No time to blog, tweet or keep up with Facebook. My son and I are launching a new business and we have been traveling to meet people to form alliances, vet our ideas, and do on-the-ground research. Now we’re finalizing executive summaries and business plans, and doing outreach for funding.

Despite our heads down, nose-to-the-grindstone mode, I have come up for air to mourn the loss of Gourmet and the kind of in-depth food knowledge that is now getting dissipated. In this brave new world where everyone who eats is a food expert, it was comforting to know that editors at Gourmet were respected and appreciated for their decades of experience. [more…]

I have an age-coping mechanism. At the start of the New Year, when we all share a heightened awareness of time passing, I remind myself that I’ll be another year older. That way, when my birthday rolls around in August, I can happily enjoy the cake and ice cream without feeling morose.

Some people groan about growing older. I admit I do, too. But I am also grateful for that extra year to explore new foods and new trends. Most importantly, the years pay off in the kind of experience needed to be able to assess what’s really going on in the food world today and to put it in context. I’ve had a lucky head start, since I became an editor at a New York magazine at age 22. So I’ve been tracking trends for a good number of years. [more…]

Everyone who works in public relations plays an advocacy role. So you have to believe in your clients’ products. If your heart isn’t in it, you can’t promote with conviction.

Of course, sometimes the product may not be what you would care to cook or eat yourself. But if you know that it fills an honest need for some other segment of the population that’s okay, too. If I were only going to promote products I love, my next client would have to be a foie gras account, like my lucky colleague, Karsha.

One client product I’m personally crazy about is Kerrygold Butter. It is just plain unctuous — rich and creamy — with a remarkable natural golden color. The cows in Ireland are not confined to barns but get to roam free during the day, eating a diet of the greenest Irish grass (not grain). So the butter from these contented cows turns out a deeper gold color from the beta carotene in the grass. Not only is it a great table butter and butter for cooking, it’s the queen of butters for baking. [more…]

Awhile ago, PC Magazine waxed poetic about the glories of the wired home. Hey, I’m all for wi-fi so I can be online throughout the house. And I need my TiVo. But don’t touch my kitchen.

I love electronic toys — podcasts on my iPod, music from my smart phone, games on my pda — even little Roomba to clean my house. But few of these come without frustrations. Like when I couldn’t get into iTunes to download “Wait, Wait don’t Tell Me,” before a business trip. Or when my smartphone stopped giving me e-mail when my mom was in the hospital. The last straw was when my Palm stopped making a bluetooth connection with my cell phone after the hours I spent configuring e-mail and Internet access. (Only little Roomba performs his little heart out, all the time.)

So I began thinking. As we harness technology in the kitchen, how are we going to connect to access all the services promised and how are we going to maintain the technology? What does a service contract look like for an Internet-enabled refrigerator? [more…]

My kitchen and I were featured in a half page color photo on the cover of the House & Garden section of the San Francisco Chronicle last week. Chronicle design editor Zahid Sardar wrote, “It is easily one of the best San Francisco kitchens we’ve spotted because the story of food — from garden to stovetop — is clearly told.”

Zahid also found an interesting story angle. The remodel was the first for a young architect to springboard his career, while the remodel, the first for me, catapulted my new business, Sandy Hu Food Marketing. [more…]

Okay, it’s not about basketball.

February and March are the busiest months of the year for me as the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, the ideal time to promote Irish butter and cheeses for my client, the Irish Dairy Board.

It’s hard to get the food media to mention brand names without a good reason. St. Patrick’s Day provides that reason. If you want to make a genuine Irish feast, you need genuine Irish dairy products. And how do you know which ones are Irish unless you know which brands to buy? While the promotional effort is timed to use St. Patrick’s Day as the news “hook,” truth is, once consumers aquire a taste for Kerrygold butter and cheeses, there’s no reason to wait until another St. Patrick’s Day to buy them again. [more…]

People in the food business are surprised when I tell them I’m a self-taught cook. While I come from a family of good cooks, cooking was anathema to me until I lucked into a position as food editor of a teenage magazine in New York City. Many trials (and a few errors) later, I’ve become a pretty competent cook and have developed a good palate.

In the more than 25 years in this business, I’ve learned a lot about food. And what I don’t know, I can easily research, accessing my office library of more than 500 volumes on food and wine — cookbooks, scientific and historical reference books, food essays, food issues and more. I continue to edit my collection, discarding ones that are past their prime and buying new books to keep current.

I’ve set aside a few books for my go-to shelf. They aren’t all the newest books, but they serve as tried-and-true references. If you’re just starting in the food world or want to learn more, these may help: [more…]

Why am I blogging so infrequently? My original plan had been to write fresh content once a week, but sometimes, my work gets just too hectic to take the time. This week, however, I’ve been spending literally hours with T-Mobile tech support, beginning Sunday afternoon, trying to get my Palm Tungsten E2 PDA to connect with the bluetooth from my Motorola Razr cell phone so I can get e-mail and Internet Access from my PDA. This way, I can go on short business trips and not take my laptop.

I depend on my handheld as my datebook and directory — I love it because it’s so light and easy to transport. I’ve had a PDA for years, updating each time to a newer models with richer features. The Tungsten is my fifth PDA, and I thought it would be the answer to all my technical dreams. [more…]

Food is about culture, nourishment, politics, science, nutrition, craft, art, society, geography, science, economics, health, emotion…there are so many aspects to food, sometimes we forget that food can simply be fun. Here are ways to play with your food.

Set the Japanese Table
My cousin Lori who lives in Hawaii e-mails me fun food links from time to time. Here’s a quick game with silly music and very cute graphics that will make you smile. The game is called Put the Dishes on the Table. Memorize the location of each dish, click on the “memorized” button next to the time clock (the long oval button to the right containing Japanese characters) and put the dishes back in their places.

The Iron Chef — in LEGO Land
Whose cuisine reigns supreme? For a wacky spoof on TV’s cult Japanese hit, Iron Chef, check out this six-minute video that captures the music, sounds and flavor of the original — all with LEGOS — called LEGO Chef. With LEGO people outfitted in toques and smocks and LEGO judges including the classic characters (the giggly starlet and the fortune teller), it’s a hoot. The actor on the judging panel is “Sean Connery.” This is the brainchild of Steve Iervolino and is distributed by IFILM. Be patient — you have to view the commercial before you can get to the production. [more…]

I’m on a Jet Blue flight, coming home after two days of meetings with magazine food editors, previewing a new line of barbecue tools, fuels and accessories designed by barbecue guru Steven Raichlen for The Companion Group. Steven, star of the PBS show Barbecue University and the author of a number of barbecue books, including the best-selling Barbecue Bible, explained the genesis of the new cool tools to editors and demonstrated how they work. The meetings had been a resounding success.

Now I’m on my favorite airline with its door-to-door TV (contrary to expectations, I watchHGTV and the History Channel instead of the Food Network), blue Tera Chips and flight attendants who actually help you hoist your bags into the overhead compartment (mine aren’t heavy — I just need to grow a few more inches to reach the bin).

Unlike other airlines that purported to serve meals, Jet Blue never had that aspiration. The best thing that has happened to domestic coach class airline food is seeing it disappear. Did we really need disgustingly flabby, rubber chicken with artificial grill marks, swimming in salty tomato sauce, accompanied with mixed frozen veggies? [more…]