PG Editorial Director Jim Dudlicek helping to create recipes at the 2018 Pork Summit
I’m part of a dwindling minority. Or I’m crazy, or both.
Things like grocery shopping and cooking from scratch, those necessary evils that folks are increasingly leveraging technology to get out of doing -- I like those things.
But a lot of folks don’t. One of the big stories this past year was how Americans are spending more money on dining out than on buying groceries. So it’s up to grocery retailers to create an experience that allows them to capture those dollars, regardless of how they’re spent -- prepared foods consumed on site or at home, meal kits, or even ingredients for good old-fashioned cooking.
And there’s hope, because there’s evidence to suggest that more consumers will be returning to the kitchen in 2019.
But however they get there, culinary inspiration will be essential to getting folks excited about food. And there are plenty of resources that grocery retailers can tap to help their shoppers get there.
Earlier this year, I was honored to be a guest of the Des Moines, Iowa-based National Pork Board at its latest Pork Summit for two days of all things swine.
The highlight of my experience was being teamed up with chefs to help create pork-based recipe solutions that the board could share with consumers and retailers on its website and via social media. I was a glorified kitchen gofer (that's me in the photo above), but I found it exciting to fetch ingredients while watching culinary experts from the restaurant, institutional and corporate worlds work their creative magic.