Fisher Media Management Forum: Food Industry Panel

April was quite the month in Boston and EatingPlaces has been quiet for the last few weeks. I’ve tried to write about various food-related topics, but I kept ending up at the same feeling: do I ignore what’s going on around me or address it? People experience fear, loss, anxiety, and hope in such varying ways. So I took a break from blogging and welcomed spring by being outside and spending time with friends and loved ones. I’m feeling rejuvenated and ready to talk food.

Last month I was invited to a marketing forum where I listened to a panel of fantastic Boston-area food and social media marketing professionals. Undergraduate students from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY put together the Fisher Media Management Forum, which was a two-day, two-city event. The student-led forum began in New York City on Thursday, April 11 and then continued in Boston on Friday, April 12.

Throughout the two days, panels featured professionals from the broad fields of marketing and public relations. Communications and business students, many who will be graduating next month, connected with panelists and bridged classroom knowledge with in-the-field scenarios. I was most interested in the ‘PR in the Food Industry’ panel. Making my way up to the BC Club at 100 Federal Street, I looked forward to great views of Boston and having an engaging conversation about food in social media.

Participating in the food industry panel were Renee Hirschberg, founder of the Boston Bunchers and blogger at Eat.Live.Blog; Jacki Morisi, PR and Marketing Manager at Rialto and blogger at Just Add Cheese; Marissa Sweazy, Digital Director at Weber Shandwick; and David Remillard, Marketing and Community Relations at Whole Foods.

(From left to right: Marissa Sweazy, Renee Hirschberg, Jacki Morisi, David Remillard)

Themes of the discussion included outreach and knowing your audience, how restaurants connect with bloggers, the college student perspective on new media, promotions, engaging employees to participate in social media, and the future of the food and digital industries.

The forum was a great opportunity to consider the food industry social media landscape from multiple points of view. It was refreshing to hear Marissa and David discuss the process of reaching out to bloggers, agreeing that quality is more important than quantity and connecting with bloggers is all about forming relationships. Renee began a great conversation about the value of PR firms knowing their writers and being strategic about who they reach out to.

Fisher student Alison Taylor introduced the concept of speed and ease-of-use to the conversation when she explained how Pinterest is too time-consuming to use on a mobile device. It’s true, the future of social is mobile and our forum panel confirmed that.

On the topics of ROI and promotions, David explained how different companies deal with promotions in their own way. Some company cultures and expectations are more short-sighted, while others (such as Whole Foods) are in it for the long-term and will focus on the relationship building process with customers.

During the forum there were a few moments when I thought ‘okay, I’ve had this conversation a million times’, but then when a few different perspectives entered the arena, I realized how beneficial it can be to keep talking about these big issues and social media techniques. The landscape is always changing and the Fisher Media Management Forum did a great job of bringing local, on-the-ground perspectives together for an afternoon.

(St. John Fisher College students with panelists)

Thank you to Samantha Looker who led the Boston forum and St. John Fisher College for making this panel possible.

Roasted Lamb with Tzatziki and Spring Green Salad

I created a Greek-inspired lamb recipe. The Greek influence shouldn’t be too surprising – I’m always looking to regional flavors for my recipes. But the leg of lamb part – that’s something new for EatingPlaces.

Earlier this month I was invited to participate in the Second Annual American Lamb Pro-Am. Bloggers from the Greater Boston Area are invited to create an original recipe featuring lamb. After the recipes are posted, people vote for their favorite recipe. Voting has already started and will continue through April 26. To vote, click here. Based on the votes, top recipe-creators continue on to be paired with an amazing local chef and cook for folks as a team at the culminating lamb extravaganza American Lamb Pro-Am event on May 19. And Boston Chefs asked me to be a contestant!

So this week I picked up a 9-pound leg of lamb from the Boston Chefs Lamb Pick-Up Party at Tavern Road in South Boston. That’s a LOT of lamb! I had a great time meeting folks from Boston Chefs – Paul Schiavone (CEO) and Kate Vandeveld (Events Coordinator) – who are coordinating the Lamb Pro-Am event, and enjoying a cocktail and lamb apps from Tavern Road. More on Tavern Road another time, but for now, onto the recipes!

This meal has a few steps, but much of it can be done a two or three days in advance. If you like how this recipe sounds, you can help me get to the next level by voting here beginning on Wednesday. Plus, if I’m a finalist, I’ll cook this recipe for you at the live event!

