Eleven questions for Vincent Mangual, Manager of the 4food Commissary

Chances are that you have seen Vinny, upstairs teaching the Back of House team how to finish your (W)holeburgers to perfection, or downstairs in the Commissary leading a team that prepares all of our products from raw ingredients daily. Vinny, instantly recognizable by the handsome tattoos that peek out from his chefs whites, has been with us from well before we opened. Vinny, who has recently lost more than 30 pounds, is an inspiration for us all and poster boy for de-junking himself and his community.

1.     What is the commissary kitchen and what does it produce? The commissary kitchen is where all the bulk food items are prepared for our guests. It is where the magic of 4food starts.

2.     What are the greatest challenges in managing the commissary? Definitely, it’s keeping stock of all of our 300 natural ingredients. Such a large and diverse array takes a lot of looking after when you consider that one bad apple can destroy a guest’s lunch!

3.     How do you ensure 4food is fresh? By purchasing very fresh ingredients and producing small batches of fresh product - enough to run out of (which is why we have a dynamic menu board). 

4.     Do you have a favorite build? The Mac Daddy - salty from the pancetta and sweet from the brioche and the bbq sauce.

5.     What are you working on now? Our summer scoop menu - we have a lot of new products in store for our guests. 

6.     What does De-junking mean to you? That  our products are natural and fresh, and purchased locally when it makes sense; that our beef, pork, lamb, and turkey is raised humanely and fed a natural diet; that nothing is fried and that everything is fresh.

7.     What is your favorite 4food story? On my 3^rd day at 4food, Perkins our broad line supplier showed up with a truck with 10 pallets of small wares. It took 10 hours to check in that order, and another 10 hours to set up the kitchen with all the supplies, but at the end of that day we were in the de-junking business!

8.     Do you have a hero/mentor?  So many... but without my mother and father pushing me to go to culinary school all those years ago I don’t know where I would be now.  Thanks mom and dad.

9.     What is your proudest 4food moment? On September 7^th last year we opened our doors for the first time to the public, who were finally able to see and experience the result of all of our hard work.

10.  What do you think we could do better? Though our overall guest experience has greatly improved, there will always be room for further improvement.

11.  Do you have a message to 4foodies? DE-JUNK YOURSELF (AND LET US HELP)!!!!

On the Buildboard Chart:

Where do the hits come from?

As of May 1^st 2011 the best-selling branded (W)holeburger in our short history is the 4food created Mac Daddy with 1321 sales, followed by aharris’ CaliBurger which is the best-selling user-created (W)holeburger with 866 sales.

Six of the top Ten (W)holeburgers are user-created: CaliBurger, MGR Lamb, Cali4nication, Crispy Aardvark, Low Cal Sal, & Erica against four that are 4food created: Mac Daddy, Juke Joint, Green Giant, and Somos Americanos. User created (W)holeburgers constitute 45% of the sales of the top 10, 52% of the top 15, and greater than 80% of all (W)holeburgers sold at 4food. Of the top 10 bestselling (W)holeburgers in Buildboard Chart history 63% of unit sales are beef, 16 % veggie, 10% lamb, 7% turkey, and 4% salmon.

At #1 this week as it has been for over 5 weeks is newmanra’s mighty MultiGrain-Turkey-Spinach and Pine Nuts-Avocado-Manchego-Hummus-Sweet Chili-Onion Cali4nication, which ended the week a beak in front of  aharris’ in-state competition, the CaliBurger. Rodgersmg’s yummy MGR Lamb is a head behind at #3 but has pvanessche’s Lamb of God (#7) on its tail.  At #4 antyson’s “tribute to his messiness Charlie Sheen” #winning is what we call a “nice little earner”, having raised $110.50 for the American Diabetes Association and counting.

SO-DA-MN-BETTER!

Soda’s roots go back to natural springs and their legendary curative powers.  Scientists discovered that carbon dioxide caused the bubbles in mineral waters, and began to look for ways of replicating the process artificially.

In 1767, Dr. Joseph Priestley created the first drinkable man-made carbonated water in England.  Carbonated beverages did not catch on in the U.S. until 1832, when John Mathews invented a machine that made carbonated water in store, which he then distributed to soda fountains in all 50 states.

Drinking soda was considered a healthy practice, and pharmacists began to add medicinal and flavorful herbs like birch bark, dandelion, sarsaparilla, and fruit extracts to differentiate their inventions.  The soft drink bottling industry came about because consumers wanted to take their "health" drinks home with them.

In May 1886, Doctor John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, invented Coca Cola in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. The original formula contained caffeine and five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup (a significant amount).  In 1903 the cocaine was removed though Coca Cola still contains coca flavoring.

Coke was first sold to the public from the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886.  It was initially a flop: Jacob’s sold nine servings per day and sales for that first year totaled about $50, $20 less than it cost John Pemberton to produce.

In 1887, another Atlanta pharmacist and businessman, Asa Candler, bought the formula for Coca Cola from inventor John Pemberton for $2,300. By the late 1890s, Asa had so effectively marketed Coke that it had become the most popular soda in the U.S.

Since 1980 in the U.S. Coke has been made with high-fructose corn syrup [“HFCS”], originally in combination with more expensive cane sugar, but by late 1984 Coke was sweetened entirely with HFCS.  Since then incidences of type 2 diabetes have doubled in the U.S. and there have been historic increases in obesity, propelled by the empty calories of the HFCS sweetened, mass-market sodas.  

Recently, national brands like Jones Soda Co and Boylan Bottling Company, and local brands like Brooklyn Soda Works and P & H Soda Company, have introduced naturally flavored de-junked sodas sweetened by cane sugar and fruit juices. 

Since day one, 4food has produced handcrafted, made-to-order sodas for our guests. Taking a cue from the pharmacists who first infused herb tonics into carbonated water, our sodas are made of all natural fruit and herb tonics, sweetened with organic agave nectar, and poured over triple filtered Natura sparkling water on tap. This summer our world class Mango Chai, White Peach Rosehip, and Hibiscus Berry sodas will be joined by new and classic flavors.