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| Schwan's Chef Collective recently got together in Los Angeles for a Taste Tour with Chef Jet Tila. |
Taste Tours present an opportunity for Schwan’s Chef Collective and our team to experience food together, while also collaborating on their rich culinary backgrounds to inspire innovation. This was the first Taste Tour for the group this year. Last year, the group visited Chef Todd Erickson at his restaurant in Miami, Florida, and Chef Katie Lee Collier at her restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri.
“During these Taste Tours, each chef has culinary insight to contribute in helping us reach our goals of delivering high-quality and great-tasting food to our customers and consumers,” said Lauren Halgerson, who leads the Schwan’s Chef Collective. “It’s important that each Taste Tour is structured enough to meet the needs of our business units, but also open enough that we do not hinder the ideation process for our innovation. This is why each Taste Tour is set to concentrate on specific business-unit areas and products.”
For the first half of the week in Los Angeles, Lauren said Chef Deb Hey spent time at Chef Jet’s home where they worked on recipes and cooking tips for Schwan’s Home Service customers. With grilling season well on its way, Lauren said the team focused on “center of the plate” foods from Schwan’s Home Service, including Schwan’s® Salmon Fillets, Bone-In Pork Loin Rack Roast and three different types of steak.
The second half of the week, our Pagoda® brand team flew into town and participated in ideation sessions and a two-day Taste Tour. During this time, Chef Jet took the team to fusion and authentic Asian restaurants throughout the area, where the team explored a full range of innovation ideas for the Pagoda® brand.
The Taste Tour provided an opportunity for our team to learn more about the gold standard for Asian cuisine as well as exposure to up-and-coming trends.