Roasted Lamb with Mint Fennel Tzatziki and Spring Green Salad

There are three main components to this dish: the lamb, tzatziki sauce, and greens with pickled onions. The onions, tzatziki, and herb marinade need to be made in advance, so I’ll begin with those:

Quick-Pickled Red Onions

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

1/4 cup rice vinegar

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

3 bay leaves

hot pepper of any sort (I used 2 dried pequin peppers)

3 red onions, cut into thin rounds

Combine the white vinegar, rice vinegar, water, sugar, bay leaves, and pepper in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the onions (I did this in two batches so they were completed covered with liquid) and cook just until the purple edges turn pink.

Pour the onions and liquid into a glass jar – 3 onions should snugly fit in a quart-size jar. Let cool to room temperature and then put in the refrigerator. Marinate at least overnight before eating.

Stored in the refrigerator they will keep for about two weeks, if you don’t eat them first!

Fennel and Mint Tzatziki

1 cup Greek yogurt (plain Fage works well)

2 green onions (bottoms cut off, roughly chop white and green parts)

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of about one lemon)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup finely shaved bulb fennel

Blend all ingredients except for the fennel in a food processor. Once completely combined, stir in the shaved fennel. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours. Will keep for about 4 days.

Lamb Marinade

This is enough marinade for a 3-4 pound piece of lamb. If working with a piece over 5 pounds, double the recipe.

2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of about one lemon)

4 cloves garlic

3 sprigs (about 1/3 cup) fresh rosemary, stems removed

7-8 sprigs (about 1/3 cup) fresh oregano, stems removed

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor. Put aside while you prepare your leg of lamb (see below).

Roasted Lamb

The star of the show, although I must stay the other components of this dish really hold their own as well. Give yourself enough time (at least 30 minutes) to trim the fat and tough connective tissue from the lamb. Removing these pieces is worth the investment and, once you get comfortable with the process, it’s kind of fun. I completely lost track of time dividing up the huge piece of meat into clean smaller pieces.

1 leg of lamb

kitchen string

Set up your work station for cleaning the lamb. I worked on a baking sheet with sides that was covered with a layer of paper towels. Using a sharp knife, kitchen sheers, and my hands, I slowly worked off the pieces of fat and anything else that wasn’t meat, putting the pieces into a bowl. You won’t be able to remove everything, but once you get started your bowl will begin to fill up fairly quickly. As you work, you’ll see that large pieces of meat separate when you remove the fat. This is fine, as you’ll be wrapping everything up with string into a little bundle.

Once you have the pieces of meat, put them together into a log. With your kitchen string sitting in a small pot next to you (I learned this from Chef Gordon Ramsay), wrap the string horizontally around the meat and tie a knot, leaving a foot-long tail. Then, make a loop with the side of the string connected to the larger ball, slide the loop over the log and drag it closest to you, pulling it tight. Continue making loops until the entire package is secure. For a great video on the process, go to 0:47 in this video.

Once your lamb is bundled up, rub the marinade all over it, wrap in plastic, and put in the fridge overnight or up to two days.

Cooking the Lamb

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Add a little vegetable oil to a cast-iron skillet or other large oven-proof pan. Set burner to medium-high until the oil is hot. Place the lamb in the oil and brown each side (about 2 minutes for each side).

Transfer the pan into the oven and set your timer for roughly 20 minutes per pound of meat. I was cooking three pounds, so at around 45 minutes I checked the temperature and, sure enough, it needed another 15 minutes.

Your thermometer should read at least 135F. For detailed information about lamb cooking and safety, look here.

When you reach the desired temperature, take the lamb out of the oven and tent some foil over the roast. Let sit for about 20 minutes (the lamb will continue cooking and juices will settle).

THEN…last step – put together a simple salad and plate your masterpiece!

Spring Green Salad

arugula

radicchio

blanched petite peas

pickled red onions (see above recipe)

Toss together arugula and radicchio with a few splashes of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. Plate greens and then add peas and onions on top.

If you’d like to plate this as a meal, see the top image. Or, if you’re looking for a small app, you could do something like the image below. Enjoy!

SSL: April 6

Hope you’re having a great weekend! This morning we continued our tradition of heading over to Swiss Bakers for the weekend breakfast. Their brunch offerings just keep getting better every week – today was eggs, bacon, roesti, fruit salad, cheese, muesli, choice of bread or a chocolate berliner, and orange juice. I was craving the muesli so I went with an order of that and we shared the brunch plate.

