Private Equity Giant J. Christopher Flowers Is Selling His Upper East Side Co-Op For $18 Million

Having recently forked out $20 million for a second floor-unit at 640 Park Avenue, billionaire private equity mogul J. Christopher Flowers may be trying to balance his books.

Flowers, who founded J.C. Flowers & Co., has listed his six-bedroom, seven-bathroom spread at 66 East 79th Street for $18 million, according to Streeteasy.com.

The price is $1 million less than what Flowers paid for the property in 2006. The unit is listed by Sami Hassoumi of Brown Harris Stevens, who was not immediately available for comment.

This is the first time that the duplex apartment, located on the 14th and 15th floors of the building, has been publicly offered for sale. The home, which was originally designed as the largest in the building, has traded only through privately marketed transactions in the past, according to the listing. It has a 30-foot drawing room, a formal dining room and a wood-paneled library.

Flowers online India bought the unit in 2006 from old school ad man Martin Puris, who penned BMW’s signature tag line “the ultimate driving machine.” That was the same year he made records for paying out $53 million for the Harkness Mansion at 4 East 75th Street. The Harkness property later sold to art world powerhouse Larry Gagosian for a loss in 2011. Gagosian paid just $36.5 million for the property, which he may turn into an art gallery.

online Flowers delivery  new digs on Park Avenue reportedly have six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms as well as a gym and staff facilities.

source - https://www.businessinsider.com/j-christopher-flowers-selling-ues-co-op-2013-2/lightbox?r=AU&IR=T

Humans Have Been Decorating Graves With Flowers For 13,000 Years

In a human tradition still around today, ancient humans from Israel decorated graves with fresh-picked flowers before burying their kin. These are the earliest examples of flowers online being used to line graves.

The graves were discovered at Raqefet Cave, in Mt. Carmel, Israel. They belong to humans of the Natufian culture, which existed from 13,000 to 9,800 B.C. They found a total of 29 skeletons, including infants, children, and adults. Some were buried alone and some in double graves. The graves are between 13,700 and 11,700 years old.

Four of the graves they found had evidence of flowering plants lining the graves, placed on top of a layer of mud, so they were able to see the impressions the plants made. The researchers think the plants would have provided not just color, but fragrance to the graves.

"The emergence of Natufian cemeteries, such as those at Raqefet Cave and Hilazon Tachtit Cave, also may represent new and complex social organizations," the researchers write in their paper, published today, July 1, in the journal Proceedings Of the National Academy Of Sciences. 

Here's one of the double graves they discovered, which contained a 12-to-15 year old adolescent on the right, and a 30-year-old on the left:

source - https://www.businessinsider.com/13000-year-old-human-graves-with-flowers-2013-7/lightbox?r=AU&IR=T

Here's where to buy sustainably grown flowers for Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day means saying it with flowers. Last year Australians imported more than 5.22 million rose stems between February 1 and 14, mostly from Kenya. Assuming typical bouquets of 24 roses, that’s 217,500 flower bouquets sold in two weeks.

The problem is that our pursuit of goodwill and affection towards humanity through the giving of cut flowers is hurting the number-one lady in all of our lives: Mother Nature. If those 217,500 bouquets were each wrapped in 75cm of plastic cellophane, that adds up to more than 163 km of plastic wrapping used in a two-week period – just for roses, just in Australia.

But facts about cellophane probably won’t win over your sweetheart. So with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, let’s consider making smarter, more sustainable flower purchases.

Petal power
In Australia alone, there are more than 900 flower farms intensively cultivating 4,470 hectares in order to supply almost 2,000 florists. However, the majority of cut flowers sold in Australia actually originate overseas, with imports from Ecuador alone valued at A$1.9 million in 2015. If you’re asking yourself “why are delicate flowers shipped halfway around the world?” this is a great question.

Countries near the Equator, like Ecuador, benefit from good growing conditions, including 12 hours of daylight all year round. In these regions, the contribution of the flower industry to the economy of small or less developed countries is often significant.

In eastern Africa, for example, flowers account for more than 10% of total exports, second only to tea.

Lower wages in countries like Ecuador and Kenya also contribute to the economics of flying cut flowers around the world. Unfortunately, this often comes at a cost for local growers and pickers, who experience poor working conditions.

source - https://www.businessinsider.com.au/where-to-buy-sustainable-grown-flowers-valentines-day-2018-2

Why Some Bouquets Of Roses Cost $10, And Some Cost $90

(Reuters) - If anyone knows a thing or two about buying roses, it's John Sullivan, a man who's given his wife Sally roses on every Valentine's Day for more than 40 years.

Sullivan, 68, a buyer's real estate agent from Cheverly, Maryland, tackles the annual price run-up by getting his blooms at the warehouse store Costco, where he says it costs him about $25 for a dozen.

He has tried grocery store flowers online sellers and has avoided higher-end florists to keep costs under control. He likes the quality of the roses at Costco compared to what's at the supermarket.

"I didn't get my bank account balanced by spending foolishly," Sullivan says.

Indeed, red roses will be a hot commodity, come February 14.

Growers, largely from Ecuador, Mexico and Columbia, scramble to meet enormous demand ahead of Valentine'sDay, setting in motion an upward price push that impacts most modern-day Cupids.

Other factors beyond supply and demand figure into price inflation, explains industry veteran Peter McBride, owner of Valentine Roses and Towers Flowers florist shop in Babylon, New York.

