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NAFEM19.Feb7

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Food Equipment News 4 3 Thursday, February 7, 2019 clay of its cooking vessel, what may be overlooked is that the combination of the clay and VitaClay's cooking performance amplifies flavors for results that outshine those achieved with conventional slow cookers, says Michelle Liu, Founder of Essenergy, which makes the VitaClay Chef. Before she invented the VitaClay Chef, Liu was an electrical engineer for Apple Computers, so when she decided to turn her attention to her culinary endeavors, she had long experience with electronic devices. She also had long experience with the cooking traditions handed down to her by her mother, who cooked in earthenware cooking vessels following Chinese culinary tradition that has endured for thousands of years. "I love food," she said. "I thought, why couldn't there be a better cooker that's clean and that brings a better quality to the food?... I traveled across China searching for my dream cooker." She spent a couple of years finding the right source for Zisha clay that was free of toxic metal contaminants that could leach into food but also contained desirable trace elements that could improve the nutritional quality of the food cooked inside it. "The clay is such a natural thing. It makes you feel ground- ed. You create the food in there and then you eat it, and it tastes better," she said. "The clay is unglazed. It's high-fired, which burns out impurities. It feels good when you cook a clean food, and you really want a clean cookware too. The clay is better because it's microporous." Beyond the natural properties of the clay, the cooker depends on its cooking properties for its results. Instead of heat- ing very slowly and then holding the food at maximum heat as it cooks, the VitaClay starts off by heating the food quickly, as if it were on a stovetop, stor- ing heat in the clay and creating steam that circulates both inside the vessel and into the porous clay. "The steam comes back out of the clay to help cook the food. The food and the flavor are better," Liu said. Once the cooker has the food inside hot enough to boil, about four times faster than with a conventional slow cooker, it's programmed to reduce power and allow the food to cook evenly, producing superior results at the end. "It runs on double the wattage but overall reduces power use, by 60 percent, com- pared to a conventional slow cooker," Liu said. "By bringing it to a boil quicker and then a slow simmer cooks the food, VitaClay (Cont'd. from p. 1) brings out the flavor, while preserving texture." She introduced the first VitaClay cooker to the market in 2006, attracting a lot of media notice from the home cooking experts who reviewed the device. "Good Housekeeping gave it a 'Top Rated Slow Cooker' award and Weight Watchers recommended it. Others include Family Circle, Culinary Institute of America – more than 30 national and local newspapers and mag- azines," Liu said. "VitaClay has been used by doctors and nutrition health professionals." Since then, new models have been introduced, and VitaClay's audience con- tinues to grow, even as customers who bought some of those earliest VitaClay cookers have continued to use and love them, Liu said. "We have people who've had the cookers for eight years, and they just keep using it. They keep coming back to ask about other products." The VitaClay will cook a cup of white rice in 20 to 30 minutes, with brown rice taking about 10 minutes longer. One-pot meals can be prepared in 20 to 30 minutes. "Our cooker cooks faster, almost like a pressure cooker, but without the pressure," Liu said. "VitaClay makes a better bone broth. It's just magical.... The chemistry you cannot explain between the clay and the food. You have to try it yourself to see the dif- ference. If you buy fresh food, the flavor comes out in the food, and the clay infus- es it with flavor without heavy season- ing." Essenergy is supporting VitaClay Chef with the release of a new cookbook, "VitaClay, Deliciously Nourishing Meals that Satisfy Your Soul." The book includes five chapters of internationally- inspired recipes by noted chefs that Liu has collected during her travels for one- pot meals that can be made in 30 minutes or less. The recipes include Moroccan tagine, Indian Butter Chicken, Thai Curry and Coq au Vin as well as a num- ber of Italian dishes and a chapter on foods for holiday feasts. "The last chap- ter is 'Holiday Every Day.'" Liu said. "Just add the ingredients and push the button. Then you can walk away and come back to a flavorful meal.... We have been committed to delivering the health- iest cookbook on the planet. These are recipes from many of the best chefs around the world.... This really brings to life the easy recipes. Once you toss the food in there, you walk away. You don't have to come back and release the pres- sure. It's just simple and easy one-step." Stop and Smell the Rosé at Augusta Food and Wine By Greg Gonzales Everyone likes to have "a guy," whether it's for car repair or some other service. In Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood, Augusta Food and Wine is a go-to place for wines. The shop is a laid-back kind of place, dog-friendly, where Owner Shane Martin might be found playing guitar next to his own pup, Bradley. The store, named for the first designated American Viticultural Area, has earned a reputation as a local destination for small-batch European wines and providing specialty foods to match. From a limited inventory of 100 to 125 wines, customers will find small-batch, esoteric wines and a con- stantly changing list. Patrons seem to enjoy it, too, as Martin's wine club continues to grow, as does the traffic for weekly tastings. Club members get a discount, and