At GNT, food isn’t just our business—it’s how we connect, innovate, and discover new possibilities. Since opening our North American headquarters in Dallas, NC in 2021, our culinary team has hosted intimate lunches that give our team members a firsthand experience of the creativity and versatility behind EXBERRY® plant-based colors. These gatherings offer more than a meal—they’re immersive plant-based culinary innovation experiences that tell a deeper story through food and color and bring our team together to connect and create.
Why carrots? A raw material with vibrant possibilities
One of our most inspiring recent lunches centered on the carrot—an ingredient both humble and essential to our food color innovation. Carrots are a cornerstone raw material for EXBERRY® shades, offering a natural spectrum from vivid orange and golden yellow to deep red and striking purple. For our culinary team, choosing carrots was strategic: they wanted to showcase not just the visual range but also the application versatility, clean-label appeal, and sustainability that this single crop can unlock for food and beverage brands.
Carrots are universally familiar, and at GNT they become a canvas for innovation. By designing an entire lunch around them, our chefs brought the idea of “seed to EXBERRY®” to life—demonstrating how raw materials form the foundation of our color portfolio while celebrating the ingredient in every form. Each dish showed how manufacturers can transform simple, recognizable ingredients into premium, color-driven experiences that resonate with today’s consumers.
The menu: Three carrot stories
Our carrot-themed lunch featured three inventive dishes, each one illustrating different application possibilities and color expressions that food developers might explore through culinary innovation with plant-based ingredients.
Carrot Panzanella Salad
Carrot Panzanella SaladThis fresh take on the classic Italian bread salad highlights the carrot in every form—roasted, pressed, and pureed. Roasted, caramelized carrots provide sweetness, while the croutons and crackers repurpose carrot pulp for added crunch. The carrot tops mingle with peppery arugula, pecorino, and pistachios, all tied together by a carrot vinaigrette enhanced with Shade «Mandarin» for color and brightness. This approach captures the full potential of the carrot—from root to top—to build flavor, reduce waste, and demonstrate how color can be used intentionally across components.
Carrot Barbecue
Originally created for the RCA Conference in St. Louis, this dish features grilled roasted carrots glazed with a berry barbecue sauce highlighting EXBERRY®’s “Purple Plum” shade. Paired with carrot-top chimichurri and charred berries, it balances sweet and savory, letting wholesome vegetables shine in playful, indulgent ways. Some variations include pork belly, illustrating how plant-forward colors work seamlessly in hybrid applications. This dish shows how brands can create Instagram-worthy innovations while keeping clean-label appeal—a key consideration for modern QSR and fast-casual concepts.
Carrot Baked Alaska
This whimsical dessert reimagines a classic with an orange carrot cake base, purple carrot ice cream, candied carrots, pineapple, and a lightly toasted meringue. It bridges past and present, nodding to retro carrot salads and dessert classics while showcasing the creativity and color range possible with carrots—from deep purple to golden orange. The dish highlights how EXBERRY® colors can deliver visual impact across diverse applications, from baked desserts to ice cream.
Our culinary mission: Telling stories through food
Behind every menu lies a deeper intention. Our culinary team goes beyond cooking—they translate the technical world of color into tangible flavors and experiences that spark imagination. By anchoring lunches in familiar vegetables, they demonstrate how EXBERRY® colors maintain their connection to nature while enabling extraordinary innovation.
Vegetable-forward cooking is central to this philosophy. Time and again, the team proves that plant-based dishes can deliver the same nuance and satisfaction as meat-centric ones. As one team member remarked: “I never knew vegetables could taste so good!”. These reactions mirror how consumers respond to products colored with EXBERRY®—familiar foods, seen and tasted in a new light. For our customers, that’s a taste of innovation and a clear path to differentiation in competitive categories from plant-based meals to premium beverages.
Beyond the plate: Building connections across GNT
These lunches ripple beyond culinary creativity. They’re intentionally intimate, bringing together small groups of employees from across GNT USA—from R&D to sales and operations. Around the table, people exchange stories, ask questions, and discover connections between different aspects of our work.
This cross-functional dynamic helps team members experience the full journey of our mission—from raw material to finished product. The atmosphere echoes a restaurant “family meal,” where hierarchy fades and collaboration thrives. It’s the same spirit we bring to customer partnerships: combining expertise to solve color challenges and spark food color inspiration.
Innovation starts around the table
Our culinary lunches showcase what EXBERRY® represents: creativity grounded in nature, respect for raw materials, and innovation that enhances rather than masks. Color isn’t just visual—it’s an experience that can be tasted, shared, and remembered.
By blending ingredients, creativity, and team connection, these lunches capture the spirit of GNT USA in Dallas, NC, providing food color inspiration and ideas our customers can bring to their own products.
The same passion drives our collaborations with food and beverage brands worldwide—helping customers deliver their own taste of innovation to consumers.
Curious how EXBERRY® plant-based colors can bring plant-based color innovation to your next product? Contact us to start the conversation.