Recent Articles from Laura Newman
Chef Laura: Derby daze in Denver
The Kentucky Derby comes with its own traditions. I guess when you’ve been doing something for 139 years, rituals are bound to be passed down the generations. From a fashion perspective, it’s all about the hats – the bigger, the better. But as a chef who has worn her fair share of ridiculously...
Chef Laura: Down with upspeak!
On behalf of business women who would like to close the salary gap between the genders, please stop apologizing for your brilliant ideas. If women want to be taken seriously at work, they must drop the upspeak, the warm and fuzzies, and trailing off. Ceasing these detrimental verbal habits is an...
Chef Laura: Don’t DIY
Since I'm proficient in the kitchen, I can dice mirepoix for homemade soup before someone can Google the word mirepoix. It's no biggie. I've been doing this a long time. But when it comes to investing beyond the company's 401k, I was like a clueless home cook wondering what the heck roux is. Reme...
Chef Laura: Take me out to the ball game
Last week, I gave a friend a ride to the Colorado Rockies’ Opening Day. If I didn’t know any better, I thought we took a wrong turn and ended up in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. Aside from the absence of beads, purple-clad people were happily stumbling down Market Street. Navigating a ca...
Chef Laura: Consciously uncoupling
With the help of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, the phrase “Conscious Uncoupling” has entered our lexicon. This term, created by author and psychotherapist Katharine Woodward Thomas is vying for word of the year for 2014. Sorry “selfie” – you’re sooooo 2013. Conscious Uncoupling is the practi...
Chef Laura: Take a number
Ever notice during non-peak hours how customers ignore the red plastic Take-a-Number dispenser? This in turn causes the staff’s desire to track said numbers wane. But then - out of thin air - two, three, four customers approach simultaneously. Some take a ticket, some don’t. The deli employees...
Chef Laura: Avoid the Krispy Kreme effect
We’ve all heard of “Death by PowerPoint” – a live presentation focused on a lengthy deck with slide after slide of facts, data, charts, numbers, and words. This elicits what I call “The Krispy Kreme Effect”; you end up with an audience that is completely glazed over. Then the poor chump who creat...
Chef Laura: Luck o’ the Irish
From across a room, if you saw a tray of opaque, amber-colored beers go by and one of them had an orange slice in it, you’d know that one was a Blue Moon. Slice of citrus = walking billboard = (practically) free advertising. Have you ever been served a Corona without a lime? If you have, you are...
Chef Laura: Food labels of the future
Last week, the FDA proposed a significant makeover to the Nutrition Facts label. Apparently the government does not trust us to do basic math (270 calories per serving of B&J’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough x 4 servings = 1080 calories per pint!). Or perhaps we don’t trust ourselves to scoop out 4...
Chef Laura: Secrets of manipulative menus
Subconscious manipulation is all around us. Most companies call this “marketing”. One of the worst – or best? – offenders of subliminal marketing are restaurant menus. I don’t know if I’m breaking any rules of the SFSS (Secret Food Service Society), but I’m going to expose some subtle secrets so...
Chef Laura: Time to dine
Some folks criticize Restaurant Week as “amateur week”; a time when cherry-pickin’ cheapsters push aside their TV tray, and rise from the Barcalounger to take their special gal out for a night on the town. But my experience with the event has always been top-notch. Last year a coworker and I dine...
Chef Laura: Thorns and roses
Tomorrow over a romantic candlelight dinner, you might ask your honey “How was your day?” The typical response is “fine” or “good”. But if you really want to know how someone’s day went, ask them about their thorns and roses. My daughters and I play this “game” of sorts every night at the dinner t...