Bon Appétit Management Company

A blend of Scandinavian and Mediterranean flavors, this rice pudding is delicious warm and even better cold, as the flavors have time to meld. So delicious and easy that completing this month’s Well Being Challenge will be no problem! Brown rice may be used, but will result in a chewier texture.

By using vinegar as a pickling agent, the sodium content is dramatically lower than a typical pickle. Refrigerator pickles require no canning, are ready to eat in two days, and last up to two weeks. Try them this June to celebrate the theme of lower sodium – keep the flavor, lose the salt.

Bon Appétit Management Company CEO Fedele Bauccio is proud to be among the 70 leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations that have today sent an open letter to Congress urging lawmakers to revise the draft of the 2012 Farm Bill — which should more properly called the Food Bill, as it is the largest and most significant piece of legislation affecting what, how, and even whether Americans eat.

On a visit to Colorado College, I was sitting in the student center, working on some things while enjoying the atmosphere of being on a college campus, when Executive Sous Chef John E. Faulkner sat down next to me. John has been with Bon Appétit for more than 15 years. I wish I’d had a video camera running. Instead, these notes will have to try to convey the spirit of the man who claimed “I am Bon Appétit!”

I was surprised and disheartened to read comments by Thomas Keller in the New York Times that chefs’ only responsibility is to taste. “Is global food policy truly our responsibility, or in our control?” Keller asks. “I don’t think so.” I disagree, as do many others, and I am hoping that Keller’s statements were taken out of context. Chefs have an enormous power to make a difference, and they can do so without sacrificing flavor.

We serve great food, and the story behind that food has as much to do with the people cooking and serving it as it does the farmers who grew it.

Diners at the Indian Station in the Bear’s Den at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, often marvel at the quality, variety, and authenticity of the meals served there. While those qualities may be standard at Bon Appétit, Wash U does have two secret ingredients: two special cooks who work there: Sona Kukal, born in Kolkata in east India, and Zach Khan, born in Karachi, Pakistan.

To galvanize the U.S. government to set labeling and inspection standards, Oceana has launched a Stop Seafood Fraud campaign with a letter for chefs and restaurant owners to sign, asking for stricter seafood regulations. The letter was unveiled Monday, May 14, in Washington, DC, in an event featuring “The Office” star Angela Kinsey, a seafood advocate, and renowned sustainable seafood chef Barton Seaver. Oceana reached out to Bon Appétit to ask for our support, and we’re proud that about 20% of the names on Oceana’s list of 300 chefs and restaurant owners are Bon Appétit Management Company ones, alongside such culinary leaders as Rick Bayless, Eric Ripert and Michael Symon.

Explore the world of misunderstood vegetables this May! This month’s Well Being Challenge encourages you to try a vegetable you are not familiar with one time per week, whether in a Bon Appétit Cafe or at home. To get started, try the below recipe for a stir frycontaining pea shoots, which are only available in the spring so be sure to act quickly. To learn more about misunderstood vegetables, visit cafebonappetit.com.

Recently I met two very different Farm to Fork suppliers for Bon Appétit accounts in North Carolina — about as different as you’d expect a fish distributor and a beef rancher to be. Yet they had one key thing in common that made partnerships with our teams work.