Sponsored by MegaMex Foods
The current labor shortage in American restaurants has chefs and kitchen managers toiling long hours with smaller staffs and constantly battling worker turnover. With more time spent training new cooks, less time is invested in menu innovation and the attention to variety that customers crave.
An increasingly reliable solution to labor and menu struggles is the use of fresh food products requiring little- to no-prep labor. Ready to use, such products minimize training and provide supply stability.
“When I talk to chefs about these kinds of products, I emphasize their low labor and high consistency,” says Dan Burrows, consulting chef for MegaMex Foods. “When finding skilled labor is harder than ever, products like this are really appealing.”
This is why MegaMex Foods developed WHOLLY® AVOCADO products. These ready-to-use products are made from 100% Hass avocados picked at peak ripeness, pitted, and hand-scooped. Over many years, as the fruit’s soaring popularity boosted demand, pressure on supplies of fresh whole avocados increased dramatically. And along with high demand came increasingly inconsistent products, Burrows says.
“It always seemed you would get a case of avocados and find various levels of ripeness and quality inside,” he says. “One-third of the fruit is ripe, another third is underripe, and another third is overripe. Then you’re left to sort those and manage what you’ll use and how.”
WHOLLY® AVOCADO products, he says, deliver 100% yield (no skins, no pits) and require no labor. MegaMex Foods’ pioneering High Pressure Processing on avocados also means WHOLLY® AVOCADO products—hand-scooped, chunky, smooth pulp, diced, or single-serve options—contain zero preservatives.
Burrows says some chefs and kitchen managers occasionally are reluctant to trust ready-to-use products in general, but seemingly more so with avocados.
Customers love avocados
No doubt about it, avocados are popular. According to the California Avocado Commission, from 1971 to 2021, sales of that state’s avocados grew from $24.6 million to $327.6 million.
Impressive as California’s sales growth is, it supplies only 9% of all avocados eaten in the U.S., which means about 90% of avocados consumed domestically are imported varieties. Burrows says that creates significant threats to the avocado supply chain, actual fruit quality, and their price to restaurateurs.
That does mean WHOLLY® AVOCADO products cost more, Burrows says, “but when we’ve already done the work of peeling and pitting, chefs face less labor and far less waste. Compare that to a 30- to 40-count case of whole fruit, where the useable fruit you can use is only about 60% of the total weight.”
Consumers also love novelty
Only in the past few years, Burrows says, has avocado risen above its role in guacamole and salad garnishes to become the base of sauces, dressings, smoothies, and soups. He says its creamy mouthfeel, and mild and neutral flavor lends itself as an easy replacement for mayonnaise on sandwiches and decadent garnishes on desserts and cocktails.
“Why put mayo on a sandwich when there’s enough mouthfeel from the healthy fat in an avocado?” Burrows says. “Instead of mayonnaise, just spread on the WHOLLY® AVOCADO smooth pulp product.”
He says the more chefs use and experiment with avocados, the more they're viewed from new perspectives. Ordinary guacamole now becomes smoked blue cheese and bacon guacamole, “and we even used our smooth pulp product as a base sauce on a pizza. We made another pizza that used tomato sauce, cilantro, and cumin, and then placed avocado on top when it came out of the oven.”
Ever imagined avocado fries? Burrows’ team did.
“Just slice, bread and fry them. They’re fantastic,” he says. “I think we’ve all seen how well it goes on sushi and in poke. The texture is excellent in both.”
To learn more about the time and labor-saving benefits of MegaMex Foodservice’s WHOLLY® AVOCADO products, visit our ideas page by clicking here.
