Chef's Notes
Precision Tools Lead to Flavor Perfection
September 2017 | Gary, Executive Research Chef
In an industry that is increasingly cost-constrained and time-pressed to innovate, we are aiming to impact flavor creation for years to come. In the new Culinary Innovation Center, that will come from investing in the most cutting-edge tools to create tomorrow’s solutions. We can create a great-tasting flavor with just an oven or a grill pan—but these new tools help us quantify and streamline our process. We can eliminate any margin of error and create an environment that aligns to our customers', thereby improving the transition between our culinary concepts and their product development.
The new Culinary Innovation Center has been our opportunity to bring in better tools than ever:
- The Induction Burner and Induction Woks: Takes less than 30 seconds to boil water and still manages to save energy in the kitchen. These tools currently have low consumer and industrial penetration, however as demand for more energy-efficient appliances builds, we will be prepared to develop products and processes that will help our customers ease the transition to this emerging technology.
- Aqua Cooker: Enables development grounded in rising popularity of new cooking techniques, such as sous vide. By heating and holding water to a specified temperature, we are able to experiment and innovate with precision and nearly fool-proof results.
- Pressure Braiser: Allows us to do in two hours what normally takes two days with the same satisfying result—creating a stock or broth with true depth of flavor has never been easier.
- Refrigerated Centrifuge: Allows us to separate purees by density by spinning at extremely high rpm (10,000 G [force of gravity])- we can puree strawberries and run it through the centrifuge giving us 3 main layers- water, fat, and solids (seeds). We can then use these three separations in different applications.
- Rotary Evaporator: Essentially a mini distillery. This set up rotates a liquid in a heated waterbath under vacuum. The volatile compound of the liquid that usually flashes off is collected. This allows us to start with real food (blueberry water from the centrifuge was great to experiment with) but also to explore what flavor chemists and analytics work on, bringing analytical science into the kitchen to provide a more specific starting point for translating gold-standard flavor into a multi-sensory solution.
These innovations allows us to deliver solutions to the client at a rate they’ve never seen before—we are not just able to rapidly prototype, but we are reducing the number of iterations it takes to get to a final solution.
I want my team to be working on the next big thing, and these are the tools that allow us to do it. Not only inform and engage but measure and impact trends. To start the development of your next great flavor innovation with the right culinary inspiration, contact your McCormick Account Manager or contact us here today.