Lofty labor costs at the farms, to meet the spike in demand, and higher transportation costs as large volumes of the blooms are moved within a brief period, also boost prices, McBride says.


source - https://www.businessinsider.com/rose-bouquet-pricing-variation-2014-2?IR=T

A Brazilian bakery makes cakes that look like flower gardens

Address:

Água na Boca
Tortas Gourmet
Rua Daudt, 915, Passo d'Areia,
Santa Maria-RS, 97020-220, Brazil

Hours: Mon - Saturday 8:00AM - 7:00PM

Website: http://www.facebook.com/aguanabocasobremesaseprodutoscaseiros

The scoop: Água na Boca is a family-run cake business in Santa Maria, Brazil. They make homemade, beautiful creations with expert icing techniques.

Written by Eloise Kirn and produced by David Fang



source - https://www.businessinsider.com/gua-na-boca-bakery-in-brazil-makes-cakes-that-look-like-flower-gardens-2016-5?IR=T

The best boxed cake mix you can buy, according to chefs

Though no one denies the greatness of a cake made from scratch, a boxed cake can be just as delicious and is much easier to make.

With the addition of just a few ingredients and an hour or so of your time, you can have a ready-made cake for any celebration. But how do you know which cake mix to choose?

INSIDER asked chefs from across the country what their favourite cake mix was. Here’s what they had to say.

The classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting combination brings back childhood memories for one chef.

Duncan Hines
Be sure to cool the cake before adding the chocolate frosting.
“Like a lot of people, I grew up eating Duncan Hines classic yellow cake mix with chocolate frosting,” Donald Moore, chief culinary officer & EVP kitchen operations at The Cheesecake Factory told INSIDER. “Who didn’t love that? My mum used to make it for me every year for my birthday and it reminds me of my childhood and my childhood birthday parties.”

Pillsbury Funfetti is a favourite among two chefs.

Jet
Funfetti mix can be made into cupcakes or a cake online.
“My favourite box mix is Pillsbury Funfetti. I like to add strawberry Jell-O mix to it as well – it adds a fruity punch and a bouncy texture,” said Tara Lewis, pastry chef at Hi Neighbour Hospitality Group.

Daniel England, corporate chef with OMG Hospitality Group, agreed saying, “I have a thing for sprinkles, so Pillsbury Funfetti is the only store-bought cake mix I ever reach for.”

This chef called Duncan Hines online cakes “easy” and “delicious.”

Duncan Hines
Chef Adam Biderman is a fan of the butter golden cake mix from Duncan Hines.
“As long as it’s Duncan Hines and as long as it’s butter golden or classic yellow. They are reminiscent of my childhood and what is not to love about an easy, delicious, and nostalgic dessert? Make your own chocolate frosting at home to really make it stand out,” Adam Biderman, chef/owner at The Company Burger, told INSIDER.


source - https://www.businessinsider.com.au/best-boxed-cake-mix-2019-5

8 of the biggest mistakes you're making with boxed cake mix

When it comes to baking with a boxed mix, it’s not always easy.
Not letting ingredients come to room temperature can make cake dense.
Simply adding water and eggs can be a mistake too.
View INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.
When you’re craving a cupcake but don’t feel like schlepping to a bakery or rolling up your sleeves and making a cake batter from scratch, boxed cake mix can be a great substitute. Requiring only a mixing bowl, a cake pan, and a couple of supplemental ingredients, cake mix seems like such a simple solution to your dessert-related concerns.

But, in reality, baking a cake from a mix is a surprisingly easy process to mess up. INSIDER consulted with a group of professional bakers, and they clued us in to some of the biggest mistakes home bakers make with cake mix and offered tips on how to avoid these errors.

Incorrectly measuring your liquid ingredients interferes with your cake’s texture.

iStock
Bring the measuring cup to eye level.
Contrary to popular belief, dry measuring cups and wet measuring cups really can’t be used interchangeably. In fact, executive pastry chef Amanda Rose of Desserts First in Castro Valley, California insisted that “the biggest mistake when using cake mix is to measure your liquids incorrectly. This will result in a dry cornbread-textured cake online.”

To nail your liquid-measuring technique every time, try this tip from Rose. Place your measuring cup at eye-level on a flat surface rather than looking at it from above.

“Many home bakers fill the measuring cups directly out of the faucet, which will lead to over- or under-measuring your liquids because you can’t hold [the measuring cup] completely level while doing this.”

Don’t use cold ingredients.

Shutterstock
Cold ingredients can cause your final product to be dense and dry.
It can be tempting to pull ingredients like eggs, butter, and milk out of the fridge and incorporate them into the cake mix right away, but that can be a mistake. When it comes to boxed cake mix, cold ingredients can cause your final product to be dense and dry. Giving them 30 minutes to warm up a bit, according to Real Simple, can make a huge difference.

You shouldn’t always trust the cooking times on the box.

apicha.panoram/Shutterstock
Stick it with a toothpick.
An inconvenient truth about baking is that oven temperatures can vary wildly between different models, different brands, and different appliance ages. Cake-mix boxes must put oven temperatures in their instructions, but whether or not you can actually use that exact temperature to get a correctly baked cake depends on how accurate your oven’s temperature is.

Executive pastry chef Jason Jimenez of The Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. warned that certain ovens can have “hot spots” or places where the temperature is uneven, which can result in inconsistently baked same day cakes delivery.

“The tried-and-true way to tell if your cake is ready is by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake to check for doneness. If it comes out clean, then the cake is done for sure.

“I like to pull the cake delivery online in India from the oven when I see a tiny bit of batter on the end of the toothpick and just before it is completely done,” Jimenez said.”This may take some practice, but the residual heat will finish the baking process outside of the oven. This will ensure a moist yet fully baked cake.”


source - https://www.businessinsider.com.au/boxed-cake-mix-baking-mistakes-2019-6