Just Cured - Experience Fine Foods

I have had several requests recently for duck confit.† To meet this demand, I have worked out an arrangement with Luken’s Poultry Fish & Seafood at Findlay Market to produce duck confit for them.

The duck confit will be available exclusively at the Luken’s stand in the main Market House.† The confit comes packaged two legs and thighs in a vacuum sealed pouch.† The price is $15 per pack. serevent online arava

Stop by Luken’s, pick up some Just Cured duck confit and let me know what you think of the product.

Virtually everyone is familiar with “Parkinson’s Law” that

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Fewer know about C. Northcote Parkinson’s background or his body of work.† Parkinson studied, and became an expert of renown in, the field of public administration, as the Brits call it.† We Americans refer to this arena most often as “government bureaucracies.”† Parkinson’s studies lead to his publication of many Laws, including the one for which he is most famous.† One of the lesser-known Laws is Parkinson’s Law of Triviality that provides:

The time spent on any item of the agenda of a public body will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

The political conversation this week is dominated by blustering, outrage, opinion and advice concerning AIG’s agreements to pay retention bonuses of up to $165 million to employees of the AIG Financial Products Group, the unregulated investment arm within AIG that is the cause of all of AIG’s problems.† Goodness help the poor soul who gets between a politician and a microphone this week.† Every politician has had or will have his or her say on the subject of the bonuses, from “bow deeply, apologize and commit suicide” (Senator Grassley) to “investigate all options to recoup” (President Obama) and everything in between.

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The bonuses are, however, but a convenient target and a prime example of the operation of the Law of Triviality.† It’s hard to conceive of $165 million as trivial, yet it is in the context of the AIG mess.† AIG had a $2.2 trillion portfolio of custom derivative contracts and related trades and positions.† The size of the portfolio is almost beyond comprehension and that size is dwarfed by the complexity of the financial instruments comprising it.† The Law posits that officials will not talk about sums and concepts that are beyond their comprehension. studies zelnorm

And that is precisely what has happened with AIG.† On three occasions, two different administrations chose to use Federal Reserve and taxpayer funds to support AIG and its Financial Products Group — to the tune of $170 billion.† They decided the best course of dealing with AIG is to honor those derivative contracts rather than to break those contracts in a bankruptcy.† The government commitment and expenditures were made with little outcry and essentially no outrage from the politician class.

Yet put a very large, yet comprehensible number on a tiny piece of the AIG problem, one with faces of actual villains, and the outcry is both pervasive and deafening.

The politicians should think about several things before they continue wailing. The contracts were entered into more than a year ago, in a world where Wall Street-ish talent was valued much differently than today and long before any government intervention at AIG.† The payments causing outrage are the second round of payments under these contracts.† The amount involved with these contracts is minuscule in relation to the overall exposure at AIG.† $165 million represents only 0.0075% of AIG’s $2.2 trillion derivative portfolio — or $75 out of every $1,000,000.† The derivative contracts hemorrhage taxpayer dollars and will continue to do so.† There is no outcry to break individual derivative contracts or to tax the recipients of payments under them at prohibitive rates — nor should there be, as such a tactic runs contrary to the strategy of supporting the financial markets.

Our government elected to save a massively leaking ship.† Now we are surprised to find many more tiny leaks?† In the words of Captain Renault in Casablanca, “I am shocked, shocked.”

I recall attending meetings when I was in my 20s and early 30s with the men (and they were always men in those days) of a certain age who ran corporate data centers and other “big iron” computing installations.† My contemporaries and I waxed enthusiastically about first our personal computers and later our networks of personal computers.† The men of big iron looked at us with a mixture of amusement and disdain.

First, they would invariably view these new technologies as toys, asking what application they have in the business world.† I could generally answer that question.† In the case of the original PC running the breakthrough application Lotus 1-2-3, I could show a detailed, flexible financial model of a complex transaction — a tool that was virtually unavailable in the big iron only world.† In the case of early networks, I could point to a 100 node PC network for law firm document processing having a cost equal to a dozen or so terminal minicomputer based solution.

