Risotteria

[SobaAddict70]

I also think that risotto is labor intensive in a way that pasta isn't and that deters people from making it at home very often. I think paella suffers from the same prejudices that risotto suffers from.

Risotto is labor-intensive?

Heh. Its probably less labor-intensive than making lasagna, or chocolate chip cookies (from scratch, not Pillsbury cheat dough), or grilling hamburgers over a grill (you have to stand there, flipping burgers, making sure the meat doesn't burn and taking them out at the right time).

Explain to me how standing there in front of a stove, stirring a pot of rice for 20 to 30 minutes, is "labor-intensive".

I consider making a pie or cake (from scratch) labor-intensive. But that's just me.

SA

[Fat Guy]

It's not inherently labor-intensive but it takes about an hour start to finish if you're not geared up for the procedure and the average home cook never bothers to dice onions that small and doesn't have stock on hand. Still most Italian housewives who make risotto use the pressure cooker method and accomplish it in about half an hour with minimal intervention. And it tastes quite good.

[Suzanne F]

Sandra: BINGO!!!

What is it with you guys (and I think it's been an all-male discussion, not that it really matters) and your need for instant marketing gratification? Someone mentioned how long it took for "pasta" as such to become mainstream. Just because the owner of Risotteria hasn't built an empire YET doesn't mean the concept can't/won't/shouldn't take off. Probably just a real-estate issue.

BTW: there were quite a number of "instant" risottos on display at the summer Fancy Food Show. Granted, they tasted awful (to me), but that's no reason for them not to become popular. Marketing is all!

[Steve Plotnicki]

If you promoted it an alternative to pasta, it will fail. That's like when they said that pork was the "other beef." It has to have merit on it's own and it has to add something to the meal. If it's just going to be a starch, then pasta has it beat by miles. In the vodka example, vodka became popular while the country was changing it's drinking habits from hard liquor (like Scotch) to softer alcoholic drinks and wine. I don't think you have the same dynamic for rice and chicken broth. In fact if anything, risotto is heavier and richer then pasta and eating trends in this country seem to be going towards being lighter.

[SobaAddict70]

It's not inherently labor-intensive but it takes about an hour start to finish if you're not geared up for the procedure and the average home cook never bothers to dice onions that small and doesn't have stock on hand. Still most Italian housewives who make risotto use the pressure cooker method and accomplish it in about half an hour with minimal intervention. And it tastes quite good.

Um, I've made risotto and I wouldn't know a "real" brunoise from my half-hearted attempts to make one. So I suppose I'm average then, huh?

Seriously, there are way way more things out there that are "labor-intensive". Mowing the lawn, shoveling snow in a driveway, raking leaves in the fall, delivering newspapers, roasting a chicken, Thanksgiving dinner (turkey!), mashed potatoes -- all of these are labor-intensive.

Cooking rice (which is essentially what risotto is), is NOT difficult. Anyone who thinks that it is, and I'm not saying that you or SteveP or anyone else who's posted thus far does indeed think that, needs to re-evaluate their mindset.

SA

[Wilfrid]

If you promoted it an alternative to pasta, it will fail...

Risotto is heavier and richer then pasta ...

Why is there only room for one? Why couldn't people sometimes eat risotto instead of pasta.

And heavy? Lasagne and canneloni seem fairly popular.

As usual, Steve, I don't disagree so much with your conclusion as find myself bewildered by your reasons. Anyway, my observation has been that risotto is widely available in Italian restaurants in New York and frequently ordered, so what's the issue?

[GordonCooks]

I like risotto, but I prefer the Anchovyteria on e17th.

[Fat Guy]

Soba, I'm not talking about brunoise, I'm just talking about a small dice. This is something that I've noticed a lot of home cooks just don't know how to do, and I don't know if it's a question of practice, willpower, crummy knives, or what. But I know for sure -- because I've dealt with the recipe editors who follow this sort of thing -- that when you call for a finely diced onion in a recipe you lose a big chunk of the American home-cook audience.

[SobaAddict70]

Soba, I'm not talking about brunoise, I'm just talking about a small dice. This is something that I've noticed a lot of home cooks just don't know how to do, and I don't know if it's a question of practice, willpower, crummy knives, or what. But I know for sure -- because I've dealt with the recipe editors who follow this sort of thing -- that when you call for a finely diced onion in a recipe you lose a big chunk of the American home-cook audience.

Is that because UnitedStatesians are famous for culinary bastardization?

heh

Oh well. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes.

SA

[jaybee]

Steve is right when he talks about the place for the product to fit in being important, but it is not all. Any time people can look at a food and say "Oh, so I eat that instead of "x" you have an easier time selling it. When it isn't clear, the job is tougher but not impossible. When Stove Top Stuffing began advertising "Stove Top instead of potatoes," and showed servings next to roast chicken and other dishes normally accompanied by potatoes, their volume took a big uptick. Risotto can replace pasta or any other one-dish meal people serve as an in-home product. Or, like Chinese food, it can grow as an out-of-home product. I imagine that most people would like the taste and texture of a mainstream risotto, so it isn't a "learned" or "acquired" taste.

