From the Editor/Publisher
Fresh-cut Opportunities in Catering
Fresh Cut
February 2005
If Brett Lewis, corporate executive chef for Centerplate, is correct,
there are significant opportunities ahead for fresh-cut fruits and vegetables
in North America’s booming catering business.
Catering is one of the fastest growth areas in foodservice, second only
to restaurants, according to Kerry Stackpole, Columbia, Md., executive
director of the National Association of Catering Executives. Annual sales
are estimated at $19 billion. This figure includes all kinds of catering
services, from hotels and restaurants to ball parks, weddings and other
special occasions.
With more than 125 client accounts and revenues over $600 million at the
end of 2003, Centerplate, based in Spartanburg, S.C., is one of North
America’s leading providers of food and catering services for sports,
convention and entertainment venues.
Since 1973, Centerplate has been serving professional and collegiate sports
facilities, convention and civic centers, indoor arenas, outdoor amphitheaters,
theme parks and a variety of other entertainment, sports and meeting venues.
The company services both major and minor league baseball teams, including
the Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and New York Yankees. Centerplate
also is one of the largest providers of foodservice to National Football
League stadiums.
Importance of Pre-cut
Pre-cut vegetables play an important role in Centerplate’s catering
programs, which vary from client to client, according to Lewis. Fresh-cut
vegetables are served in suites and luxury boxes as part of the company’s
vegetable crudités program. The most popular vegetable selections
are carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, cleaned and trimmed
green onions and, on occasion, zucchini and yellow squash.
Labor, today, is “a huge and growing issue,” the corporate executive
chef notes. The foodservice industry is always looking for ways to maximize
efficiency. Offering both improved consistency and time saving, fresh,
pre-cut produce is viewed as a cost-effective alternative.
There are both “pluses and minuses” to machine-cut produce,
Lewis feels. Some fruits and vegetables cut well; others do not.
“With onions and peppers, one of the greatest challenges we deal
with is getting the proper julienne cut,” he points out. “Machines
do a quick job but are not very efficient in producing an artistic cut.
With the traditional julienne cut, the end result varies from vegetable
to vegetable. The cut may be a bit wider or thicker—not quite what
it should be. Machines have difficulty reading the twists and turns sometimes
present in vegetables such as onions and peppers.”
Like many other chefs, Lewis says he would prefer to cut everything by
hand but realizes that in today’s world “that’s no longer
possible.”
As a chef for Centerplate, Lewis knows that timing is critical because
the quality of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables begins to diminish quickly.
“Packaging flexibility is critical because our customers often have
different needs,” he says. “We’re also interested in a
consistent look. We are not inclined to buy a product that has been poorly
cut.”
All pre-cut produce utilized by Centerplate comes through a distribution
model that combines ProAct, a cooperative produce purchasing group, and
Sysco Foods, Centerplate’s broadline partner. Through this arrangement
Centerplate can monitor quality and price for its various client and location
needs. By using this type of controlled distribution, Centerplate can
deliver a consistent product throughout the country. If you are interested
in learning more about product opportunities within Centerplate, contact
Paul Daly, VP/Purchasing at paul.daly@centerplate.com.
© 2005 Columbia Publishing
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