that we all know and love. Spaghetti comes in a box, or a bag, in long thin strands. You cook it in boiling water and mix it into your favorite spaghetti sauce recipe.

Ravioli. Here is another pretty easy one for everybody. Ravioli is a small, square shaped pasta that is stuffed with several different fillings like meat, cheese, mushrooms, sausage, etc. Ravioli can be topped with tomato sauce and can even come toasted.

Macaroni. One of the all-time favorites! Macaroni is a small, hollow tube pasta. It is used mainly in cooking macaroni and cheese.

Cannelloni. Cannelloni is also a hollow tube pasta, but it is much larger than macaroni. Cannelloni is stuffed with different meat sauce mixtures and also will have various cheeses baked in the middle.

Linguine and Fettuccine. These pastas are know as ribbon noodles due to the fact they are long, stringy and flat. They can come in many different lengths. These noodles are a delicious food with creamy sauces mixed onto them such as Alfredo sauce.

Tortellini. Tortellini is yet another type of stuffed pasta. They come in half circle pieces that are folded over and stuffed with meat, cheese, sausage, or other ingredients. You can also pour your favorite sauce over the top of this delicious food.

Vermicelli. Vermicelli is a very fine, thin string of pasta. It is also known as “angel hair” pasta. It can be used with a creamy sauce of your choice, or used with other items such as crab, or shrimp. Many times vermicelli is formed together to form a type of nest that will hold the crab, or shrimp on top of it.

Conghiglie. This pasta is shaped like small shells. There are many different sizes of conghiglie. From tiny pasta shells that are good for using in soups, to larger sizes that can be stuffed. This type of pasta is a favorite food in pasta salads.

Farfalle. Farfalle is a pasta that is bow shaped and also used mainly in different pasta salads.

Fusilli. Fusilli is a thin spiral shaped pasta that is good in pasta salads. It is also good with different styles of sauces.

Lasagna. Lasagna is perhaps the best of all the different pastas. These are long, wide strips of pasta that are layered with fillings between them. These fillings can include meat, sausage, cheese, mushrooms and about anything else you can think of. More cheese is piled on top and then baked in the oven.

Yet another interesting stop in our culinary adventures in Paris, the Le Gourmet restaurant offers great French cuisine for prices I hadn’t seen in Paris in 15 years.

Lunch time, where to go?

This is the third installment of the series of articles which I set about to write a couple of weeks ago on eating out well in Paris. I love food, I love good cuisine, and I want fellow travelers to enjoy Paris to the hilt. That’s enough reasons to guide them to those places I am certain they will enjoy.

Lunch time in Paris is restaurant time. People who work in the city do not carry their lunch bags with them. They rarely enjoy the benefit of a corporate catering service, but even if they do, such catering is hardly a feat for anyone’s eyes and taste buds.

Small restaurants perform a vital service: they feed the locals rather satisfactorily, inexpensively, and in record time.

What applies to locals applies to travelers, and your next culinary stop happens in just such circumstances. After a long morning walk in the quaint streets on the slopes of the Montmartre hill, you feel nicely hungry. Your steps lead you to Place de Clichy, a busy crossroads between the 17th, the 9th and the 18th districts (metro station: ‘Place de Clichy’).

Time for a gourmet experience!

Le Gourmet

You may be hungry, but you are no fool. You want to eat well, and spend your heard-earned cash on food worth this name.

In my considerate opinion none of the eateries positioned around Place de Clichy are worth the money they ask for. I find their cuisine either overpriced, or downright vulgar. I never had a satisfactory lunch at any of these places.

So where to go? Not far away.

When you are on Place de Clichy, turn yourself so as to face the downward slope, with the metro station in your back. Aim at Rue de Clichy, left of Rue d’Amsterdam. Walk down the street for about 200 yards, and turn left in Rue de Bruxelles. Walk another 200 yards. There you are on the right sidewalk.

Your next favorite food stop is located at No. 19 rue de Bruxelles. Name: Le Gourmet. Identifiable sign: its French bistro-style facade. And a crowd.

Entering the bistro

If you happen to walk in at around noon thirty, you may have to wait just a tad. The place is packed. I have been to this restaurant numerous times, and I still have to be there the day it is not packed at lunch time.

My advice: come at around 12:00 am, and grab a spot before everybody else does.

The place exudes old charm, with dark wood panels, old posters, menu slates marked with chalk on the walls, a traditional bar, a mosaic floor, bistro-style chairs and tables. It smells good, though cigarette smoke can become an issue at times when the facade door isn’t left open.

