What began less than a decade ago, the plant-based marketplace has quickly matured. Within an ever-growing market of plant-based offerings, global sous-vide manufacturer Cuisine Solutions has emerged as a leader.
Under the tutelage of its Innovation team, helmed by VP of Innovation Bruno Bertin and Director of Innovation Nolan Popper, who leads the team’s plant-based practice, the company has brought a commitment to clean and delicious food that sets Popper and his team a step above other plant-based providers. Restaurants, hotels, and airlines have turned to Popper and Cuisine Solutions to streamline their F&B programs, helping them to cut down on labor and waste, food preparation, and physical time in the kitchen.
Cuisine Solutions offers an extensive line of vegan-friendly alternatives suitable for a wide diversity of restaurant and foodservice operations. That, combined with the company’s innovative sous-vide methodology, creates an unmatched value proposition for the nation’s foodservice community.
Popper’s vision for the creation of innovative plant-based menus comes from his personal background. A Philadelphia native, Popper’s parents’ busy schedules steered him towards the kitchen from an early age, where he quickly fell in love with culinary experimentation. Popper worked in local fine dining restaurants before earning his Bachelor’s of Science in Culinary Nutrition from Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island.
The Virginia-based chef credits an undergraduate study abroad experience working under the iconic Alain Ducasse as a crucial stepping stone. Popper apprenticed for the legendary toque in Paris and was able to learn French cooking techniques from a master. It helped him discover his passion for R&D and product development, and introduced him to Cuisine Solutions, where he’s worked for the past six and a half years. Today, Popper serves as the company’s Director of Innovation and Plant-Based Solutions, where he’s helped steer Cuisine Solutions into the growing industry of plant-based alternatives.
Steered by a team of world-renowned chefs and armed with cutting-edge technology, Cuisine Solutions looks to remain on the forefront of culinary innovation; as other big names began producing plant-based substitutes, the company’s CEO, alongside Popper, decided to enter the fray and produce their own lines of meat-less products.
Cuisine Solutions’ entry into the plant-based market actually began with a very popular non-vegan product from a global retailer. The keto-friendly product, which was the brainchild of a partnership between the conglomerate and Cuisine Solutions, cited Popper, easily gave way to a plant-based alternative that helped establish the company as the global leaders in sous-vide plant-based cuisine. With food service platforms requesting other flexitarian menu options, Popper slowed down: “If we’re going to become the world leaders in sous-vide plant-based,” he thought, “we need to take a step back and reconsider who we want to partner with.”
To expand their offerings, Popper and his team sampled over 500 different plant-based ingredients; 85% of them, he noted, “were an automatic no – the core pillar of our business is that what we serve is delicious.” Of the remaining 15% of approved items, only around 5% receive approval to join Cuisine Solutions’ portfolio of up-and-coming plant-based producers: “These products contain clean ingredients that meet our stringent standards and make us say ‘we love this, this is where we want to go’,” explained Popper.
Their global partners like Daring Foods, a leading plant-based company, are able to see a dramatic enhancement in their product’s flavor, texture and color by implementing the sous vide method. In addition, by using sous vide partners can create a ready-to-eat product with a frozen shelf life of 18 months or more.
The company looks for one or two producers of an individual product, such as an egg or chicken replacement, and then combines them into a single product, like their plant-based egg with vegan spicy jalapeño sausage and cheese. “Combining these three superb, individual plant-based products into one home is not something that someone else can bring to the table,” Popper added.
Adding plant-based to the menu, found Popper, is less about finding one-to-one substitutions and more about redesigning offerings and sticking to the principle of providing vegan options to patrons: “I believe in committing to plant-based and not trying to hide that,” the expert explained; “I don’t believe the future of plant-based eating is about finding meat alternatives – 20 to 30 years down the line, consumers won’t be looking for a product that looks, tastes, and feels just like chicken.” For now, however, Popper recommends sticking to the familiar; by incorporating meatier flavor profiles and textures, chefs and restaurateurs can help steer diners to adopting more flexitarian diets and embracing plant-full options. “It gears very well towards the food service industry,” commented Popper; “adjusting towards flexitarian diets is, after all, all about taking your consumers on a journey with delicious, emotional food.”
Cuisine Solutions’ partnership with a global retailer has helped the company develop hands-on experience with developing and rolling out new plant-based menu items. Looking to expand their vegan-friendly menu items beyond the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich, the chain placed the menus of select stores in Cuisine Solutions’ hands; as a result, the company completely changed the menus by adding over 20 new plant-based options as part of an ongoing trial run. Their test phase is also part of an experiment to drive up business after the chain’s peak hours, which are usually between six and eleven in the morning, by offering an expanded line of plant-based snacks and small meals to fuel patrons throughout their days.
With an expertly curated line of safe and high-quality menu options, Popper and his Cuisine Solutions team continue to lead and innovate in the plant-based space. The company’s exclusive partnership developing plant-based items with this global retailer attests to their commitment to providing customers with healthy, clean, and delicious vegan alternatives that celebrate the ever-popular flexitarian diet. For more information regarding Cuisine Solutions, their line of products, or to schedule an opportunity to visit the brand in-person, visit the Cuisine Solutions website.
Cuisine Solutions is the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of sous vide foods. Led by an international team of award-winning chefs, Cuisine Solutions is recognized as the authority on sous vide—the innovative precise-cooking technique that the company pioneered, perfected, and popularized decades ago. Headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, Cuisine Solutions services more than 35,000 restaurants and 6,000 retailers, as well as first and business class on the top 10 airlines in the world, and major hotels. To learn more, visit their website
