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Sweet potato fries dip into a wide variety of condimentsSweet potato fries dip into a wide variety of condiments

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 21, 2011

2 Min Read
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Bret Thorn

When it comes to French fries, ketchup is the king of condiments, but the emergence of sweet potato fries across all segments of the restaurant industry opens up possibilities for new toppings to dress up this newly popular side dish.

Some suppliers have been suggesting apple butter as an accompaniment, but restaurant goers have been eating the fries with everything from cheese and garlic to marshmallow topping.

“People are asking for ranch [dressing] to dip them in,” said Kristin Cronhardt, vice president for marketing for The Tilted Kilt.

The casual-dining chain based in Tempe, Ariz., started rolling out sweet potato fries to their 50 restaurants this month, after testing them last year.

“We’d had some requests from out guests to have some healthier options for side items and entrées,” Cronhardt said, and the fries were part of that initiative, as sweet potatoes are lower in calories and richer in antioxidants than regular potatoes.

Guests also like them tossed in garlic butter and Parmesan cheese.
“It kind of defeats the purpose of the healthy aspect, but they sure do taste good,” Cronhardt said.

Customers at quick service burger chain Culver’s, based in Prairie du Sac, Wis., also have been using sweet potato fries as conveyances for more decadent toppings.
The fries did well enough in tests at the 424-unit chain that they will be offered as a limited-time offering system-wide this summer.

Culver’s executive chef Jim Doak told NRN earlier [/article/culvers-debut-sweet-potato-fries] that guests were asking for marshmallow topping for their fries and also were dipping them in milkshakes.

At Hearty in Chicago, sweet potato fries and tots are both served in garlic aïoli.
Janna Mestan, a supervisor at Haymarket Pub & Brewery said the most popular condiment for that restaurant’s sweet potato tots is house made spicy porter mustard, “although Buffalo tots are a close second.”

At the Enchantment Resorts & Mii Amo Spa in Sedona, Ariz., chef Ted Cizma said he serves sweet potato fries with two sauces: Ancho chile crema and Serrano-lime aïoli.

South Florida-based celebrity chef Norman Van Aken of NRV Consulting and NRV Productions recommends sweet potato fries with mango barbecue sauce.

READ MORE: Find out about how operators are cashing in on condiment bars, check out "Operators enhance condiment bars to stand out, keep guests coming in" in the April 18 issue of Nation's Restaurant News. Subscribe.

RELATED: Top 10 sandwich condiments

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
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