Arming foreign chefs with recipes for U.S. potatoes

Farm and Ranch Report August 18, 2010 Later this fall the U.S. Potato Board will hold its third International Chef Training Seminar. Sarah Mahler, who manages the Asia Table-Stock portion of the board’s international program, says the seminars are for leading chefs in target markets to provide them with information.

Mahler: “About U.S. potato varieties and how they can fit into current food service trends, as well as showing them how versatile U.S. potatoes are by incorporating them into different types of menu applications.”

Mahler says one of the goals of the USPB’s International Table-Stock program is to increase the demand for U.S. potatoes at the food service level.

Mahler: “By working with chefs in the industry we are able to provide consumers with new ideas about how to incorporate U.S. potatoes into their meals at home as well.”

The success of the International Chef Training can be measured by the menus of the restaurants participating chefs represented.

Mahler: “We had 26 new potato dishes added to restaurant menus during marketing year 2008 and 2009, and we had over 30 new dishes added to menus in 2010.”

Mahler the program supports the chefs with menu promotions when they introduce their new U.S. potato dishes in their restaurants.

Mahler: “And because of this we‘ve seen a lot of increased sales when the restaurants are conducting these promotions in our target markets.”

That’s the U.S. Potato Update. Brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m Bob Hoff for Northwest Aginfo Net.