Soup Season On The Central Coast

As the winter weather rolls around, but just before our first big storm here

Jason and Kathleen begin cooking soups

in Monterey, Jason Schultz from MarketSmart and Kathleen Coleman from Campbell's soup came to town.

We had several calls together sampling Classic Tureen Soups, both frozen reconstituted and the new ready to use line.

Our first call was to address a consistency issue with the New England Clam Chowder with an operator.

There are 2 methods of production, hot fill and cold fill. The hot fill
process requires that the broth and ingredients all be cooked together, and then packaged.

What this does is damage the integrity of the solid particulates. The soup is then reheated for service so therefore it is a 2 cook process. Our Classic Tureen® soups are cold filled, all ingredients blended together while cold, so when you heat the soup for the first time, you are blending the flavors together, and also cooking the solid particulates for the first time. This results in solids that have better color, texture and integrity, and flavors that blend together for the first time, giving our customers that just made aroma and flavor.

Chef Dimas' Soup Dilemma solved made him happy again

The cream based soups, like the New England Clam Chowder, perform best when mixed with whole milk and are brought to a boil for about 2 minutes allowing the starches to become active.

We ran into only slight resistance from a customer who objected to using a pre-made product, but as Jason pointed out from his days in the kitchen. You are not always getting paid to make good food, but to serve good food, and when you need a short cut, the Classic Tureen line is high quality, great flavor and simple to use.


Notes on Soup
• More and more consumers are ordering soup with a meal.
• Soup, with a salad, sandwich or appetizer are among the top 10 items ordered.
• Soup served with a meal can increase customer satisfaction 55-67%
• Soup is served across all dining segments
• Customers prefer an average of 3-4 soups to choose from on a menu
• 80% of consumers feel that restaurants should very their soup menu seasonally
• Increasing the variety of soups on a menu can maximize profitability opportunities
• 55% of consumers say that would more likely order soup if descriptions or pictures were on the menu.

• Bundling ideas – soup and salad / Sandwich ideas, combination meal