Fritz Pastry Press Release

Oh look, a Fritz Pastry press release.  Why yes, it was written by me.

For Immediate Release

CHICAGO, IL — There’s something to be said for good food that’s also affordable.  Too often nowadays, niche bakeries and cafes are moving towards the “couture” or “boutique” end of the spectrum, without looking back at the rest of us who want to be able to afford more than one cupcake when you walk through the doors.  Many of us would love to dine on upscale pastries, but unfortunately most of us can only afford mid-scale prices.

And that’s where Fritz Pastry comes in.  They understand that good food doesn’t need to come at not-so-good prices, which is oh-so-good for us.  Using the freshest local and organic products available Fritz Pastry will feature not only familiar European pastries, but several vegan options for those looking for an extra guilt-free treat; not to mention a rotating menu of seasonal savory dishes.

The owners of Fritz Pastry haven’t set their goals low.  They are also offering their specialty services are for call ahead ordering, catering, cake sales, and wholesale distribution.  Their menu offers a “Take & Bake” section of pastries by the dozen for those people looking to bring the restaurant home.

Located at 1408 W. Diversy Parkway in the Lakeview neighborhood, Fritz Pastry isn’t just another cafe opening in Chicago, but is a cafe that brings its diners to the cobblestones of Europe with every buttery bite.

Chef Nathaniel Meads, the chef behind Fritz Pastry, has long-held a love for the baking and pastry world.  Starting in a small Kankakee bakeshop in 1995 Meads has worked his way up through the restaurant scene.  He was most recently the Executive Pastry Chef for Blue Water Grill before its closing in 2009.

Meads spent his college days working through Joliet Junior College’s Culinary Arts Program, as well as several restaurants turning school theory into real-world practice.   In May 2002 Meads began a long, healthy career with Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, joining the staff of reknowned restaurant Brasserie Jo as a Patissier.  2006 saw Meads join the staff of world famous The Everest Room as a Pastry Assistant where he would learn the skills to one day lead an entire pastry team.  That same year, Meads joined Gale Gand’s pastry team at the also famous and award-winning Tru.  In 2007 Meads was hired as the Executive Pastry Chef for Blue Water Grill to reinvent the dessert menu.  Creating desserts that were not only delicious, but fun his dishes have been featured on ABC Chicago’s Hungry Hound.

Featuring not only pastries familiar to those who visit cafes, Meads and his partners are hoping to bring a taste of Europe to the Lakeview neighborhood, in turn hoping to make Fritz Pastry a favorite cafe for all of Chicago.

When Meads isn’t making food, he’s eating it.  And when Meads isn’t eating food, he’s thinking about making more.

Elaine Heaney comes from the administration side of the restaurant industry, spending several years as Nacional 27′s Business Manager and Event Coordinator.

Jared Nance currently hails from Nacional 27 where he is currently a bartender and shift leader.  He has worked in the restaurant industry since 1994, covering both the front-of-house and kitchen operations.

McDonald’s To Offer Individual McNuggets

When I first heard the rumblings that McDonald’s was going to be offering up individual McNuggets for a mere quarter in some markets, all I could think of was this Chris Rock moment from the classic I’m Gonna Git You Sucka:

I guess ultimately it’s no different than going into LJS and ordering one hushpuppie, but somehow ordering just one McNugget seems….weird.

Foodies For Obama

Foodies For Obama

Love food?  Love Obama?  Join the Facebook Group “Foodies for Obama.”  We all know I loathe the term foodie, but I was browsing around the interwebs to see if I could find any Obama related food bits, and had to share this link with other democratic politico types.

We also learn in a New York Times piece (via Obama’s webpage) that he’s a fan of the Honest Tea:

“…when it comes to food, Senator Obama “eats pretty much anything, from chicken wings and barbecue and ribs to grilled fish and steamed broccoli.” But when he is campaigning in a small town with limited options, a cheeseburger is always a good bet. (“Cheddar is the cheese of choice,” Mr. Love added.)

He knows that “the boss,” as he calls Mr. Obama, likes MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea. He keeps a supply of both on hand.”

The only downside to all this food talk?  Turns out Obama likes the broccoli.  I hope I can learn to forgive him.

Almost like live blogging

Mike now has the ability to blog on his phone? Watch out world! I’m like the lawnmower man or something.

The Rise of the Gastrosexual

PurAsia, creator of "gastrosexual"

Okay.  We all know I hate the word foodie.  It’s been oft discussed.  But, I’ll take (begrudgingly) being labeled that any day of the week compared to what The Daily Telegraph is reporting as the rise of the “gastrosexual.”

A quote from the report, conducted by PurAsia:

Gastrosexuals can be male or female but the common denominator is their love of food. We found that cooking for this new generation isn’t simply a matter of refuelling. For them it’s an enjoyable experience and something to be relished – they cook for pleasure, praise and potential seduction.

‘Male Gastrosexuals in particular are no longer content with what they can find at the back of the kitchen cupboard. They are looking for something much more satisfying in terms of taste, participation and effort.’

Yes.  Every man who learns to cook is doing it purely to seduce women.  Thank you PurAsia.  Wait…who the FUCK is PurAsia?

Why, they’re the new product wing from “Mars Food, the US giant’s non-confectionery arm in the UK” And they have apparently “just undertaken its first new product launch for nine years, with the introduction of the Asian ready meal concept…”

This article was printed yesterday in the UK, and reprinted with a little sexy fun in Radar online.  Yet the domain name gastrosexual.com was registered back on December 07, 2007.

Hmmmm….does this smell of blatant undermining of a sub-culture through viral advertising?  Stephen Colbert coming up with his own word for satire is one thing.  But, this just feels dirty.

