#Chopt Creative Salad chain

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Restaurant Chain Sued After Woman Claims She Received a Salad With a Human Finger in it — Didn't Notice Until Chewing it

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MONTAUK, New York | AP Investigation: Sustainable seafood dealer sold fishy tale

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MONTAUK, New York | AP Investigation: Sustainable seafood dealer sold fishy tale

MONTAUK, New York (AP) — Even after winter storms left East Coast harbors thick with ice, some of the country’s top chefs and trendy restaurants were offering sushi-grade tuna supposedly pulled in fresh off the coast of New York.

But it was just an illusion. No tuna was landing there. The fish had long since migrated to warmer waters.

In a global industry plagued by fraud and deceit, conscientious consumers are increasingly paying top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky supply chains that make it difficult to determine where any given fish comes from. That’s where national distributor Sea To Table stepped in, guaranteeing its products were wild and directly traceable to a U.S. dock — and sometimes the very boat that brought it in.

However, an Associated Press investigation found the company was linked to some of the same practices it vowed to fight. Preliminary DNA tests suggested some of its yellowfin tuna likely came from the other side of the world, and reporters traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins. The New York-based distributor was also offering species in other parts of the country that were illegal to catch, out of season and farmed.

Over the years, Sea To Table has become a darling in the sustainable seafood movement, building an impressive list of clientele, including celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Chopt Creative Salad chain, top universities and the makers of home meal kits such as HelloFresh.

“It’s sad to me that this is what’s going on,” said Bayless, an award-winning chef who runs eight popular restaurants and hosts a PBS cooking series. He said he loved the idea of being directly tied to fishermen — and the pictures and “wonderful stories” about their catch. “This throws quite a wrench in all of that.”

As part of its reporting, the AP staked out America’s largest fish market, followed trucks and interviewed fishermen who worked on three continents. During a bone-chilling week, they set up a camera that shot more than 36,000 time-lapse photos of a Montauk harbor, showing no tuna boats docking. At the same time, AP worked with a chef to order fish supposedly coming from the seaside town. The boat listed on the receipt hadn’t been there in at least two years. Reporters also tracked Sea To Table’s supply chain to fishermen abroad who earn as little as $1.50 a day working 22-hour shifts without proper food and water.

“We were treated like slaves,” said Sulistyo, an Indonesian fisherman forced to work on a foreign trawler that delivered fish to a Sea To Table supplier. He asked that only one name be used, fearing retaliation. “They treat us like robots without any conscience.” Sea To Table owner Sean Dimin emphasized his suppliers are strictly prohibited from sending imports to customers and added violators would be terminated.

“We take this extremely seriously,” he said. Dimin said he communicated clearly with his customers that some fish labeled as freshly landed at one port was actually caught and trucked in from other states, but some chefs denied this. Federal officials described it as mislabeling. ____ A century ago, small-scale fisheries dotted America’s coasts and fed the country’s demand for seafood. But as time passed, overfishing, strict government regulations and outsourcing to developing countries changed the industry, making it nearly impossible for local fishermen to compete.

The U.S. seafood market is worth $17 billion annually, with imports making up more than 90 percent of that. Experts say one in five fish is caught illegally worldwide, and a study last year by the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University found nearly half of all sushi samples tested in L.A. didn’t match the fish advertised on the menu.

Sea To Table offered a worry-free local solution that arrived from dock to doorstep by connecting chefs directly with more than 60 partners along U.S. coasts. While its mission is clear, scaling up to a national level while naming specific boats and docks is currently unrealistic. Still, the company is predicting rapid growth from $13 million in sales last year to $70 million by 2020, according to a confidential investor report obtained by the AP.

As its business expanded, AP found Sea To Table has been saying one thing but selling another.

For caterers hosting a ball for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who had successfully pushed through a law to combat seafood mislabeling, knowing where his fish came from was crucial.

The Montauk tuna arrived with a Sea To Table leaflet describing the romantic, seaside town and an email from a salesperson saying the fish was caught off North Carolina. But the boxes came from New York and there was no indication it had been landed in another state and driven more than 700 miles to Montauk. A week later the caterer ordered the Montauk tuna again. This time the invoice listed a boat whose owner later told AP he didn’t catch anything for Sea To Table at that time.

“I’m kind of in shock right now,” said Brandon LaVielle of Lavish Roots Catering. “We felt like we were supporting smaller fishing villages.”

Some of Sea To Table’s partner docks, it turns out, are not docks at all. Their seafood was advertised as “just landed” from wholesalers and retailers like Santa Barbara Fish Market — which also has imports — and Red’s Best in Boston. Both collect seafood at harbors and companies up and down their coasts.

Sea To Table also promoted fresh blue crab from Maryland in January, even though the season closed in November. In addition, the company said it never sells farmed seafood, citing concerns about antibiotics and hormones. But red abalone advertised from central California are actually grown in tanks — it’s been illegal to harvest commercially from the ocean since 1997. Rhode Island and Washington state also supply aquacultured seafood, such as oysters and mussels.

Dimin said farmed shellfish “is a very small part of our business, but it’s something that we’re open and clear about.” When asked to provide evidence that the company has been transparent about its use of farmed shellfish, he paused and then replied, “There’s nothing to hide there.”

However, days later, he said he decided to drop aquaculture from his business because it contradicts his “wild only” guarantee. Private companies that mislead consumers, clients and potential investors could face lawsuits or criminal liability. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are charged with enforcing laws to prevent fish fraud. Sellers who know, or even should have known, that fish is mislabeled could be found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, mail fraud and wire fraud. The crimes carry potential fines and jail time.

Carl Safina, an award-winning author and leading marine conservationist at New York’s Stony Brook University, said companies that prey on consumers’ good intentions “deserve to be out of business immediately.”

