Good Food is Food You Cook Yourself - BBQ and Grilling is as Basic and Easy as it Comes in Alberta, Canada

What You Are Eating

"Fast food" is everywhere. It means, unfortunately, that bad food is too. 

Because it is easy to get cooked food fast, many people are forgetting how to prepare it themselves and are probably unaware of what they are really eating. I know this is a gross generalization. It may upset some people. These may be the very people that never paid attention to how grandma boiled potatoes or pulled a roast chicken from the oven. I bet they can't even fry an egg.

There is a whole generation of Millenials that think milk comes from a factory and burgers should be made in laboratories. Most of what they regularly consume comes from an oil fryer, and they have their local restaurants, and food establishments on speed-dial through technology like "Skip the Dishes" and "Uber-Eats". No wonder they gravitate towards veganism! They are unlikely to be eating enough good food.

Here is the revelation. Whatever you order from a restaurant is probably sub-standard. You can buy better at the supermarket, cook it yourself, and it will ultimately taste better, and perhaps be even cheaper. By cooking for yourself, you may learn something. You will definitely also make a few friends along the way when you also share your work with those around you. 

If you don't cook your own food, you are probably not eating well. Let's take a closer look at the economics of a food establishment in today's world.

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

Heritage Heat Ep1

Alberta BBQ Ep2

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

Buy vs. Cook

This is the scenario. It is a case that will probably be out of reach for most people. However, it will put in context what good restaurant food may look like. What will be a fair price at an upmarket downtown establishment, when we order a 450g rib steak, scalloped potatoes, another green vegetable and a salad?

Without the trimmings, side dishes and drinks, and excluding tip and tax, the steak alone will probably set you back around CAD$45 - CAD$50. How did they get to this price? Consider that you have the cost of the slab of beef, the skill of the chef/cook, some seasoning, the overhead of the facility and the margin built in as cost to the price of the meal?

According to "Forbes" magazine, the average gross profit margin for a fine-dining restaurant is around 60% with a food cost percentage between 38% to 42%. Because we are looking a premium piece of produce, there is a good chance that the portion of meat that is served in this scenario set the restaurant back around $21.

Remember that the meat is the star of the meal, and clearly, it is the most expensive part of what is served, so everything else should contribute to pay the rent and wages. The potatoes, vegetables, salad, wine, etc. must deliver substantially better margin than the 60% (charged over and above in this case).

Here is the surprise. The price the consumer is willing to pay ultimately determines the profit a restaurant can squeeze out of a meal. If you and I are eager to slap down $50 for a steak, then a good restaurant will creatively engineer their food and overhead costs to maximize the return from that $50 of wallet spend, without diminishing their brand or upsetting customers with a sub-par experience.

The question is, what can they get away with?

This is where creativity starts in the restaurant business. Either they have a heck of a deal to get prime produce really affordable (because they buy vast quantities, know the farmer, grow their own beef, blah, blah, blah, or let's just say it is where the cook/chef's talent come to shine. They likely take an average (or below-average) cut and dress it up to be served as a prime cut for a top dollar.

Now, think what you get served at a fast food restaurant. Where is the margin coming from in a $10 Happy Meal? Not so happy anymore, are we? No wonder, they try their best to obscure what you are really eating from the fryer.

You can cook for yourself. Visit the grocer or butcher and buy a prime piece of meat. Drop it on a hot grill for 4 minutes a side. Slap it with some garlic butter and a little S&P and another couple of minutes in the oven. See how that compares to your $50 barely adequate rip-off restaurant steak.

I cannot fathom why I would choose the restaurant's steak over my own unless I have money to burn or masochistically feel like tendering for a round of prime indigestion. The point is, you may ultimately spend the same money if you want to (if you pick the 90-day, dry-aged, prime cut that is actually the 90-day, dry-aged, prime cut). However, you will be eating better, because you know what you're cooking, and you have no incentive to cheat yourself out of a perfect meal.

Which brings us to barbeque and grilling.

Observations

We cannot wait for the BBQ season to start. Granted, we BBQ, grill and cook year-round. We are die-hard braai boere from South Africa. Before we came to Canada, we didn't know there was another way to prepare food!

