This is a special message from Ventura Foods.
Our new line of Classic Gourmet Inspirations salad dressings are designed to help chefs create signature salads with the flavors that customers desire and the wholesomeness of ingredients they have come to expect.
The line was conceived by Ventura Foods’ Community of Chefs, a panel of accomplished culinarians committed to making the best products available in the market today. The panel provided insight on what attributes were needed to fill the gap in the marketplace for premium salad dressings. High-quality ingredients and well-balanced taste were two of the themes that rose to the surface.
“We asked our Community of Chefs to find inspiration from the fresh ingredients at the farmers’ markets and to submit their own authentic recipes for use as gold standards for these dressings,” said Paul Bulman, senior category marketing manager at Ventura Foods. “Their wealth of knowledge really helped us refine the flavor of these products,” added Bulman.
The input from Ventura’s Community of Chefs led to the development of four new dressing blends, each with distinctive ingredients that deliver a balance of pure taste. To meet growing consumer demand for “clean foods,” the dressings were made without any artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and without added MSG or gluten, giving chefs the confidence that they are serving the quality of products that they themselves would choose. The four new flavors include:
•Classic Gourmet Creamy Herb Ranch Dressing is made with a blend of three cultured dairy products (buttermilk, sour cream and yogurt) with parsley, chives, garlic, onion and black pepper.
• Classic Gourmet Roasted Garlic Italian Dressing is the perfect balance of extra virgin olive oil, roasted garlic and white balsamic vinegar.
•Classic Gourmet Parmesan Garlic Caesar Dressing features fresh garlic and parmesan cheese crafted by award-winning cheese maker Mark Gustafson.
• Classic Gourmet Savory Rich Blue Cheese Dressing combines three cultured dairy products and two different sizes of blue cheese crumbles for a back-of-the-house appearance. In addition, some of the blue cheese is blended into the base so that each bite delivers great blue cheese taste.
At the Maxwell’s East Coast Eatery restaurants in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, the Savory Blue Cheese Dressing is already a hit with customers, served on salads and alongside their Buffalo-style chicken wings.
“They love it,” reported Jamie McFadden, Maxwell’s director of operations. “It has been very well received.” McFadden added, “I am actually a blue cheese person. This really tastes like something that I would make myself.”
The new dressings are refrigerated, which provides an opportunity to innovate with a higher quality of ingredient than is currently available in shelf-stable formats. This improves the overall balance of flavor over shelf stable — which has raised acidity to withstand moderate temperatures. Refrigeration also underscores that the dressings are fresh and free of artificial preservatives.
Classic Gourmet Inspirations dressings also contribute to labor and inventory savings by delivering reliability and versatility. Unlike salad dressings made from scratch, Classic Gourmet Inspirations provides a consistent formula. In addition, these dressings actually reduce pantry inventory by replacing the ingredients that are required when making dressings from scratch, which is important to operators as they move to smaller kitchen footprints.
Classic Gourmet Inspirations salad dressings are also versatile and make great sauces for burgers, sandwiches, entrees, dips for crudités and appetizers. The Roasted Garlic Italian Dressing is a ready-to-use marinade and because chefs are creative by nature, Classic Gourmet Inspirations dressings are great starting points for menu innovation.
“Operators can use our dressings as bases to create their own signature items the same way a mother sauce would work,” said Bulman.
With features and benefits like these, no wonder that the new Classic Gourmet Inspirations salad dressings are quickly finding a home in restaurant kitchens. They are valuable for crafting flavorful and appealing signature menu items in tune with the way consumers want to eat today.
For more information about Classic Gourmet Inspirations salad dressings, call 877-VENTURA or visit www.venturafoods.com.
