Polenta with FourYear Cheddar & Shiitake-

I started with polenta, made from course grits - a little rice vinegar, smoked paprika, and salt. Topped with shiitake mushrooms, poblano peppers, and four-year aged cheddar. In the background, I made a slaw with nappa cabbage, radicchio, and yogurt.

The real star of this dish was the piquante pepper sauce drizzled on top. I pureed piquante (peppadew) peppers with blanched red bell pepper, adding olive oil and salt. The piquantes are very bright, tangy, and sweet...balanced with a little heat and a vinegar tang. I used the leftover sauce on white jasmine rice as side dish to the next evening's trout dinner. Yum.

Domino's New Pizza

I recently came across this bit of marketing from Domino's. Watch Video As a die-hard pizza lover, who makes his own pizza from scratch weekly, I always keep my eye on the pie.

If you don't have time to watch the video...Domino's has crafted a "documentary" that is very engaging. It's a narrative that starts with the company talking about the negative feedback they get from customers, "tastes like cardboard, microwave pizza is better." Then, they talk about how much they love food, and CEO David Brandon describes that it's time to rethink their pizza from the ground up.

The video is very compelling. While I would typically avoid a conventional-unnatural delivery pizza, I will happily order one of these just for research sake. The marketing approach successfully creates a solid emotional appeal, backed with the human touch of acknowledging mistakes and growing. This is, in my opinion, an amazing example of how to build buy-in and reinvigorate a stagnant brand. Wow!

Happy Holidays,

Roo