Menu Talk Winsight Podcast Network

This week on Menu Talk, hosts Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor at Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, start off with a beer tasting.

Bret discovered a low-alcohol brew called kvass in his new Brooklyn neighborhood, which is populated by Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern European residents. As Pat visited Sysco headquarters in Houston to get an inside look at how innovative products get into the distributor’s supply chain.

Steak seems to be an ongoing topic of discussion here on Menu Talk. This week, we chat about Michael Mina’s newest branch of Bourbon Steak, which opened in New York City recently. Along with Entrecote and Skirt Steak, two restaurants that offer a prix fixe steak dinner.

Skirt Steak is one of Laurent Tourondel’s restaurants, and reservations are hard to come by. One reason: for $45 per person, diners get grilled steak, fries, salad and bread. That’s a pretty good deal at a chef-driven restaurant in Manhattan.

Tourondel started as a chef in France, but has since operated restaurants in several U.S. locales, including New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and South Florida.

Listen as the accomplished chef-restaurateur shares his journey and talks about what’s next. A bakery is in the works. But another French restaurant? Not so fast.

This week on Menu Talk, hosted by Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food and beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, we discuss the latest news in Cheez-It crackers. The snack food has partnered with Taco Bell to offer giant versions of Cheez-Its, and chef and restaurateur Dan Kluger is offering his own take at Greywind, his new restaurant near Hudson Yards in New York City.

The guest for this week is Nia Grace, who Bret interviewed about her newest restaurant Grace by Nia at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. It’s Grace’s fourth restaurant, and the second location of Grace by Nia, which she opened in partnership with Big Night Entertainment, a restaurant and club operator in Boston.

We also hear how the entrepreneurial chef infuses her family’s culinary legacy into her menus.

This week on Menu Talk, hosts Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food and beverage editor at Nation’s Restaurant News, share their take on high menu prices. Their editors at both publications have had a lot to say about fast-food inflation, but how about sticker shock at full-service restaurants?

Fogo de Chao has found ways to keep prices reasonable without hurting its margins, as CEO Barry McGowan revealed in a chat with Pat. We played clips from their conversation, in which he talks about controlling costs by purchasing “overhang” from meat suppliers, in-house butchering and introducing new cuts to guests. Fogo has raised menu prices by 2.5% in the last couple of years, while other restaurants in the steakhouse category have averaged 10%, he said.

And Bret gives the lowdown on some saucy new fast-food items he tasted. Wendy’s introduced Saucy Nuggs, its version of chicken nuggets tossed and coated with sauce. There’s a choice of seven flavor combos—four spicy and three a little tamer.

This week on Menu Talk, your hosts, Restaurant Business senior menu editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, caught their breath after a whirlwind long weekend at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, and they shared insights into what they saw and tasted there.

Pat was struck by the prevalence of cardamom on the show floor, including in an Indian lassi and a new soda flavor from Tractor Beverage Co.

Bret noticed sprouted coffee, green coffee that is treated with moisture, time, and controlled temperature so that it sprouts, resulting in coffee that is lower in acid and less bitter.

Their colleagues at the show came across a wide variety of boba drinks, but Pat and Bret were more struck by the presence of caviar and caviar-like items, like Australian finger limes with pulp that bursts in a way similar to good fish roe, and other popping spherical food, such as encapsulated and flavored fortified fish broth that provided a lower-cost option for attractive presentations.

Caviar has become an increasingly popular embellishment at full-service restaurants, even in fairly casual venues. Pat also sampled dulse, a seaweed that she said tastes like caviar.

Restaurant Show attendees also often get invited to other events in Chicago, especially if they’re members of the media, and Pat and Bret both attended one by Unilever Food Solutions at fine-dining restaurant Esmé, where they were presented with a multicourse meal that, apart from being beautiful, interactive and delicious, represented some of the broad trends that Unilever explained to the guests.

And finally Bret played clips from his interview with Nathan Myhrvold, author of the food encyclopedia “Modernist Cuisine” and subsequent books, including his latest, “Modernist Bread at Home,” co-written with Francisco Migoya. Myhrvold debunked some common myths about bread baking, and our hosts learned that over-proofed bread doesn’t need to be thrown away: It can be saved.

Listen to the podcast to find out how.

Menu editors Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn were among the guests who celebrated the winners of the 2024 MenuMasters awards on Saturday. We were in the thick of the event at Morgan Manufacturing in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, sampling the chef-prepared food at the various stations and talking to the eight chefs honored this year.

Chef and restaurateur Nancy Silverton was inducted into the MenuMasters Hall of Fame, and we talk on the podcast about her accomplishments as a chef and restaurateur. She was particularly touched to receive an award from the industry, and commented on how these awards celebrate the diversity of restaurants represented at the ceremony. Other winners included fast casuals Cava and Tender Greens, quick-service players Del Taco and McDonald’s and casual-dining concept Fogo de Chao.

Indian entrepreneur Meherwan Irani and digital cooking guru Samuel “Sam the Cooking Guy” Zien were also honored, further reflecting that diversity.

We also dish on the wild MenuMasters “after party,” where special effects, music, dancing and more food and drinks kept guests hopping until almost midnight.

MenuMasters took place during the National Restaurant Show, so we roamed the exhibits and chatted about our favorite tastes, sips and happenings.

This week on Menu Talk, Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food and beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News, share their take on some recent happenings in the world of food, drink and restaurants.

Pat recently visited Coqodaq, a classy NYC Korean fried chicken restaurant with a casual vibe run by the owners of upscale steakhouse Cote.

Both Bret and Pat attended an event for Rocco DiSpirito, the James Beard Award-winning chef and TV celeb who just released a new cookbook called “Everyday Delicious.” Although DiSpirito isn’t currently affiliated with a restaurant, he earned acclaim as the hot and talented young chef helming the kitchen at Union Pacific.

And we played clips from Pat’s podcast with Doug Willmarth, president of Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes, the 72-unit better burger chain. Willmarth talked about how Mooyah differentiates itself in the crowded fast-casual burger segment with its laser focus on quality ingredients cooked from scratch.

Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.