MenuMasters 2011: Panda ExpressMenuMasters 2011: Panda Express

If you happen to be a Cantonese-American who’s well schooled in your heritage, you probably don’t have a problem eating deep-fried shrimp coated in white honey-spiked mayonnaise and candied walnuts.

Otherwise, that’s not really something most Americans would expect to find in a Chinese restaurant, and certainly not something they would expect to see on a steam table at a quick-service chain.

But the development team of Panda Express took this Cantonese item from its six-unit Panda Inn sister concept and reengineered it to roll it out successfully to more than 1,300 restaurants nationwide.

The premium selection, for which customers have to pay $1 more than the set price for regular items at Panda Express’ steam table, turned out to be the most successful new entrée launch in the chain’s history.

Chain restaurant consultant and Nation’s Restaurant News’ columnist Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Company in Atlanta, indicated that the dish is in line with many ongoing trends.

“The dish is both unique and upscale, and, unlike many quick-service Asian items, it’s notable for its premium ingredients,” she said. “Honey and walnuts suggest both flavor and health, an unbeatable combination in today’s market.”

“It took about five years total from the first formula to the national rollout,” said Patricia Lui, Panda Express’s product development manager.

The biggest challenge was taking an item that was deep-fried to order at the casual-dining Panda Inn chain, and figuring out how to get it to survive on a steam table for as long as 30 minutes.

Getting the shrimp right was particularly tricky, Lui said.

“There’s only a certain number of vendors capable of making this type of product,” she said. Moreover, whichever vendor made it would have to deliver several million pounds of it just for the first market tests, which were scheduled to last for two to three months.

In the first round of product development, none of the suppliers who submitted products were capable of meeting Panda’s requirements, Lui said.

“So we had to work very intimately with our vendors to develop the battered product in terms of its texture, its flavor, how it held on steam tables, everything,” she said.

Without going into proprietary details, Lui said they added marinade to the sauce that helped the shrimp maintain its size and flavor, and they also treated the shellfish to keep it from curling up.

“We need it to look plentiful on the plate,” Lui explained, noting that the menu item’s specifications required that each customer gets at least seven pieces of shrimp.

“We got samples back and forth, and once we saw something that would work, we scaled it up to test it in a few restaurants,” she said.

If the item worked within those restaurants’ existing operational parameters, they would run market tests in two areas — one that was familiar with Asian foods and one that wasn’t — to ascertain how the product likely would be accepted throughout their system.

After those first market tests, which were supported with point-of-purchase promotional material and some radio advertising, “We saw opportunities to improve it,” Lui said. “We saw how it performed in restaurants, and we went back to make it even more appealing.”

Name: Honey Walnut Shrimp
Headquarters: Rosemead, Calif.
Number of units: 1,300
Description: crisp tempura shrimp wok-tossed in honey sauce and topped with glazed walnuts
Date of rollout: March 2010
Price: $1 over standard buffet price
Developers: Andy Kao, executive director of product innovation; Robert Deed, director of product development; Patricia Lui, product development manager; Glenn Lunde, chief marketing officer; Angella Green, brand manager

For one thing, customers didn’t want a honey-flavored sauce to be whitish and creamy; they wanted it to look like honey. So they gave it a darker color.

“The whitish sauce was more authentic,” Lui said. “But the honey-colored sauce was more appealing to our guests.”

They also altered the coating so it had more staying power on the steam table. “It had to be a combination of ingredients, so it’s light and crispy and still good on the steam table after 30 minutes,” she said.

After the company reformulated the honey walnut shrimp, it conducted more market tests, which this time went well enough to convince executives to launch the product systemwide.

Andy Kao, Panda Express’s executive director of product innovation, said, “The amazing response to the Honey Walnut Shrimp by our guests is a direct result of the relentless teamwork between our suppliers, creative agencies, media partners and, most importantly, our field operators.”

More than a year after the product’s launch, the honey walnut shrimp continues to be one of the five most popular items at Panda Express. Consumer response has been so good, in fact, that this year the chain launched its second batter-fried shrimp item, Golden Treasure Shrimp, which has a citrus sauce, bell peppers and chile.

“You can call it a line extension,” company spokeswoman Thien Ho said.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].