Just when it seems that the ideas tank has run dry, some quick thinking development chef always manages to pull a sautéed rabbit out of the hat. But where does the magic start?
Food appreciation trips are an excellent way to source ingredients that will excite British consumers, says Colin Lynn, product development controller at meat business Global Group Trading. "If chefs don't travel they can never experience foreign foods, and if they don't know what it is that they are trying to emulate, then they'll never be able to develop it," he says. "I'm not saying go on holiday, have 10 beers and go to the beach," he says. "It has to be a structured tour."
But he stresses that being too adventurous can backfire: "A product still has to be familiar and not too expensive, because the customer is scared of change and no one's going to spend £20 on a product to find out that they don't like it."
The trick is to westernise a flavour profile, he says. "Take a mainstream curry like a Tikka. If you used Indian spices, they'd probably be too strong. If I was developing a curry for foodservice, I'd probably get inspiration from India and then work with a UK ingredients manufacturer on a flavour pack."
He states that overseas influences have been key to British new product development (NPD). "Without travel we'd still be making curry sauce using one teaspoon of curry powder in boiling water, which is fine for fish and chips on a Saturday night, but not for a premium dish," says Lynn.
He claims there is a tendency to view travel research as a free holiday, but says this is not the case. "People will always look on trips abroad as a jolly, but if you bring something successful back and it gets serious, then the financial rewards speak from themselves."
Darren Massey, application manager at oven supplier Rationale is also a firm believer in foreign influences. He does his training and research at the company's head office in Germany, where he meets with application managers and development chefs from around the world to discuss each other's innovations.
"I'm very lucky that the international language is English as I can't speak Japanese, Italian or Spanish!" he says.
Massey points out that it is very important to recognise global differences. "By going to different countries, you do get a feel for them. When I worked for some Indians, I made Yorkshire puddings and they expected custard with them because it's a pudding," he laughs. "Terminology is important. For instance, the term 'rare' in America, France and the UK represents different parameters, and you have to benchmark cooking parameters relating to each country," he adds.
Overlooking the fact that different countries have different taste preferences can get chefs into a lot of trouble, says Neil Arvanitis, NPD manager at drinks manufacturer Histogram. "Say, for example, crème caramel is doing well in France," he says. "You could use this knowledge to build a case for developing a British variant, but you have to consider whether it will suit the sensory characteristics of the UK. That's where the gamble is. It's very hit and miss."
Scientific and technical issues are other areas where developers can fall down. "It's like the TV show Dragon's Den," says Arvanitis. "I supply the brief, but the customer may not have the machinery to produce it," he says. "I came up with a smoothie with 3mm diameter pieces of fruit suspended in juice, but there were processing complications as it was too difficult to pasteurise on an industrial scale."
Shelf-life is also difficult to assess because it's impossible to predict how a new product will behave, making it hard to set a timescale on projects, he claims. "Time frames are very ambiguous and 95% of the time things won't go to plan."
However, NPD is extremely time sensitive, and developers can't afford to spend too long focusing on one area. "I have a fear of standing still and becoming rusty," says Simon Warren, NPD specialist at contract catering firm Aremark. "I think I live off that fear, because as soon as you stand still, there's always somebody else who can do your job," he adds. "It's good because it's all about competition. I look at it like a football team - they've got to keep buying players and improving their squads because they want to win the premiership. Any chef worth his salt wants to get better and better."
Warren regularly visits restaurants to keep abreast of the latest offerings because food trends change so quickly. "It's a bit like the fashion industry - one minute everybody's eating belly pork and the next they're not," he says. "Our contractors spend a lot of money on entertaining and everyone wants to be the best, so the benchmark we have to mirror is the high street."
London is the world capital for food, he claims. "You have an array of different restaurants and they're all good calibre." He claims that even France, which is famed for its love affair with food, is struggling to keep up with London.
"I think Paris is stuck in a time warp where food is concerned," he states. "You can go to some fantastic restaurants, but the average restaurant is doing the same things I saw 10 years ago."
He believes that the UK benefits from looking at the bigger picture. "The French are very proud of their food, but they're not prepared to bring in influences from other countries," he says. "That's the fundamental difference with what we've got in London. We've opened our doors and accepted a lot more Asian and American influences. We've embraced it, whereas in France, they're very blinkered."
Paul Da-Costa-Greaves, restaurateur and founder of food firm Feeding Your Imagination, also views London as an inspiration. "London is a good foundation for seeing what new markets are around, but you have to have your own identity," he says. "You have to question: 'how can I put a stamp on my product?'
"When I'm creating my dishes, I scratch, sniff and taste different ingredients," he says. "I'm quite sensitive to food energies and I tend to go on my own gut instinct."
He claims: "If you're passionate about food, you'll know what goes together and what doesn't. It's like people with different personalities - you can't force them together." The secret to his blending skills comes from an interest in alternative medicine. "Because I also specialise in complementary therapy, I find it easy to blend oils," he explains. He often takes the edible oils he uses to relax clients during therapy and marries them with food, believing their calming properties will transfer into the product.
The unusual approach of incorporating mood enhancers into foods has led to much interest from major industry players. "As a small producer, there are a lot of people I'm educating," says Da-Costa-Greaves. "Since my products have been launched see NPD Insights p15, lots of big companies are copying them."
Wales-based Cambrian Training, which deals with local producers, also claims that NPD from smaller firms gives the big boys something to think about. "Sometimes we get a break from big multinationals who have got a regional presence within Wales, but realise that they're not giving a regional food offer," says md Arwyn Watkins. "So they come to us in desperation because they know very little about Welsh food."
He claims that there is an opportunity for traditional products, which barely exist in the rest of the UK. "Now we're seriously focusing on adding value to Welsh food products and manufacturing locally for global distribution," he says. The training group works by connecting local producers so that dishes containing five or six locally sourced foods can be manufactured. "The critical thing is for producers to make best use of the provenance they've got," he claims. "Within the last 18 months, where there's provenance, people are willing to pay more."
Richard Knights, head chef at The Lavender House restaurant and cookery school in Norfolk, agrees provenance and local sourcing are key to innovation. "A lot of our ideas are based on what our local producers have at different times of the year," he says. "Having strawberries in December is just not an option. I only ever see strawberries from June until the end of August." The company buys its fruit and vegetables from farm shops and even the flour is milled locally.
"NPD is very much a team effort," he says. "Our proprietor tends to work on savoury courses and I do a lot of dessert work, but [as chefs] we do like to flit across and have our say in other things as well." The restaurant has been approached by companies to create foods for retail and already makes its own chocolates. Knights claims the group is keen to embrace manufacturing on a larger scale in the future.
In the fast-paced food industry, it seems the one ingredient shared by developers is an insuppressible passion for food. And once this is ignited, any number of development strategies can lead to successful NPD. "Development chefs are probably more influential than Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, because they influence retail food," says Lynn. "We're the unsung heroes." FM