Servers in restaurants are required to report all their tips to the IRS. And operators are obligated to report no less than 8% of each server’s sales as income for every pay period. So it’s been for eons, unchanged even since I waited tables way back in the day. That is, until June 2012 rolled…
Change has been edging in on the food industry for quite some time as consumers are making it more apparent that they wish to buy food locally, or humanely produced, or hand crafted, or any combination of one or more of these attributes. It should be no surprise, then, that wine connoisseurs are searching for…
Since its inception, wine has been a dietary staple and has even been “accidentally” paired with foods. For example, heavy red wines of Greece were often served with lamb dishes that were a staple of the region. In Britain there is some evidence of a more purposeful matching of wines. Wine merchants were known to…
Chocolate can trace its roots back to Ancient Mesoamerican Civilization, where crushed cocoa beans were fermented, then roasted, and then ground into a paste. The paste was used to make a bitter liquid for royalty and military warriors to drink. The valuable beans were also used as currency. In the early 16th century, Christopher Columbus…
What do you do when you have a job that you need to have done and you need to have it done quickly and you need to have it done right? I’ll tell you what you do…you go to Jenny Johnston, Houston’s 2015 first quarter Employee of the Quarter. And I guarantee you, that job…
So after learning the basics of wine-tasting, you should have some ideas as to how to choose a wine that you really love to drink. Now it’s time to buy the right glasses—because yes, glassware is deemed the most important tool in the enjoyment of drinking wine. It boosts the appeal of the wine you…
Kombucha, kefir water, shrubs…drinks made with an assist from bacteria have, of late, been seen as an opportunity for flavor expansion, and although not by any means a new concept, they are grabbing hold as quality ingredients are being used to create exciting crafted flavors that help take a slightly “blah” drink to new levels…
If you are a coffee lover, then you can’t miss the number one coffee of 2014, the Ironman Camilina Geisha. The beans are grown in western Panama, and roasted by Klatch Coffee in Los Angeles. But that isn’t what makes it great. What makes it great is that it is “beautifully structured and almost impossibly…
The final phase in evaluating wine is to assess its taste and finish. Some of the things you will be looking for are whether or not the wine is balanced and harmonious, its complexity, and how the wine finishes after you are done tasting it. If you understand how taste buds work, you will better…
Is it time for you to research equipment and smallwares for your restaurant? With NAFEM just a week away, now may be a great time to start the purchasing preparation process, by researching, by studying, by asking questions, and by carefully looking over what is available on the market. Foodservice Equipment and Supplies magazine mentions, in…