-By James Mellgren

If there is one overriding trend affecting the gourmet food industry today, it is in the area of prepared foods. As I travel around the country each year for trade shows, conferences and family visits, I visit stores whenever possible. When I do, I can’t help but notice how in this area of the store -- be it a traditional supermarket (if there is such a thing anymore) or a small specialty shop -- the level of sophistication in the prepared foods case has grown significantly. The levels of taste and diversity have also grown considerably. Retailers, steered by shoppers’ tastes, are no longer afraid of offering bold, spicy flavors, exotic ingredients and a range of international dishes that reflect what’s going on in the world and what’s been going on in the restaurant world for some time.

American consumers are no longer satisfied with meat loaf and pasta salad, although they are still eating plenty of those as well. Instead, they have fallen in love with the rich flavors of Latin America, the Caribbean islands, Africa (North, South and in between), Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, China and Japan. Who thought that one day an American shopper could go into just about any large supermarket in the country and buy freshly made sushi? Or Jerk Chicken? Lamb curry, anyone? Best of all, the quality has never been higher, and with the availability of fresh, seasonal, artisanal and, in many cases, local foods, there is simply no excuse not to have outstanding prepared foods in your case every day of the year that you are open. The following is a collection of ideas to enhance your prepared foods operation, gleaned from store visits around the United States and Europe, along with some ideas of my own.

• Fresh, fresh, fresh! Forget about trying to get another day out of that pasta primavera. With very few exceptions, everything in the prepared foods case should be made fresh daily. If the lamb vindaloo is consistently still there at end of day, reconsider its place in your selection. If you feel you must make a particular dish because a few customers want it for lunch every day, make smaller quantities. Nothing will build your reputation for prepared foods better than freshness; and nothing will erode it faster than stale, old-looking food. What to do with the leftovers at the end of the day? Contact a local food bank, Meals on Wheels or other charitable food distributor. You can also offer it to staff for a nominal cost. Of course, some leftovers can be incorporated into other dishes such as rice into a rice pudding, a roast chicken carcass into the soup pot and so on. Just don’t put the same dishes back on the line tomorrow!

• Hire a chef. I know, your Aunt Bessie makes the world’s greatest chicken salad, and you have a flair for making rice salads. That’s great, but for consistent food quality, insuring food safety and producing enough quantity and variety to make your selection interesting and profitable, assemble a professional kitchen. Tired of late-night hours and cooking on the line, many restaurant cooks relish the idea of working in a store commissary. Chances are you’ll see food waste go down and sales go up when you work with professionals.

• Read cookbooks. Even the pros like to read cookbooks to get ideas and learn about foreign cuisine. You don’t have to slavishly adhere to the recipes -- the pros usually don’t -- but there is a great big world of food out there chronicled within the pages of countless cookbooks that are published each year. No one can possibly know everything, and cookbook authors have done the research for you, including trekking into the Andes in search of that delicious, 300-year-old potato recipe or that ancient Persian rice dish. Maintaining a retail cookbook department allows you to have a wealth of information at your fingertips at all times, and it allows you to build a personal cookbook library at virtually no cost.

• Think local. What is it about your area that is unique in terms of food and recipes? If your store is in Gilroy, Calif., you might want to think about featuring garlic on your menu in a myriad of forms. If you’re in Maine and you get a lot of tourists, there should probably be lobster in just about everything. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have local ingredients like Vidalia onions, Dungeness crabs or wild rice, but chances are you have something that people will connect to you and your region. The same is true with recipes. Cioppino in San Francisco, baked beans in Boston, marionberry pies in the Columbia Valley in Oregon and blue corn tortillas in New Mexico are some famous examples, but every place has something it’s proud of that shoppers will look for. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer an array of international cuisine, you certainly should. But the local and regional fare will help set you apart from your competition, as well as lending support to local artisans.

• Taste everything. Whether your kitchen is staffed by professionally trained cooks or the Ladies Aid Society, make sure that every dish coming out of it tastes like it’s supposed to. Of course, if you have a real chef in charge of the kitchen, she or he should be doing this for you, but take nothing for granted, especially if your name is on the front door. Once you get to rely on and trust your kitchen, it’s still a good idea to randomly taste what’s in the case. Don’t just try the dish that you’re having for lunch. Go through the line several times a day (food generally doesn’t come out of the kitchen all at once) and have a nibble of that day’s offerings. It will not only ensure that the food is up to snuff but the customers will see you doing it and feel assured. If something’s not right, explain to whoever made it why it failed and help them make it right. Some dishes might be perfectly fine but not the way you want them to be. This is especially true of signature recipes or old family favorites that a new cook isn’t familiar with, no matter how talented they are. Also, the better a cook, the more they will infuse their own ideas and personal taste. This might be fine for some things, but disastrous for others.

