|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
June 18, 2002Cherry steak debutPleva's to introduce product ThursdayBy MIKE NORTONRecord-Eagle staff writer CEDAR - First it was cherry pecan sausage. Then, cherry hamburger. Now, Leelanau County butcher Ray Pleva has gone where no butcher has gone before, mixing cherries into a new chopped steak product. The new Rite Bite Steak, produced by Advance Foods of Enid, Okla., will debut Thursday in Traverse City. Like Pleva's other cherry-meat blends, it's being promoted as an easily digestible low-fat alternative to ordinary chopped steak products. "There's nothing out there that can even hold a candle to this cherry steak," said Pleva, who's promoted his Plevalean burger mix and other cherry-enhanced meats from every platform he can find, including national television. "This has the taste and the convenience people in the food industry are looking for, plus the nutritional and added value of cherries." The new steaks were actually developed by Pennsylvania food consultant Gene Gagliardi, whose company has created new product lines for such industry giants as Hormel and Tyson. Gagliardi's process uses tougher cuts of beef - boneless chuck, round, sirloin tip - by cutting them into thin slices and reshaping them so their natural fibers interlock to form a firmer, meatier texture than a normal chopped steak. Gagliardi was looking for some way to enhance the flavor and nutritional value when he bumped into Pleva at a seminar at Michigan State University and heard him singing the praises of Michigan tart cherries. Over the past 10 years, Pleva and the Cherry Marketing Institute have identified a host of nutritional and culinary advantages in cherries, from high levels of disease-fighting antioxidants to an ability to enhance the flavors of other foods. "He agreed to take a sample back with him, and he was chewing his third bite when he called me," said Pleva, who has developed more than 40 different meat products. It took the two men several more months to develop a suitable cherry-steak blend and find a manufacturer who would agree to produce the new product. The long strips of meat, shaped to fit a standard hoagie bun, can be used in a variety of ways, said Pleva - as a breakfast steak, a sandwich or a dinner entree. It's the sort of thing a caterer might want to consider adding to the bill of fare at a wedding reception, he said: a low-cost alternative to the ubiquitous chicken breast. But the big opportunity he sees is in school lunch programs, especially since he and Gagliardi can demonstrate that their beef-cherry blend is lower in fat, cholesterol and sodium than other meat products. Pleva is hoping school food service officials will take to Rite Bites as readily as they have to Plevalean. In fact, officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture were scheduled to breakfast on the new steaks this morning in Washington. Grand Traverse area residents can try the new steaks themselves on Thursday, free of charge. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., promoters will serve free steak sandwiches in the parking lot of the Omelette Shoppe on East Front Street at what's being billed as "the largest tailgate party Traverse City has ever had." |
|