a monthly email that details that month's wine selec- tion – the wine itself, the history of the region, the story of the family of farmers and recipes to help members properly pair their wines with food. "Most of our wines are pretty small production," said Martin, adding that most of the bottles are from Europe. "I've got a small collection of some Santa Barbara wines, Oregon, a few Napa cabs. You gotta keep those up top because there's always that guy who only drinks Napa cabs." Martin says his clientele tend to be adventurous and willing to try eastern European wines from places like Serbia, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. That, he said, might be due in part to how European wines go better with food. "European wines tend to be a little less punchy," he said. "They're a little more versatile when it comes to food. When I started bringing in wines, I brought in what I liked, and it worked. Then I start- ed experimenting, putting some New World stuff on the shelf, and it didn't move as much." Whatever inspires their interest in eastern Europe, Augusta's clients include Millennials, from the mid-twenties and single, to the Gen-Xers their early forties and married with teenage kids – new money types, said Martin, who like to spend a bit more to try something new and exciting. "They're not really stuck in a box with what they drink. That's one of the great things about this generation – Millennials are my favorite to sell wine to because they are open to anything," he said. "I feel like there's an older generation where there wasn't as much exposure to wine, and they only drink a certain style from a certain place, sometimes even one producer, and it's very restrictive. So I love the younger audience right now." The shop's location helps draw them in too, as it is literally across the street from the Brown Line stop in Lincoln Square, a route that comes straight from downtown Chicago. "People coming from downtown coming home from work, they can get off the train, come right across the street and come to grab a bottle of wine, maybe a cheese, and walk right home. That's definitely a huge boon for our business," said Martin. The strip of businesses Augusta operates in is strong on the shop small, shop local movement. And Martin lives close to the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, which puts on a wine stroll every spring and fall, in which the businesses of Lincoln Square are tem- porarily transformed into wine tasting destinations; the locals purchase tickets, get a route map, and wander around to taste all kinds of different wines. Martin said these types of festivals are common in the area, giving the neighborhood a cohesive, family feel. "It's one of those neighborhoods where, you could stay in Lincoln Square and never have to go any- where else." In addition to wine, Augusta's offer- ings include small-batch foods from smaller distributors – cheese, olives, anchovies, pates, terrines, salamis, pro- sciutto, crackers, baguettes, condiments, salts, beers, ice cream, local pies, spirits, specialty bitters, brandy cherries, obscure Bloody Mary mixes. If it's quirky, new and pairs well with a wine, customers can probably find it at the store. The shop also puts together cheese- boards and charcuterie boards, and also gift baskets – and those gift baskets are huge for the holiday season, when some corporate clients will place orders by the hundred. Martin said local events, gift baskets and the wine club are extremely impor- tant to the business' revenue stream. "The gift baskets are huge, the wine club is guaranteed cash flow that I know is going to happen every month – it's always good to have that certainty, where you know money's going to come in every month," he said, adding that all the shops are doing their best to fight the demise of the neighborhood small businesses. "That's always a challenge because when you have a neighborhood like this, the thing that made it great starts to get driven out. We're small business, we're week to week. It's not easy to run a small busi- ness, especially in Chicago. It's very expensive, so you really have to be on top of things. There are little businesses that go under all the time, and I definitely have a different reaction to that now than I did before I owned my own business. It's heartbreaking – now I know how much work goes into it, how hard it is, how much passion you have to have to even attempt to keep it afloat." "It's picked up a lot lately. I've noticed a lot of new faces, and the wine club is growing a lot," he continued. "Over the last few months, I think a lot more people have become aware of us. It's going to be a good year." The Sweet Taste of Elegance La Perruche crafts delectable white and golden-brown, coarse cut sugar cubes. They offer all of the flavor and appeal of authentic, 100 percent pure cane sugar. The white lumps are distinguished by their unique shape, and add a touch of elegance and originality to any coffee, tea or cocktail. The enthusiast seeking the flavors of raw cane sugar will likely prefer the warm golden-brown cubes with a delightful hint of caramel. An icon in sugar cane history, La Perruche is now part of France's gour- met and cultural heritage. Since the brand's recognition award almost 130 years ago, La Perruche has prospered in France and well beyond its borders, sharing the finest quality sugar around the world. The original shape, warm, golden-brown color and unique taste of the coarse cut cubes make it the real emblem of the brand, which over the years has become the symbol of a highly sought after art de vivre; art of life. Show your customers and friends the finest sugar on the market, La Perruche. For more information, call 973.338.0300 or go to www.worldfiner.com.

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