Eating at a Meeting

Food and beverage is typically the biggest budget expenditure for an event. COVID-19 has impacted the availability and prices of food, leading to the fastest rise in food prices in more than four decades. With stories of farmers tilling their crops back into the ground and throwing milk away, how will the supply and demand impact food costs for events. Michael Dominguez, CEO of Associated Luxury H...

Kathy Hester is passionate about making healthy eating accessible and delicious. Her recipes are plant-based and vegan, plus she can help you with your dietary restrictions or allergies with recipe alternatives. In this episode learn how to https://healthyslowcooking.com https://www.facebook.com/veganslowcooker/ https://instagram.com/geekypoet https://twitter.com/geekypoet https://www.linkedin.com...

How does eating tie into being mindful and joyful? Can chocolate provide healing? In this episode, Tracy chats with Meredith Whitely, founder of Food at Heart 💚, a London-based mindful eating guide, meditation teacher and passionate lover of all things cacao. She supports people in bringing calm to their minds and their bellies through slow tasting, sensory-filled cooking, and using meditation an...

To be as productive and effective as possible during your day, you may want to ask yourself if the food you're eating is the right fuel for your mind and body. Just like your car may need premium gas, your body needs premium fuel - real food!! Dr. Sabrina Falquier Montgrain feels we have lost our ability to know how to cook and we are paying a high price as far as the declining health of our socie...

Running a 110-year-old luxury hotel —Tennessee's Only Forbes Five Star and AAA Five Diamond Hotel — is no small task, let alone during a global pandemic.  Tracy chats with Dee Patel, managing director of the Hermitage Hotel to get her insights as a trailblazer in the industry and how she's successfully navigated the tumultuousness of 2020, including maintaining the hotel's commitment to taking car...

Desserts at events usually leave some guests with a desire to have their cake, but having to walk away without eating it too. Apparently, the pastry chefs at those events have not met or taken one of Chef Fran Costigan's Vegan Pastry classes. She feels that everyone's sweet tooth, including those who are lactose intolerant, vegan, reducing cholesterol, or simply prefer healthy, natural ingredients...

Did you know cocktails and spirits may contain ingredients that may be unsafe to consume for some people? Tracy speaks with cocktails and spirits writer, speaker, competition judge and consultant Camper English, whose website, cocktailsafe.org is focused on both the safety and legality of ingredients used. Tracy and Camper talk about allergen labeling and safety in cocktails. Useful Links https://...

Buffets. Carving Stations. Passed Hors d'oeuvres. Plated meals. Boxed lunches. What do and will in-person catered events look like in the time of a global pandemic. From personal protection equipment to social distancing, event organizers and food service operators are challenged with creating mouthwatering dining experiences that are inviting yet address guest concerns. In this episode, Tracy cha...

By definition, the word welcome means to be a cause of joy; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company." In the episode Tracy talks with author, speaker and coach Doreen Cumberford whose travels and living experiences across the world have influenced her dining table. We touch on preparing food and eating that food with intention, and how food is a mechanism to welcome others into...

James Filtz is Director of Meetings and Special Events at the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans and Vice President of National Association of Catering & Events (NACE), becoming President Elect January 1, 2021. In this episode, Tracy and James chat about catering during COVID and what we will see in the future. His philosophy on how the pandemic has had a positive effect on catering service is refreshing. S...

Donna Mack is a speaker, trainer, consultant, and (in her words) "always the last one chosen for Pictionary." She brings a lifetime of disability customer experience that has resulted in more than 35 years of training, presenting, and consulting on disability access and inclusion. She served on ADA Access Committees for both AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field, and has planned and hosted local, regi...

Born from the crisis need to save the life of one food service worker, The Giving Kitchen is an organization that is built on community, compassion, generosity, empathy and gratitude that supports food service workers in crisis. TGK's shift starts when the food service worker's can't. In this episode with Jen Hidinger-Kendrick, a co-founder of Giving Kitchen, we learn more about the nonprofit and...

