A chefs panel made up of three representatives from the volume feed sector of foodservice discussed how produce suppliers can make their jobs easier at the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference in Monterey, July 26-28.

Stefano Cordova, senior vice president of food and beverage innovation for the Au Bon Pain chain, discussed how the use of produce has increased tremendously on his company’s menu over the last few years. He said the firm has gone from 22 produce items to 57. Produce, he said, is a great item to work with it because it is a multi-colored work of art without the chef having to do anything to it. “The produce does the work for us,” he said.

Cordova, however, said quality is the most important element of any fresh produce item and there has to be a great deal of trust and collaboration between the produce supplier and the foodservice operator. He said many produce items are served in their rawest forms and there obviously cannot be any issues related to food safety or any other problems that would reflect badly on the restaurant chain. He likes working with branded product where the supplier has the same risk and motivation to provide top-quality products.

This executive chef reminded the audience that most food trends start at the restaurant level so he urged the supplier community to bring him new ideas.

Speaking to the same theme was Darryl Mickler, senior director of culinary innovation and the executive chef at the Chili’s Grill & Bar chain. He took the audience through the menu development steps at Chili’s, which can be a time-consuming process. From the planting of an idea, his culinary staff has to develop recipes that need to be tasted and tested and test marketed, and analyzed and re-analyzed before they ever hit total menu inclusion.

However, Mickler said he loves innovation and urged the audience to let him know early in the development stage when a new or better item is coming down the pike. He said planting the seed early is a great idea because it does take a while to germinate, but the results can be great.

He said produce is finding a home on restaurant menus because it offers freshness and flavor, two sought-after components of any dish. For example, he said Chili’s recently switched to the use of fresh avocados, which involved increased costs that will not be recouped via increased pricing but does add to the value the menu offers.

He revealed that the chain’s top customers — both millennials and health-conscious boomers — are looking for fresher and healthier menu items, and that’s driving Chili’s menu changes.

The final chef panelist was Rafi Taherian, executive director of Yale Dining, where more than 11,000 university students are fed every day. Because these students are the nation’s future leaders, this executive chef wants their college dining experiences to be memorable. He runs nine retail foodservice venues for undergraduates as well as four graduate dining halls and one golf course restaurant.

Taherian went down a list of his top 10 needs that started with flavor at the top and ended with versatility. In between are such produce-friendly attributes as color, texture and nutritional density. Many of his needs point to the increased use of fresh produce and that is the mission he has been on for the past four years. He increased the use of produce more than 10 percent this past year. A bit disconcerting to him was that his food costs took a big jump also, which he said he needs to examine. In the previous three years, increasing the use of fresh produce had not seen an inordinate jump in his food costs.

The increase in produce use, Taherian said is directly related to his goal of increasing the percentage of plant-based menu items and “seducing” his customers with taste.

While his costs did go up, the Yale dining halls have also registered an off-the-charts increase in customer satisfaction this past year. Though pleased with the big jump, Taherian quipped that continuing to get such high marks is unsustainable because “20 percent of the students wake up every morning hating everybody,” including the food they eat.

Amy Myrdal Miller of the Culinary Institute of America was the moderator of the panel and revealed that one of the top initiatives of CIA is to add more produce items to menus. She said a panel of chefs looks at menu priorities and their top three over the last several years have been to reduce sodium, increase the use of produce and improve carbohydrate quality with the use of more grains.