The owner and chef bought the restaurant about 2 years ago from its first and long-time owners, an elderly couple who retired after having steered the ship for longer than any local can remember. The new owner liked the decor, and decided to preserve it as-is, except for the facade which was changed early in 2006.

In this very Parisian setting, patrons feel immediately welcomed and are quickly seated either by the boss or a smiling waitress. This is lunch time, and they know patrons are in a hurry. No unnecessary delay.

Seated, and menu in hands

The menu is in fact chalked on the slates that hang on the front and back walls. A remarkable feat for such small a restaurant, the menu changes every day.

Anyone who lived in Paris for some time knows that restaurant menus do not change beyond the ‘plat du jour’ – the main fare for the day. Even the ‘plat du jour’ does not change that much: from one week to another, the same courses tend to get back on the menu.

Not so at ‘Le Gourmet’: the menu changes everyday and no two weeks are alike. True diversity. Even if you were to eat there every day for 20 days, you could try 20 different courses.

Gourmet cuisine is a mission

The boss comes from the province of Touraine, in Western France. He likes to work on French traditional dishes, and his cuisine draws its main inspiration from the famous Burgundy and Lyons regions.

Among the ‘terroir’ dishes served at Le Gourmet, you can taste veal knuckle (souris de veau), prime cuts of veal (onglet de veau), roasted gilthead bream (daurade royale rôtie), stewed duck (pot-au-feu de canard), pike dumpling (quenelle de brochet). And the list goes on.

To get fresh products from his favorite suppliers, he wakes up at 3:30 am every day to go to the wholesale market (the Rungis market, situated south of Paris). He buys only what he needs for the day, loads up his truck, and heads back to his restaurant where he’s spend the rest of the morning to cook for lunch.

The chef’s motto is “fresh products, traditional preparation”. He uses butter, not margarine. He doesn’t buy frozen products, and no off-the-shelf sauces as he prepares his sauces himself. He is light-handed on spices which he thinks ‘are all too often used to hide something’.

Appetizer, main course, dessert, wines

Le Gourmet’s menu typically offers a choice of 4 appetizers (such as a warmed up goat cheese served on a loaf of country bread), 3 or 4 main courses (meat, fish, poultry), and 4 desserts.

The choice of desserts is also ‘old-school’: depending on the day, your selection may include chocolate whipped cream, baba au rhum (a spongy cake saturated with dealcoholized rum), biscuits with ganache (a mix of chocolate, cream and butter), orange cake, fondant cake, floating island (beaten egg whites floating on a French custard), red fruit pies, and so forth.

Light wines get the lion’s share of the wine list. The chef’s hometown is Valencay (in the heart of the Touraine region), and he purchases his bottles directly from local producers. The list comprises a variety of well-thought-of vines: Gamay, Cabernet, Valençay, Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny.

Tired of going to the same place over and over again for your dates? Not to mention dishing out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to eat out at an expensive restaurant; only to have your date, say to your face that she never wants to see you again?

For those individuals whose answer is yes, do not get discouraged, because your dating lives is about to change.

Here is a list of some fun dating ideas that will surely be a change from the usual boring dates.

1. Go to a karaoke bar. Unleash the American Idol wannabe in you by taking your date and yourself to a local karaoke bar. This is a sure way to have fun and some laughs. The great thing about this is that one does not necessarily have to possess a golden voice - just a great sense of humor, and a thick skin that can withstand being laughed at when you try and fail to execute those high notes!

2. Instead of going to an ultra expensive restaurant that serves dishes with portion sizes fit for an elf, why not plan a picnic instead? Not only will individuals be able to save some money this way; but they would also be able to impress their dates by including some of their favorite foods in the picnic basket!

When going on a picnic date it is important to choose a location that offers some peace and quiet. This way, couples would be able to talk with each other. One of the best places to have a picnic is somewhere beside a lake. Having the lake as part of the background is very romantic! Just like a scene out of a movie.

3. A comedy club is a great place to take your date, especially if he or she loves to laugh! For those who are on a first date and can’t think of a way to break the ice, seeing a comedy act will give them something to talk about! So no more rehearsing of lines, and topics for conversation. This usually never works. It only ends up boring your date!

