Congratulations to Our Unilever Food Solutions Recipe Contest Winners!

As IGA’s only foodservice partner, Unilever Food Solutions’ purpose is to support chefs and foodservice teams in IGA stores with dish solutions, training, inspiration, and connection, in addition to best-in-class products like Hellmann’s^®, Best Foods^®, Knorr^®, and Lipton^®. Unilever’s specialized team working in deli and prepared foods is here to provide culinary and marketing resources to help grow your business, including exciting promotions that spark and reward your creative approaches to food solutions—like the IGA-Hellmann’s® Big Game Recipe Contest held earlier this year.

To encourage IGA retailers to think outside the box when creating game day delights, Unilever Food Solutions asked IGA stores to create their own easily executable appetizer, salad, or spread that includes Hellmann’s^® Mayonnaise. In the end, three IGA winners were named for their creative and delicious dishes:

• Kori Pierson, Foods Etc. IGA, Clearlake, CA
  KORI’S GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD WITH CRISPY BACON & CORN
  
  
• Catherine Wiltermuth, Ptacek’s IGA, Prescott, WI
  STREET CORN POPPERS
  
  
• Eric Matney, Edmonton IGA, Edmonton, KY
  SUPER SPINACH DIP

And all three earned a free trip to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Menus of Change® Summit in New York City’s Hyde Park this past June.

Exploring the Future of Prepared Foods

Menus of Change® is a ground-breaking initiative from The Culinary Institute of America and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that works to realize a long-term, practical vision integrating optimal nutrition and public health, environmental stewardship and restoration, and social responsibility concerns within the foodservice industry and the culinary profession.

So why award IGA chefs with a trip to a summit on transforming the future of prepared foods? Because change requires education first and foremost, and IGA is the perfect place to start, says Unilever Food Solutions Red Oval Partner Tracey Machnic.

“IGA’s Local Equals Fresh point of difference is already encouraging shoppers to think more about where their food comes from and the impact it has on their health and the health of the planet,” Machnic says. “This summit gave our winning IGA chefs an opportunity to delve deeper into that, and learn new approaches to preparing fresh, local food they can feel good about serving to their communities.” 

While in New York, the winning IGA chefs attended seminars with the goals of:

1. Bringing attention to protein—both animal- and plant-based—to show how our protein choices impact on the environment.
2. Making plant-forward dining a mainstream concept in the culinary profession and foodservice industry, with a clear vision for a new way to cook and serve food to others.
3. Understanding that changing menus is a powerful, and previously underappreciated, way to drive improvements in our health and our planet.

Take a look at the video above to hear more about what our IGA winners experienced and their advice for other IGA teams submitting recipes in upcoming recipe contests from Unilever and IGA.

IGA teams: Stay tuned to The IGA Minute to learn more about upcoming recipe contests from Unilever and IGA.