A half dozen commercial fishermen and dealers in various regions of the country voiced concerns and, in some cases, anger about Sea To Table. Others have lashed out in the past using social media. Most spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety and their businesses in an industry where relationships often overlap. Eric Hodge, a small-scale fisherman from Santa Barbara, said he considered partnering with Sea To Table a few years ago. He quickly changed his mind after seeing canary rockfish on the distributor’s chef lists when the fish was illegal to catch. He also learned Sea To Table was buying halibut from the fish market, which relies heavily on imports. He said he spoke to the company about his concerns. “Honestly, they know. I just don’t think they care,” Hodge said. “They are making money on every shipment, and they are not going to ask questions. And in seafood, that’s a bad way to go about it because there is so much fraud.” ___

The idea for Sea To Table began with a family vacation to Trinidad and Tobago more than two decades ago. Following a fishing trip there, Michael Dimin and his son, Sean, eventually started shipping fresh catch from the Caribbean nation to chefs in New York. Later, they shifted their model to work exclusively with small-scale American coastal fishermen.

Restaurants and other buyers demanding sustainable products were drawn to the company by a marketing campaign that provided a story not just about where the fish came from, but the romantic image of an American pastime. And they were willing to pay a lot — sometimes more than $20 a pound — for high-end species.

The New York Times, National Geographic, Bon Appetit magazine and many others singled out Sea To Table as the good guys in a notoriously bad industry. Larry Olmsted, author of the bestselling book “Real Food, Fake Food,” recommended it as an answer to fraud in a Forbes article.

After learning about the problems, Olmsted said he was disappointed, and that it made no difference to him if part of the business was legitimate: “It either is reliable, or it’s not.” Sea To Table partnered with sustainability giants such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Stewardship Council and the James Beard Foundation, which collaborated on events and referred to the distributor as an industry favorite. They expressed concern that suppliers who knowingly mislabel catch will damage the movement.

Sea To Table’s products are sold in almost every state, reaching everywhere from Roy’s seafood restaurants to Tacombi taco chain. It can be found at eateries inside the Empire State Building in New York and Chicago’s O’Hare airport, direct to consumers from its own website and even on Amazon for home cooks to order. In addition, more than 50 college campuses such as Yale, Ohio State and the University of Massachusetts have signed up. So have some of the biggest make-it-yourself meal kits, including Home Chef and Sun Basket, a rapidly growing market that Sea To Table says generates a third its revenues.

Whether they know it or not, a company spending money at any point in a long chain that begins with an abused fisherman and ends with a diner is inadvertently supporting the problem. Customers who responded to AP said they were frustrated and confused. “Not ok,” Ken Toong, who is responsible for UMass Dining, said of Sea To Table. “We believed them.” ____ AP’s investigation began with one of Sea To Table’s nearby suppliers. Located on New York’s eastern coast beyond the posh Hamptons, Bob Gosman Company opened in Montauk as a mom-and-pop clam shack more than six decades ago.

Now run by cousins Bryan and Asa Gosman, it is a small empire sitting on a multi-million dollar property. Oceanfront restaurants, shops and motels bustle with tourists in the summer. And its fish market, where 70 percent of the tuna is imported, has become one of the biggest wholesalers in the area.

Gosman’s gets most of its tuna along with other species from a place in the state where fish can always be found, regardless of the season: The New Fulton Fish Market. The nine-acre refrigerated warehouse just outside Manhattan is the second-largest facility of its kind, moving millions of pounds of seafood each night, much of it flown in from across the globe.

Beautiful maroon slabs of imported high-grade tuna were on display for several nights in December, January and February, as well as other times throughout last year, when AP reporters roamed the market. The frigid building buzzed with workers on forklifts zigzagging across slick concrete floors, stacking orders waiting to be picked up.

In the early hours, often between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., boxes of fish bearing foreign shipping labels from all over the world were arranged into piles with “Gosman” scribbled across them in black marker. They were later hoisted onto a waiting truck with the same name.

After a three-hour drive east, the AP watched the loads arrive at the company’s loading dock in Montauk, just as the sun was rising on the tip of Long Island.

The tuna, swordfish and other species were then ferried inside Gosman’s warehouse. They came from Blue Ocean in Brazil, Vietnam’s Hong Ngoc Seafood Co., and Land, Ice and Fish in Trinidad and Tobago. Occasionally, boxes showed up from Luen Thai Fishing Venture and Marshall Islands Fishing Venture, part of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate that’s a major supplier of sushi-grade tuna.

Despite recent conservation partnerships, Luen Thai has a checkered past, including shark finning and a bribery scandal that resulted in the jailing of a former Cook Islands marine resources minister in 2016.

Bryan Gosman said Sea To Table stressed it would not take imports. But with no yellowfin tuna landed in New York during the coldest winter months — which a federal official confirmed — it was impossible to provide high-quality loins from Montauk.

“So in the beginning, there were times when we were trying to hustle around fish,” Gosman said. “Buying fish at different places, so it could be a legitimate business plan that they’re trying to follow.” Eventually, with Dimin’s blessing, Gosman said he started getting fish from as far away as North Carolina and trucking it up to New York.

They stopped that arrangement in March. Gosman said it wasn’t profitable. Dimin said they wanted to avoid the “complexity of communicating” their sourcing.

Meanwhile, in the dead of winter, AP had turned to a chef to order $500 worth of fish on their behalf. Sea To Table provided a receipt and verbal assurances that the seafood — which arrived overnight in a box bearing the company’s name and logo — had been landed in Montauk the day before.

The invoice even listed the “Standin Up” as the boat that caught it. But the vessel’s owner said it was in another state at the time, hundreds of miles away.

“I know my name is being used,” said Robert Devlin, who was upset by the news. “A lot of people do fraud that way.”

The AP also shipped tuna samples supposedly from Montauk to two labs for analysis: Preliminary DNA testing suggested the fish likely came from the Indian Ocean or the Western Central Pacific. There are limitations with the data because using genetic markers to determine the origins of species is still an emerging science, but experts say the promising new research will eventually be used to help fight illegal activity in the industry.

Bryan Gosman said they keep Sea To Table’s fish separate, but acknowledged there’s always a chance some imported tuna can slip through with domestic.

