Page 116 - index

116 / OCTOBER 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
fresh-cut French fries. McDonald’s had been the rst big chain to roll this out, but then stopped in 1957. Chili’s was one of the rst casual dining chains, making fries in the back of the house but changed to frozen in 1989. So many of the restaurants that are “legacy” chains now were previously doing everything from scratch with potatoes. Most went to processed frozen or dehydrated dry potatoes for consistency and cost.
Then Five Guys came along making fresh Idaho French fries in 1986. When Five Guys quickly broke past 150 units and still made fresh-cut French fries, it caught everyone’s attention.
Who were some of the standout foodservice specialists that you came to admire during those early days?
Pioneers like David Stidolf, from Mann Packing in Salinas, CA. He was so smart to come up with different cuts of broccoli, including orets and Broccoli Wokly. He went to college in Idaho, so I got to know him toward the end of his career. Joe Stubbs of Sunkist (vice president of foodservice), for creating the table top machines, seen in school foodservice kitchens, to section oranges. Joe knew if you cut fruit into pieces the students would take what they wanted and could always come back for more.
I can still also visualize Joe Brennan of Marriott Corporation on a panel at PMA, chastising the industry to “take the staples out of the cartons” of lettuce. Or, the unknown person who came up to me at our booth at the NRA (National Restaurant Show in Chicago) complaining that Idaho pota- toes often had short hairs when they cooked French fries. (This resulted from packing No. 2 potatoes in burlap, as a loose strand could fry up to look like human hair.)
How have you successfully used social media to get the Idaho Potato Commis- sion’s message out?
I asked our chief executive some 15 years
ago if I could oversee the website, and I got serious about guring out how the IPC could be an early adopter of non-traditional methods of reaching consumers by working with food bloggers. It is now a cornerstone of our recipe additions, with more than 500 added to the website, as well as content for our programs with consumers. Think about what many food bloggers have done for fresh produce consumption.
Doing food videos with bloggers was such a winner. Typically, a professionally produced recipe video cost upward of $25,000. And, we still had to gure out how to get the infor- mation out to a large audience. Bloggers were already doing this at a fraction of the cost. It’s worked very well for us.
I will give you two examples. Kale consumption was off the chart, and I couldn’t nd any chain chefs putting it on mainstream menus with potatoes. We reached out to bloggers from the Los Angeles area, and we asked them to pair Idaho potatoes with kale. We received some great executions to share with operators.
Another example — Hasselback pota- toes seemed such a natural for taking the baked potato past “loaded with sour cream and butter,” to another level. In 2011, Sara O’Donnell of Average Betty produced a video on YouTube that now has half a million views.
You have been writing the Dr. Potato blog since its inception. What will happen to Dr. Potato now that you are leaving?
Just like so many things with the Internet, this will live till the next form of communica- tion catches on. I take great pride in the more than 700 posts that have helped consumers, foodservice executives and retailers with tips. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to share my knowledge gained in the produce industry.
I hope to continue to post and learn more about potatoes by visiting with French fry machine producers and companies that are processing fresh vegetables, etc.
(L-R) Don, at the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang in Las Vegas, with his 1995 Mustang Cobra; R: Don with
his 1973 gray Capri, picking out the best looking emblem; At
a planning meeting with the team at Evans Hardy Young and IPC’s marketing manager Jamie Bowen (with the thumbs up)
What will you miss most about the foodservice and produce industries?
The opportunity to see and learn by going to conferences, expos, traveling with chefs as we nd out what’s new and happening in a city with menu immersions. I will miss the people and talent you meet along the way. The friendships that you make along the way and will, in many instances, continue to grow for years to come. I will miss going to the National Restaurant Show in Chicago (since 1973) or the PMA Foodservice Conference in Monterey, CA, and touring elds, seeing how food is grown and harvested and brought to market.
How has the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, helped you do your job at the IPC?
This organization places so much emphasis on helping each other, from nding leads about a menu item that includes the ingre- dients you represent, to partnerships on programs. There is a great deal of overall openness within the IFEC community. I’ll miss the 10-minute “of ce hours” — being across the table from an editor and trying to come up with creative ways to get our recipes, photos and stories out to a larger audience.
What needs to happen with consumers in order to raise produce consumption in the United States?
Everyone is on the right track; we just need to do more of it. It starts with sampling, anytime we can. Increasing exposure to what a cook, or chef, or mixologist or culinary teacher can do to elevate produce is going to get more people excited about fruits and vegetables.
I also think it has to include increasing the perceived value of fruits and vegetables. We somehow have to create enough pro tability with every crop, so we can get out of the peaks and valleys of short-term thinking.
What are some of your favorite ways/ recipes to enjoy Idaho potatoes?
There’s nothing like a baked Idaho Russet