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Business Wire
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Ventura Foods® Brings Innovation to Foodservice Mayonnaise
BREA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Ventura Foods®, the trusted foodservice partner for culinary professionals, introduced its new MayoNeeds™ Framework. This innovative approach eliminates confusion within the mayonnaise category by aligning specific mayonnaise formulations with specific culinary applications to meet the distinct needs of chefs and operators. 'We confirmed that not all 'Heavy Duty' mayos are the same and that chefs can often improve the quality of a dish by choosing a mayonnaise formulated for a specific application,' says David Kamen of The Culinary Institute of America. A New Way to Look at Mayonnaise Mayonnaise is a staple in commercial kitchens, appearing on nearly half of restaurant menus. Yet many operators, under pressure to manage back-of-house expenses and customer satisfaction, don't have time to really consider this critical ingredient when placing weekly orders. Additionally, the mayonnaise category lacks standard labeling definitions and uses marketing terms like 'Heavy Duty,' 'Premium,' and 'Extra Heavy,' causing added confusion. As a result, chefs and operators often default to using the same foodservice-grade mayonnaise for all their hot and cold applications, assuming it will perform consistently and unknowingly sacrificing product quality in the process. Ventura Foods is solving this problem with its new MayoNeeds™ Framework, which is designed to create clarity in the category. With its deep expertise in culinary solutions, Ventura Foods developed a new way to look at mayonnaise, not by ingredients and formulations, but by culinary applications. 'Even though this ubiquitous ingredient is integral to recipes across cuisines and menus, most chefs and operators reorder the same mayo regularly without much consideration. We want them to understand that the current labels, like Heavy Duty, are actually meaningless and consider how a mayonnaise developed for specific uses can elevate a signature dish without increasing costs,' says Ahmad Popal, Senior Vice President, Food Innovation & Customer Experience at Ventura Foods. To ensure the MayoNeeds™ Framework accurately reflects real-world kitchen needs, Ventura Foods collaborated with The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to conduct a blind study evaluating the performance of various foodservice mayonnaise products labeled as 'Heavy Duty.' The findings revealed inconsistencies in how these products performed across mixed, bound and dippable applications, underscoring the need for clarity in the mayonnaise category. 'We confirmed that not all 'Heavy Duty' mayos are the same and that chefs can often improve the quality of a dish by choosing a mayonnaise formulated for a specific application, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all mayonnaise,' says David Kamen, Director - Client Engagement, Consulting at The Culinary Institute of America. 'The lack of standards in mayo labeling creates confusion for chefs who rely on an essential ingredient that can make or break texture, taste, and the overall impression of the dish.' Ventura Foods is rolling out the MayoNeeds™ Framework through partnerships with foodservice leaders in various channels and encouraging them to enhance and streamline their existing mayonnaise portfolios through application-based formulations and labeling as well as education. Chefs and operators can learn more by visiting About Ventura Foods Ventura Foods is a leading producer of exclusive products, ready-to-go solutions, and consumer brands in the dressings, sauces, mayonnaises, shortenings, and oils categories. Its customers include foodservice companies, restaurants, and retailers in over 70 countries. A privately held joint venture of CHS, Inc. and Mitsui & Co., Ventura Foods manufactures products in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. For more information, visit
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Culinary Legends Thomas Keller, Jamie Oliver and Alice Walters Celebrate 10 Years of ‘Chef's Table' at Napa's Reel Taste Film Awards
Culinary legends united in Napa Valley May 1 to celebrate about 10 years of the Netflix series 'Chef's Table.' Topics of conversation ranged from everything including their personal inspirations, the dishes that put them on the map, and how they feel about corndogs. Chefs Thomas Keller, Jamie Oliver and Alice Waters were joined by David Gelb, the creator of 'Chef's Table' for an evening of clips, conversation and fine dining as part of the Reel Taste Film Awards, hosted by The Culinary Institute of America at Copia with the Napa Valley Film Festival. All three chefs appear on the new season of 'Chef's Table: Legends,' now streaming on Netflix. Clips of the series were interspersed with a Q&A and the evening was topped off with a multi-course menu inspired by some of the chef's most well-known dishes. At the end of the conversation, the chefs were jokingly asked if they ever have a craving for something as basic as a corndog. Waters, credited with beginning the farm-to-table movement, had to ask the other chefs for clarification on what a corndog is. After explaining it to her, the British Oliver admitted, 'I didn't know they existed until about five years ago. I'll have to cook one up.' This prompted to Gelb joke, 'I'm looking forward to the elevated corndog in the next season of 'Chef's Table.'' In discussing the people and foods that inspired them, Oliver talked about growing up with parents who ran a pub and restaurant and appreciating food at an early age. He had a childhood friend who only ate jam sandwiches and at one point, Oliver offered him a taste of his salmon sandwich. Though the friend was suspicious, Oliver said, 'He put it in his mouth and his face completely changed. He had this reaction to it being sour and soft and silky. So I knew at a very young age that food had this power – and once you had something good, it's hard to go back.' Keller, whose restaurants include Napa Valley's French Laundry, spoke on how it was a negative dining experience that actually helped form him. 'The first time I walked into a fine-dining French restaurant, I was made to feel very uncomfortable,' he noted. 'I thought, Why is that? The food is important, but it's even more important to give people a sense of comfort. It's very simple to make people happy, and that's what we try to do.' Even before Waters spoke, the other guests frequently paid tribute to her influence, starting the farm-to-table movement and advocating for preparing food in season. Oliver revealed that as a teenager he came across a cookbook by 'this foreigner from America' and spending hours with it. 'I'm dyslexic so words have always been my enemy,' said Oliver before joking,' And Alice's book didn't have pictures.' But he made a point to really study it, and it changed his whole perspective. 'I thought, how can people talk about food like this? There must be more than just craft and process.' Waters spoke about how her junior year of college, she took a year off to go to France. 'It was an awakening to me,' she noted. 'As an adult, I had never been a farmer's market. I had never tasted things like this.' Instead of trying to create a flashy new dishes, Waters concentrated on finding the freshest produce from farmers she got to know personally. Waters went on to open her restaurant Chez Panisse, and recalled the time she served a skeptical José Andrés the simple dessert of two dates – only for him to declare it a revelation. Said Waters, 'And that is what I was looking for.' More from Variety Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