“Can things get mixed up? It could get mixed up,” he said. “Is it an intentional thing? No, not at all.” ___ The investigation didn’t end in Montauk. One of the boxes in Gosman’s stack at the Fulton fish market was stamped with a little blue tuna logo above the words “Land, Ice and Fish,” out of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is where the AP traced companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain to slave-like working conditions and the destruction of marine life. The global seafood industry is known for providing cheap fish that comes with another price. Unscrupulous foreign companies operate with virtually no oversight in vast swaths of international waters, as AP reported in a series of stories in 2015. Those reports helped free more than 2,000 enslaved fishermen in Indonesia.

Though it’s nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish ends up, or what percentage of a company’s seafood is fraudulent, experts say even one bad piece taints the entire supply chain.

On learning that Sea To Table’s supply chain could be tracked to businesses engaged in labor and environmental abuses, Dimin said it was “abhorrent and everything we stand against.”

He said he was temporarily suspending operations with two partners to conduct an audit.

During the investigation, reporters interviewed and obtained written complaints from more than a dozen current and former Indonesian fishermen — including Sulistyo — who were connected to companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain.

Sulistyo said his trawler plied waters between Africa and the Caribbean. Occasionally, it stopped in Trinidad and unloaded swordfish, yellowfin and bigeye tuna at Land, Ice and Fish.

Some crew members who docked there said they were beaten and forced to work when they were sick or hurt. At times, they said, migrant workers died on board and were tossed in the freezer with their catch while the boat continued to fish.

“You are out 500 miles or a thousand miles from shore, he is the law at that point,” John Duberg of Land, Ice and Fish said of individual captains. “And if he feels he has a misbehaving crew member, he may have to take disciplinary actions.”

Marine life was treated with even less respect. Some men said they were ordered to pull in as many sharks as they could catch and slice off their fins, which are a delicacy in Asia. The bodies were tossed back into the ocean, a practice banned by many countries.

Whales also were killed, their heads sometimes chopped off and their teeth extracted as good luck charms. The workers showed photos and videos of fishermen posing with mutilated sharks and whales. While some men appeared to celebrating, others said it left them feeling sickened.

Sulistyo endured the abuse and long hours for a year before jumping to another ship in 2017, demanding to be taken to port. He returned to Indonesia and was classified as a victim of trafficking by the International Organization for Migration.

After hearing that just 30 pounds of tuna could be sold in America for more than $600 — the amount Sulistyo earned during his entire year of work — he stared at the ground in disgust.

“I want to say to the Americans who eat that fish, please appreciate what we did to catch this fish with our sweat, with our lives,” Sulistyo said. “Please remember that.”

By ROBIN MCDOWELL, MARGIE MASON and MARTHA MENDOZA , By Associated Press

[jjavevents-blog]

The Plant-Based Fast Food Future

The rise of plant-based diets and eating habits has grown drastically over the past few years. More and more, consumers are embracing the health and sustainability benefits and our favorite chains are beginning to focus on how they can begin to be more “veg-focused”.  Limited-service chains are thinking up “innovative and inclusive ways to menu more veggies to elevating standards for freshness and sourcing.”

In Washington, D.C. fast casual restaurant, Shouk, offers modern Israeli Street food with the twist of being entirely plant-based. Hundreds line up each day to get a taste of their pita stuffed with cauliflower and tahini or their lentil and mushroom based burgers. Owner Ran Nussbächer, stated only about 10% of customers are usually vegan or vegetarian. Nussbächer saw an opportunity to reimagine what people thought about eating veggies but not be labeled as a vegan concept. He expressed, “we’re not here to do plant-based alternatives to chicken wings. We’re trying to create something with its own identity that tastes good, coupled with a cool vibe that brings people in again and again.”

Shouk is not the only fast-casual choice to think in this mindset. Places are popping up all over the country that promote new and delicious ways to eat vegetables rather then strictly promoting veganism.  Places like Chopt Creative Salad Co., Greenleaf, and Veggie Grill all cater to “veggie-positive thinking”. 

The California based eatery, Veggie Grill, aims for a more inclusive approach. This approach is due to many of its customers not being vegans or vegetarians and may “still associate the word vegan with steamed broccoli and plain brown rice,” said CEO Steve Heeley. 

These restaurants, along with many others are reinventing tastes and creatively adding exciting flavors to go above and beyond of what many expect from a plant-based meal. This growing “veggie-positive” mindset is going to continue to create an impact on the F&B industry while chains continue to explore the possibilities and options. 

-Victoria Miller 

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/plant-based-future-foodservice

[jobsearchtips02]

United States divulges names of numerous paycheck protection loan borrowers

The US federal government on Monday launched the names of numerous Paycheck Protection Program loan recipients.

In overall, the Small company Administration made 4,885,388 loans, totaling $5214 billion at a typical size of $106,744

The names of organisations that got more than $150,000– a minority of applicants that represents most of financing– were released.

Numerous business listed in the dataset said they did not request or get any funding, contrary to the SBA’s release. An official told Business Expert this was likely because of loan providers not formally canceling applications.

Check out Organisation Insider’s homepage for more stories

The $670 billion federal program, approved in March as part of emergency financial steps amidst the coronavirus pandemic, was slammed early on for a rocky rollout and unclear rules that led to some big companies receiving loans

The program has made 4,885,388 loans totaling $5214 billion at a typical size of $106,744, according to the newly released information.

Included are business names and the categorical loan amount they each received (in five tranches), in addition to POSTAL CODE, variety of jobs supported, and other self-reported market information. Organisation names will not be exposed for business receiving less than $150,000

While just 14%of PPP debtors accessed loans above $150,000, they account for almost 75%of overall loans provided, the SBA formerly said. To secure loan forgiveness, borrowers have 24 weeks to spend the money (originally eight weeks), and 60%must go toward payroll, down from the preliminary 75%requirement

The loose self-declaration for candidates likewise suggested some big organisations– including openly traded ones– had access to the program. Regardless of business like Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse returning loans, more than 300 other openly listed companies got $954 million that they have actually not returned, according to an analysis by FactSquared.

