Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | R | Restaurants & Institutions

Stew gets new: the name may be inelegant, but this hearty icon can be stylish and sophisticated.

Article Excerpt
For many diners, stews call to mind chilly nights and kitchen-table meals that offset cold edges. In restaurants, though, they can be a hard sell.

"The first thing we need to do is come up with a new name for them," says Jeff Drew, executive chef of Snake River Grill in Jackson, Wyo. "Whenever I come up with an idea for a stew and tell my cooks about it, they all just look at me. Then one will say, 'But what are we going to call it?'"

Drew and his cooks know that the homey connotations that make stew an appealing Sunday-night-at-home option can work against them in a restaurant.

Much of the difficulty can be traced to stews that are quite often forgettable. As diners become more knowledgeable about food and techniques, dishes that appear as an afterthought, a way to clean out the pantry or utilize leftover meats and vegetables, are less appealing than dishes that have special-occasion, can't-make-it-at-home flair.

But chefs find fresh, creative ways to improve stew's stodgy image. By capitalizing on the popularity of locally grown, seasonal ingredients as well as the increased interest in unique, exotic meats, they're adding excitement to this food-cost-friendly one-dish meal.

THE GAME GAME

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture study released in May, 35% of higher-end restaurants regularly purchase exotic meats, including buffalo, venison and kangaroo. And while beef and chicken still rule on most of these menus, many chefs find that the increased popularity of exotic meats is an easy way to...