Reser’s Fine Foods Inc. has been focusing on side dishes that support those “just like homemade” meals. The company added a line of Main St. Bistro Baked Sides, refrigerated side dishes that use what the company terms a “Top Bake cooking process” to “deliver home-baked taste, right from the microwave.” The company is extending the line into supermarket deli departments, where it will be sold under the Reser’s Baked Sensational Sides brand. For prepared side dishes, such as mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, the company developed a baking process that delivers a crispy and cheesy top layer over a rich, creamy base to replicate made-from-scratch casseroles with oven-baked appeal.
Those old-fashioned comfort foods—pot pies, pot roasts, chicken and stuffing, brownies, mashed potatoes, etc.—carry strong emotional attachments. When approaching the translation of those foods to multi-unit production, reformulation needs to be culinary-driven.