The Almond Board of California brought industry-renowned research chef John Csukor to showcase flavor and menu ideas—all featuring almond ingredients—to the Research Chefs Association’s Culinology Expo. This year’s booth featured hot dogs, sausages and edgy, retro desserts as hot items for 2013 menus. Playing off these trends, chef Csukor prepared an Almond Bahn Mi-Style Hot Dog and Almond S’more. The Bahn Mi-Style hot dog, prepared with Southeast Asian spices, an almond honey mustard and Carolina cabbage-fresh Vietnamese slaw, was a global, flavorful bite. The retro, sweet and savory s’more paid homage to classic Americana desserts, and the almond butter and dark chocolate, marshmallow spread with almond cream and almond tuile “graham cracker” combined for a memorable crunch. 

– Almond Board of California, www.almondboard.com