Top Chefs Explore New Ways to Menu Citrus

Sunkist Growers, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Greystone in St. Helena, California hosted the fourth annual Sunkist Citrus Célébré, an event that brings together culinary innovators from North America to explore creative cooking with citrus. The event, held February 1 - 4, gave chefs, marketers, educators and distributors an opportunity to explore world citrus trends and get an in-depth look at citrus varieties.

Participants learned about Sunkist citrus from the tree to the table with guidance and inspiration from Chef Allen Susser, author of The Great Citrus Book and owner of Chef Allen's restaurant in Aventura, Florida, CIA chef-instructor, Lars Kronmark, chef-instructor Bart Goldberg, president of Welldone Restaurant Concepts, and Kellie DuBois, Sunkist's Director of Marketing.

"Citrus Célébré is about using citrus as the common thread for creating a cultural bonding of flavors and ideas. Citrus is authentic and can draw inspiration by how it's used culturally," said Chef Allen Susser, who is acknowledged as one of the inventors of New World Cuisine.

Participating Chefs

Event attendees included leading chefs and foodservice professionals from the United States and Canada, including companies such as: The Rimrock Resort Hotel in Alberta, Canada, Mohegan Sun Casino Resort of Connecticut, River Rock Casino in Greysville, California, and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Also attending were Sodexho, McDonald's Corporation, Ruby Tuesday's, Pei Wei Asian Diner, Boston Market, and P.F. Chang's China Bistro.

Citrus Trends in World Cuisine

During the Citrus Célébré event the chefs explored flavor profiles of commonly known Sunkist citrus varieties like lemons and navel oranges, to lesser known seasonal specialties like cara cara navels, pummelos, oroblancos, and moro oranges and learned how the bold flavors of citrus accent cuisines around the world.

According to curriculum presented by Chef Allen, "Each culture tends to combine a small number of flavoring ingredients so frequently and so consistently that they become definitive to that particular cuisine."

Chef Allen then walked attendees through a tour of the history of citrus throughout the world and the role of citrus in the major world cuisines. Examples covered historical and cultural flavorings of Asian, Mediterranean, European, Latin American, Fusion cuisines, and American Regional Cooking, including the healthful benefits of citrus on American menus.

Team Building Exercise Yielded Innovative Citrus Creations

For a hands-on, camaraderie-building experience, the chefs were divided into teams for the creation of citrus dishes featuring Asian, Mediterranean, American, Latin and healthy cuisines. The chefs realized the versatility of citrus and had the chance to prepare their own citrus creations. For the second part of the seminar chefs where asked to participate in a "Market Basket" exercise where they were given two proteins, access to CIA's stock of fresh ingredients, and of course were required to incorporate citrus to create their own dishes.

Samples of the citrus dishes created during the chefs' Market Basket competition included:

• Moro Orange BBQ Ribs with Curried Cara Caras
  
• Greek Ceviche on Citrus Calamata Salad
  
• Chicken with Orange Mousse Two Ways
  
• Lime Marinated Beef Spring Rolls
  
• Moro Orange Brazilian Corn Cake