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Food and Movies
Director Anat Baron's doc Beer Wars takes a look at the market clash between the hulking BudMillerCoors behemoth and America's most prominent craft brewers. (Peep trailer above.) Next Thursday, April 16 at 8 p.m., the film will be screened in 440 theaters across the nation, followed by a live panel discussion beamed over in high definition from L.A.'s Royce Hall. Hosted by actor and conservapundit Ben Stein, the panel will feature the likes of Greg Koch, founder of Stone Brewing Co., Todd Alstrom, founder of Beer Advocate, and Dogfish Head Brewery's own Sam Calagione.
In Philly, you can check out the live event at both the Riverview and The Bridge. Tix are $15; click theater names to purchase.
While a personal commitment kept me from attending last night's CineFest event opener, nothing will stop me from catching the rest of the flick-ering fun. (Check out all of CP's CineFest coverage.) And while we�ll start tonight with Tony Luke Jr. and The Nail at the Prince Theater � discussed in this here feature � some of you might not care about a Luke movie other than say, this one:
That's because that video tells you how to best prepare his Tony Luke Frozen Cheesesteak. That's the product that ate up 3+ years of Luke's life, trying to find the right meat (sliced Black Angus sirloin instead of the fat-marbled ribeye he uses at his stand on Oregon Avenue), the right rolls (in separate wrappers) and how to get the cooking process just right � whether you dunk it in water or nuke the whole thing in microwave-safe pouches.
Getting the sandwich absolutely right was crucial to Luke and Ray Rastelli III, the vice president of South Jersey's Rastelli Foods Group, which distributes Tony Luke Frozen Cheesesteaks. Rastelli also happens to be a big benefactor when it came to the money end of The Nail. "The guy�s a saint," says Luke of his partner in crime.
Before he started the process seriously and wound up happy with the product, he found that � Luke said this to very loudly � "you cannot, under any circumstances, take a full and complete sandwich � a loaded sandwich that is frozen � put it in a microwave or in an oven and expect that the sandwich will taste good. By the time that the heat gets to the center of sandwich, the rest of the it is completely overcooked or is dried out." The first thing he had to do? "I had to separate the two � the meat from the bread. I cannot put the sandwich together."
Luke did try to Cryovac meat from a microwave and it tasted like garbage � "it was dry and it was rubbery." He added and subtracted stuff from the packet. "It was burnt and barely OK � and inconsistent."
That is until his partner Rastelli made a comment: "It's not in the packet. It's in the meat."
Luke can�t comment more. He has a patent pending on this. He has this process. He got industry experts to sign confidentiality agreements. When they said it couldn't work. Luke said "humor me." He loves that saying. He says it a few times, as if to humor himself. "I'll pay you. Just humor me."
After Rastelli and Luke devised what they came up, they believed they'd revolutionized something special � making a frozen cheesesteak that was good. "People have to do a little bit of work to knock this out," he explains. "You're gonna cook it. But not much � in fact, you can either do it in microwave which is easier or in the boil-in bag where you toast the roll and quickly boil the meat in the bag."
Funny thing was, Luke was going to try to something more like a Steak-Umm. He got the best meat. Got a focus group. Everybody fried it and tried it. Everybody got the roll. Everybody ate it. "Everybody in the focus group loved it ... 95 percent said it was fantastic. So I said, 'Will you buy it?' and 90 percent said 'Absolutely not.'"
He laughs hardest at that.
Why not?
"Because we gotta cook it. These people are used to throwing something in the microwave and two minutes later eating their dinner. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" he yells.
A lot of people this time around don't get the sous vide "boil in bag" process where the 180-degree water bath breaks meat down and creates a juice that's phenomenal. "Three minutes in a bag � let it rest so that the cheese doesn't stick to the bag. It's ready in 3-4 minues. Shake it a second and you�ll find that the juice from the meat is so flavorful you will lose your mind. Take that roll. Put it in a toaster oven 3, 4 minutes. It comes out crisp and soft. Put it together � amazing."
He laughs after having read the blogs and the responses to his process. "You�d a thought I set off a bomb in the middle of Center City. But all I�m trying to do is represent the cheesesteak and Philly better than it has been by bigger companies."
"let it rest so that the cheese doesnât stick to the bag" not so fast. The bag with 'cheese' stuck to it tastes even better!
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| philly.com |
| On the set of Jihaad in Philly |
This Daily News piece by Regina Medina about the spineless rip-off-hardworking-Philadelphians scheme that was the local production of the Bollywood film Jihaad proves that it's affected more than just those in the film industry � members of our hospitality biz are getting the shaft, too.
The jist of the story: Australia-based production company Swish Films oversaw the area filming of Jihaad, which stars Bollywood icons Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. They allegedly skipped town without shelling out half a million dollars owed to various actors, crew people and other service providers.
Among the screwed � Tiffin owner Munish Narula, who was tapped to provide catering for the production.
He hired more staff to accommodate as many as 60 people a day on "Jihaad," the second Bollywood film for which he'd been hired to cater.
[...]
But two weeks into the "Jihaad" shoot, according to Narula, he and his restaurant were suddenly fired.
"'We love your food,'" Narula said he was told by Swish's Mitu Bhowmick-Lange. "'The service is great. Dharma has found somebody else, so we have to fire you.'"
At first, Narula said, he was incredulous: He had fed everyone on the set for 15 days and never saw a penny. He tried to negotiate with Bhowmick-Lange and Dharma officials, then hired a lawyer, he said.
The restaurant owner sued Swish and Dharma in Philadelphia small-claims court for breach of contract. Neither Swish nor Dharma showed up in court, he said. The court ruled in Narula's favor, but he doesn't think he'll get his money.
"None of them are based in the U.S.," he said. "They don't have any assets here. If we had a judgment against an American company, we could put a lien on one of their assets."
Here's hoping Narula and his employees get fairly compensated for their work. May Swish Films drown in an Olympic-size pool full of raita.
For what it's worth, Jihaad sounds pretty sweet. I would watch it:
The movie's plot involves an Indian woman wooed by a fellow countryman for her U.S. green card. The pair marry and move to New York, where she realizes that her new husband is part of a terrorist cell.
could they go after whoever plans to distribute the film in the US? The US is a lucrative bollywood destination. I'm sure the distribution companies wouldn't want to get held up by a (possibly frivolous) lawsuit and might be able to pressure the actual production company?
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| grickily on Flickr | |
Via the excellent Geekadelphia: Artist Dan "Mr. Toast" Goodsell has turned some of his brekkie-inspired characters into heroes from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' groundbreaking Watchmen.
The cinematic version of the lauded graphic novel drops two weeks from today, Friday, March 6.
Check out all the foodie Watchmen on Goodsell's Flickr page.
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