It’s been some time since Starbucks was considered cool.

There was a time, to be sure, when the coffee retailer’s cool, new shops were actually cool and new. It was Seattle — and all things Northwest — were hot. Coffee was being consumed by the gallon. Nirvana and Pearl Jam were just building their angst-ridden, flannel-clad fan bases.

But now, a lot of that has changed and Bob Goldin, executive vice president at food industry consultant Technomic Inc, said at the Reuters Food Summit that the company needs to get some of that cool back in order to right its ship.

But all the news isn’t bad for Starbucks, Goldin said. He said that a lot of the problems that Starbucks faces can be managed, and he thought that new Chief Executive Howard Schultz had a handle on what needed to be done.

Goldin was one of the featured speakers on the first day of the summit, which runs through Thursday in our Chicago offices.

If ConAgra Foods Inc is planning on making its numbers for the rest of this fiscal year, it’s going to have to do it by passing on cost increases to its customes.

ConAgra makes a slew of products — everything from Chef Boyardee prepared foods to Jiffy Pop popcorn  to Pam cooking spray – and most of the stuff that goes into the products they make cost more now than they did a year ago.

Gary Rodkin, chief executive of Conagra, said at the Reuters Food Summit on Monday that the company has been successful in passing on higher prices for oil, corn and milk to its customers.

If ConAgra wants to continue to make its numbers, Rodkin said more price hikes would be coming.

Rodkin was one of the featured speakers at this year’s summit, held this week in Reuters Chicago offices.

Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft drink company, has been bringing out so many new flavors that it may revamp its equipment to make sure consumers get a chance to taste them at their favorite restaurants and other spots.

Scott Young, a Coke food service division executive, spoke about those plans at the Reuters Food Summit in Chicago.

Darden Restaurants Inc., which runs restaurants such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster, is looking at ways to change one of its smaller chains.

President and COO Drew Madsen, speaking at the Reuters Food Summit on Tuesday, said that Smokey Bones has not been meeting its expectations and that several of the restaurants may be replaced with a new concept, Rocky River Grillhouse.

He also said that the company is aggressively looking at acquisitions.

Hormel, which is probably best known for its Spam luncheon meat, is taking a close look at how to reach out to consumers looking for natural foods.  But Chief Executive Jeff Ettinger told the Reuters Food Summit on Tuesday that there are higher costs and problems to make organic products.

He talked about the company’s Natural Choice products, which are sold at traditional grocery stores and the potential for organic products, as well as USDA labeling changes. 

Rising prices for commodities ranging from corn to energy have forced food and restaurant companies to try to squeeze through the occassional price increase to cover costs.

But for restaurant chain operator McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants, price changes occur not over a period of weeks and months, but over a period of hours.

The company reprints its menus twice a day, which lets it not only adjust prices to cope with rising fish costs when they occur, but also lets the company remove pricier items from the menu, switching to fish from areas where the costs are lower, Doug Schmick, chairman and chief executive, said at the Reuters Food Summit.

“We’re really only exposed to commodity pressures for legitimately six hours,” Schmick said.

The strategy was one factor that helped the company weather a jump in fish costs last year, when Avian flu concerns in Asia and Europe caused consumers to switch from poultry to fish, driving up fish prices, Schmick said.