Schwan’s Chef Collective is continuing its mission of educating and inspiring consumers, chefs and the culinary community through a planned series of events later this year. Since 2015, the team has grown to include 17 internal and external chefs from across the country that work to incorporate trends and new flavors into tasty frozen food products.
“In 2017, we will accelerate the integration of Schwan’s Chef Collective into how we think about the renovation and innovation of the foods we provide to our customers and consumers,” said Dimitrios Smyrnios, chief executive officer of Bloomington, Minnesota, USA-headquartered Schwan Food Company. “We are proud of our work to distinguish Schwan from other frozen food manufacturers by having restaurant chefs from around the country collaborate with our own chefs, food scientists and marketers, as well as our retail and foodservice customers. Our collection of talented food professionals is translating emerging culinary trends into great-tasting frozen food that runs that gamut from wholesome to indulgent.”
Adrienne Mosier and Todd Erickson of the Schwan’s Chef Collective are passionate about developing innovative menu items.Last year Schwan’s culinary group traveled around the country – from a Minnesota high school lunchroom to trendy Huahua’s Taqueria in Miami and Katie’s Pizza and Pasta Osteria in St. Louis – to seek inspiration for new products. From there, recipe videos, cooking tips and product innovation were developed.
“The collaboration has been awesome, and I love that we are contributing something tangible and real,” said Adrienne Cheatham, a Schwan’s Chef Collective member from New York.
The collective’s work is closely aligned with Schwan’s focus on ingredient simplicity and its initiative to make foods that are free from undesirable components.
In 2017, Schwan’s Chef Collective will continue to bolster the company’s commitment to innovation and excellence by taking the latest food trends center stage with a variety of activities centered on education and community involvement. Scheduled events include a Freschetta pizza innovation summit; content-generating taste tours in Los Angeles with Chef Jet Tila, followed by a New York tour; and a kitchen collaborative focused on school foodservice pizza with a community service partnership initiative.
In addition to working on the development of new food concepts for retail, foodservice and home delivery customers, Schwan’s Chef Collective members are able to gain insights from experiences both inside and outside of the kitchen that help enhance their careers, expand networks and achieve personal goals.
About the Company
Based in Minnesota for 65 years, privately held Schwan Food Company manufactures and markets a wide variety of frozen products through home delivery, retail grocery and foodservice channels. Its brands include Red Baron, Tony’s, Bon Appétit and Freschetta pizza, Mrs. Smith’s and Edwards desserts, Pagoda snacks and appetizers, and Schwan’s home-delivered foods. Schwan’s subsidiaries employ 11,000 people in the United States.
