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served in the same position at Harmons, a 19-store retailer headquartered in West Valley City, UT, where he oversaw the deli-to-bistro prepared foods transformation. “We were able to work with our produce supplier to get a riper Roma tomato, a hothouse variety, rather than the historically used gas green tomato. It makes a big difference in taste.”
WHAT IT TAKES TO TRANSLATE
Not surprisingly, dining out is one of the best sources of inspiration for retail chefs. Culi- nary magazines, conferences, trends data and social media, especially blogs, Pinterest and Instagram, are useful too, say chefs. However, what works in a traditional restaurant doesn’t necessarily translate accordingly in-store. Smart and strategic concept translation requires careful consideration and planning.
“In restaurants, it’s all about looking at the menu and reading a description,” says Kum & Go’s Garcia. “Retail is very visual. You want customers to walk by the case, see a beautiful plate of roasted vegetables that pop in color and instantly say, ‘I’ll take a half pound.’ Plus, in restaurants, foods are made to order. At retail, something you make in the morning might sit out for two to four hours. There’s both an art and science of cooking for retail.”
The gold standard of a dish that he wants to recreate at retail is what Keoni Chang, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, corpo- rate chef and director of the Sullivan Family Kitchen at Foodland, says he starts with.
“We first look at the environment in which the dish will live. For example, delicate greens don’t do well on the cold bar where the airflow can cause drying and wilting. We also might choose a lighter dressing on some vegetables. Olive oil, for example, solidifies when chilled. To hold up better on the hot bar, we might cut Brussels sprouts more thickly,” says Chang.
To that end, some vegetables can change into an unappetizing color over time as well as change texture and become mushy.
PHOTO BY DEAN BARNES
“Green vegetables are especially unfor- giving,” says Ron DeSantis, founder and pres- ident of CulinaryNXT, in Branford, CT, a CIA graduate and certified master chef, whose resume includes overseeing everything from restaurants and cafes to convenience store fare as director of culinary excellence for Yale University, in New Haven, CT. “Steamed broc- coli, for example, can discolor to an olive drab. In the cold space, citrus- or vinaigrette-based dressings will degrade chlorophyll, found in
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