Bernays Sauce: AIG Effect Still Hampering Meetings Industry

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

AIG Effect Still Hampering Meetings Industry

According to this article, the dreaded "AIG Effect" is still with us...

excerpt:

AIG’s spending spree at a St. Regis resort last September, just days after receiving federal bailout money, continues to send aftershocks throughout the resort and luxury segments of the industry. The opening session of the virtual Resort Conference—a webinar titled “The Voice of Customers”—gave resort owners and operators a chance to hear from meeting planners (corporate, incentive, etc.) earlier this week.

Moderator and HSMAI President and CEO Bob Gilbert called the current landscape “dismal” and talked about the media firestorm and the “collateral damage” still being felt after AIG’s junket. Some of the damage: $1 billion in U.S. company cancelled bookings in the first quarter because of outrage over AIG; 56 percent of corporate planners reported canceling at least one meeting or incentive trip; 40 percent less group business at Starwood during the first quarter; a $50 million estimated statewide loss for Hawaii. A bit of irony: The Resort Conference went online because of lack of attendance due to travel costs and cutbacks.

Read the rest here.

The Best Béarnaise Sauce

Courtesy: John Short at EventPros, Inc.

Ingredients:
1 lb 4 oz butter 1/8 tsp peppercorns, crushed 1/8 tsp salt 3 Tbsp tarragon vinegar 2 Tbsp cold water 6 egg yolks 1 Tbsp fresh tarragon cayenne pepperlemon juice
Instructions:
Clarify the butter. Keep it warm but not hot.
Combine the peppercorns, salt, and vinegar in a saucepan. Reduce until dry.
Remove from the heat and add the cold water. Transfer the diluted reduction to a stainless steel bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beat well.
Hold the bowl over a hot-water bath and beat the yolks until they are thickened and creamy. Do not overcook them or they will curdle.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Using a ladle, slowly and gradually beat in the warm, clarified butter, adding it drop by drop at first. If it becomes too thick to beat before all the butter is added, beat in a little of the tarragon vinegar.
When all the butter has been added, beat in lemon juice to taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and cayenne. If necessary, thin the sauce with a few drops of warm water.
Variations:
For Hollandaise Sauce delete tarragon and tarragon vinegar - replace each with lemon juice
For Mousseline Sauce fold 1 cup whipped cream into basic Hollandaise Sauce
Other variations: Substitute each for tarragon/tarragon vinegar – Paloise Sauce (fresh mint); Maltaise Sauce (orange juice with orange zest); Mikado Sauce (tangerine juice with tangerine zest); Choron Sauce (1/2 cup diced Roma Tomatoes).
Be creative!