Demo this.

If you had this space for a weekend, what would you demo/teach to 18 affluent, paying, engaged, kitchen savvy people?  Anything you want, any price point you want to hit.  It's got all the equipment you could need, motion activated cameras connected to high-def screens, and a hell of a marketing department.

Let me know.  I'm curious.

A day in the life...and a trip to Taylor AFS

Sometimes, despite the fact that it is technically what is known as a JOB, my career allows me to have some fun.

 This was not a typical day, but it just kind of played out this way.  Let's start with the end:  A lavish spread put on by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington at Virtue Feed & Grain in Alexandria.  I called my wife and told her I wouldn't be home for dinner.

Now let's go back to the beginning.  It started out with a trip to Taylor AFS.  They provide a line of restaurant equipment that is top notch.  I had my team join me there for an off-site sales meeting.  The guys at Taylor said they'd feed us lunch.  That was an understatement.

 This was one of the crab bombs they cooked up in their combi-oven.  It steams, broils, sautes, bakes, and holds foods at different temperatures.  You can set shrimp to steam on the bottom for 3 minutes and veggies on the next rack up to steam for 7, they both get done perfectly at the same time and there is no transfer of flavors.  Neato.

 A shot of the raw bombs.

 Who doesn't love swirly's?  These guys distribute a very nice line of products.

This is David Forbes showing us how the Henny Penny pressure fryer works.  He was the person who invited us for lunch and a demo.  The fryer keeps the chicken perfectly moist, and uses much less energy than conventional open-top fryers.

They also demonstrated some great open-top fryers that use recirculating heat and ingenious designs that allow you to use less oil and energy.  The savings mount up quickly.  Another neat feature is that the open-top fryers have built-in filters and only take a few minutes to cycle through the filtration process.  Wish they'd had those when I was dropping wings in the fryer!
Below is a video of Michael Johns giving his elevator pitch:

 They carry their own line of breading too.  Very tasty stuff.

  See!  There were veggies.

How about a dashboard that tells you what the temp of every critical storage area in your restaurant is?  All wirelessly.  Alerts can be sent to your cell phone.  Neat stuff.  Keeps logs for your HACCP needs as well.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed a little slice of life here.  If you have any questions on any of the things you've seen here feel free to post a comment or send me a message.  More posts coming soon.