Then we spent much of today buying house plants and re-potting plants that I’ve had for a while (and kept alive for years, I can’t quite believe it myself). I’ve also been planning a recipe using lamb because…

I was invited to participate in the Second Annual American Lamb Pro-Am! Check out the amazing bloggers and chefs who competed last year and you’ll understand why I’m incredibly excited AND nervous. I’ll have a recipe up next week and then the voting starts from there.

Cold Soba Noodles & beautiful pictures from Japan from 101 Cookbooks.

You might know I love anything pickled. Here’s a great history and recipe for pickled asparagus: Quick Asparagus Pickles from art & lemons.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A Series of Misses: John Harvard’s Brewery and Ale House Brunch

I was invited to try John Harvard’s Brewery and Ale House brunch in Harvard Square in February through the Boston Brunchers. With six locations between Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, I was looking forward to a more mainstream brunch than what I typically go for. They added a brunch menu in November, so I was curious to see what they had to offer.

Some background: I’m the first to admit that I’m completely spoiled by attending events through the Boston Brunchers. It’s free food, the opportunity to meet other bloggers, and try new restaurants. As you might assume, the restaurants know we’re coming – these events (and I do consider them to be events rather than regular meals) are set up in advance – they know we’re providing blog posts about our experiences. So, because I’m dining as a disclosed reviewer, I expect the best food possible to come out of the kitchen (i.e. the same or better than what I would receive dining anonymously). During this visit to John Harvard’s I dined with my boyfriend. They had our reservation, knew we were coming from the brunchers group, and our server knew I was reviewing and that this was a complimentary meal.

We sat down to a variety of menus – a huge lunch/dinner menu with everything from salads, sandwiches, pizza, and entrees; a brunch menu; and a drink menu.

Our waiter was kind, but inexperienced. I think he had two tables during our hour and a half meal – it was very quiet for lunch on a Saturday in Harvard Square.

At the start of the meal we were served a the bread basket. The pieces of bread were hit or miss – I had one soft and fresh piece, and then the other two I tried were hard and dried out.

I ordered a hot chocolate. The presentation was good – a cute mug with some foam on top – and our server proudly explained that he made it himself and hoped I would like it. When I took a sip, I realized it was warm milk and sugar. Not a hint of chocolate. After his introduction, though, I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

My boyfriend ordered a decaf coffee, which was mediocre and not quite hot enough. I was optimistic that the drink difficulties would be overshadowed by the food, though.

We started with the Harvard Ale Steamed Clams. The tomatoes and smoked bacon were a nice addition, although the bacon was all very soft (a slight crispiness would have been a nice contrast to the soft clams). The bowl had plenty of broth and the subtle flavors were a good way to start the meal. One of the clams hadn’t opened, which was strange to see plated.

For my meal I had the Eggs Benedict that was served with a side of homefries. The homefries were fine and the onions were a nice touch. The star of the show, however, had major difficulties: there was something off about the hollandaise – the consistency was far too thick and it had an overpowering tangy flavor, the poached egg was completely hard inside, and the english muffin under the lackluster ham wasn’t toasted and added a soggy component that didn’t help any other element of the dish.

All I could bring myself to eat were the homefries and a few bites of salty ham. I haven’t experienced a dish with so many inedible elements in a very long time.

My boyfriend ordered the Steak and Eggs. The steak, which he ordered medium, was severely undercooked in some areas and overcooked to a crisp in others. The white of the eggs was also undercooked – I love a drippy yoke, but the whites shouldn’t be clear on a sunny-side up egg.

There were few diners at 12:30pm on Saturday and, after my brunch experience, I understand why. None of the details the kitchen should be looking for were considered. I can’t help but wonder: who was back there Saturday morning and were they tasting or testing anything?

Sure, I’ve had my share of difficult meals and I sometimes blame it on a bad day, but John Harvard’s knew we were coming – my name and ‘Boston Brunchers’ were listed on the host’s reservation sheet. I’m curious what quality of food I might have received if they didn’t know who I was.

Furthermore, Boston Brunchers and I reached out multiple times to the restaurant for a comment on this meal and my experience. We received no response.

Maybe for a beer and some fries John Harvard’s is an acceptable option, but not for brunch.

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My visit to John Harvard’s Brewery and Ale House was set up through the Boston Brunchers. Our meal and two non-alcoholic drinks were complimentary. We provided a tip. As with all EatingPlaces posts, opinions are my own.