Emily Luchetti, author, restaurateur and pastry chef extraordinaire, has helped to define what great pastry in America means. In the 1980s, she found herself drawn into the food industry at a time when people were just beginning to pay attention to American regional food – a trend that remains prevalent in today’s food culture. Although she started her career on the savory side of the house, she found her passion in creating desserts. After eight years, she says, “I really didn’t enjoy working the line, peeling shrimp and garlic, and I decided I would rather work with chocolate, fruit and ingredients like that.”

When it comes to baking, Luchetti explains, for her, there is a smaller group of ingredients in the consideration set, whereas in savory cooking there is more all-out freedom. For America’s pastry chef, the essential flavor ingredients in baking are simple – they are chocolate, caramel, fruits and nuts. “I could wrap my head around them, and with a smaller group of ingredients, I felt way more creative,” she says. “My palate also matched well with creating desserts.” And today, the world agrees. She is known for combining ingredients in desserts that are different and interesting, but never too out there – a skill which has made the restaurants she is involved with rise in popularity and helped her to earn top recognition from her industry.

Fruits: Flavor and Performance Consistency

To create her delightful and tasty concoctions, Luchetti spends time visiting different parts of the country and local farmers markets to source the best ingredients for the restaurants where she is Chief Pastry Officer. Those include The Cavalier, Marlowe, Park Tavern, Leo’s Oyster Bar and Petit Marlowe all based in San Francisco and part of the Big Night Restaurant Group. In 2018, she visited Maine and experienced first-hand the natural growing setting of the Wild Blueberry barrens; tasted the tiny more potent berries directly from the field and cooked with different formats – frozen, fresh, dried and powdered Wild Blueberries – in an ‘Eating on the Wild Side’ Chef Challenge. Although Luchetti really believes in using seasonal fruit in her creations, she was surprised that the taste and nutrition of fresh and frozen Wild Blueberries were exactly the same.

“I think one of the best things about Wild Blueberries is that there are very few fruits that you can enjoy and work with year-round as a commercial pastry chef. “Wild Blueberries are one of those fruits, and they are an ingredient of such high quality. I love the consistency of that.”

Luchetti goes on to share that using Wild Blueberries all year long is a completely different experience than working with peaches or cherries from Chili or using frozen peaches in the winter. In her experience, those fruits are simply unusable in desserts because they lack flavor, are too watery and don’t react the same way their fresh counterparts do when mixed with the other ingredients in a dessert. “Flavor and ingredient consistency are critical to creating successful desserts on a large scale,” she adds. “I’ve found that the reason frozen peaches or cherries from Chili lack flavor is because those fruits have not been picked at their ultimate time or allowed to ripen into their ultimate time.” That is definitely not the case with Wild Blueberries,” she notes. And she’s right, Wild Blueberries are harvested at their peak of ripeness and individually quick frozen within 24 hours, providing food purveyors with a consistent Wild Blueberry flavor – akin to if they had flown to Maine and picked them out of the field themselves. “I love that even when Wild Blueberries are frozen you get what you get all year round in terms of flavor and performance,” she added.

Why Smaller is Better

Wild Blueberries are smaller in size than traditional blueberries because of the stressful environment where they grow and because they haven’t been modified to travel great distances. According to Luchetti, “there’s an immense benefit to that smallness when it comes to creating baked goods. I like that Wild Blueberries are smaller, because you can pack them in a muffin or cake allowing you to experience that hit of blueberry flavor throughout. It’s not like occasionally running into the flavor.” She continues, “If I tried to pack a muffin or cake with regular blueberries, they would create too much moisture and weight. Because the Wild Blueberry is small, you can disperse a lot more of them throughout your dessert. When you eat a blueberry muffin, you want that blueberry flavor in every single bite – or else you feel gipped – getting a blueberry every other bite – well that’s a bummer,” she acknowledges.

Advice for Pastry Chefs

For pastry chefs who haven’t used Wild Blueberries, Luchetti encourages them to do so. “They are easy to work with,” she says. “Pastry chefs can loosen up and have fun with them – because Wild Blueberries are so versatile, and you can do so much with them and they go with so many things – like coffee cake with ground up coffee, caramel and white chocolate – and they pair well with dark chocolate, lemon and lime flavors, too.”