You can read their full 29-page “report” on their website. (PDF)

And the big kicker is that the company, PurAsia, promoting a term that defines people who don’t look for the easy way out where food is concerned is the creator of “ready-made Asian meals.” Yes.  There’s no better way to impress the ladies than to drag out your finest China, and woo her with some ramen noodles and Thai Kitchen-like microwavable Pad Thai.

PurAsia, the lounge lizard of gastronomy.

Frosting Shots Replace Espresso

Frosting Shots by jcsupersmith

Okay people, I’m with you.  I understand the day is long, and we all need our pick-me-ups.  But seriously?  Frosting shots?  FROSTING SHOTS?  For every step we seem to take in the right direction, someone comes up with an idea that send us back three.

My words are failing me.  They’re stuck in my brain.  I’ve rewritten this second paragraph three times now.  Obviously the cupcake bakeries are giving people what they want.  And obviously, people are willing to pay $1.50 for a shotglass full of buttercream frosting.  But, maybe, in this case, we SHOULDN’T be giving the people what they want.

All this talk of healthier eating, saving money because of the current state of economics, and the apocryphal shuttering of Starbucks across the country would leave one to believe that maybe $1.50 for FROSTING isn’t the best economical decision right now.  And it’s definitely not the healthiest.   Honestly, what will this do for a person?  It’ll give them a cheap sugar high, only cause them to crash harder, forcing them to find something ELSE to keep them awake until the 5 o’clock hour.

Do people hate the taste of tea or coffee that much?  Is the idea of walking around your office for 2 minutes to trying?  Why are people willing to pay $1.50 for FROSTING?!  Please, people of my country, quit making us look like bigger gluttons than we already are.

And the bakeries selling this?  Shame on you for charging $1.00 or more for a shot glass full of frosting.  That’s worth maybe 25 cents.  MAYBE.

Sure…As Natural As Joan Rivers’ Face

Slashfood wrote earlier today:

Recently, the Corn Refiners Association announced that they are launching a $30 million advertising campaign that is aimed at convincing consumers that HFCS is a natural compound, fundamentally the same as honey. Of course, unlike honey, HFCS is the product of a complex, chemical-intensive refining process that takes place in an industrial setting, but why quibble? Strangely, the FDA has agreed with them. Unfortunately, rather than convince me that HFCS is all-natural, the FDA’s stance has made me seriously question the integrity of the federal government when it comes to food purity.

I’m not sure exactly how highly processed vegetable byproduct equals “natural,” but I do know that between this and the FDA’s apparent loosening of the very definition of chocolate purely for the sake of letting the big companies make cheaper product really emphasizes the fact that no, the government isn’t looking out for our best interests.  They are in fact just trying to let the rich people stay rich.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is as natural as most of Pamela Anderson, folks.  If it’s the first ingredient in your food?  Drop it.  No one needs that in their system.

The Naperville Sun Proves We’re Nearly Legit

Holy crap!  We’re in a newspaper.  In the Wednesday, July 9, edition of the Naperville Sun Katie and I are interviewed with a couple other local-area foodbloggers about why we blog.  It was a neat little honor to be included in the article, and I’m glad she didn’t include some more of my inflammatory comments.

Because I’ve been taken out of context before, mostly in a Joliet Herald article years ago about my art show, I was convinced that I would get the article, only to see it titled, “Michael Rank Says ‘I Ain’t No Effin’ Foodie!’”  Luckily, she was much kinder to me than I probably deserve.

Everyone’s favorite quote seems to be,

Although he eschews meat, Rank, 32, admits he will try “pretty much anything,” while Lindgren retains a dash of the “horribly picky eater” she was for the first two decades of her 26 years.

“I’m sorry if bacon, egg and cheese crackers don’t appeal to me,” she told Rank, though it was clear she wasn’t really all that sorry about it.

You can read the full article on the Naperville Sun website, but I recommend rushing out and buying several copies.  We’ll even sign them for you, if you mail them to me with a SASE.  Everyone should have a little brush with fame before we sky rocket to the Food Network heavens!

One can only assume that the next logical step for us is a Food Network series, followed by a collection of popular cook books.  Ultimately I’m hoping to be in a death match against Alton Brown and Rachel Ray, with my weapons of choice.  We’ll show their pretty faces what for!

K.T. Thai Cuisine Shutters Its Doors

The only Thai place in the Romeoville area has apparently closed up shop.  When and why it happened, I don’t have any word on, but when driving by it today to pick up some pizza at Rosati’s, the store front was dark, all of the decor already moved out with only a couple neon signs left in the windows.

As I wrote several months back, I used to love this independently owned place, but the quality had definitely gone down in the past couple years.  Many said it had to do with the wife earning her realty license, and no longer focusing on the restaurant as much as she once did.  Whether that’s true or not, I can’t say, but the change was definitely there.

Here’s hoping that two of the friendlier restaurant owners I’ve met find luck in whatever they do next.

Unicef’s Tap Project

In keeping with the awareness theme this week, whether it be Multiple Sclerosis or lizards in salads (*blurg*), a co-worker forwarded me a link to another worthy semi-food related starting next week.

Unicef’s Tap Week is teaming with a host of the nation’s restaurants to try and provide clean drinking water to children in third world nations.  Between March 16-22, participating restaurants will be asking $1.00 for a glass of tap water which will be donated to Unicef.  Chicago has quite a few restaurants helping out.

From the Tap Project site:

To address this situation, a nationwide effort is launching during World Water Week called the Tap Project, a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world.

The Tap Project.

Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

Even if you don’t live in the Chicago area, there’s probably a restaurant near you joining with Unicef to provide clean water.  Why not help out if you can?  You can also donate online.