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6 GENERAL NEWS AJ's Fine Foods Continued from PAGE 1 Some of those products will be familiar to AJ's guests, but many of them will be new. "If you haven't traveled to southern Italy, they'll be unique flavors," Mead says. Introducing new products to AJ's guests is the duty of team members across all of AJ's departments. The stores' staff members are trained in AJ's Inspired Epicurean Hours, voluntary meetings that are scheduled about 10 times a year. The meetings feature a meal service that incorporates ingredients and seasonal pairings from AJ's sumptuous grocery pantry. Each of the team members has the opportunity to taste every dish in a pairing. Staff members are then trained in suggestive selling techniques that invite AJ's guests to consider some of those pairing options for themselves. "At our last event, about 140 of our members volunteered to spend their time to learn about our products," Mead says. Training at the Inspired Epicurean Hours frequently includes a presentation by an individual vendor invited to demonstrate the company's product line and its uses. The vendor might teach how to use a chutney in different ways or how to use a product in a party dish. "Typically, we'll focus on flavors that are seasonal," Mead says. "We're conscious that we don't just show our members a line and never get back to it. We try to show specific seasonal uses for those products." The frequency of these training events GOURMET NEWS OCTOBER 2013 www.gourmetnews.com reflects AJ's intense focus on seasonality. The company works hard to keep guests coming back to its stores to see what's new, even when they are not naturally reminded of the calendar's progression in a Southwestern desert climate. For example, during peach season, AJ's procures peaches from different growing areas and brings them together inside the stores with displays of peach sauces, desserts and chutneys. In celebration of peaches, the company's produce buyers have gone so far as to adopt peach trees from one of their growers. "We sent our produce managers to hand-harvest those peaches," Mead says, adding that the trip combined food fun with the hands-on educational experience of being among the trees and learning from the grower. "I'm sure there was some food and wine pairing along the way," Mead says, chuckling. Year-round, AJ's guests can expect to be surrounded by an atmosphere that invites anticipation for the pleasures of the table. Stores feature bistros with kitchens open to the sales floor, offering dishes that showcase items from the AJ's grocery pantry. Tuesday is Taco Tuesday, and certified chefs set up a station where they prepare tacos to order along with other dishes like pollo asado and carne asada. On Pasta Night, guests can order a dish with alfredo sauce or a beef bolognese dish. "The chef will actually prepare that entree right there on the sales floor," Mead says. If the chef makes a dish with a featured ingredient, such as a grapeseed oil, guests will probably find a display of the ingredient along with signage Fracking Continued from PAGE 1 fracking poses to agriculture are more clearly emerging—and we believe they would be devastating for New York." Batali and Telepan continued: "Such destructive forces could not only harm our state's agricultural businesses and tourism, but would also affect consumer confidence in our local food sources, truly creating a negative impact across the state—from upstate farms to the restaurants across the state that serve their food." For many fracking critics, the issue of top concern is that of the long term impacts of fracking on one precious and already scarce natural resource: water. "Everyone in the food business…is in the water business," said The Food Journal's Phil Lempert. Fracking is not considered in the regulations set forth by the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clear Water Act, the CLEAR Act and Environmental Protection Agency regulations. However, the EPA is currently studying the affects of fracking on water. Not everyone involved in New York agriculture is critical of fracking's impact on the state. New York-based organic dairy farmer Neil Vitale feels that these drilling operations could in fact be a good thing for his describing other uses for the product and takeaway recipe cards for the chef's dish. Most AJ's locations also have a brick pizza oven, Basha says. "It's an outstanding pizza, with premium meats and cheeses and sauce." However, AJ's prepared food offerings do not end with pizza and pasta. "We do sushi too, with the fish we receive daily," says Basha. "We have a sushi bar in most of our locations." The excellence of the Seafood Grottos in each store is another point of particular pride for Basha. Seafood is delivered to each AJ's Fine Foods location, daily. "Our seafood deliveries are more frequent than the best restaurant in the state in order to provide quality ingredients and incomparable freshness," he says. "Obviously, seafood is highly perishable, and we like to bring it in fresh and sell it fresh." Seafood has its seasons too, and AJ's honors that with the same devotion to seasonality that applies to the rest of the store. During salmon season, the store's focus is on king salmon. "To our knowledge, we're the only ones in the state who bring in the Copper River King Salmon," industry. "If I thought it was going to hurt the environment, hurt our animals, hurt our farms, I wouldn't want it," Vitale said. "It doesn't." Vitale points out that natural gas powers everything from tractors on farms to ovens in gourmet restaurants and that regulatory agencies have seen the fracking business happen for decades, never finding a reason to step in and stop it. Vitale feels that these are strong reasons to continue fracking. "That kind of activity has gone on all around [my farm] and there's been no problem," Vitale said. In addition, Vitale said fracking has helped his dealings with organic feed farmers in Pennsylvania, as those with fracking funds have been able to provide the organic feed for his dairy cows. Still, Greg Boulos, co-owner of Blackberry Meadows in Pennsylvania, is a little more cautious in approaching the issue of fracking. Boulos commissioned an independent study by a University of Pittsburgh environmental law group to objectively study fracking's impact. "All it says is that it's risky," Boulos said. "We'd heard tons of different horror stories from farmers that have had property destroyed by drilling companies that have come on to their land. We've heard about spills, congestion in front of and around Basha says. "You don't generally find king salmon in restaurants. It's a premium product, and we treat it in a premium manner." Guests who want to make sure that they're pairing that special salmon with the perfect wine can step down the aisle to the stores' wine cellars. There they will find an expert to advise them. "Our focus in our wine cellars is in finding you what you're looking for and, as our relationships with our customers develop, introducing them to wines and varietals and styles that will complement their enjoyment of fine wines," Basha says. The primary focus of AJ's Fine Foods comes down to offering fine ingredients from folks who know and appreciate their products and are eager to share their experience with guests who are hungry for learning as well as for food. "In all of our locations, we're very fortunate to have the members that we do," Basha says. "Really, at the end of the day, it's our people that make all the difference in the world." GN farms, pipelines put through or work covered up shallowly. So we decided that we should have a look at what are the potential effects on farms and looking at that." When drillers moved both north and south of Boulos' own farm, however, he said the impact was minimal and that the financial gain for some farmers around him helped to keep their farms afloat. "They were pretty conscientious of us," Boulos said. "It wasn't obnoxious. You just kind of feel like, 'What's moving into the neighborhood?'" Still, Boulos said he is not planning on buying wholesale into the fracking concept just yet. "I would feel like we were really letting our buyers down if we would jeopardize the future of food for money's sake." For now, fracking and farming seem to coexist, and to do so efficiently. According to Vitale, this is especially true in New York. Vitale said that he hopes to see these operations continue to help farmers grow their businesses. Still, others are waiting to learn more about the potential long-term effects of fracking on suppliers, retailers, and customers before making a final decision on the safety of this drilling process. Boulos said, "When it comes down to it, if they have a safe technology for my community, for the watershed, then let's talk." GN