Luchetti does offer a quick tip. She says, “Because Wild Blueberries are found predominantly frozen, you’re working with a little wetter fruit, but all you have to do is drain them and mix them with a tiny bit of flour. I’ll go back to my muffin example – you’ll want to take that step to prevent the berries from sinking to the bottom. Fruits in general sink because they are watered down and who wants them all at the bottom. So that trick I shared with the muffins is really, really crucial with other larger fruits, but because the Wild Blueberries are smaller with a higher pulp to skin ratio and have less water in them, even when frozen, than regular blueberries, it’s less of a problem, but dusting with flour still helps.

As she sits at her desk in her office staring out the window at her lemon tree, Luchetti says, “The best thing about working with Wild Blueberries is that there’s not a lot of prep time and you can use them all year round. She says the reaction by customers to her new menu items featuring Wild Blueberries has been really great. They think they are delicious.”

The Wild Blueberry’s great taste and beautiful hue have made it a favorite of chefs and foodies alike. But it’s the brain-boosting, disease-fighting benefits that give Wild Blueberries an appeal that endures long after other food fads fade.

Because Wild Blueberries are so highly-concentrated with good-for-you nutrients, it’s easy to consume them in quantities that are high enough to have a health impact, said said Kit Broihier, MS, RD, nutrition advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America.

“Not all of the top foods in phenolic content are easy to consume in amounts considered biologically relevant—without adding sugar or processing them in ways that may impact their nutrients in some way,” said Broihier. (Phenolics are the compounds plants produce to protect against stress, which provide human health benefits.)

By contrast, “it’s not difficult to consume a cup of Wild Blueberries per day—one smoothie and a sprinkling on cereal would do it—and there’s no need to add sugar or any other ingredients to make them palatable.”

Here are five other reasons why Wild Blueberries are a nutrition powerhouse.

1. Wild Blueberries are packed with antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect the body against inflammation, which is thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, Alzheimer’s, and other degenerative diseases. And just one cup of Wild Blueberries has more total antioxidant capacity (TAC) than 20 other fruits and veggies, including cranberries, strawberries, and cultivated blueberries. But even more importantly, said Broihier, Wild Blueberries are among the highest in cellular antioxidant activity, which is a more relevant measure of the potential health impact in the body than just the amount of antioxidants contained in the fruit. 

2. Wild Blueberries can help keep your heart healthy. With six grams of fiber per cup, Wild Blueberries can help you get the 28 grams of fiber per day that’s recommended to help improve cholesterol and lower risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. What’s more, the polyphenols that are abundant in Wild Blueberries have been linked to improved endothelial function, a predictor of the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in the September 2013 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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3. Wild Blueberries help boost brain function. Mounting research is showing that Wild Blueberries can aid cognitive function in kids and older adults.  A study published in the October 2017 issue of Food & Functionconcluded that in school-age kids, consuming Wild Blueberries may enhance executive function—the mental skills that help them pay attention, manage time, and complete tasks. This built on research published in the October 2015 issue of  European Journal of Nutrition, which showed that Wild Blueberries boosted memory and concentration in school-age kids. And it’s not just kids that benefit. A growing body of research, including that presented at the 2016 National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), concluded that Blueberries appear to help improve memory and cognitive function in older adults.

4. Wild Blueberries may improve mood. Studies show that Wild Blueberries can lift kids’ spirits. A studypublished in the February 2017 issue of Nutrients concluded that consuming Wild Blueberries may significantly boost mood in both young adults (ages 18 to 21) and children (ages 7 to 10). That’s important, as depression that occurs in adolescence or early adulthood is more likely to reemerge. “Therefore, impact of flavonoids on positive mood in children and young adults could reduce their risk of depression in adolescence and later in life,” said study co-author Shirley Reynolds, Professor of Evidence Based Psychological Therapies at the University of Reading.

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5. Wild Blueberries may help reduce risk of Type 2 Diabetes.  Studies show that a diet containing Wild Blueberries can positively impact certain characteristics of metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. What’s more, Wild Blueberries won’t wreak havoc with blood sugar levels. Wild Blueberries naturally have 30% less sugar than cultivated varieties—with just 10 grams of sugar per cup. And Wild Blueberries are a low-glycemic food—they have a score of 53 on the 100-point Glycemic Index. Foods that are lower on the Glycemic Index don’t cause rapid or large spikes in blood sugar, and may be beneficial for those following a special diet for diabetes.