4. It sounds cheesy, but it works! For a first date, why not go to a romantic movie? This will even give couples an excuse to holds hand inside their greasy tub of popcorn! The great thing about this is that they don’t need to say a word to each other, because the characters in the movie will do the talking for them with their sappy dialogue. This is perfect for those guys who automatically go into freeze mode when it comes time to chat up their dates!

When it comes to dating the secret is to get creative! Do not do what everybody else has done before. Think of something new and memorable. Before a special date, individuals should try to find out what type of activities their dates are into! This way, they would have an idea of what types of things they should incorporate into their itinerary for that special date.

Individuals should make sure that they devote a lot of time and some thinking into planning their dates. For sure the person that they’re going out with will appreciate their effort in trying to make the date a special occasion. Chances are if they pull this off, their special someone will reward them with another date!

Over the last two decades I have consulted to, provided workshops for, and delivered keynote presentations on leadership to a variety of restaurant chains and individual restaurant managers. I continue to be surprised by the general confusion between management and leadership. Managers push, leaders pull. Managers try to light a fire under people, leaders stoke the fire within. Managers command, leaders inspire. Managers use position power, leaders use persuasion power. Managers control, leaders foster commitment.

For some reason the contrast between extreme management and leadership seems to be especially sharp in the restaurant business. Management tends to be at the extremes edges in this industry. It often involves fear and intimidation. How can fearful and angry serving staff turnaround and provide great service? Research clearly shows that they don’t. As Don Cherry might say, it’s not “rocket surgery.” Unhappy and poorly served staff passes how they are treated to their customers. In today’s workplace, a management style of pushing people around often pushes the highest performers right out the door.

Maybe it’s just because I was raised on a farm, but whenever I hear managers use the term “head count” (and I hear it a lot), it grates on me like fingernails scratching a blackboard. When managers say things like “we’ve got to reduce our head count” I immediately think of cattle. In the community where I grew up, farmers would ask each other questions like “how many head are you milking?” when talking about cows in a dairy herd. People were never referred to this way.

Despite all their pious declarations about the importance of people, leadership, and values, far too many managers treat people in their operations with about as much care as they would attach to fixtures, equipment, or décor. They are just one more set of assets to be managed. These just happen to be breathing and have skin wrapped around them. Managers who view “their people” as property are cold and dispassionate. In fact, they would make perfect donors for heart transplants – their hearts have had such little use!

Management

• Commanding

• Solving problems

• Directing and controlling

• Seeing people as they are

• Empowering

• Operating

• Pushing

• Heroic manager

• Quick fix to symptons

Leadership

• Coaching

• Enabling others to solve problems

• Teaching and engaging

• Developing people into what they can be

• Partnering

• Improving

• Pulling

• Facilitative leader

• Search for systemic root causes

Growing Spaces

I enjoy perennial gardening in our yard. As I have tended our gardens over the years, I am continually struck by how some plants will do well in some locations and terribly elsewhere in the garden. Each spring and fall I move plants around to match their preferences for particular soil, wind, and sun conditions, as well as their proximity to other plants. At times I have been pleasantly surprised by how some lackluster plants have suddenly thrived in a new location better suited to their needs. Since each perennial has a different bloom time and length, one of the gardening challenges is to keep color spread throughout the garden from early spring to late fall. It’s one reason I never “cheat” by using annuals that bloom all summer long. A constant chore is cutting off old blooms to encourage new ones and pruning plants that are becoming overgrown.

Managers often use a “one size fits all” approach and try to “mass grow” people. Leaders work with people to discover where they are best able to thrive and succeed. Like a good gardener, leaders treat each person in their organization as an individual with his or her own unique aspirations, strengths, and characteristics. Leaders then work to put people in the best place for them to thrive and succeed. They mix and match team members to build a well-rounded team that can show its best colors according to the season – or is best suited to the current operating conditions of the organization or the team. Leaders tend to each person on their team and coach them to change habits or prune overgrown methods that may prevent further growth. They are consistently moving team members around to avoid overcrowding and to bring out the best in each person.

Cash In Drawer Limits

Restaurant point of sale systems have loads of features that POS salespeople love to talk about. Some are glamorous, others are flashy and some are unique to their product. When showing off these new and fancy features too often these salespeople forget about the basics and why cash registers were invented in the first place.

Preventing theft. That is the purpose of a cash register. Ringing up items and safely storing cash if the fundamental philosophy that created a now multi-billion dollar industry known as the Point of Sale Industry.

