Harnessing the Power of Culinarians

Many trends in food and beverage industry start with the people that are immersed in the culinary world on a daily basis, experimenting with new flavors, ingredients and dishes to create a cultural melting pot of ideas. For over 30 years, one of the things that makes CCDI different is the ability to harness the power of culinarians on your behalf to inspire creativity in the innovation process.

A Proprietary Culinary Network

A woman in a gray apron and glasses joyfully flips a frying pan with fresh vegetables, including cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, and lettuce, in a kitchen with various fresh produce and kitchen appliances on a wooden counter.

CCDI had a vision in 1993—a unique way to help brands and clients identify and develop truly trend-forward new products. Building on Marc Halperin’s (our co-founder) own training at École de Cuisine La Varenne and in Michelin-starred Parisian restaurants, he developed a large global network of innovative chefs. This cohort includes restaurant owners, chefs, cookbook authors, mixologists, food network stars, and more—a cohort that receives daily feedback from consumers on new concepts, flavors, and executions and whose creativity leads them to continue to explore new culinary frontiers.

Three professional chefs in white uniforms and chef hats preparing food in a modern kitchen, with vegetables and utensils on the counter.

From Chef to Shelf

CCDI’s Chefs’ Council® was born to capture the culinarian’s insights and translate them into delicious, commercialized packaged foods or new menu creations. Our proprietary Chefs' Council of culinarians curate, dream up, and validate product development. From that day till this, CCDI’s clients come back to us for this proprietary access to expertise from coast-to-coast, tapping into relevant and on-brand trends, inspiration and ideas.

The Front Lines of Flavor

A person in a black apron and white shirt is decorating a layered fruit tart with strawberries and other fruit on a glass cake stand in a kitchen.

The Power of Taste is at the core of CCDI.

Concepts are never abstract ideas on paper – taste, texture, and aroma feed the entire creative process.​ From the start of our development process, tastes, sips and samples are used to stimulate and inspire collective creativity. Because of our Chefs’ Council, culinarians are shaping the future vision of food and delivering a creative culinary shortcut for you and your team.

The end result—a craveable product that consumers return to for a second bite more! That is the Power of Taste.

Learn more about Chefs’ Council®

  • The Chefs’ Council is a diverse, visionary group trend-forward food and beverage professionals in CCDI’s network whose expertise spans a broad range of culinary categories.

  • These talented, culinary-focused individuals are a wide mix of restaurant owners and operators, executive chefs, bakers, food writers, authors, university foodservice chefs, nutritionists, and ethnically-diverse professionals. The council even includes health specialists, mixologists and Chinese herbal medicine gurus.

  • Based on your guardrails and input, CCDI curates the right culinarian for each specific innovation effort to expertly guide idea generation as well as the creative product development process. Chef-created products or Sparks generate viable product platforms and innovation concepts both creatively and rapidly to inspire realistic new products.

  • The Chefs Council also provides real world trends and culinary viewpoints that are used to help us collectively determine what hunting grounds are most fertile for new product innovation planning.

    There’s no one way to tap into the expertise of our culinarians. You can use its expertise when you’re looking to be inspired in the ideation phase or when you need a proven innovation story to tell your Board of Directors and Key Stakeholders. You might need a specific flavor profile or recipe formulation validated. Or your internal R&D team may choose a culinary partner grounded immersed everyday in food and ingredient trends to help spark relevant concepts that are right for your brand.

  • Understanding and applying cutting edge trends is essential to successful innovation growth. The extensive culinarian network of Chefs’ Council® members taps into trends from deep and diverse culinary expertise.​ Their creativity and direct, hands-on industry experience on a daily basis translates into culinary know-how not to be missed.

Turn Fresh Thinking into Flavorful Reality

Calling all innovation, marketing and R&D teams! Looking for your next spark of inspiration or a fresh perspective?

Stay ahead of the curve. Tap into industry insight, explore emerging trends and develop brand-fit product innovation concepts.

Let’s connect!