The vodka example is perhaps not right, though I was talking about super-premium vodka, not the category. Sure, the Bloody Mary and the Vodka and OJ put the product on trhe map, but the original selling proposition was to heavy lunch time boozers with the not so subtle headline "Smirnoff leaves you breathless." The super premium vodka category which was really created by Absolut (despite Stoli and Finlandia's lead) was a whole new ballgame. Initially the idea of paying $30 for vodka when Smirnoff sold for $8 seemed ludicrous. It was marketing (though not advertising) that made Absolut a badge product. but, as I said, it took ten years to really reach major volume. The vodka martini is a heavy % of on-premise consumption of super premium vodka.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Wilfrid - Well your typical Northen Italian restaurant in this town serves 10 "minestre." 8 pastas, 1 soup and 1 risotto. If there was more demand for risotto (or soup for that matter,) the ratios would change. So the fact that it can be ordered "instead of" already exists. People just don't order it as much as they order pasta. Is it marketing? Possibly. But it isn't like people haven't heard of risotto. Maybe if they can make risotto that tastes like white truffles at a cheap cost where you added a bit of veggies that were fresh, that would change the dynamic. But I can't think of why people would make the switch otherwise. I think the whole strategy to a good risotto is a but subtle for American palates.

[Wilfrid]

I agree people don't seem to like risotto as much as they like pasta, and the example you give illustrates that point. I just didn't the reason for them not liking it was that they couldn't understand when to eat it.

I doubt if it's anything to do with marketing too.

[tommy]

toys in the attic - aerosmith.

oh, sorry, wrong thread.

[Charles Smith]

We should stop focusing on risotto as an alternative to pasta and think of it as a type of noodle, which seems to me the role that it fills on many menus. I'd guess that it's also more expensive to make well than pasta, so it's unlikely that it will ever become extremely popular in any form other than rice-a-roni (which used to make a very good "Saffron" (that is, yellow) dish referred to as risotto).

I also think that a number of us discovered risotto in Italy and then looked to have it here- since only 12% of Americans have passports, I doubt that this "Perillo" method will influence the market either.

BTW, remind me to hide when the blonde Northern Italian hordes start showing up.

Cheers,

Charles

[Fat Guy]

only 12% of Americans have passports

Really? I would have figured the number was less than half but more than 12%. Do you have a reference that breaks down how many people in America are eligible for passports versus how many have them?

[Wilfrid]

people in America

Pedantry: I would make that "Americans." I mean, I've got a passport.

[Charles Smith]

I don't- that's a number used pretty regularly in advertising sales for travel packages referring to non-expired passports- if you count all passports issued the number is more like 18%. It's very misleading in one since, b/c a lot of foreign travel (Mexico, Carribean, etc.) can be done without a passport in many cases.

I'll look at my old media kits for the source.

[Charles Smith]

people in America

Pedantry: I would make that "Americans." I mean, I've got a passport.

as originally stated :-)

[mamster]

Interestingly, when you put "Risotteria New York" into Google the first thing that comes up is a capsule review from Mamster's Web site

Sorry it took me so long to notice this. (Hey, try Googling for 'Bangkok street food' sometime). Frankly, I don't know if I can tell the difference between restaurant-method risotto and "real" risotto. I make it the authentic way at home, but only because I have no reason to do it any other way: I get hungry, I think risotto, and I start some up.

Anyway, I went to Risotteria one time and enjoyed it a lot. They did a surprisingly good job with chicken, which sounds like an obviously bad risotto ingredient, but roast some flavor into it and add at the last minute, and it's a worthy addition. If I worked or lived (I think this is Laurie's all-time dream) nearby, I'd probably go a lot.

[Fat Guy]

Mamster do I have to teach you everything? Please turn to page 11 of the official food writer's bullshit guide and look in paragraph 3 where it says: "As a professional food writer, you must always insist that you can distinguish between cooked-to-order risotto and standard restaurant-method risotto. Moreover, you must always say cooked-to-order risotto is good and standard restaurant-method risotto is bad. No rational argument should be allowed to prevail in this instance (see entry on puff pastry, above)."

[Steve Klc]

Are you giving away more content from our "So you wannabee a food writer" class, Shaw?

[Jason Perlow]

What the hell is standard restaurant method risotto? Dont they just make risotto the same way as you would at home, just a lot more of it?

[macrosan]

Oh no, not another opportunity for a Plotti-post, surely

Jason, where have you been all this thread ?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Jason - "Real risotto" is made by gently stirring 5 cups of chicken stock, etc. into the rice with a wooden spoon. What some people call "not real risotto" is made by some other method like making it in a pressure cooker etc.

[Charles Smith]

I thought most retaurants made risotto by cooking it in advance about 85% of the way there (with stock), then spreading it onto a cookie sheet to be finished when ordered with a few last turns of stock