Latest news with #luxuryfood
Arabian Business
13 hours ago
- Business
- Arabian Business
Americana Restaurants expands into premium retail with carpo franchise
Americana Restaurants International will make its entry into the region's luxury food retail sector, after it signed an exclusive franchise agreement with carpo – the Greek brand renowned for its premium nuts, artisanal chocolates, and refined coffee. Known as the region's biggest out-of-home dining and quick-service restaurant operator with brand such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee's, Krispy Kreme, TGI Friday's and Costa Coffee, the partnership with carpo represents a strategic diversification for Americana, expanding beyond its core restaurant operations into the high-margin premium retail space. Americana will have the exclusive rights to build and operate carpo stores in Kuwait and Qatar, with further expansion planned across Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Rollout is expected to begin by late 2025, with the opening of flagship stores. Founded in 1991 in Athens, carpo has earned global recognition for its premium quality products that combine indulgence with craftsmanship. The brand operates in high-end retail locations across Greece and the UK and has already established a strong presence in the UAE with its Dubai Mall store, launched in 2022. The second carpo store is set to open in Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi this autumn. Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of the Board, commented: ' Partnering with carpo allows us to tap into a sophisticated, fast-growing segment with a globally respected brand built on craftsmanship and excellence. It reflects our continued focus on innovation, brand elevation, and delivering differentiated experiences to our customers across the region.' Kostas Kontopoulos, Founder & CEO, carpo, added: 'Partnering with Americana, a regional powerhouse with deep operational expertise, enables us to bring the carpo experience to consumers across the Gulf. This marks not just a commercial milestone, but the beginning of a shared vision to elevate consumer experience through heartfelt product offering and service excellence.'
New York Times
14 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Move Over, $100 Lobster Salad. In the Hamptons, These Melons Cost $400.
It wasn't even 8:30 on a recent morning when a shopper emptied his basket of dinner ingredients onto the counter of the Farm & Forage Market in Southampton: two king crab legs, two bags of frozen dumplings, two packages of ramen noodles and a bag of dried sea kelp. The cash register rang up an already eye-popping tally before the customer realized he had forgotten the caviar. He tossed a jar of it onto the counter. The grand total was $1,860. 'I'll put that on your tab, right?' asked Jonathan Bernard, owner of the tiny, tidy store. The shopper, a private chef who works in a home nearby, nodded and noted he would be back later for truffles. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani just won the Democratic nomination for mayor after running on a platform that included city-run grocery stores to help struggling residents. Yet a $1,195 helicopter ride-away in the Hamptons, signs of extreme affluence have long been celebrated, at the Pilates studio where exercisers in designer athleisure compete for spots in $50 classes, on the beach where $20 smoothies can be delivered to sunbathers, on restaurant menus with $100 salads — and now at the grocery store. This summer, an arms race among gourmet groceries has emerged with new specialty stores opening and longtime favorites expanding or adding new items — along with new, higher prices — to their shelves. Some of the big-ticket items top even the Hamptons' much maligned $100-a-pound lobster salad, that debuted several years ago. A top competitor is the specialty musk melon on offer at Farm & Forage. Imported from Japan, it is sprung from tenderly cared-for vines. It sells for as much as $400. (To the undiscerning eye, it looks identical to a regular, grocery store cantaloupe.) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Gulf Business
16 hours ago
- Business
- Gulf Business
Americana Restaurants enters premium retail with carpo franchise deal
Image courtesy: for illustrative purposes Americana Restaurants International, the quick-service and casual dining operator in the MENA region and Kazakhstan, has signed an exclusive franchise agreement with premium lifestyle brand carpo, expanding its footprint into the luxury food retail sector. The agreement grants The rollout will begin with flagship stores expected to open by late 2025. Founded in 1991 in Athens, carpo is known for its premium nuts, artisanal chocolates, and refined coffee, and operates in high-end locations in Greece, the UK, and the UAE, including a store in Dubai Mall launched in 2022. A new outlet is set to open this autumn at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi. Move helps Americana tap into a sophisticated, fast-growing segment: Alabbar 'Partnering with carpo allows us to tap into a sophisticated, fast-growing segment with a globally respected brand built on craftsmanship and excellence,' said Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of the Board at Americana Restaurants. 'It reflects our continued focus on innovation, brand elevation, and delivering differentiated experiences to our customers across the region.' Kostas Kontopoulos, founder and CEO of carpo, added: 'Partnering with Americana, a regional powerhouse with deep operational expertise, enables us to bring the carpo experience to consumers across the Gulf. This marks not just a commercial milestone, but the beginning of a shared vision to elevate consumer experience through heartfelt product offering and service excellence.' The deal marks a strategic diversification for Americana, traditionally focused on quick-service and casual dining, into the high-margin premium retail space. The company currently operates a portfolio of global brands including KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee's, Krispy Kreme, Peet's Coffee, TGI Friday's, and Baskin Robbins.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