Big private firms likewise got loans, according to Monday’s information. Many fast-food franchisees for chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s took financing, as did smaller restaurants like Chopt Creative Salad Co., P.F. Chang’s, and Ted’s Montana Grill.

Throughout the day on Monday, numerous large organisations stated they were listed in the SBA’s release but had not received any financing A senior SBA official told Service Expert that this was likely due to the fact that of the loan provider not formally canceling a loan after it was returned.

Still, other companies stated they never even applied for PPP relief funds, while others appear in the database numerous times, raising questions about the accuracy of the SBA’s release.

In June, Republican Politician Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who works as the chairman of the Senate Small Company Committee, prompted for more transparency on the program to judge its efficiency.

” The American people deserve to know how reliable the PPP remained in securing our nation’s small companies and the tens of countless Americans they employ,” he said at the time. “That is the standard by which we must measure the success of the PPP: the number of incomes were safeguarded.”

You can see and download the loan information here

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/united-states-divulges-names-of-numerous-paycheck-protection-loan-borrowers/

[planetprinceton-blog]

Chopt salad chain to open at Princeton Shopping Center next week

Chopt Creative Salad Co., a chain that was founded in New York City in 2001, will open a new eatery at the former site of the Sherwin-Williams paint store at the Princeton Shopping Center next week.

The chain, which describes itself as a “fast-casual” restaurant, sells salads, soups, snacks and beverages. The Princeton location will be the second Chopt in New Jersey and the 50th location for the…

[javleech-blog]

New Post has been published on Jav Leech

New Post has been published on https://javleech.com/inside-food-blogger-julia-shermans-fashionable-brooklyn-brownstone/

Inside food blogger Julia Sherman's fashionable Brooklyn brownstone

  ew, Yorker Julia Sherman has become a love of salad into a very millennial career. Her cult weblog, Salad for President, seductively combines food with art and track and has caused each an e-book deal and a process (she is now creative director of American restaurant chain Chopt). The stylish Brooklyn home Julia shares along with her husband, Adam Katz, and their canine Lucy is the ultimate stay-work space: whilst Julia spends a lot of her time growing recipes, cooking and photographing the outcomes downstairs, Adam runs a publishing corporation from the pinnacle flooring of the house. In the summer time, the couple often hosts impromptu events for buddies and family in the backyard, in which Julia assessments out her modern day culinary creations. Here, she shares the secrets of her home and paintings.

The kitchen. With such high ceilings and the fire taking over one wall, there wasn’t an obvious manner to put in higher cabinets, so Julia and Adam made garage up very high, and use a vintage library ladder for getting right of entry to. The kitchen. With such high ceilings and the heart taking on one wall, there wasn’t an apparent way to install top cabinets, so Julia and Adam made garage up very high, and use an old library ladder for getting admission to. CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What become the residence like while you moved in?

A general catastrophe! There were squatters and the closets had been full of rat droppings. The vicinity becomes falling apart. It turned into the sort of empty residence that you wouldn’t dare input alone. We spent 12 months fixing it up. Not a single surface went untouched. Sometimes I cross lower back and study the ‘earlier than’ images, simply to remind myself what a complete transformation this become.

Where in your house are you happiest and why?

My kitchen – there are such a lot of info in here which can be uniquely ours. This room wasn’t intended to be a kitchen when the residence changed into initially constructed, so it becomes a top notch design venture to determine out ample garage, while nonetheless respecting the interior structure. I delivered the outsized island and a hob that faces out closer to the residing room, so I may be part of the birthday party whilst cooking.

The eating room, searching through to the kitchen and the lawn beyond The dining room, looking through to the kitchen and the lawn beyond CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE Why did you begin Salad for President?

My passion for salad grew – pretty actually – when we lived in LA and I learned to lawn. Adam and I ran an art gallery, and exhibitions always ended with dinner at our place. I loved supplying the produce from my garden in a simple, fashionable manner that changed into smooth to throw collectively. I started out the weblog after doing a grasp’s in pleasant art at Columbia University – a relatively aggressive program complete of younger artists mountaineering their manner up the ladder in the New York artwork global. I soon realized that it wasn’t for me. After operating in one of these competitive, industrial surroundings, it turned into absolutely clean on the way to paintings collaboratively with chefs and artists.

What is an average paintings day like for you?

I don’t genuinely have an ordinary day, for the reason that my work involves such a lot of disparate factors – from recipe development to event production. In standard, I try and strike a stability among my work at Chopt (design meetings, salad tastings, photograph shoots), writing for my website and different courses, and cooking. I try to make money working from home as a great deal as humanly possible.

The outdoor of Julia Sherman’s Brooklyn domestic has been zoned for interesting The outside of Julia Sherman’s Brooklyn home has been zoned for wonderful CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What’s the best aspect approximately your work?

That it fits seamlessly into my lifestyles. Food and artwork are what I spend my time doing no matter what the ‘job’ is, so I can definitely say I actually have made my passions into my paintings. I am at peace when I am inside the kitchen, a lot extra than I ever turned into in the studio.

And the worst?

There is some thing at stake when your lifestyles doubles as ‘content’, whether or not that’s pics of your private home, the meals you cook for pals or the trips you take to escape. I think it’s important to have limitations and switch off.

And your perfect weekend?

Adam and I each tour for paintings a lot, so the perfect weekend has turn out to be the only where we don’t have to pass everywhere or do anything! We get up early, walk to the park with the canine and plan a leisurely brunch at home.

It was dwelling in LA that gave Julia her passion for growing and cooking her own food It become dwelling in LA that gave Julia her ardor for growing and cooking her personal food CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What’s your largest home extravagance?

Our purple Muuto couch is through a ways the nicest issue in our home, and it took us a great 8 years to eventually invest in one we loved. In truth, we adore so much that it we deal with it like our 2d puppy.

