Todd English: Flavor Perfections

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Spice mixtures, seasonings, and sauces have long been a hot area for celebrity chefs to dabble in. They can help a home cook introduce more complicated flavors and seasonings to their cuisine. Emeril Lagasse has his line of seasonings, so do Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Lidia Bastianich, and Bobby Flay. David Burke has taken it a step more high-tech with his nifty Flavor Magic sheets that are wrapped around food before cooking. But can you put a sauce or seasoning on food already cooked and expect it to taste like it came out of a professional kitchen? Sure, some sauces are squirted on a plate after everything has been prepared, but it does matter how the meat or fish or chicken was prepared beforehand. An added sauce or glaze won't improve poor cooking enough. Todd English has just gotten into the game with his own version, called Flavor Perfections -- sold neither in gourmet stores nor on Todd's online store but on HSN starting last Thursday, July 20, at midnight. Why HSN? Well, Todd is already selling doodads and pots and pans on the channel. (See previous) Flavor Perfections come in five flavors: Todd's Teriyaki Glaze Toscana Garlic Rosemary Puttanesca Sauce Seasoning Pesto Genovese Bonfire Barbeque They are made by Geneva-based Givaudan, a two-centuries-old flavor and fragrance company. The idea is to put the dry powders on hot, moist food so that they turn into glazes which add flavor and eliminate the need for a high-calorie sauces. Like something out of Patrick Suskind's novel Perfume the press release reads: Givaudan's unrivaled scientific process captured the aromas of the dishes by taking what are called "headspace" samples. By setting up a special mini-lab within English's restaurant, a sample of the molecules that emit from the dish were extracted, and a drop of liquid containing the full molecular make-up of the dish was brought back to Givaudan laboratories. There, scientists studied each sample to crack English's codes and recreate the flavors for commercial use. Todd, himself, is no less impressed: Every home chef will now have the means to create gourmet dishes without extensive, complicated ingredient lists and endless hours in the kitchen. Perhaps this is the stuff NASA should send up to the space station? Or, at 18¢ a serving, should this stuff go into school lunches? Jeff Peppet, Global Director of Marketing Communications, Givaudan Flavors (Cincinnati) stated: Anyone who can boil water will be able to cook with these products. And, the end result will taste as if Todd was creating a gourmet meal from his award winning restaurants right in your own kitchen! Well! Either they have invented the ultimate chef-in-a-can, or they chose a chef whom anyone can imitate: comments from readers, please? We can be pretty sure where William Grimes stands. A few years back, he wrote in The New York Times about New York City's Olives in the W Hotel: Often, the enthusiasm is contagious. "Interpretive Mediterranean" is too lofty a description for what could be called Mediterranean Happy Meals. Flavor Perfections had better make food taste better than a Mediterranean Happy Meal, if they are to succeed. Are Flavor Perfecdtions part of Todd English's continuing search for the big bucks, the dream that he will become poster boy for a product that makes him a multi-millionaire -- after tax -- and after debt? Like many celebrity chefs, Todd tries again and again to find something that will make him money besides restaurants: Samuel Adams, Michelob, now Givaurdan. In the process, he seems to have developed a teflon skin like Wolfgang Puck, and he continues to lure big-name sponsors to work with him. Will all Todd's chasing finally pay off? Will he like what it brings him? Stay tuned. Previous articles: Todd English: Beau Rivage Daniel Boulud v. Todd English: Initial Branding Branding: Todd English, Beer Gourmet Romancing the Stove - or The Way We Worked? Todd English Chefs MTV Video Music Awards Todd English: Pitching After Puck Todd English: Pots & Pans Pucked [Chefs & Branding - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to superchefblog