Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz
My California Dream Revisited
My recent trip to Anaheim for the 2009 IFT Food Expo brought me back to the place that was so central to my lifelong dream of coming to America. Actually, the dream was not to “go to America” but to “go to California,” and it was planted in my brain at the tender age of 10.
1971 to 1979, Los Angeles
It took a long time and a lot of planning to get there, and I finally arrived as a 23-year-old, on July 18th, 1971. After a 13 hour flight, we landed in L.A. at 7:00 a.m., where an old friend was waiting for me. He was my best friend’s father, and I was going to be staying at his house for a while. He’s probably the one who put this adventure of moving to another country in my mind, because when I was a kid and we were neighbors, he used to talk all the time about California and Los Angeles. When I arrived, he’d been living in L.A. for two years, after waiting many years for the right documents and visa.
Before coming to the U.S., I arranged two job prospects via letters and telegrams (of course, there was no Web at the time!!!). On the very day I arrived, I had a job interview in Hollywood at 4:00 p.m. at the only Brazilian restaurant in California at the time. It was called Brazilian Bossa, because of Bossa Nova, the hit Brazilian rhythm that was popular all over the world at the time. Unfortunately, that job did not work out. I didn’t like the place because it was just a bar with a couple of Brazilian steaks; the kitchen was awful and that was certainly not part of my chef’s dream.
The other interview was for the following week, at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. I had met the general manager when he’d been in Sao Paulo to open the Hilton there, and had gotten a letter of introduction from him. In the meantime while reading the community paper, I saw an ad for a cook’s position at a hotel very close to my friend’s house. I called and the job was still available, so I scheduled an interview for the next day at 9:00 a.m. When I arrived at the hotel, I interviewed with the restaurant manager, got the job, and was to start the following day. But I still needed to go to the Hilton interview. Perhaps fortunately, that also did not work out. I worked at the hotel for two years, both full- and part-time. And because I ended up living in an apartment across the street, I constantly got calls to fill in for others!
Over the next few years, I cooked in other restaurants and eventually became part owner of a restaurant called Gio’s L’auberge. The partnership with my friend the maitre’d lasted four years. During that time, I met my wife and then decided to sell my share of the restaurant and move back to Brazil, ending my California dream.
Anaheim 2009 IFT Food Expo
Trends from the show floor
Here are some of the trends
I noticed in Anaheim:
1 – The Chinese pavilion at the show, which over the last few years had grown very large, was considerably smaller this year. Many of its exhibitors had moved out of the pavilion, and therefore out from under the Chinese umbrella, trying to look and become more mainstream.
2 – The organic marketing niche seems to be becoming smaller, catering to the very young or old and losing mainstream appeal, probably due to the economic crisis.
3 – “Natural” is growing in all segments, even though the term is not always defined.
4 – Similarly, “minimally processed food” is becoming more important to many customers.
5 – Culinology is still growing within
food processors.
Fast forward 30 years, I found myself in California once again, this time working on the Food Expo floor. The IFT convention is the most important trade show for ingredients in the world. It’s great for networking and seeing old friends and colleagues. If you need any ingredients for your product, you will find suppliers here.
I have been going to this show for many years. For the last six years, I’ve attended as part of the IDF team, working the booth helping customers and visitors, many of whom come from outside the USA.
This year’s show was a bit smaller in terms of size and participants, no doubt due to the economic crisis. Many of the traditional large exhibitors were absent this year, but I don’t think that can be blamed only on the economy – this year we were subject to many new California restrictions, rules and regulations, regarding food given out at the show. These new restrictions resulted in having a food show with almost no food sampling! For all the “foodies” present, that was just terrible. I heard many saying, that if the show is in California in the future, they would not be attending or showing.
I was already familiar with California’s food regulations, since during my last year here, they started requiring all seafood on the menu to list its origin. For example, if your menu listed “Dover Sole,” the Sole had to actually be from Dover, not merely from the Channel. This is, of course, very difficult and time-consuming to comply with.
Many creative restaurateurs in California decided to use these rules as a marketing tool by making their dishes sound extra-enticing with the descriptions of the ingredients. Of course, this spread all over the country and was even exaggerated – the other day I saw an entrée on a menu described as “Line caught Black Cod from the Bering Sea.” Sounds great!!
Because of these rules on a menu today, you’re likely to find more details about where the seafood, meat or vegetables originated, than details of how the dish is prepared!
Until next time,
Chef Luiz
