Potato Seminar Explores Menu Innovation

To drive menu innovation in America's leading restaurant chains, the U.S. Potato Board is conducting a seminar series at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.

This year's seminar, held from September 27 to 29, attracted 15 of the nation's most influential culinary decision-makers. Among them were 11 foodservice chefs representing more than 32,000 units and a major supermarket retail chain representing 1,739 stores. They were joined by executive chefs from America's top three potato processing companies—ConAgra Foods/Lamb Weston, McCain Foods USA, and J.R. Simplot Company—and FreshPoint, the fresh produce division of Sysco, the nation's largest foodservice distributor.

Among the many ideas developed at the seminar, several standouts captured the imagination of the attendees. These included a potato "noodle"salad, a vichyssoise potato smoothie, potato enchiladas, a fingerling potato and spicy grilled shrimp salad with yogurt dressing, potato-stuffed grape leaves, and a plethora of traditional Mediterranean and Latin American sauces that were "reinvented"as dips, dressings, and drizzles for potatoes.