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AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH NRA Kimberly Oser Publisher Jules Denton Senior Associate Publisher Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director JoEllen Lowry • Jeanie Catron • Karrie Welborn Associate Editors Yasmine Brown Art Director Jonathan Schieffer Graphic Designer Sarah Glenn • Caitlyn McGrath Customer Service Managers Stacy Davis • Jay Watson • Hannah Stefanovich Show Logistics & Distribution John Pechota Sales Floor Manager Marcos Morhaim Senior Account Manager Adrian Chacon • Audra Cox • Cami Jimenez Anthony Socci • Steven Taylor • Kim Whiteman Account Managers Tara Neal Director of Operations Enrico Cecchi European Sales Restaurant Daily News is published by Oser Communications Group ©2017 All rights reserved. Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy www.osercommunicationsgroup.com Lee M. Oser Founder Restaurant Daily News Sunday, May 21, 2017 4 CAPTAIN KEN'S: CELEBRATING 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY By Mike Traxler, Co-Owner, Captain Ken's Foods, Inc. Great foods often originate in unlikely places. In fact, Captain Ken Freiberg developed his famous Firehouse Oven- Baked Beans while on duty at Firehouse No. 14 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fifty years later, this signature recipe (plus many others) are made with the same attention to detail and commitment to quality. The story of Captain Ken's Foods began in the summer of 1943, when Ken Freiberg joined the St. Paul, Minnesota fire department. In 1953, he was promot- ed to Captain. As was custom at most fire stations, each fireman took turns cooking meals for his fellow firefighters. Captain Ken's specialty was making oven-baked beans with bacon. Word spread, and peo- ple from the neighborhood would stop by the fire station hoping to sample some of Captain Ken's home cooked oven-baked beans. As Ken's bean recipe grew in popu- larity, his fellow firefighters urged him to start a business, but Ken wasn't ready to give up life as a fire- fighter. In 1963, though, he used his two-week vacation to sell his oven- baked beans from a food stand at the Minnesota State Fair. The beans were a big hit! A few years later in 1967, at age 55, Ken retired early from the fire department to start Captain Ken's Foods. It didn't take long for Captain Ken's reputation for making quality food products to grow. Today, Captain Ken's processes and markets a diverse range of premium food products for the foodservice and retail GROWING TRADE FUELS CHINESE ATTENDANCE AT NRA SHOW Over the last four years, more than 1,000 Chinese business visitors (not including exhibit personnel) have attended the annual NRA Show in Chicago – an average of more than 270 per year. The Chinese attendees represent importers, restaurateurs and HRI suppli- ers hailing from many parts of China, including Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Changsha and a number of other cities. Their interests include flavorings, health foods, organic foods, meat and poultry products and equipment. U.S. exports of consumer oriented food products to China passed the $6.5 billion mark in 2014. Total U.S. exports of food and agricultural products to China exceeded $18.37 billion, making China the No. 1 destination for U.S. products. Food and hospitality occupy a cen- tral place in Chinese culture. Entertaining, whether social or business, is a huge part of Chinese culture. New Western visitors to China are likely to be awed by the size of some of the restau- rants, some of which can seat several thousand people in a combina- tion of large open spaces and hundreds of pri- vate rooms. As the number of two wage earner Chinese families increases, the number of meals con- sumed outside the home is growing rap- idly. The HRI (hotel, restaurant and insti- tutional) sector is one of the main benefi- ciaries of China's economic boom that began more than 30 years ago. The growth in business activity and incomes, which has spread across most of China, has cre- Continued on Page 109 Continued on Page 109