From peasant fodder to posh fare: how snails and oysters became luxury foods
By Garritt C. Van Dyk of -- Photo: Ruth Kuo Analysis - Oysters and escargot are recognised as luxury foods around the world - but they were once valued by the lower classes as cheap sources of protein. Less adventurous eaters today see snails as a garden pest and are quick to point out that freshly shucked oysters are not only raw but also alive when they are eaten. How did these unusual ingredients become items of conspicuous consumption? Eating what many consider to be a slimy nuisance seems almost counter-intuitive, but consuming land snails has an ancient history, dating to the Palaeolithic period, some 30,000 years ago in eastern Spain. Ancient Romans also dined on snails and spread their eating habits across their empire into Europe. Lower and middle-class Romans ate snails from their gardens, while elite consumers ate specially farmed snails, fed spices, honey and milk. Pliny the Elder (AD 24-79) described how snails were raised in ponds and given wine to fatten them up. The first French recipe for snails appears in 1390, in Le Ménagier de Paris ( The Good Wife's Guide ), but not in other cookbooks from the period. In 1530, a French treatise on frogs, snails, turtles and artichokes considered all these foods bizarre, but surprisingly popular. Some of the appeal had to do with avoiding meat on "lean" days. Snails were classified as fish by the Catholic Church, and could even be eaten during Lent. For the next 200 years, snails only appeared in Parisian cookbooks with an apology for including such a disgusting ingredient. This reflected the taste of upper-class urbanites, but snails were still eaten in the eastern provinces. An 1811 cookbook from Metz , in the Alsace region in northeastern France, describes raising snails like the Romans, and a special platter, l'escargotière, for serving them. The trend did not travel to Paris until after 1814. French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) hosted a dinner for Russian Tsar Alexander I after he marched into Paris following the allied forces' defeat of Napoleon in 1814 . The chef catering the meal was the father of French cuisine Marie-Antoine Carême , a native of Burgundy, the spiritual home of the now famous escargots de Bourgogne. Oyster dredge boats at Bluff, 1933 [N.Z. Railways magazine via NZETC] Photo: NZ Railways magazine / NZETC Carême served the Tsar what would become a classic recipe, prepared with garlic, parsley and butter. Allegedly, the Tsar raved about the "new" dish, and snails became wildly popular. A recipe for Burgundy snails first appeared in a French culinary dictionary published in 1825. It is ironic that it took the approval of a foreign emperor, who had just conquered Napoleon, to restore luxury status to escargot, a food that became a symbol of French cuisine. Snails remain popular today in France, with consumption peaking during the Christmas holidays, but 24 May is National Escargot Day in France. Oysters are another ancient food, as seen in fossils dating to the Triassic Era, 200 million years ago. Evidence of fossilised oysters is found on every major land mass, and there is evidence of Indigenous oyster fisheries in North America and Australia that dates to the Holocene period, about 12,000 years ago. There are references in classical Greek texts to what are probably oysters, by authors like Aristotle and Homer. Oyster shells found at Troy confirm they were a favoured food. Traditionally served as a first course at banquets in Ancient Greece, they were often cooked, sometimes with exotic spices. Pliny the Elder refers to oysters as a Roman delicacy. He recorded the methods of the pioneer of Roman oyster farming, Sergius Orata, who brought the best specimens from across the Empire to sell to elite customers. Medieval coastal dwellers gathered oysters at low tide, while wealthy inland consumers would have paid a premium for shellfish, a perishable luxury , transported to their castles. French nobles in 1390 preferred cooked oysters, roasted over coals or poached in broths, perhaps as a measure to prevent food poisoning. As late as the 17th century, authors cautioned : But if they be eaten raw, they require good wine to aid digestion. By the 18th century, small oysters were a popular pub snack, and larger ones were added as meat to the stew pot. That century, it is believed as many as 100,000 oysters were eaten each day in Edinburgh and the shells from the tavern in the basement filled in gaps in the brickwork at Gladstone's Land in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Scottish oyster farms in the Firth of Forth, an inlet of the North Sea, produced 30 million oysters in 1790, but continual over-harvesting took its toll. By 1883 only 6,000 oysters were landed, and the population was declared extinct in 1957. As wild oyster stocks dwindled, large oyster farms developed in cities like New York in the 19th century. Initially successful, they were polluted, and infected by typhoid from sewage. An outbreak in 1924 killed 150 people, the deadliest food poisoning in United States history. Far from the overabundance of oysters we once had, overfishing, pollution, and invasive species all threaten oyster populations worldwide today. Due to this scarcity of wild oysters and the resources required to safely farm environmentally sustainable oysters, they are now a premium product. Oysters with karamu mignonette and pickled karamu berries - a dish served at Monique Fiso's Wellington restaurant Hiakai. Photo: Hiakai Scarcity made oysters a luxury, and a Tsar's approval elevated snails to gourmet status. Could insects become the next status food? Ancient Romans ate beetles and grasshoppers , and cultures around the world consume insects, but not (yet) as luxury products. Maybe the right influencer can make honey-roasted locust the next species to jump from paddock to plate. Garritt C. Van Dyk is a Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato. - This story was originally published on The Conversation.