The good thing about BBQ season is that there is a season for it. As with most things in Northern America, there is no half-measure. It is done with complete commitment, enthusiasm and dedication. Rain, snow or shine, the cookers will be running with brisket, pork, sausage, chicken and for the really adventurous they even do baked cheesecake, bread, and desserts, in what is really just a big woodfired oven.

The best part of the BBQ season is that you get to do something primal with good friends. You gather around a fire and prepare food as it was done for thousands of years. It is where every cooking adventure should start and where it ultimately provides one with better eating and a better quality of life.

If you cook your own food and do so with friends, you will be a better person. You will enjoy life more and likely to be happier and healthier. This is the Two Cowboys guarantee.

Come along. We'll show you how we do it.

Hendrik

Cooking Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

Pork Chop

Steaks

Original

Beast

Salad!

When Travel Gets Real: The Two Cowboys - New Zealand Beer and Culinary Experience 2018

Parking the Elusion

Here are some big numbers to keep in mind: Travel & Tourism constitutes ten percent of the world's GDP. The GDP contribution of travel touched $8 trillion in 2015 and is set to be rising to almost $12 trillion a decade from now. It is also one of the most fragmented, complex and misrepresented industries in the world!

Yet, for a small country like New Zealand, international visitors deliver $40 million in foreign exchange to the economy each day of the year. This is one in five export Dollars earned by the country. Domestic tourism contributes another $59 million in economic activity every day. Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $14.7 billion, or 5.9% of GDP in 2017. Why is New Zealand so prosperous in their tourism campaign?

DO YOU WANT YOUR DESTINATION OR BUSINESS FEATURED?

We have our views about why New Zealand is punching above its weight in this sector. Firstly, the New Zealand landscape is unique. It has an incredibly diverse natural beauty from the North Island to the South. You don't have to go far to be in awe with the shades of greens, blacks, blues and whites that are dished up to your camera lens, all hours of the day and night. It is a nature photographer's paradise.

New Zealand has a rich and diverse cultural landscape too. It blends Pacific, European and Asian into a beautiful tapestry of people and community. It is probably one of the only places where you wash down a lamb dim sum donburi with limoncello, and have a creampuff with your kumara madras.

Speaking of food, it is an absolute culinary paradise. Everything grows and thrives in the fertile New Zealand climate. Agriculture has been the backbone of the economy since the country's inception. It was only in 2013 that Tourism took over from dairy as the dominating export of the nation. New Zealand attracts great culinary talent with all this beautiful produce, that is locally grown and innovatively cultivated. There is no shortage of food celebrations, shows and festivals which, together with sports, make the country an event magnet.

Getting Real Marketing Done Deep Downunder

Here is the real reason why we love New Zealand: Small businesses thrive! Competition is healthy, and people are innovative when they bring products and services to market. The tourism product is good, and it keeps growing. They know to celebrate their successes and tell their stories. Marketing is a crucial foundation for everyone involved in New Zealand's tourism businesses.

Our Canadian Provinces are missing this crucial point. It doesn't matter how many Dollars you throw at the not-for-profit staff-bloated destination supposed marketing organizations, if the product is not solidly good, even they cannot put lipstick on a pig. There must be an incentive for tourism and travel operators to market themselves. Like so many other matters, leaving a government in charge of this crucial business task is courting disaster.

Canada has a lot of natural splendour, but its entrepreneurs have lost their motivation. What should be a help to develop the tourism product of Canada has become like so many things in the country, just another destination marketing gravy train for tenure incentivized bureaucrats. What remains to be marketed then is... natural splendour. If only we - the Two Cowboys - can get a more significant chance to highlight Canada's tourism product and related businesses, then we may just be able to light the flame again of entrepreneurship and blow it stronger for Canada, our other home country.

In the meantime, while we sit out the cold winter months, we cannot get enough of exploring this great little country of New Zealand. We can call it our village because we also carry a Kiwi Passport. We are and remain committed to its success!

Enjoy our travels deep Downunder and we hope you can make the journey with us in person, one day. See you back in Canada again, soon.

