LYFE Kitchen in Palo Alto

Update Nov. ’11: LYFE’s Open!

Today, in Palo Alto, a “forklifting”commenced for the launch of Lyfe Kitchen, a new restaurant concept with big plans to sweep the country in the coming years. By the end of August this year this location should be open for business.

The panel of partners assembled comprised two chefs (Art Smith of Oprah Winfrey personal-cheffing fame and vegan chef Tal Ronnen), two doctors (medical media advisors Anthony Cardillo and Armand Dorian), two fast food execs (McDonald’s veterans Mike Roberts and Mike Donahue), the founder (investor Stephen Sidwell) and an Olympic athlete (the decorated swimmer Janet Evans).

The mission for this diverse restaurant team is to offer a healthy and sustainable option that can rival the instant gratification of traditional fast casual food.It seems Lyfe Kitchen – which stands for “love your food everyday,” or “live young forever,” as Dr. Dorian personalized today – cares about our physical health but maybe not our smarts. They count more than mispelling among their branding pitfalls – the backdrop for the panel today read “eat good.”  Apparently the name was selected from some 3000 designed by the same firm behind Build-a-Bear Workshop. The restaurant’s signature t-shirt reads “I’m a Lyfer,” which I can only hope isn’t mistaken for the Planned Parenthood protesters. Beyond these quoibles the effort here is genuinely inspiring – it’s a sincere step in making positive change.

The architects of this venture, wishing to convey that healthy locally sourced ingredients are not just the creedo of fringe vegans and marathoners, avoid using health food buzz-words, yet the menu will offer anything from dairy-free to gluten-free to vegetarian and vegan. And don’t rule out a proper Niman Ranch burger, but kiss butter, cream, corn syrup and the fryer goodbye. The only remotely fried ingredient on the menu so far are the panko breadcrumbs that coat the Unfried Chicken (recipe below). Each location will exemplify green standards and also give a percentage of profits back to the community.

The general din around our country hums, “get healthy.” There’s a whole slew of other messages too: lose weight, buy organic, eat local, shop local, give back, get more exercise. Pile that on top of your other day-to-day’s and it is a lot to manage.

When you scale up these same issues for business, especially big business, addressing the complexities of sourcing good ingredients, making a positive community impact, and shrinking carbon footprints can be a daunting enterprise. Imagine, in the case of a food business, that you are making a marginal profit off certain menu items, but by selling them in such a high quantity you gross a nice little bundle. If you have to switch around suppliers you then have to reconfigure your entire business.

For instance, if you were getting the cheapest potatoes from your distributor that were trucked from 800 miles away  and you swapped them for some organic ones trucked from 50 miles away, the price difference would have to be considered. You’d also have to meet someone who could reliably get you a uniform quality of potatoes all year long, and he or she would have to give you a doable price. If you couldn’t get them all year long you’d have to either find another source for that period, or you’d have to find another menu item to take its’ place. And you’d have to consider this for each ingredient – even down to the salt and the pepper. Then you’d have to consider the recipes for each item to make them feasible for your business, trainable for your chefs and staff to accurately recreate, and most importantly tasty. You’d also have to consider where your equipment came from and how structures for the business were built and furnished. Consider how the food is served and packaged. Consider how employee moral is maintained. Consider how the new food would change the ambiance. You’d also have to market carefully to your biased audience who love the cheap 800-mile potatoes already. You’d have to convince them. It wouldn’t be easy. None of it.

That’s why national restaurants aren’t all organic, or at least locally-rooted already. The beneficial business – one that aligns big profits with big positive social and environmental change – is also a tough business. There’s more problem solving involved and more creativity needed to face the challenge. Recipes have to do what Chef Tal’s Corn Chowder did for swimmer Janet – she adores the hearty creaminess of it and was shocked when she learned it was one of the vegan options.

Lyfe has already lined up local organic non-GMO produce, humanely-raised meats, and rarer ingredients like quinoa to fill their pantry, in fact, some of the farmers were present this morning. They have considered the multi-faceted world of sustainability and I look forward to the official opening when I can do my own forklifting.

Good Idea

Try eating strictly “locavore” for a week – get all of your food from within 100 miles. It’ll give you deeper insight into where you food comes from. For me, it made me feel closer to my food and made me amp up the garden big time (and consider planting tea!)

Lyfe Kitchen’s landmark location will be in Palo Alto, CA, at 167 Hamilton Avenue. Expect the stoves to heat by the end of August 2011.

In the meantime, try out Chef Art’s Unfriend Chicken at home:

Serves 4-6

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon Louisiana Hot Sauce

4 skinless breasts, cut in half

1 1/2 cup whole wheat panko breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. hot red pepper

1 tsp. paprika

spray oil; butter flavor

♥ Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

♥ In a bowl, combine buttermilk and hot sauce. Submerge the chicken breasts in the buttermilk marinade. Allow to soak at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours).

♥ While the chicken is marinating, make the breadcrumb mixture. In a large plastic bag (gallon size), add the breadcrumbs, parmesan, and spices. Shake to blend.

♥ Using tongs, remove the chicken breasts from the marinade and place directly in the bag of breadcrumbs & spices. Shake the bag well, until the chicken breasts are evenly coated in breadcrumbs.

♥ Remove the breaded chicken breasts from the bag and lay flat on a lightly oiled sheet pan. Allow to chill uncovered in the refrigerator 30 minutes.

♥ Lightly coat each chicken breast with spray oil. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

(You can make something like this to go with it.)