Why then are so many point of sale companies, software manufacturers and POS salespeople forgetting about the fundamental principles that are still valid in today’s business environment? The answer eludes and frustrates me because valuable profits are being lost by not utilizing these basic and important features.

This is a series of articles about the fundamental features that every business should be using to stop employee theft, increase sales and increase profits.

->Cash In Drawer (CID) Limit<-

This feature has been around since I started in the cash register business some 25+ years ago. I haven’t heard POS salespeople talk about this for over a decade and if it isn’t being used in your business you are opening yourself up for theft and possibly armed robbery of your business.

All cash registers and point of sale systems track sales and tenders. They all know how much money, checks, gift cards, credit cards and other forms of payment are in each cash drawer/till.

Most cash registers and a few point of sale software companies have the ability to set a limit on how much cash should be in each cash drawer/till. When this limit is reached the cashier is notified and then can notify management to do a cash pull from the drawer. Some systems go as far as sending a message via pager/cell phone alerting management that a cash drawer/till is over the cash limit.

Management can then go to the drawer, pull out an amount of cash, count it and enter the amount removed as a cash pull. This amount is then removed from the cash in drawer amount and lowers the overall cashier responsibility.

Do not forget that every time the cash drawer/till is opened all the cash is exposed to view and to the temptation of everyone. Not only does the money become accessible to your cashier, it is also accessible to long-armed customers who have been known to reach across when the cashier was not looking.

What could be even worse is the fact that when the cash drawer/till is open potential robbers are able to estimate and determine if your operation is worth returning for a full-scale robbery.

Cashiers like this feature in that it reduces the amount of cash they are responsible for as the cash removed is deducted from their overall cash responsibility. Cashiers also like the fact that if there is less cash in the drawer they are less apt to have a gun shoved in their face during a robbery.

Owners like this feature in that it reduces the temptation to remove money from the cash drawer/till through employee theft or through robbery.

If you are an owner, wouldn’t you like keeping more of the money in your cash drawer/till for yourself? Wouldn’t you like to reduce the chance/temptation of an armed robbery? This old-time cash register feature now found in some point of sale systems could be the exact answer to your needs.

Check your current point of sale system to see if the cash in drawer feature is even offered. If you are looking at a new point of sale system you should make sure that the cash in drawer feature is offered.

Don’t let technology dazzle you to the point that you forget about the basics features that you need to stop theft and increase profits. Those features that have been around for decades are still valid today.

Cash in drawer limits were considered an important part of any cash register and point of sale system for many years. The reason for the feature and the need to keep your cash safe never went away. Stopping theft is still a critical aspect of any point of sale system. That being the case, why should you settle for anything less than your business needs? Don’t settle for less. Demand the cash in drawer feature.

Do you love to eat? Well, come to Cleveland with a big appetite, then. With more than 1,000 stylish, restaurants, bistros and microbreweries to choose from in Greater Cleveland, you will never get hungry. Read on for a guide on Cleveland restaurants so that you can sample the latest food trends or flavorful ethnic cuisine that Cleveland has to offer.

First-class dining

Cleveland’s own Ristorante Giovanni’s, The Baricelli Inn, The Leopard Restaurant, Lockkeepers, and the Century at The Ritz-Carlton should be in your list if you are looking for award-winning cuisine. These Cleveland restaurants are all winners of the AAA Four Diamond Award. Expect to spend about $30 and up for a meal in these restaurants – not a bad deal of you really want first-rate cuisine experience.

Casual dining

Enjoy the charming décor and contemporary cuisine of casual dining restaurants in Cleveland. Choose from American to Asian to Middle Eastern menus, or combine them all and go for fusion food. Expect to spend about $15 to $30 on lunch and dinner full meals.

Cheap Thrills

In Cleveland, good food never has to be expensive. For under $15, you can have great dishes of any kind – Mongolian, Japanese, Italian, and good old American. Most of them offer full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, and some have breakfast and fruit buffets and soup and salad bars. There are also a lot of in-restaurant bakeries for bread lovers. The streets surrounding four major venues – Jacobs Field, Quicken Loans Arena, CSU Wolstein Center and Playhouse Square – are lined with reasonably-priced restaurants guaranteed to satisfy any appetite. Come with a group for more fun.

Taste of Cleveland

Cleveland holds a yearly ‘Taste of Cleveland’ during Labor Day weekends – so if you happen to be in the area, go to this event! It’s usually held at the Tower City Amphitheater. Some 50 Cleveland area restaurants display their latest cuisine for everyone to try.