Chefs and operators need help in the kitchen. Here's a product that's helping combat that challenge.
Now more than ever, chefs and operators are being asked to create revenue and attract diners with something craveable without bloating menus or adding operational complexities into the mix. While labor has always been a perennial problem for restaurants across all sectors, that’s never been more true than an era when dining rooms are closed or have capacity restrictions.
“Staffing is always a big issue,” says Chef Mike Buononato, senior vice president of Creative Food Solutions. “That’s especially true now, when other top concerns include keeping up a respectable speed of service, and delivering an exceptional eating experience whether the customer is dining in or getting a takeout item.”
Evidence suggests that delivering that top-notch dining or carryout experience is made all the easier when you use quality products and straightforward ingredients. For example, Datassential recently reported that 35 percent of consumers would pay more for antibiotic-free food, while a staggering 77 percent wanted to know more about where their food comes from. It’s clear that trust and transparency are key when it comes to meeting consumer demands.
“The pandemic has renewed the idea that high-quality ingredients are as important as ever as drivers of good nutrition,” says Doug Wickman, vice president of marketing and business development at Perdue Foodservice. “It's imperative that operators, chefs, and foodservice decision makers focus on creating crave-worthy menu options––starting with a high quality, premium center-of-the-plate protein like chicken or turkey.”
This helps operators achieve higher profit potential by using menu claims, a margin that’s all the more attainable when chefs are using products that do not add labor or complexity to a kitchen. A line of products that Buononato trusts for these purposes is Perdue Harvestland TenderReady Sous-Vide Style Chicken. “Perdue’s sous-vide style chicken is never under or overcooked,” Buononato says. “It’s a consistent, fully-cooked protein, available bone-in or boneless, that you can take out of a bag and serve, and you can count on it every single time.”
For experienced chefs like Buononato, Perdue’s fully-cooked chicken—or turkey—products check a lot of boxes: they cut back on labor without sacrificing on taste, and they can be promoted on menus with key claims that will help draw in diners looking for exceptional dining experiences. Because labor is an ongoing struggle and the interest in those menu claims is only expected to grow, Buononato recommends partnering with Perdue.
“‘No antibiotics EVER’ is something that operators can call out on menus knowing that it’s not a hollow marketing claim—it’s third-party verified, like all of Perdue’s claims,” Buononato says. “More people than ever want to know what’s in their food, where it came from, and that it was handled properly the entire way. That matters to people, and Perdue is the leader in the industry when it comes to animal care and producing a clean label, properly raised bird.”
For more information on adding Perdue Harvestland TenderReady Sous-Vide Style Chicken to your inventory, visit the company’s website.
