U.S. Beef Showcased for London Chefs, Media

USMEF showcased the quality and diversity of U.S. beef to chefs and food journalists in the United Kingdom at a lunch and dinner in the U.S. Embassy’s Wychwood House in London. Titled, “#USAinUK Presents #USBeef,” the event was funded by the Beef Checkoff Program.

USMEF prepared U.S. beef for top chefs and food journalists at “#USAinUK Presents #USBeef,” in the U.S. Embassy in London

“This is part of USMEF’s marketing strategy to raise awareness of U.S. beef in Europe and make it known among chefs, traders and end consumers that U.S. beef is available,” said Felipe Macias, USMEF representative in the European Union. “Our goal is to educate food industry professionals about a wide range of beef cuts and inform them and the food media about creative ways to cook U.S. beef. To gain an edge on our competition, we promoted the consistency, marbling, juiciness, tenderness and flavor – what we call the ‘U.S. beef difference.’”

More than a dozen top London-area chefs attended the lunch. A similar number of food journalists accepted the dinner invitation. The two meals had identical menus featuring U.S. beef. Among the dishes served were U.S. ribeye with sprouted grain porridge, beef striploin tartar on wild black rice with sorrel and smoked U.S. beef striploin pastrami on rye mustard seeds.

Elizabeth Dibble, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, welcomed attendees. John Brook, USMEF director for Europe, Russia and the Middle East, followed with an overview of the U.S. beef industry. Chef Byron Hogan prepared and described the dishes as they were served. Stan Phillips of the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) in London also attended the lunch.

Chuck Cramer of Illinois-based Terlato Wines supplied wines for the event and joined the lunch to describe the wines as they were poured and paired with U.S. beef dishes.

Attendees sampled U.S. beef cuts at the event, which included both lunch and dinner

The hash-tagged title of the event was designed to attract social media, and it certainly did. Within days, a total of 90,761 Twitter accounts had been reached with about 165,000 impressions.

An example was a tweet by Wendy Bartlett, owner and director of Bartlett-Mitchell, a well-known catering company in London. She took to Twitter shortly after the event to note, “#USAinUK presents #USBeef amazing 2-month USA rib eye sprouted grain porridge, wild asparagus & oatmeal jus - fabulous lunch.”

USMEF invited several food journalists from London to promote U.S. beef though traditional and social media