A United Team of Scientists, Strategists, and Chefs
At CuliNEX, we take a holistic approach to bringing science and culinary arts together. “As product designers, our job is to translate what is happening in culinary trends, consumer aspirations, product category dynamics, and technology applications,” said Kathy Stephenson, Senior Director of Operations.
How do we unite so many insights and influences into opportunities? With a united team, of course.
Unified Expertise in Consumer Trends and Product Design
“On a daily basis, for every project, we work as a collective,” said Rosa Espinoza, Research Chef. “We hear each others’ opinions and lean on each other. We have such varied backgrounds, and we are constantly learning from each other's expertise.”
The CuliNEX process unifies a team of experienced chefs, food scientists, R&D specialists, and manufacturing experts. The staff works together to meet clients’ objectives. “As product designers,” said Stephenson, “our job is to translate trends into delicious foods that can help our clients respond to consumer demands and remain competitive in the marketplace.”
From Trends to Actions
Our team’s curiosity leads to constant discovery of new trends. Every year, we create a Trendscape Report and Webinar for our clients to help them stay abreast of the developments we’re seeing in the food industry. This year we’re seeing trends in eco-friendly ingredients, plant-based proteins, authentic worldwide flavors, and ingredient heroes that serve specific nutritional purposes. If you’re interested in learning more about these trends, please reach out and ask for our Trendscape resources.
The multifaceted, yet unified, team at CuliNEX creates unique conditions for understanding how to transform trends into innovations. “If we had only scientists,” said Espinoza, “they might not know about food trends or how to work with ingredients in versatile ways.”
All of our product design applications include Clean Label formulation and are always “flavor-first.” The wisdom of food chemists, commercialization experts, and restaurant chefs melded together lets us offer a very unique type of service that meets a broad range of client needs.
“Our team continues to look for emerging insights in the food industry and we continue to share those insights with our clients,” said Stephenson. Our solutions are multifaceted: at the same time delicious, nutritional, sustainable, efficiently commercialized, and successful in the marketplace.
United Team Knowledge for Better Solutions
In addition to providing the benefits of a wide-ranging understanding of trends, technologies, and industry dynamics, our unified spirit also delivers benefits on a person-to-person level. Because chefs, scientists, and production specialists all share their knowledge, our team can achieve more complete results more quickly. “What makes CuliNEX different,” said Espinoza, “is that we have food scientists and chefs with restaurant industry experience together. It’s a balance. The best of both worlds.”
For example, Espinoza was recently tasked with creating a nutrition bar. As a chef, she had never worked with a water activity meter. Water activity meters measure the amount of available water in a product, which is important for determining its potential shelf stability. A food scientist working nearby stepped over to Espinoza’s workstation and said, “I can help you with that.” Moments later, Espinoza was formulating nutrition bars that could be shelf stable for two weeks, four weeks, and 60 days.
Espinoza, in turn, regularly offers her expertise to others. A teammate was working with bomba rice, which is a short-grain Spanish rice often used in paella. For the colleague assigned to that project, this was a new type of rice. “Oh! I’ve worked bomba rice a lot!” Espinoza said. She eagerly offered preparation techniques. She explained the unique water-to-rice ratio, and because aromatics are so important, she advised the colleague not to rinse the rice. “This allows the rice to absorb all the delicious broth,” said Espinoza. “You get a pop of flavor in every bite.”
“I’m a hands-on person, my favorite part of the job is creating on the bench,” said Espinoza. The other part of her job is attending client meetings and meetings with the internal team. These meetings are additional opportunities for unity, as they give chefs a connection with the client and help portray the strength of the CuliNEX team behind the project.
United Means a Broader Range of Benefits for Clients
The unified culture at CuliNEX results in delicious, sustainable, products that are successful in the marketplace. “Our clients benefit from the unified approach and culture of our team. We like to say working with our team feels different, and the team connection with our clients is the difference,” said Stephenson. “With a unified approach, we can support speed to market and deliver our best work for the client.”