And your maximum prized ownership?

We have an art work by way of Sister Corita Kent, a nun who became a pop-art artist in the 1960s, above our sofa. It turned into our first important art acquisition as a pair, and we were very valuable approximately it and not able to agree on a body, so it sat in a box on the sofa for a long time. One day, I got here domestic after a torrential thunderstorm and casually glanced at the trash. There changed into the container, sitting all soggy out on the kerb. Adam had forgotten what was in there and put it out so that you can declutter. We needed to get it fixed by using a conservator. I suppose Sister Corita might have were given a real kick out of the debacle due to the fact she became decidedly now not treasured about her work.

The red Muuto couch takes pride of location inside the sitting room The red Muuto sofa takes satisfaction of region in the sitting room CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What is your best domestic skill?

The potential to make a beneficial meal from an apparently empty fridge.

If you may exchange one element approximately your home, what would it be?

I would have a lawn with complete sun. We get half an afternoon of mild, and that honestly limits what I can develop inside the outside. I gave up on growing tomatoes lengthy in the past.

[lavleech-blog]

Inside food blogger Julia Sherman's fashionable Brooklyn brownstone

New Post has been published on https://javleech.com/inside-food-blogger-julia-shermans-fashionable-brooklyn-brownstone/

Inside food blogger Julia Sherman's fashionable Brooklyn brownstone

  ew, Yorker Julia Sherman has become a love of salad into a very millennial career. Her cult weblog, Salad for President, seductively combines food with art and track and has caused each an e-book deal and a process (she is now creative director of American restaurant chain Chopt). The stylish Brooklyn home Julia shares along with her husband, Adam Katz, and their canine Lucy is the ultimate stay-work space: whilst Julia spends a lot of her time growing recipes, cooking and photographing the outcomes downstairs, Adam runs a publishing corporation from the pinnacle flooring of the house. In the summer time, the couple often hosts impromptu events for buddies and family in the backyard, in which Julia assessments out her modern day culinary creations. Here, she shares the secrets of her home and paintings.

The kitchen. With such high ceilings and the fire taking over one wall, there wasn’t an obvious manner to put in higher cabinets, so Julia and Adam made garage up very high, and use a vintage library ladder for getting right of entry to. The kitchen. With such high ceilings and the heart taking on one wall, there wasn’t an apparent way to install top cabinets, so Julia and Adam made garage up very high, and use an old library ladder for getting admission to. CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What become the residence like while you moved in?

A general catastrophe! There were squatters and the closets had been full of rat droppings. The vicinity becomes falling apart. It turned into the sort of empty residence that you wouldn’t dare input alone. We spent 12 months fixing it up. Not a single surface went untouched. Sometimes I cross lower back and study the ‘earlier than’ images, simply to remind myself what a complete transformation this become.

Where in your house are you happiest and why?

My kitchen – there are such a lot of info in here which can be uniquely ours. This room wasn’t intended to be a kitchen when the residence changed into initially constructed, so it becomes a top notch design venture to determine out ample garage, while nonetheless respecting the interior structure. I delivered the outsized island and a hob that faces out closer to the residing room, so I may be part of the birthday party whilst cooking.

The eating room, searching through to the kitchen and the lawn beyond The dining room, looking through to the kitchen and the lawn beyond CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE Why did you begin Salad for President?

My passion for salad grew – pretty actually – when we lived in LA and I learned to lawn. Adam and I ran an art gallery, and exhibitions always ended with dinner at our place. I loved supplying the produce from my garden in a simple, fashionable manner that changed into smooth to throw collectively. I started out the weblog after doing a grasp’s in pleasant art at Columbia University – a relatively aggressive program complete of younger artists mountaineering their manner up the ladder in the New York artwork global. I soon realized that it wasn’t for me. After operating in one of these competitive, industrial surroundings, it turned into absolutely clean on the way to paintings collaboratively with chefs and artists.

What is an average paintings day like for you?

I don’t genuinely have an ordinary day, for the reason that my work involves such a lot of disparate factors – from recipe development to event production. In standard, I try and strike a stability among my work at Chopt (design meetings, salad tastings, photograph shoots), writing for my website and different courses, and cooking. I try to make money working from home as a great deal as humanly possible.

The outdoor of Julia Sherman’s Brooklyn domestic has been zoned for interesting The outside of Julia Sherman’s Brooklyn home has been zoned for wonderful CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What’s the best aspect approximately your work?

That it fits seamlessly into my lifestyles. Food and artwork are what I spend my time doing no matter what the ‘job’ is, so I can definitely say I actually have made my passions into my paintings. I am at peace when I am inside the kitchen, a lot extra than I ever turned into in the studio.

And the worst?

There is some thing at stake when your lifestyles doubles as ‘content’, whether or not that’s pics of your private home, the meals you cook for pals or the trips you take to escape. I think it’s important to have limitations and switch off.

And your perfect weekend?

Adam and I each tour for paintings a lot, so the perfect weekend has turn out to be the only where we don’t have to pass everywhere or do anything! We get up early, walk to the park with the canine and plan a leisurely brunch at home.

It was dwelling in LA that gave Julia her passion for growing and cooking her own food It become dwelling in LA that gave Julia her ardor for growing and cooking her personal food CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What’s your largest home extravagance?

Our purple Muuto couch is through a ways the nicest issue in our home, and it took us a great 8 years to eventually invest in one we loved. In truth, we adore so much that it we deal with it like our 2d puppy.

And your maximum prized ownership?

We have an art work by way of Sister Corita Kent, a nun who became a pop-art artist in the 1960s, above our sofa. It turned into our first important art acquisition as a pair, and we were very valuable approximately it and not able to agree on a body, so it sat in a box on the sofa for a long time. One day, I got here domestic after a torrential thunderstorm and casually glanced at the trash. There changed into the container, sitting all soggy out on the kerb. Adam had forgotten what was in there and put it out so that you can declutter. We needed to get it fixed by using a conservator. I suppose Sister Corita might have were given a real kick out of the debacle due to the fact she became decidedly now not treasured about her work.