Hendrik
Kiwi Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Episodes

Episode 2: Flying from Kelowna, BC to Auckland, NZ

Episode 3: Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival

Episode Next: Cooking in the Coromandel

Getting Lucky with Lucky Rentals

The Best Cafe in Dunedin

Wanaka, New Zealand

Lucky 2

Hosed for a Handpulled Beer

Lekker Man!

Weta Hot Chocolate

El Humero

Two Cowboys on a Journey: Business Innovation Rodeo at Calgary Stampede 2016, Alberta Canada

Innovators Take Note

Entrepreneurs. Innovators. Producers and Makers. Grab your Cowboy hats. Put on your boots, and saddle your horses for Calgary's first Innovation Rodeo.

Now, you have the best excuse ever to make the trip to the greatest outdoor show on earth: Calgary's Stampede.

How about combining it with an annual business pilgrimage to the Calgary Innovation Rodeo to meet with Alberta's best Innovators, Entrepreneurs and business minds? These are people that can give you a hand in making your idea the next big one. They can help move your businesses to the next level. Maybe, they can connect you to a better business future. The opportunity is here. Your next move is to grab it with both hands.

What is the Innovation Rodeo?

A group of switched-on business people decided that the best time to innovate is when you have to reinvent yourself. This is exactly where Alberta's businesses are during the recent economic downturn. As Entrepreneurs in Alberta it is time that we look at new ways of doing things, or find new things to do.

The next best opportunity is when you have motivated innovators and business people from all over North America and the world visiting your town for fun and celebrations. That is when you make the connections and build your network. That is when you make your move.

Stampede week is when it is happening for Calgary. The whole city's summer energy is focussed on this epic celebration. Craig Elias and his team grabbed the opportunity of people visiting the city, to launch the Innovation Rodeo at the same time, and bring business people together.

The Innovation Rodeo is five days of education, collaboration, competition and celebration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. You can attend individual sessions (if you need a day or two off) or buy tickets to the entire week. The Innovation Rodeo uses lunch and learns, innovation challenges, and panel discussions to help Innovators and Entrepreneurs connect with each other, to share and develop the relationships, and skills needed to commercialize their ideas faster.

Calgary's Innovation Rodeo connects out of town Innovators and Entrepreneurs with some of Calgary’s most promising Innovators and most successful Entrepreneurs, so everyone can develop new skills, solve innovation challenges, exchange ideas, and help each other commercialize their innovations.

On the last day the best solutions to the innovation challenges are pitched to celebrity judges who pick the winner of the grand prize.

We cannot tell you how excited we are about the launch of this initiative. For months we've toiled away at showcasing Alberta's Producers, and inspire people to become Entrepreneurs. Now we get to sit in on a pinnacle event with all of Alberta's entrepreneurial energy combined that promises to be the catalyst for more and better business in Alberta.

Please help us and support Craig and his team. Please be there. We will see you there. Get your tickets here: http://www.innovationrodeo.ca.

Hendrik van Wyk
Producer and Entrepreneur.
The Two Cowboys

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Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

Taking Flight

Profiling Producers: Update 1 - The Real Producer

The past three months has been a rollercoaster ride. We could not have imagined the amazing people we would meet, the amount we would learn, and the awesome experiences that would come our way.

It is only the beginning. We still have a whole nine months ahead of us on our 2016 Two Cowboys Journey. If it works like we think it will, and with your help we have five more years to do what we love. 

This short Blog post is an update to our loyal followers and newcomers, on where we are, our successes, challenges, and what we believe still lies ahead.

Jumping Off

If you review some of my earlier posts you will know by now that I became a maker in 2010. 

Before, I was an IT Management Consultant in the trappings of "civilized" life, or what is held up as "the way things should be". I spent my mornings and afternoons in traffic, on my way to contracts, jobs and clients I didn't like. Doing "work" through emails, meetings and more meetings, with nothing to show for it when I am done. All this took place while every month I was trying to escape the trappings of mortgage, car, credit card and other debt, to no avail.

Since becoming a maker, my life changed. First came denial. Then anger and frustration. The best and worse part of it all was realizing just how broken our world and its people really are. By making something, I've found relief, and inspiration. My values, purpose and faith in my fellow men have been restored. Change came in a good way. 

