Elvan Teo - Food & Beverage Business Blog

Located between St.Malo and The Somme in Normandy France is the apple rich area of France known as Calvados where one of the world's famous fruit brandies originates. With the city of Caen as it's capital , this region of production was first named in 1949 and has 11 sub-regions within Calvados itself.

The best region is the appelation Pays d'Auge found inland from the town of Lisieux where the pot still is used leaving more flavouring characteristics in the finished product , unlike the patent still which is used more often elsewhere ending up with a spirit lighter in body and structure.

Forty-eight different varieties of apples are used in making Calvados ranging from tart to sweet with pears even used to bulk up the spirit.

To get more info about Calvados Fruit Brandy? Please Visit :
Waiter Extraordinaire by Steve Nicolle

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle (cows). Beef is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of Europe, Australia and the Americas, and is also important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. In the Middle East, lamb is usually preferred over beef. Consuming beef is more or less universally forbidden by Hindus as bovines are revered throughout many Hindu religious traditions. It is also discouraged among some Buddhists.

Beef muscle meat can be cut into steaks, pot roasts or short ribs, or it can be ground/minced. The blood is used in some varieties of blood sausage. Other parts which are eaten include the meaty tail, tongue, tripe from the stomach, glands--particularly the pancreas and thymus--referred to as sweetbreads, the heart, the brain (although forbidden where there is a danger of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE), the liver, the kidneys, the tender testicles of the bull (known in the US as "calf fries", "prairie oysters", or "Rocky Mountain oysters"), intestines, and the udder. Beef bones are used for making soup stock.

I chose Chateauneuf du Pape from the Southern Rhone this week to cover a few grape varieties. Of course the main grapes of the Rhone is the Syrah predominant in the Northern part and the Grenache in the Southern Rhone. Both these grapes are found in Chateauneuf du Pape but the interesting thing about this wine is it allows for up to 13 grape varieties in total.



So we are going to try to cover the 11 others that are allowed in a Chateauneuf du Pape. Grenache Blanc which is not part of the 11 others could also be included in the mix bringing it up to 14 but since we are not sure if it is actually included under Grenache , we will skip it


To get more info about The Grape Varieties of Chateauneuf du Pape ? Please Visit :
Waiter Extraordinaire by Steve Nicolle

An alternative to starting your own business from scratch is franchising.  Franchising is not a "form" of business, but is a method or system where companies (franchisees) are granted the right to operate a business according to a special contract with a parent organization (franchisors). The franchise system is incorporated under the Franchise Act 1998.

Franchise System

A Franchise System refers to a contract signed between two or more parties in which the franchisor gives the right to the franchisee including the master franchisee to operate business that is similar to the one initially started by him. To run a business base on the franchise system you have to register with the Registrar of Franchise, Ministry of Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development, Malaysia

To continue on from my post of last week distillers will usually buy the grapes in from local farmers to press and ferment them into what is a pretty harsh wine. They say the worst wine makes the best cognac but it is important that the wine is free of any blemishes that would make for an inferior final product.

The harsh unaged wine is then put into what is called locally an alembic Charentais/Cognacais or what we refer to as a pot still. Pot stills are also used to make the finest single malt whiskey. Designed by the Dutch during the 17th Century the still consists of a huge copper kettle pot or boiler encased in a brick framework with an open air furnace underneath. A pipe shaped like a swan's neck juts out from the hood on top of the boiler. This will carry the vapours from the kettle pot past a pre heater to a condenser coil which is immersed in cold running water. The change in temperature causes the vapour to turn to liquid.

To get more info about The Making of Cognac ? Please Visit:

Waiter Extraordinaire by Steve Nicolle

Happy new year to you! After a month rest, the year 20091st topic i going to share with you is about how is the Restaurant forecast for U.S this year.  As in the beginning of the year, are you ready or in the mid of preparing any plan for this year in Food & Beverage Industry? The following is the report from National Restaurant Association for Sales growth forecast 2009. This might be able to help you for any risk management and business plan for this year. ~elvan

(Washington, D.C.) Restaurant industry sales are expected to reach $566 billion in 2009, with the industry employing 13 million individuals in 945,000 restaurant-and-foodservice outlets nationwide, according to the National Restaurant Association's 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast released today. The Forecast projects that while overall restaurant industry sales will increase in current dollars by 2.5 percent over 2008 figures, the numbers translate to an inflation-adjusted decline of 1.0 percent. Despite the economic downturn, the industry will remain a cornerstone of the economy, representing 4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and employing 9 percent of the U.S. workforce, and restaurants will continue to adapt to the latest menu trends and consumer preferences.

The maître d' (short for maître d'hôtel, literally "master of the hotel") in a suitably staffed restaurant or hotel is the person in charge of assigning customers to tables in the establishment and dividing the dining area into areas of responsibility for the various servers on duty. He or she may also be the person who receives and records advance reservations for dining, as well as dealing with any customer complaints and making sure all servers are completing their tasks in an efficient manner. In some localities or traditions particularly small organizations like a single restaurant the post is also known as the headwaiter or host. The origin of the term is in medieval courts, where the holder was an important courtier, like Olivier de la Marche in 15th century Burgundy.