The red Muuto couch takes pride of location inside the sitting room The red Muuto sofa takes satisfaction of region in the sitting room CREDIT: MICHAEL DEPASQUALE What is your best domestic skill?

The potential to make a beneficial meal from an apparently empty fridge.

If you may exchange one element approximately your home, what would it be?

I would have a lawn with complete sun. We get half an afternoon of mild, and that honestly limits what I can develop inside the outside. I gave up on growing tomatoes lengthy in the past.

[jobhelpcenter-blog]

Job Updates, Friday, May 5, 2017

Store Employee, 7-Eleven Responsibilities: • Provide prompt, efficient and courteous customer service. • Drive sales through effective communication with customers. • Maintain a clean, customer friendly environment in your franchisee’s store. • Ring sales and maintain cash control. Apply at http://bit.ly/2p2eRQ1

Assistant Manager, Dollar Tree Responsibilities: • Protect all company assets. • Maintain a high level of good customer service. • Opening and closing the store. • Associate Development. • Maximizing Sales Potential. • Controlling Expense and Shrink. • Merchandise Display. • Store Signage Placement. Requirements: • Minimum of 3 years prior retail management experience. Apply at http://bit.ly/2pLYtCm

Travel Sales Agent, AAA Carolinas Responsibilities: • Assist members with routing services, general travel and AAA membership information, hotel information/reservations, and auto information/reservations, travel store items. • Maintain inventory of map materials and tour books to ensure that supplies are on hand as needed. • Responsible for day-to-day cashiering with membership fees, attraction ticket sales, travel store purchases and other various member purchases. • Seek potential to grow membership base through sales and service. Requirements: • Demonstrated ability to read maps. • 1 to 2 years of Recent Customer Service experience, required. Apply at http://bit.ly/2qJFKEK

Replenishment Analyst, Belk Responsibilities: • Become proficient at managing policies in the Oracle RMS Replenishment system to achieve desired business results. • Optimize replenishment inventory levels to drive sales, balancing InStk levels with inventory productivity and OTB constraints. • Review daily and weekly replenishment orders (ROQs) to understand and communicate exceptions and trends to business teams. • Conduct regular analysis of the replenishment business, proactively surfacing opportunities to drive sales and productivity. • Provide regular reporting to help the business understand key metrics like InStks, Supply chain opportunities and Vendor Fill Rates. • Understand replenishments role in within the Omni-Channel experience to optimize inventory across channels. • Work closely with forecast analysts to review and understand demand sales forecasts to understand how the forecasts align with business strategies and opportunities for improvement. • Lead regular forecast review meetings with merchant teams in conjunction with forecast analysts. Requirements: • Four-year college degree or comparable experience. • Strong Excel skills (including pivot tables, lookups, If Statements). Apply at http://bit.ly/2qJOnyR

Cashier, Chopt Creative Salad Company Responsibilities: • Ringing up customers' orders. • Utilizing proper cash handling procedures. • Maintaining a stocked, clean, and organized station. • Demonstrating a complete knowledge of the menu. • Adapting to the flow of the business with a sense of urgency. • Answering phone calls in a professional manner. • Monitoring pick-up and delivery orders. • Communicating with customers regarding promotions and new menu items. Apply at http://bit.ly/2pdGwt8

[investmart007]

MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Fish billed as local isn't always local

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MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Fish billed as local isn't always local

MONTAUK, N.Y. — Even after winter storms left East Coast harbors thick with ice, some of the country’s top chefs and trendy restaurants were offering sushi-grade tuna supposedly pulled in fresh off the coast of New York.

But it was just an illusion. No tuna was landing there. The fish had long since migrated to warmer waters.

In a global industry plagued by fraud and deceit, conscientious consumers are increasingly paying top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky supply chains that make it difficult to determine where any given fish comes from. That’s where national distributor Sea To Table stepped in, guaranteeing its products were wild and directly traceable to a U.S. dock — and sometimes the very boat that brought it in.

However, an Associated Press investigation found the company was linked to some of the same practices it vowed to fight. Preliminary DNA tests suggested some of its yellowfin tuna likely came from the other side of the world, and reporters traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins.

The New York-based distributor was also offering species in other parts of the country that were illegal to catch, out of season and farmed.

Over the years, Sea To Table has become a darling in the sustainable seafood movement, building an impressive list of clientele, including celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Chopt Creative Salad chain, top universities and the makers of home meal kits such as HelloFresh.

“It’s sad to me that this is what’s going on,” said Bayless, an award-winning chef who runs eight popular restaurants and hosts a PBS cooking series. He said he loved the idea of being directly tied to fishermen — and the pictures and “wonderful stories” about their catch. “This throws quite a wrench in all of that.”

As part of its reporting, the AP staked out America’s largest fish market, followed trucks and interviewed fishermen who worked on three continents. During a bone-chilling week, they set up a camera that shot more than 36,000 time-lapse photos of a Montauk harbor, showing no tuna boats docking. At the same time, AP worked with a chef to order fish supposedly coming from the seaside town. The boat listed on the receipt hadn’t been there in at least two years.

Reporters also tracked Sea To Table’s supply chain to fishermen abroad who earn as little as $1.50 a day working 22-hour shifts without proper food and water.

“We were treated like slaves,” said Sulistyo, an Indonesian fisherman forced to work on a foreign trawler that delivered fish to a Sea To Table supplier. He asked that only one name be used, fearing retaliation. “They treat us like robots without any conscience.”

Sea To Table owner Sean Dimin emphasized his suppliers are strictly prohibited from sending imports to customers and added violators would be terminated.

“We take this extremely seriously,” he said.

Dimin said he communicated clearly with his customers that some fish labeled as freshly landed at one port was actually caught and trucked in from other states, but some chefs denied this. Federal officials described it as mislabeling.