The next step for me was to become an activist, and to share what I've learned with anybody interested in listening. This site was the first step. I realized that there must be other people with the same frustrations and questions. A deteriorating economic and political climate in Alberta served to help me strengthen my resolve.

I exclaimed: "This cannot be IT!" There is another way to live and I can help people to find purpose and meaning in their lives through "making something". I enlisted the help of a great friend in the video business in New Zealand (Braam Compton). I gave my son an opportunity to launch his film career, and we kicked off our 2016 journey. We launched the Two Cowboys and a Camera Channel, the Cowboy News Network. 

We took one giant leap of faith by trusting in the support of our Producers and people like you, through our CrowdFunding site. Our thinking is that if we make an entertaining video product that people like, and we showcase inspirational people and their amazing business, and if we can manage to get support for our cause of inspiring more people to "make something" by showing communities and people that does, then who knows where it will take us? 

We may just help to change the world, for the better. 

Highlights

There is no shortage of inspiring stories to be told. 

At the outset, we wanted to offer an international scope for our message. Our video productions are of the highest quality available. We used the cultural bridge between New Zealand and Canada and the fact that we are Citizen's of both countries. You get stories from Producers in both places. Canada and New Zealand's people are similar. Both are entrepreneurial, community focussed, innovative and hard working.

We cast our net wide and deep. You get stories of food producers, engineering companies, training colleges, clothing manufacturers and artists. More are coming: Distillers, brewers, hat makers, shoe makers, and candy makers. All these people make things. Many of them are alone in their craft. Often they are the last of their kind. They employ family and community members. They support their communities. All of them have inspiring and unique stories we can, and will tell.

How do we know we have real Producer to profile? 

Two things usually happens without fail: When we offer to profile the Producer, we get a commitment and confirmation within hours, if not minutes. They jump at the opportunity to have their story told. Secondly, the real Producer we profile supports our cause.

For us there is a moment that we cherish above all. It is when we get a sincere and heartfelt thank you call from a Producer when their video goes online and they see it for the first time.

If we do nothing else with this whole campaign, then it is collecting these moments that fill us with pride, tears and admiration for the authentic people that are the foundation of our society. They are our Producers. Now they are our friends. It is an honour to tell their stories.

Many of the Producers we profile contribute to our cause. They give something so that we can use to continue to tell inspirational stories. Producers know that nothing is for free. Making something is hard work. They show their appreciation by supporting us in our video making endeavour, and recognize our efforts that benefit them directly through the video and indirectly through championing our (and their) cause. We've had sausages, chocolate, burrito's, cowboy hats, and beer donated, over and above financial contributions. 

We can tell the "real producer" from their willingness and contribution in support of our cause. 

Next Steps

The Cowboy News Network is another step to show how amazing our communities and people are. 

There are some stories we can tell that do not require a day of filming and a week of editing. The aim with the Cowboy News Network is to give these smaller entrepreneurs exposure. 

Where do we find them? We find them at our Farmers Markets and at our festivals. In the restaurant kitchens and sometimes we just find them by the side of the road like Motoburrito.

This summer is going to be full of these snippets with news from our communities, and features of our smaller Producers.

We have to monetize. We don't compromise on our video production. Every video we put out must satisfy broadcast quality video standards. If we make something for our Producers, we better make it as best as we can. The value in this is that our audience online, our Blog and Facebook page is growing with people that enjoy our productions and love our journey. People like you.

Soon we hope we can attract a few sponsors that share our values and that is open to be associated with our cause. This will help us to continue our journey. One would think that with all the people and businesses that benefit from our Producers, that this would not be hard to do. We are of the same opinion. We therefore invite potential sponsors and advertisers to get in touch. We look forward to working with you.

For the rest, please don't hesitate to follow-us, share us, and support us. If you like what we do, tell us. We love hearing from our audience. If you think we should profile a Producer in your area. Let us know. We want to meet more of the people that make our quality of life possible.

Hendrik van Wyk

Producer and Cowboy

Get rewarded for supporting our local Producers. Receive special offers and invitations from the Two Cowboys.
Please help us to bring you more of these programs by supporting us on Patreon: www.forwardthefavour.com.