Today’s consumers carry more culinary knowledge than ever before, and can boast familiarity with ingredients such as lemongrass and kaffir limes, black garlic, fenugreek and carob. This creates high expectations for product developers to deliver more genuine flavors of Asia in easy to understand formats and flavors.
The good news is, food makers now have access to these ingredients and a treasure trove of others, and in multiple forms. Whether purées of galangal, IQF lemongrass, fermented Chinese black beans in bulk, or fruit and pepper pastes, research chefs have access to nearly everything they need to create and recreate traditional flavors. Moreover, there is a veritable library of ready-to-use sauces that can be incorporated into a formulation to bring a level of authenticity without needing a vast inventory of new ingredients.