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A century ago, small-scale fisheries dotted America’s coasts and fed the country’s demand for seafood. But as time passed, overfishing, strict government regulations and outsourcing to developing countries changed the industry, making it nearly impossible for local fishermen to compete.

The U.S. seafood market is worth $17 billion annually, with imports making up more than 90 percent of that. Experts say one in five fish is caught illegally worldwide, and a study last year by the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University found nearly half of all sushi samples tested in L.A. didn’t match the fish advertised on the menu.

Sea To Table offered a worry-free local solution that arrived from dock to doorstep by connecting chefs directly with more than 60 partners along U.S. coasts. While its mission is clear, scaling up to a national level while naming specific boats and docks is currently unrealistic. Still, the company is predicting rapid growth from $13 million in sales last year to $70 million by 2020, according to a confidential investor report obtained by the AP.

As its business expanded, AP found Sea To Table has been saying one thing but selling another.

For caterers hosting a ball for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who had successfully pushed through a law to combat seafood mislabeling, knowing where his fish came from was crucial.

The Montauk tuna arrived with a Sea To Table leaflet describing the romantic, seaside town and an email from a salesperson saying the fish was caught off North Carolina. But the boxes came from New York and there was no indication it had been landed in another state and driven more than 700 miles to Montauk. A week later the caterer ordered the Montauk tuna again. This time the invoice listed a boat whose owner later told AP he didn’t catch anything for Sea To Table at that time.

“I’m kind of in shock right now,” said Brandon LaVielle of Lavish Roots Catering. “We felt like we were supporting smaller fishing villages.”

Some of Sea To Table’s partner docks, it turns out, are not docks at all. Their seafood was advertised as “just landed” from wholesalers and retailers like Santa Barbara Fish Market — which also has imports — and Red’s Best in Boston. Both collect seafood at harbors and companies up and down their coasts.

Sea To Table also promoted fresh blue crab from Maryland in January, even though the season closed in November. In addition, the company said it never sells farmed seafood, citing concerns about antibiotics and hormones. But red abalone advertised from central California are actually grown in tanks — it’s been illegal to harvest commercially from the ocean since 1997. Rhode Island and Washington state also supply aquacultured seafood, such as oysters and mussels.

Dimin said farmed shellfish “is a very small part of our business, but it’s something that we’re open and clear about.” When asked to provide evidence that the company has been transparent about its use of farmed shellfish, he paused and then replied, “There’s nothing to hide there.”

However, days later, he said he decided to drop aquaculture from his business because it contradicts his “wild only” guarantee.

Private companies that mislead consumers, clients and potential investors could face lawsuits or criminal liability. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are charged with enforcing laws to prevent fish fraud. Sellers who know, or even should have known, that fish is mislabeled could be found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, mail fraud and wire fraud. The crimes carry potential fines and jail time.

Carl Safina, an award-winning author and leading marine conservationist at New York’s Stony Brook University, said companies that prey on consumers’ good intentions “deserve to be out of business immediately.”

A half dozen commercial fishermen and dealers in various regions of the country voiced concerns and, in some cases, anger about Sea To Table. Others have lashed out in the past using social media. Most spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety and their businesses in an industry where relationships often overlap.

Eric Hodge, a small-scale fisherman from Santa Barbara, said he considered partnering with Sea To Table a few years ago. He quickly changed his mind after seeing canary rockfish on the distributor’s chef lists when the fish was illegal to catch. He also learned Sea To Table was buying halibut from the fish market, which relies heavily on imports. He said he spoke to the company about his concerns.

“Honestly, they know. I just don’t think they care,” Hodge said. “They are making money on every shipment, and they are not going to ask questions. And in seafood, that’s a bad way to go about it because there is so much fraud.”

___

The idea for Sea To Table began with a family vacation to Trinidad and Tobago more than two decades ago. Following a fishing trip there, Michael Dimin and his son, Sean, eventually started shipping fresh catch from the Caribbean nation to chefs in New York. Later, they shifted their model to work exclusively with small-scale American coastal fishermen.

Restaurants and other buyers demanding sustainable products were drawn to the company by a marketing campaign that provided a story not just about where the fish came from, but the romantic image of an American pastime. And they were willing to pay a lot — sometimes more than $20 a pound — for high-end species.

The New York Times, National Geographic, Bon Appetit magazine and many others singled out Sea To Table as the good guys in a notoriously bad industry. Larry Olmsted, author of the bestselling book “Real Food, Fake Food,” recommended it as an answer to fraud in a Forbes article.

After learning about the problems, Olmsted said he was disappointed, and that it made no difference to him if part of the business was legitimate: “It either is reliable, or it’s not.”

Sea To Table partnered with sustainability giants such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Stewardship Council and the James Beard Foundation, which collaborated on events and referred to the distributor as an industry favorite. They expressed concern that suppliers who knowingly mislabel catch will damage the movement.

Sea To Table’s products are sold in almost every state, reaching everywhere from Roy’s seafood restaurants to Tacombi taco chain. It can be found at eateries inside the Empire State Building in New York and Chicago’s O’Hare airport, direct to consumers from its own website and even on Amazon for home cooks to order. In addition, more than 50 college campuses such as Yale, Ohio State and the University of Massachusetts have signed up. So have some of the biggest make-it-yourself meal kits, including Home Chef and Sun Basket, a rapidly growing market that Sea To Table says generates a third its revenues.

Whether they know it or not, a company spending money at any point in a long chain that begins with an abused fisherman and ends with a diner is inadvertently supporting the problem. Customers who responded to AP said they were frustrated and confused.

“Not ok,” Ken Toong, who is responsible for UMass Dining, said of Sea To Table. “We believed them.”

____

AP’s investigation began with one of Sea To Table’s nearby suppliers. Located on New York’s eastern coast beyond the posh Hamptons, Bob Gosman Company opened in Montauk as a mom-and-pop clam shack more than six decades ago.

