Culinology™

The word Culinology™ (KŬL-lĭn-ĂH-lōh-gēē) was coined by the Research Chefs Association, and is described as the blending of culinary arts with food science.

What is the difference between culinary arts and food science?

Culinary Arts

Chefs like me are certainly valuable when developing food products that respond to or lead flavor trends while still appealing to a broad consumer base. We are the creative right side of the brain type of people who look at a pile of ingredients and can visualize many ways to use them.

Food Science

Skilled food scientists on the other hand, work with many departments to ensure that everything from flavor to label objectives to shelf life to manufacturability and food-safety are addressed and optimized.

A company that can achieve a blend of both culinary arts and food science will be successful. Take us for example!

Asenzya achieves culinary synergy with both an on-staff executive chef and food science team. Together, they offer hands-on expertise in food product development and manufacturing. This includes meat processing and meat science, dressings and sauces, topical snack seasonings and many other options.

So, how do we bring it all together? We use a two-pronged “development approach” that begins with culinary and ends with product development. What’s interesting is that while each group works independently at times, they also collaborate. It’s this independent work in addition to the collaboration that provides the strongest results.

Our culinary group leads the process with an in-depth look at the food industry to assess coming trends and unique opportunities. This is achieved through a combination of purchased research, field exploration, and customer insights. These inputs provide the foundation for which trends are real and how they might be leveraged with our customers in future projects.

It’s at this point that our culinary group reaches out to our R&D group to assess how these trends might become a reality. That is, do we have the tools available to bring the trends to life? It’s a balancing act between the trend, the feasibility, and in the end, the cost which is important to our customers. They also begin the development of the actual concepts and in some cases the gold standard work-ups. Gold standards developed by our chefs are an actual end product connected to the trend that can be shown to customers as a direct illustration of our ideation process.

As this information is shared with our customers, the main development process begins. R&D looks at what the customer is requesting versus how that aligns with the trends and research. Initial concepts are developed and shared with customers and then revised as needed. This initial development phase also includes further work with the culinary group. They provide creative input that ensures a strong connection to the trend and ultimately to a solution that will deliver the optimal flavor profile to the customer. These solutions not only have to taste great but they also need to “sound” great! It’s this collaborative approach that delivers such unique results.

So, at Asenzya®, we are a Culinology™ resource that can collaborate with customers to help develop finished food products and seasoning blends that are then optimized into a culinary ‘best fit’. The synergy that comes from Culinology is another of the many added values that customers have learned to count on from Asenzya®.

Give us a call and let Asenzya’s talented culinary and food science teams take your taste buds to the unknown!