CULINARY CORNER
Concept Innovation
FALL OLIVE LEAF PASTA
The chefs from our Culinary Innovation Team created three enticing concept innovations just in time for the cooler months of fall. They’ve even managed to create a spooky Halloween inspired bread that no one will ever know includes carrots!
Executive Chef Christina Olivarez shares the culinary process and origin story behind each concept and offers suggestions to inspire your own fall-themed innovations.
RAINBOW
PULL-APART-CAKE
Pull-apart cake is something that pastry chefs have been making in their high-end restaurant kitchens for years. It’s easy to make yet has a wow factor. It’s typically a white vanilla batter charged with an iSi canister and then microwaved, resulting in a fluffy cake similar to angel food. It’s really fun to plate and pull apart and the white canvas provides endless opportunities for color. The idea behind this concept was to infuse a typical pull-apart cake with a festive rainbow of color. It’s really irresistible for kids and adults alike because it’s so colorful and fun to pull apart and share.
A brand could use this innovation to create an extension of the mug cake kits that are readily available in supermarkets. It could essentially be a microwavable angel food mud cake that includes all of the components a consumer would need to make a pull-apart cake at home. It could be rainbow colored or a different daily color could be enjoyed throughout the week; Red Monday, Blue Tuesday, Purple Friday, and so on. Of course, the innovation would need to include a batter that does not require a consumer to use an iSi charger but once that is sorted out, I could see the idea of this microwaveable, cheerfully colored, super fluffy sponge really taking off!
BRIMSTONE BREAD
This bread was inspired by a request a customer made to create something unique and spooky for a Halloween photoshoot. We wanted to use our vibrant red EXBERRY® shades for an out-of-the-box idea that captures the excitement and surprise of Halloween. We landed on the idea of creating a lava rock made from a Dutch Crunch Bread recipe that would look like a brimstone after it was baked and include an unexpected color tucked inside. (Editor’s Note: Dutch Crunch Bread is a white bread coated with rice flour that cracks and crisps when it’s baked. It’s especially popular in San Francisco and is something Christina grew up enjoying in her home state of California.)
We colored the inside red and then coated the outside with a concentrated dose of an EXBERRY® purple shade that turned crackly and black when it was baked. Kids love this bread because it has that Halloween wow factor and the vivid red inside is so unexpected and fun. Little do they know that because it’s colored with EXBERRY® shades, there are healthy things like carrots and red potatoes snuck into it!
I could see a brand taking this idea to create a shelf stable Dutch Crunch Bread that reveals an unexpected color inside. It could be scaled up easily and while the Halloween shades are fantastic, it’s an idea that could be rotated to fit the holiday or the season.