Now run by cousins Bryan and Asa Gosman, it is a small empire sitting on a multi-million dollar property. Oceanfront restaurants, shops and motels bustle with tourists in the summer. And its fish market, where 70 percent of the tuna is imported, has become one of the biggest wholesalers in the area.

Gosman’s gets most of its tuna along with other species from a place in the state where fish can always be found, regardless of the season: The New Fulton Fish Market. The nine-acre refrigerated warehouse just outside Manhattan is the second-largest facility of its kind, moving millions of pounds of seafood each night, much of it flown in from across the globe.

Beautiful maroon slabs of imported high-grade tuna were on display for several nights in December, January and February, as well as other times throughout last year, when AP reporters roamed the market. The frigid building buzzed with workers on forklifts zigzagging across slick concrete floors, stacking orders waiting to be picked up.

In the early hours, often between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., boxes of fish bearing foreign shipping labels from all over the world were arranged into piles with “Gosman” scribbled across them in black marker. They were later hoisted onto a waiting truck with the same name.

After a three-hour drive east, the AP watched the loads arrive at the company’s loading dock in Montauk, just as the sun was rising on the tip of Long Island.

The tuna, swordfish and other species were then ferried inside Gosman’s warehouse. They came from Blue Ocean in Brazil, Vietnam’s Hong Ngoc Seafood Co., and Land, Ice and Fish in Trinidad and Tobago. Occasionally, boxes showed up from Luen Thai Fishing Venture and Marshall Islands Fishing Venture, part of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate that’s a major supplier of sushi-grade tuna. Despite recent conservation partnerships, Luen Thai has a checkered past, including shark finning and a bribery scandal that resulted in the jailing of a former Cook Islands marine resources minister in 2016.

Bryan Gosman said Sea To Table stressed it would not take imports. But with no yellowfin tuna landed in New York during the coldest winter months — which a federal official confirmed — it was impossible to provide high-quality loins from Montauk.

“So in the beginning, there were times when we were trying to hustle around fish,” Gosman said. “Buying fish at different places, so it could be a legitimate business plan that they’re trying to follow.”

Eventually, with Dimin’s blessing, Gosman said he started getting fish from as far away as North Carolina and trucking it up to New York.

They stopped that arrangement in March. Gosman said it wasn’t profitable. Dimin said they wanted to avoid the “complexity of communicating” their sourcing.

Meanwhile, in the dead of winter, AP had turned to a chef to order $500 worth of fish on their behalf. Sea To Table provided a receipt and verbal assurances that the seafood — which arrived overnight in a box bearing the company’s name and logo — had been landed in Montauk the day before.

The invoice even listed the “Standin Up” as the boat that caught it. But the vessel’s owner said it was in another state at the time, hundreds of miles away.

“I know my name is being used,” said Robert Devlin, who was upset by the news. “A lot of people do fraud that way.”

The AP also shipped tuna samples supposedly from Montauk to two labs for analysis: Preliminary DNA testing suggested the fish likely came from the Indian Ocean or the Western Central Pacific. There are limitations with the data because using genetic markers to determine the origins of species is still an emerging science, but experts say the promising new research will eventually be used to help fight illegal activity in the industry.

Bryan Gosman said they keep Sea To Table’s fish separate, but acknowledged there’s always a chance some imported tuna can slip through with domestic.

“Can things get mixed up? It could get mixed up,” he said. “Is it an intentional thing? No, not at all.”

___

The investigation didn’t end in Montauk. One of the boxes in Gosman’s stack at the Fulton fish market was stamped with a little blue tuna logo above the words “Land, Ice and Fish,” out of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is where the AP traced companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain to slave-like working conditions and the destruction of marine life.

The global seafood industry is known for providing cheap fish that comes with another price. Unscrupulous foreign companies operate with virtually no oversight in vast swaths of international waters, as AP reported in a series of stories in 2015. Those reports helped free more than 2,000 enslaved fishermen in Indonesia.

Though it’s nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish ends up, or what percentage of a company’s seafood is fraudulent, experts say even one bad piece taints the entire supply chain.

On learning that Sea To Table’s supply chain could be tracked to businesses engaged in labor and environmental abuses, Dimin said it was “abhorrent and everything we stand against.”

He said he was temporarily suspending operations with two partners to conduct an audit.

During the investigation, reporters interviewed and obtained written complaints from more than a dozen current and former Indonesian fishermen — including Sulistyo — who were connected to companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain.

Sulistyo said his trawler plied waters between Africa and the Caribbean. Occasionally, it stopped in Trinidad and unloaded swordfish, yellowfin and bigeye tuna at Land, Ice and Fish.

Some crew members who docked there said they were beaten and forced to work when they were sick or hurt. At times, they said, migrant workers died on board and were tossed in the freezer with their catch while the boat continued to fish.

“You are out 500 miles or a thousand miles from shore, he is the law at that point,” John Duberg of Land, Ice and Fish said of individual captains. “And if he feels he has a misbehaving crew member, he may have to take disciplinary actions.”

Marine life was treated with even less respect. Some men said they were ordered to pull in as many sharks as they could catch and slice off their fins, which are a delicacy in Asia. The bodies were tossed back into the ocean, a practice banned by many countries.

Whales also were killed, their heads sometimes chopped off and their teeth extracted as good luck charms. The workers showed photos and videos of fishermen posing with mutilated sharks and whales. While some men appeared to celebrating, others said it left them feeling sickened.

Sulistyo endured the abuse and long hours for a year before jumping to another ship in 2017, demanding to be taken to port. He returned to Indonesia and was classified as a victim of trafficking by the International Organization for Migration.

After hearing that just 30 pounds of tuna could be sold in America for more than $600 — the amount Sulistyo earned during his entire year of work — he stared at the ground in disgust.

“I want to say to the Americans who eat that fish, please appreciate what we did to catch this fish with our sweat, with our lives,” Sulistyo said. “Please remember that.”

____

AP journalists Julie Jacobson in New York and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report

By ROBIN MCDOWELL, MARGIE MASON and MARTHA MENDOZA,

By Associated Press

___