Meat + Poultry - September 2010 - 76

KOBE FRANK

"There's an opportunity to bring
American Wagyu Kobe beef to a mass
market through their two favorite foods:
hamburgers and hot dogs."(Photo courtesy of Kobe Frank)
hot dogs and the bold mustard combining and exploding with flavor. As
an adult, he is looking to one-up some
of the locally famous hot-dog brands
by promoting his own brand of Kobestyle hot dogs made from Wagyu beef
in natural casings. The high-end hot
dogs come at a premium price, and
Valenza isn't shy about charging $9
per lb. for the products that are available by mail order as well as through
foodservice distributors.

Developing knowledge
He got to know the nuts and bolts of
the meat business during a half-year
"internship" at Strassburger Meats, a
New Jersey-based company Valenza
previously bought meat from during
his many years in the restaurant business. He then took his foodservice
background and newfound processing knowledge and went to work with
Dairyland USA, a Bronx-based purveyor of meat and seafood products.
His employer was supportive when
Valenza expressed an interest in developing a line of Kobe-style hot dogs
and hamburgers that could be distinguished from brands such as Hebrew
National and Vienna Beef. With the
goal of rolling out a superior, premium product, Valenza networked with
Dairyland's Wagyu beef suppliers to
make a hot-dog prototype. In 2005,
Valenza began working with food distributor Broadleaf (USA) Inc., based
in Vernon, Calif., to develop the Kobestyle hot dog using Wagyu beef from
Australia. After Broadleaf made six attempts to create the texture and flavor

profile Valenza was targeting, he finally
settled on the product he and a panel of
taste experts at Dairyland agreed was
the best. The one-third lb. hot dogs
were soon being sold through Dairyland and were almost immediately a hit
with foodservice customers. A 6-to-1
lb. size and 16-to-1 lb. offering were
soon added using the same quality ingredients. Valenza went on to develop
a Kobe-style hamburger, which was
also added to the Dairyland offerings.
"I was a one-man-show," Valenza
says. "I developed the product, created
the point-of-sale material and I rode
along with the salesmen in order to startt
getting it out into the trade," he says.
One of the fi rst restaurant customers to carry Valenza's newly developed hot dog was David Burke att
Bloomingdale's, co-located with the
famous high-end retailer's location on
New York's 3rd Avenue. The product was also picked up by the chefs
of many fi ne-dining establishments
around the city, according to Valenza. Over the past five years, he says
demand for the products has been
steady with Dairyland, which still
sells as much as 15,000 lbs. of the
hot dogs per month and upwards of
60,000 lbs. of the 8-oz. Kobe-style
burger Valenza developed.
After leaving Dairyland in 2007,
Valenza turned his attention to developing a retail version of the Kobe hot
dog that had proven to be a hit in the
foodservice segment. Working with
Austin Meat Co., Valenza rolled out
two sizes of the premium hot dog for
retail customers, which include Dean

56 * Meat&Poultry * September 2010 * www.MeatPoultry.com

& DeLuca and several other specialty
markets in the Northeast. Valenza's
next retail target for his Kobe Frank hot
dogs is Costco. He says Austin Meat
Co. is working with the big-box retailer
to ensure it complies with processing
and shipping requirements. On the
foodservice front, he's also negotiating
to be the supplier of Kobe-style beef
hot dogs infused with cheddar cheese
to Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom.
"We would private-label for Jody," Valenza says of the potential partnership.
Before marketing his brand of
Kobe Frank beef products to either

Working with Austin Meat Co., Valenza
rolled out two sizes of the premium hot
dog for retail customers, which include
Dean & DeLuca and several other specialty markets in the Northeast. (Photo
courtesy of Kobe Frank)

foodservice or retail customers, Valenza spent the last several years
hoop-jumping to get U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture approval of his labeling
claims that the beef was, indeed, Kobe-style, American Wagyu beef. His
new label capitalizes on Valenza's association with one of New York's most
historically significant restaurants.
Each Kobe Frank product label includes a vintage promotional image
of a younger Valenza posing in the
dining room of The Palace.

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Meat + Poultry - September 2010

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