The Culinary Scoop

This year’s FoodTreX Innovation Summit is slated to take place online on Friday, October 30. FoodTreX Innovation is where professionals working in food, beverage, tourism and hospitality come every year to get ideas and inspiration about how to leverage better the power of food tourism for their own businesses, organizations and destinations.

This year’s Summit tackles many of the issues that are of critical interest in food tourism today:

• How food- and beverage- lovers can travel without using plastic
• Diversifying restaurant and foodservice operations to survive and thrive in current economic conditions
• How businesses can tackle the issue of cultural appropriation
• What London’s popular Borough Market learned since the pandemic began
• And finally, where the food and beverage tourism industry is headed in 2021

In 2018 National Orange Wine Day was established by wine media producer The Real Housewine, Amanda Claire Goodwin. This wine holiday is celebrated annually on October 6. Recent expansion efforts now include a completely virtual celebration of orange wines due to social distancing recommendations led by the industries leading professionals, many of whom are women.

Orange wine is still very unknown to the general wine consumer and many assume it’s made from the orange fruit. It’s actually white wine grapes that are essentially treated like red wine grapes. They undergo grape skin contact during the fermentation process. Virtual Orange Wine Week seeks to educate consumers on this lesser known style of wine. Additionally, selected panels and classes are available for wine trade professionals.

Highlighted classes for wine trade professionals will be led by Pascaline Lepeltier, MS on Austrian Wines, Holly Berrigan & Nic Jansson of Mysa Wine on Online Marketing, and the first ever Virtual Orange Wine Trade Panel hosted by Goodwin, featuring Jenny Lefcourt of Jenny & Francois Selections, Simon J. Woolf author of Amber Revolution, Doreen Winkler of Orange Glou, and Mateja Gravner of Gravner Wines.

Multi-tier collaboration features a capsule merch collection, McDonald’s crew apparel, TV commercial, and Travis Scott’s signature order in restaurants at participating McDonald’s locations nationwide

With the Travis Scott Meal hitting McDonald’s restaurants around the country this week, the iconic Golden Arches and Cactus Jack have also dropped exclusive merch and a national commercial.

The merch is accessible exclusively on shop.travisscott.com. The collection features nods to vintage McDonald’s campaigns, and includes items ranging from t-shirts and hoodies to entirely cut + sew garments and collectible accessories.

“From featuring Travis’s favorite McDonald’s meal in our restaurants, to his new score for our TV spot, to Cactus Jack x McDonald’s merch, this has been a true partnership from start to finish,” said McDonald’s U.S. Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley. “It has been exciting to team up with a true brand fan whose creativity and love for our food shines through in each aspect of the collaboration.”

The Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One (NYCWFF) returns for its 13^th annual edition this Fall, October 2 – 11, 2020.  The Festival will look and feel different this year, but the commitment is unchanged – to support the New York City hospitality community and serve as a resource that connects people with world class chefs, restaurants and bars all while continuing the fight to end hunger for No Kid Hungry® and Food Bank For New York City, whose missions are now more crucial than ever. With more than 60 events taking place over nine days, this year’s Festival offers a robust lineup of virtual and live programming including Behind the Burger Bash, NYCWFF Goes Virtual presented by Capital One, an Intimate Dinner Series and an Online Wine Auction all for a good cause.

“As a Festival, we understand the power of food and its ability to bring people together,” said Lee Brian Schrager, Founder and Director, NYCWFF. “The goal has always been to do it in a way that supports the city’s diverse hospitality community and the great work of our charity partners, No Kid Hungry and Food Bank For New York City and that goal is no different this year,” he adds. “The 2020 Festival has been designed to safely meet the urgency and the challenges of the moment while continuing the fight to end hunger and delivering the NYCWFF experience our audience has come to love.”