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Gourmet Convenience Banquet Appetizers and Side Dishes » Side Dishes Take Center Stage
Cooking for guests ranging from Queen Elizabeth to Luciano Pavarotti to Bill Gates to the Canadian military over a 35-year career, David Peake, executive chef of Peake of Catering in Vancouver, British Columbia, says he’s pretty much done it all.
“We do between 20 and 30 off-premise events a day, with every type of catering” Peake says. “We have a contract for the cafeteria and deli for the Olympic Committee offices for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games here in Vancouver.”
Interestingly, it’s the Olympics that turned Chef Peake on to Simplot UpSides. “With the buildup to the Olympics, there’s a labor shortage in Vancouver,” Peake notes. “Freshness is paramount in my philosophy on food, but convenience is becoming more of a factor. When I first saw the UpSides line, I thought, ‘So what?’ Until I tasted the dishes. I was blown away by their quality. It’s superb. And their consistency goes beyond anything we could prepare in-house.
“I started with the orzos and multigrain blends, then tried the new polenta cakes. They’re wonderful the way you can slice and grill them. I recently did an appetizer with the scooped-out baby potatoes with hot crab dip. The whole look of the product is very good—it doesn’t look like a frozen product. Everything I’ve used from Simplot has been the highest quality. With the benefits of labor savings, the final taste and appearance are as good as any we could turn out in a high-volume situation.”–ADK
For more than 50 years, J.R. Simplot has provided hotels labor-saving, value-added premium side dishes and appetizers for foodservice operations. Simplot’s innovative prepared convenience foods for hotels, featuring on-trend flavors and convenience, include a full line of potato products; RoastWorks flame-roasted fruits and vegetables; UpSides multigrain blends, polenta cakes, and gourmet pasta blends; prepared avocados and guacamole; and specialty products.
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