Culinology - March 2016 - (Page 36)

EXPERT voices Five questions for Campbell's master chef Chef Thomas Griffiths shares top trends influencing product development by Monica Watrous mwatrous@sosland.com 36 | Culinology | MARCH 2016 On any given Friday morning, the culinary team at The Campbell Soup Co. gather and eat. During one recent meeting, the chefs tasted a wicked Thai-style chicken and rice soup and a barbecue chili. "One of our chefs became so interested in barbecue that he became a barbecue master judge, and we now have a smoker in our kitchen, so we make our own hot dogs and charcuterie and burnt ends," said Thomas Griffiths, certified master chef and vice-president of culinary at Campbell. Guiding product development at the Camden-based company is an annual report of culinary trends compiled by Campbell's global network of chefs, bakers and culinary professionals. The Culinary TrendScape report highlights 10 trends in various stages of development, from stage one representing discovery to stage six representing expansion beyond mainstream use. In between are stage two (introduction), stage three (adoption), stage four (mainstream) and stage five (established). "We use it internally as an educational and inspirational tool," Mr. Griffiths said. "We think it's a competitive advantage we have in the marketplace. I manage a really diverse team of chefs. We definitely study the trends from other companies, and they're great, but we wanted to personalize it as well so the trends we're studying and researching, we own, we know, we understand, and they can use in the food we make." Cooking with fire, authentic Thai cuisine and Frenchinspired dishes and pastries were identified as trends in the early stages of development. Stage-three trends include ice

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Culinology - March 2016

Culinology - March 2016
Table of Contents
President's Letter - The right hand side of the page
Emerging Trends - Snack Trend: Think Thin
“New savory” flavors sliding into sweet
Ingredient Trends - Deliciously gluten-free
Dairy Trends - Tapping into trends with dairy ingredients
Member Profile - Recipe for success
Expert Voices - Five questions for Campbell’s master chef
Industry News - Culinology resource book hits shelves
RCA elects new leaders
Local events build Culinology community
Six student teams to compete for top honors
Upcoming events
Petits Fours - Five trends from Winter Fancy Food
Consumers call for more food safety monitoring
Grocery sales soar for breakfast items, exotic meats
News Bites
Ad Index

Culinology - March 2016