Have you ever wondered how chilled prepared foods are developed and by whom?
From healthy salads and prepared fruit and vegetables to chilled prepared meals and desserts, CFA members are proud of their record in providing a wide range of high quality safe, tasty and nutritious foods that are quick and easy to prepare.
The recipes for these foods are gathered from all over the world and are created by the many chefs employed in the industry - chefs who are passionate about what they do. We spoke to three such chefs and asked them about themselves and their jobs, to tell us what inspires them and what they think the future holds for the industry.
All of our chefs received formal training and have some 50 years experience between them working in different sectors of the industry, from hotel and restuaruant catering to food manufacturing and now chilled foods. They all enjoy working in the chilled food industry because of the huge variety of foods they make and because it is exciting and challenging. They love being able to use their creative skills to produce new and innovative ideas whilst at the same time providing food expertise and support to different aspects of the business.
"Food should be simple, well cooked and flavoursome, with minimal amount of handling. It is also essential to use the best available ingreidents to hand and promote local produce wherever possible." Andy Bacon, Development Chef.
Flexibility and working with dedicated, hard working professional teams were all cited as key reasons why our chefs enjoy their jobs. They also like working with fresh ingredients and being involved right from the start - from initial concept to final food. They get their inspiration from different sources. Travel and cookery books are particularly important but they all love to experiment and research new ideas. Many chilled foods are hand-made in basically the same way as in the restaurant kitchen or in the home so being able to create virtually any tyoe of food is considered very satisfying.
There is no typical working day for our chefs. Every day is different and can be quite demanding. It's not just about thinking up new ideas and foods but working with new ingredients. reformulating recipes, developing specifications, managing the supplier database, giving presentations, recipe costings, tasting samples, preparing booklets, talking to customers, and chasing up samples and prices are all part of the job. Our chefs also work closely with development and production teams and have to keep up to date with the business trends and developments from competitors. This includes new devcelopments in stores or food outlets.
"Having a career that I love is very important to me and constantly changing trends makes being a chef very exciting, enjoyable and challenging. I like the chilled food sector because of the huge variety of foods that we make." David Shaw, Development Chef.
Launching a new food is very satisfying for our chefs. Creating new ideas and seeing them through to the supermarket shelves is very exciting. Ideas may originate internally or from the customer but there are many stages invovled in progressing the original concept into a final product. Our chefs are involved at all stages from refining the brief and sourcing the ingredients to scaling up, HACCP studies, and packaging design. Often it can take several months to launch a new product from scratch.
Trying to understand consumers and identifying trends early and developing winning recipes are thought to be the greatest challenges, but seeing the final food on the retailer's shelf is very satisfying. Even more rewarding for our chefs is seeing the foods they have helped to develop
disappear rapidly from the supermarket shelves.
"Being a chef for a chilled food company provides a completely different challenge to working in other sectors. There is such passion in the development teams because everyone loves food and wants to be the best. The best thing is that you never stop learning." James Birchall, Development Chef.
Our chefs are very positive about the future of chilled foods. The sector is growing quite rapidly and this will provide great scope for the development of new ideas. Working closely with their customers is considered key to developing and producing the tastiest, freshest, highest quality foods possible - foods that will fit in with today' life styles, e.g. nutritionally balanced foods, foods that are suuitable for the whole family, foods that represent value for money, and foods that allow a little indulgence every now and then!
The chilled food category has endless opportunities and is moving at such a fast pace that the challenge is to keep abreast of trends, keeping one step ahead of the rival competition. It will also ensure that the Development Chef's role remains as interesting and as challenging as ever.