• Use big, bold flavors. This doesn’t mean everything has to be spicy. Just don’t bore people with bland food made without inspiration. Explore the world of spices, herbs, chilies, mustard, garlic, ginger and chocolate, even in your everyday cooking. America’s collective palate has been stirred in recent years, and people for the most part want to be wowed. Whether you’re preparing rice pudding or Thai lemongrass soup, make sure the flavors of the ingredients stand out and taste fresh. At the same time, don’t allow seasonings to overwhelm the principal ingredients. Seasonings -- from sea salt to vanilla -- are meant to enhance the food not cover it up.

• Make stock. There are few savory foods that won’t be enhanced by the addition of rich, house-made stock. In many restaurant kitchens, stock is made every afternoon after the prep is finished. This allows the stock to be ready the next morning. In an ideal world, the commissary kitchen would receive leftover bones and scraps from the fresh meat department each day to go into the stockpot. Make enough to sell the stock to your customers. It freezes very well. There are some terrific stocks available today for consumers, but in a professional kitchen, you would do well to make your own. The quality of your food will reflect the extra effort.

• Soup is good food. Some stores build their reputation on the quality of their daily soup offering. Soup is usually very profitable and it is a highly satisfying food at lunchtime. Soup is also a great way to use up foods that might be past their prime (foods that are no longer presentable for retail, not foods that have gone bad), including vegetables, fish and meats. However, as Greta Garbo once said, “Don’t be stingy.” Make sure there are chunks of chicken in the chicken soup and meat in the Irish stew. One great way of serving soup that ensures everyone gets a meaty bowlful is to have the individual ingredients arrayed like a mise en place next to the steaming cauldron of stock. When someone orders a bowl of chicken soup, for example, place chicken, rice or pasta, and so forth in the bowl first and then ladle in the stock. Have a vegetarian offering available each day if you like, but for goodness sake, make sure the others are made with good, rich stock of one kind or another.

• Seasoning station. Consider having a place next to the prepared foods line where people can customize their meals. In the same way you might have ketchup, mustard and utensils available, offer an array of condiments like hot sauce, chopped jalapeños and other chilies, cilantro, parsley, lime and lemon wedges, olive oil, a selection of vinegars, toasted bread crumbs (house-made of course), grana cheese with a cheese grater, feta, crumbled goat cheese, house-made croutons, a variety of artisanal mustards, and so forth. Be creative and think beyond the recipes. Your customers will.

• Cook the entire store. Want to increase sales on those cooking sauces you’ve invested in? Use them in the prepared foods case and mount a display nearby. Need to better promote your dried beans and lentils? What better place than in the prepared foods you offer for sale. Make sure to point out their inclusion in your signage. In fact, almost anything you want to feature can be incorporated into the food on the line. Think of your prepared foods case as the ultimate demo station. Also, make sure the other departments are offering foods to the kitchen that they no longer wish to sell for whatever reason (except spoilage).

• Cook to order. Consider offering a service where the customers can have their selection cooked for them. At Dorothy Lane Markets in Ohio, they have Jack’s Grill, a cook station between the fresh meat case and the seafood case. A customer can have their steak or shellfish prepared to order any way they wish. This is a great way to instantly expand your prepared foods selection, while beefing up sales in the meat and fish departments. It’s a great service for people who are traveling, work far from home or simply want to arrive home with a hot meal for the family. Other than meat and fish, you could set up a stir-fry station where, with the use of a wok, a cook can quickly prepare a hot, fresh lunch to the customer’s specifications.

Various levels of prepared foods figure prominently in the current and future world of food retailing. Despite sales of cookbooks and cookware, people often don’t have the time or the inclination to cook on a daily basis. For many people with busy schedules, cooking is something to be done on weekends and holidays, not as an everyday activity. Make it easy for them and profitable for you by offering an exciting, versatile, fresh and affordable selection of delicious dishes from your area and around the world.

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