This past June, Creative Dining chefs from across the nation united to work together in the kitchen and delve into the origins of food at Chef Lab 2024, a bi-annual three-day immersive training workshop experience.
Chefs gather to learn about hot topics in the industry, experiment with new techniques, and hear from leading culinary professionals on trends in cooking that elevate the dining experience. Teams then test their skills in the kitchen to make some delicious dishes and compete for the coveted Chef Lab Trophy.
This year, the focus was on getting back to the basics, learning more about the origin of the ingredients chosen, and how that knowledge can have a direct impact on the quality and taste of a dish. Here are a few highlights from this year’s event.
Finding Inspiration with Foraged Ingredients
Rebecca Peizer, founder of All Things Culinary and Professor at the Culinary Institute of America, spoke on how foraging for these forgotten natural ingredients can expand our cooking horizons. There are over 20,000 species of edible plants, but fewer than 20 species now provide 90% of our food. These wild ingredients prove to be delicious, healthy options that enhance dishes. They don’t require fertilizer and often contain more vitamins than cultivated food. When 40% of consumers say they want more healthy and sustainable food, these native ingredients could play an important role.
Examples of wild, functional foods:
- Cleaver (weed) = Liver cleanser
- Elderberries = Good for immunity
- Stinging Nettles* = High in nutrients
- Holy Basil & Lion’s Mane Mushrooms = Adaptogens
*Note: handle Stinging Nettles with caution, as the leaves and stems can irritate skin before cooking
Putting Wild Ingredients to the Test
Chef Nathaniel Malone, Creative Dining’s corporate executive chef applied his new knowledge and foraged for wild ingredients in the area. To showcase how functional and delicious foraged foods can be, Chef Nathaniel created a dish from ingredients he foraged that included shiitake mushrooms, watercress, and Ramp butter over a puff pastry and served it to the group. Knowing and influencing the sourcing of ingredients is essential to food quality—something this bite-sized, flavor-packed creation demonstrated for the team.
Back to the Source
To make a delectable dish, chefs not only need to know the origins of plants and produce but also where the protein comes from and how it is processed. Chefs met with representatives from Carmela Foods to learn about how meat and dairy products are taken care of. From Michigan Family Farms chicken to sustainable seafood practices, learning these details is important when choosing a provider and essential in creating a high-quality dish.
Taking it further, chefs honed their skills in how to break down a protein source into its parts. “Understanding how to purchase, store, process, and cook these foods will help you maximize their quality and yield while minimizing their expense. (Learning about) animal proteins, including how they are raised and harvested, inspected and processed their composition and structure, and ways to fabricate them.” – The Culinary Pro
Understanding the physical origin is only half the story—learning about the culture behind your ingredients is also an essential part creating a dish with first-rate quality and flavor.
Tracking 2024 Food Trends
It is no coincidence that many of today’s most popular food trends involve preserving the cultural origins of dishes while finding small ways to reinvent them. To inspire Creative Dining chefs, Cathy Nash Holley, editor in chief of “Flavor and the Menu Magazine” shared the top 10 trends in food in 2024, three of which are highlighted below.
1. Coffee Carries Flavor
In our 2022 blog, The Latest “Farm to Table” Trend: Coffee, we noted how coffee’s popularity in America only continues to grow. Now we are seeing consumers, particularly younger consumers experiment with coffee flavors. While specialty drinks changed the game in recent decades, coffee enthusiasts now seek complexity beyond the traditional American morning brew. There are more cold coffee drinks with unique flavor profiles, such as spices paired with whipped cream or foam. Vietnamese cafes are extending their reach and selling coffees with darker beans and stronger flavoring. For example, many Vietnamese cafes make the Cà Phê Chuoi, a Vietnamese coffee made with caramelized banana, egg cloud, salted peanuts, coconut, and banana chips.
2. Cinnamon Foundations in Savory Dishes
Cinnamon is finding its way into more dishes. In America, cinnamon has typically remained in desserts and beverages. However, international chefs continue to unearth cinnamon’s potential, experimenting with the spice in creative and unexpected ways. As chefs find ways to preserve culture and authenticity in their dishes, they are also looking to add new twists. Cinnamon acts as a flavor accent in dishes, opening the door for inspired flavor combinations in broths, sauces, rubs, and beverages.
Exploring West African Cuisine
West African cuisine is on the rise, as people across a variety of diets and lifestyles are enjoying the big flavors of these simple meals. The layered spices and herbs, native grains, and various starchy veggies have a broad appeal and many West African signature dishes are plant-based or gluten free. We saw this when the Creative Dining team attended the Worlds of Flavor 2022 Conference & Festival, where the theme was “Africa and the World: Reclaiming the Past.” Our chefs delved into the history and richness of African cuisine. Familiarizing our team with the origin stories behind African culinary styles, ingredients, and techniques provided the perspective necessary to both appreciate authentic foods and expand creativity in the kitchen.
Putting it into Practice
After training on creative uses for vegetables and protein preparation, the chefs were put into teams and sent to the local farmers market to gather ingredients for their featured dish. Protein sources were provided for them. The dishes were original recipes created by the team that day.
Although all dishes were fresh and delicious, the winning combination was a shellfish curry with grilled prawn and lobster tail, coconut basmati rice with a pineapple chutney, black garlic trumpet mushrooms and curried puffed rice.
Ongoing Culinary Education Makes the Difference
We believe in continued development for our chefs to inspire creativity and bring unique, savory dishes to your table. To chat about how to bring culinary expertise to your organization or what it’s like to join our team, click the button below!
