Pastry chef Gemma Matsuyama sees Asian flavors like ube and matcha gaining ground in 2023. “I love the interest in Asian flavors like ube because, while a humble ingredient, it has such a strong flavor personality. Ube, much like purple sweet potato, is naturally sweet and has notes of vanilla so it works well in desserts like cakes and ice creams.”

Flour + Water Foods offers four boxed dried pastas developed by co-chefs Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow to bring the craftsmanship of Flour + Water’s cuisine to the home table. 

Farrell brings more than a decade of food industry experience to CBCI from top tier CPG companies, including PepsiCo and Unilever. Most recently, she was the R&D manager for a prominent Chicago bread and bakery company.

Sokol Custom Food Ingredients has restructured its commercial team to expand support for the company’s culinary and innovation groups. Antonio Marungo was named Director of Culinary Development and Innovation and Max Pombert has been promoted to Director of Process Development and Commercialization.

In a landslide victory, our audience named Sunkist® Sauces & Dressings as its favorite new product in April 2022. 

Each flavor celebrates citrus in a refreshing and delightful way and comes in an array of profiles including Lemon Pepper Caesar, Grapefruit Poppy Seed, Spicy Mango Habanero, Mimosa, Blueberry Chipotle, Mandarin Fig, Orange Sesame Ginger and Pomegranate Lime

Leading innovation agency Sterling-Rice Group named Daniel Carpenter to the newly-created position of managing director – culinary at the fast-growing agency. Carpenter is joining SRG from Nextbite, a national virtual kitchen company where he served as vice president – culinary. 

Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations (CBCI) has relocated within Chicago and officially opened its new purpose-built kitchen and lab. Located on Goose Island, just minutes outside downtown Chicago, the new CBCI headquarters is designed and equipped specifically for food and beverage product development.

In a recent report published by market research firm Packaged Facts, “Dairy & Egg Alternatives: Outlook for Plant-Based & Cell-Cultured Consumer Products,” it was forecast that sales of plant-based dairy and egg products will continue to rise at an average annual rate of 6.0%, reaching $5.2 billion by 2024.

Motif FoodWorks, the Boston-based food technology company making plant-based foods better tasting and more nutritious, announced César Vega has joined the company as vice president of food design.