Food has become a central utensil in diplomatic toolkits across the world. Culinary diplomacy is today in the academic world what we call soft power — a tool of persuasion. Countries are branding their cuisines or their unique foods as a way to track business and tourism. Johanna Mendelson Forman is a leading voice in the field of gastrodiplomacy and a leader in the Social Gastronomy Movement. She...

Ahuva Gottdiener enjoys the nurturing of things, creating things and watching things grow. That includes vegetables, humans, chicken and sour dough starter. What started out as an Instagram account to share pictures of what she grows in her garden and the bread she made for her family has turned Homegrown Kosher into a certied kosher bakery, garden consultancy and more. Her goal is to bridge the f...

When Aidan Reilly and James Kaneff saw on the news that billions of pounds of produce were going to waste during the pandemic while millions of Americans were going hungry they decided to do something about it. Within days these two college students home from college because their campuses were closed in response to COVID-19, created the nonprofit organization FarmLink Project, connecting farmers...

While people do not eating Jewish cooking within multicultural fabric of the UAE, Elli Kriel is quite busy right now helping food service providers in Dubai and across the UAE understand the importance and value of food through kosher cuisine. As a sociologist and self-professed foodie, born and proudly raised in South Africa by Greek parents, Elli's Kosher Kitchen caters "culinary diplomacy" by b...

As parents of a food allergic child, Dave Bloom as his wife wanted to ensure their daughter was safe in her classroom so they created a list of snacks that were safe for her and shared it with other parents and the school. That original list 14 years ago became the genesis for their website snacksafely.com and Snack Safely Guide which provides information on products - snacks, entrees, cereals - p...

A conversation with Brian Freedman, Wine, Spirits, Travel, & Food Writer and Restaurant Consultant. He hosts beverage-focused dinners, workshops, and seminars, consults on wine lists for dinners, top restaurants, and private clients, and hosts "Day Drinking with Brian." Brian shares his knowledge on how wine and spirits can help create inclusive experiences for clients and guests by meeting them a...

Abby Borden is an event producer who SPECIALIZES in food! On this episode we talk about how companies are being creative with their food and beverage events during COVID as well as how large companies in California successfully manage dietary needs. Useful Links www.tablesetgo.com https://www.facebook.com/tablesetgollc www.instagram.com/tableset_go www.linkedin.com/in/abbyborden  

During the Meetings Today webinar, "F&B 101: Managing Attendee Food Preferences and Dietary Requirements From A to Z," Tracy presented, attendees asked questions that were not addressed. In this episode, she takes time to answer some of those questions.

We're all aware of basic dining etiquette when eating at meetings. What about when eating during a virtual meeting? With virtual meetings being much more global the time of your meeting is probably happening during someone's breakfast, lunch, or dinner time. So is there a new set of etiquette standards for a virtual meeting? Should you eat at all? In this episode, Pamela Eyring president and owner...

"We are becoming robots...we're just touching screens all day long...We are not engaging our others senses... Part of being a human is being a sensory being. We are sensory. We need to touch, smell, listen and taste..." Kim Arazi, founder & creative Director of innosensi will talk about how 'sensory innovation' experiences around a dining table can help us reconnect to ourselves, each other and th...

November 1-7 was Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week. To help celebrate and educate, the very important topic, I talked with ethics and compliance expert Keith Darcy about how compliance, ethics, food, and beverage are connected. What behaviors and risks can food and beverage pose in the workplace? How can HR and compliance professionals mitigate potential risks? Keith Darcy is a retired bank execu...

Reducing food waste isn't just about keeping food out of landfill - it's an essential part of creating a sustainable, resilient and inclusive food system, one that maximizes water and land resources, minimizes climate impacts, and makes the best use of the food we grow. Learn how using local sourcing, whole-product utilization, and lots of effort helped Jackie Suggitt and ReFed do it. www.refed.co...

COVID-19 has brought food safety to the limelight while pushing sustainability to the wayside. But, can they coexist? Eric Wallinger, Director of Sustainability of MeetGreen says YES! In the conversation, learn how providing safe and inclusive food and beverage events in the middle of a pandemic can also be sustainable. Eric offers his advice and resourses to help event organizers maintain and inc...