Showing posts with label Benny Lanfranco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benny Lanfranco. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

FAIRWAY MARKET NEWS

SPECIAL EVENT & FREE SAMPLES! MEET FAIRWAY’S FOOD ROCK STARS

FAIRWAY MARKET’S SEAFOOD DIRECTOR CAPTAIN TONY MALTESE, CHEESEMONGER STEVE JENKINS, BAKERS SARAH BLACK AND REBECCA MARTIN AND MASTER ROASTER BENNY
LANFRANCO TO OFFER THEIR EXPERTISE AND SAMPLES ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH 2012 FROM 11 AM TO 3 PM AT THE DOUGLASTON STORE (242-02 61ST AVENUE).

Cheese Demo with Master Cheesemonger Steve Jenkins!
Join Fairway’s Cheesemonger Steve Jenkins for a delicious and educational cheese demo! After tasting cheeses for 37 years Steve Jenkins’ will share his favorites, well three of them at least and the best things to serve with different cheeses. Sample and learn about cheeses of the world, as Steve shares his passion with you!

Bakery Demo with Fairway’s Own Baker Sarah Black and Rebecca Martin!
Join Sarah Black, Fairway’s Master Baker as she samples Fairway’s New Chocolate Bread. The bread is not too sweet, filled with half melted chocolate pieces with flavor that explodes in your mouth. Try our new Chocolate Bread with Fairway’s Organic Jams.

Rebecca Martin will be sampling Fairway’s new line of gourmet cookies. Stop by to taste the Chocolate Sea Salt, Dulce de Leche and Apricot cookies. The new line of cookies is made from the finest ingredients and is Kosher.

Coffee Demo with Fairway’s Master Roast Benny Lanfranco!
Benny Lanfranco is Fairway’s master roaster. He’s been around coffee beans his whole life. It’s safe to say he knows everything about coffee and roasting. Come chat with him about the roasting process and tricks of the trade and taste Fairway’s Supreme Blend and Ethiopia Harrar Coffee.

Seafood Demo with Captain Tony Maltese!
Join us to learn about the journeys of Captain Tony Maltese! Captain Tony goes down to the docks at the crack of dawn for the freshest pick of fish and seafood to supply our stores. Fillet it right, and learn from the best! Come sample a Fairway’s Fresh Cooked Shrimp and our own Cocktail Sauce.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

CAWFEE TAWK AT FAIRWAY MARKET







Having noticed the information from the signs around the coffee and tea section of Fairway Market in Douglaston, Queens, I figured that I could get much information about coffee on beans and brewing. I met with Fairway Market's Director of Coffee, Benny Lanfranco and certainly got a fill of information.

While Benny was preparing his own cup of coffee floor manager Jerry Seybert had stopped by. He's been around Fairway since 1979 and was the first "coffee guy" when they started with only 7 bins of coffee.


I then approached Benny who explains why he likes to make one cup of coffee at a time.


We finally get an introduction from Benny who had prepared various small portable methods of brewing coffee, all of which either use hot water or can be done on a stove top. Benny then spoke about Turkish coffee, a method of drinking and not that any beans are actually grown in Turkey. It requires coffee being ground to a powdery substance.


Espresso means "fast" and is just a bit more coarser than the Turkish. One shot take about 22 seconds using 2 oz. of coffee. I love the little stove top gadget, so very Italian.




Next in coarseness if for drip coffee. Rather than using a machine, Benny prepared a special elegant glass drip using a paper filter. Coffee has to be ground specifically for the brewing method you are using. I'm getting that water will go faster through a more coarse grind.



Here is an old fashioned Napolitan Italian stove top brewer that uses a drip grind. It brought up images of my trip to Naples as it can be done right at your table.



We're on to the French Press which is coarser than the drip. Depending upon the size of the press, it is another facility that can be prepared at your table and brewed for 4 minutes. Some French presses can also be used to brew loose tea.


The last method is using a percolator. Do your remember those? Now, they are most used at catered functions.

All of the coffee beans are roasted at Fairway. I was able to watch the "green beans" roasted. A chart is given to the person doing the roasting that will determine whether it will be light, medium or dark roast. Benny showed me samples of the various roasted beans noting how much oil is present in the dark roast.







We then talked about acidity in coffee saying that it has to be balanced and is pre-determined by the soil of where it is grown. He tells me that there is a lower acidity in places such as Costa Rica and Guatamala vs. coffee from Africa like the Ethiopian.




My batteries ran low before we could chat about the peaberry coffee. I had heard that the one from Tanzania was delicious although a bit high prices. When you see the roasted coffee beans they are "halved". The plant produces a "twin" bean whereas the peaberry, a single bean.

Now that I have that Italian single cup espresso do-hicky, I bought a coffee grinder from Krups. It says here: "Coffee that is ground too fine for a particular brewing process - (fine espresso grind used in an automatic drip coffee machine) will result in over-extraction and bitter, pungent tasting coffee. Conversely, coffee that is too coarse for a particular brew method will result in under-extraction and weak, watery coffee. It the correct grind is used, adding more coffee simply makes a brew stronger without making it bitter".

There seems to be more settings than just the ones we talked about. Has something to do with ones taste. I will ask Krups for further assistance on this.