Then, the objections turned to the lack of standards, security, control, audit trails, training and management oversight implicit in the new technologies.† If I heard “garbage-in, garbage-out” once, I heard it several hundred times.† Those arguments made sense to me; I understand the “thousand flowers bloom” concept, but never was a huge advocate of it.† Eventually, vendors of all kinds developed the tools that permit innovation and protect valuable corporate assets.

Over the past two days, I have spent several hours each day with enthusiastic men and women in their 20s and early 30s discussing social media tools and their application to businesses large and small.† After leaving those meetings, I realized that I am now one of the men of a certain age looking at those others with amusement (but I am pleased to say with no disdain whatsoever).

All the talk of Facebook and Twitter and the tools related to them being released daily made my head spin.† I admit to using these applications and finding them immensely interesting and enjoyable — a bit addictive, even.† I also see that they have great prospects as business communication, development and marketing tools.† I, like many others, am stuck when it comes to developing both strategies and tactics† for Just Cured to take advantage of these tools that are consistent with Just Cured’s overall strategy and brand identity.

In other words, I am beyond the “cool toy” stage, but haven’t progress in my thinking to the stage of viewing these social media applications as tools integral to the operation of Just Cured’s business.† Like others, I will be trying out some things using social media tools in the upcoming weeks and months.† If you want to go along for the ride, visit, follow or friend me at:

My Facebook page

Just Cured’s Facebook page

Follow Just Cured at Twitter

As I have posted a couple of time before, last Friday I acted as the guest chef at City Cellars wine shop for its second monthly wine dinner.† The menu for the dinner along with the pairings I selected from the shop’s selections was:

Roasted beet and goat cheese salad
Foreau Vouvray Sec 2006
Pascal Cotat Sancerre, Les Monts DamnÈs 2004
Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2007
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2008

Risotto with asparagus and asparagus puree
Albert Mann Pinot Gris Vin D’ Alsace CuvÈe Albert 2005
Lucien Albrecht Gewurztraminer 2006

Just Cured half smoked salmon cooked sous vide, wild mushroom and cabbage sautÈ, pinot noir butter sauce
A to Z Pinot Noir Oregon 2007
Elk Cove Pinot Noir La BohemÈ 2005
Kynsi Pinot Noir Stone Corral Estate, Edna Valley 2005

Milk chocolate pretzel tart

In the category of “I always forget something,” I left my camera at home, and the friend who assisted me (who never goes anywhere without his camera) didn’t have his with him either.† As a result, there are no photos of the courses as they left the kitchen.† If any of the guests happened to snap a picture for posterity that includes the food or other guests, please send them to me.

I was pleased to serve many friends dinner that night.† There were a few new friends, a few long-time friends whom I see often, and several friends I haven’t seen in years.† I was even more pleased to meet several guests who were unfamiliar to me and who received their first introduction to Just Cured.

The guests appeared to enjoy themselves.† There was no consensus among them of a favorite course; I received several votes for each course.† The wine flowed freely.† One table sat and chatted for nearly an hour after the first guests departed.

I had fun as well.† The real challenge to doing this dinner was working within the restrictions of the available facilities.† City Cellars is in the process of installing a full kitchen in the back of the shop.† Right now, it lacks an actual cooking device.† I brought along some equipment and tailored the menu to the capacity of the available equipment.† I was particularly pleased at the pace with which we were able to serve the courses.

Thanks to Sean, Brian and the other staff of City Cellars for asking me to participate, for their hospitality and for their assistance.† Thanks also to J.T., my assistant in the kitchen for the evening.† Finally, particular thanks to my wife for making the pastry course.

Please consider City Cellars for your wine needs.† Also please plan to attend one or more of their Tuesday tastings and future wine dinners.† Finally, the City Cellars tasting room is a first rate facility for parties and corporate events; visit the City Cellars site for details on having your party in the tasting room.