To learn more about the health benefits of Wild Blueberries, cllck here.

While French pastry chefs like Philippe Le Corre traditionally turn out high-style desserts with sophisticated ingredients, it was the humble American breakfast of Wild Blueberry pancakes that inspired Le Corre’s latest innovation, developed for Sysco’s Cutting Edge Solutions platform.

Wild Blueberry Flapjack Cake—three, pancake-like layers studded with flavorful, nutrition-dense Wild Blueberries, and sandwiched with a smooth maple cream—answers the growing customer demand for Wild, authentic foods, says Le Corre, the senior corporate chef for Dianne’s Fine Desserts in Minneapolis. Sustainable and cost-effective, Wild Blueberries fit the mission of Cutting Edge Solutions to showcase ingredients that are on-trend, plant-based, and versatile. The Wild Blueberry Flapjack Cake also responds to a surge in breakfast foods being served throughout the day. “We’ve seen this craze all over restaurant menus in the past year,” Le Corre says. “Our idea was to create a dessert that would be a good reflection of breakfast home cooking.”

Having started his professional training at the celebrated Gaston Le Nôtre pastry shop in Paris, Le Corre is a Certified Master Baker and Executive Pastry Chef whose 40-year career includes training the USA baking team that won the 1999 World Cup of Baking in Paris. At Dianne’s Fine Desserts, a leading provider of frozen, thaw-and-serve desserts, he focuses on new product development for national foodservice accounts. “One of the key things for me as a pastry chef is creativity,” Le Corre says. “My challenge is to bring my knowledge of quality desserts to the process of producing them on a large scale.”

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Le Corre’s first hurdle in creating the Wild Blueberry Flapjack Cake was replicating the pancake flavor experience in the cake layers. “Pancakes have that little bit of buttery crust around the edges; to duplicate it, we used brown butter extract,” he says. “Another important component is nonfat yogurt—a very strong breakfast item.” Maple for the creamy filling was an obvious choice, not only due to its perennial connection to pancakes, but also because maple is the fastest growing flavor in desserts, according to data provided by Sysco.

“After we designed the cake, the perfect match was Wild Blueberries,” says Le Corre, who became convinced that Wild was the way to go as a participant in an “Eating on the Wild Side” event hosted by the Wild Blueberry Association of North America in Maine. “One of the primary reasons we wanted to use Wild Blueberries is for the nutrition benefits,” he says. “Their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, as well as the high-fiber content were very important to us. We also like the acidity and the complex flavor profile, which brings a sweet-tart component to the product that is a perfect combination with the buttery, caramel-y elements of the cake.”

In the process of making the Wild Blueberry Flapjack Cake, the individually-quick-frozen Wild Blueberries are sprinkled on top of the batter as the unbaked cake layers travel along a conveyor belt. “This is to make sure they don’t sink in, but also to add another rustic, artisanal dimension to the product,” says Le Corre. “Wild Blueberries are all uneven in color and shape; no two taste or look the same, and the tops of the cakes look just like a pancake you would make at home.” The artisanal element of the dessert extends to the various ways it can be plated, customization LeCorre encourages with an enticing list of serving suggestions on Sysco’s Cutting Edge Solutions web pages. “You can make your own caramel sauce with orange zest and plate the cake with organic vanilla bean ice cream, or use more Wild Blueberries and ginger to make a sauce,” he says. “It’s a platform for creativity.”

Included in the annual “Eating on the Wild Side” event, which introduces top-level foodservice chefs to the tiny but powerful fruit, is a visit to Maine’s Wild Blueberry barrens. For LeCorre, the experience of seeing how Wild Blueberries are managed as a crop was another factor in deciding to feature them in his desserts. “I like the fact that it’s a two-year growth cycle, and nobody’s trying to push that,” he says. “It brought back memories of growing up in France and the importance of respect for nature.”

Neil Doherty, Sysco’s Senior Director of Culinary Development, is instrumental in leading Sysco’s food service strategy and worked alongside Chef Le Corre’s team on this project. Doherty is always looking for opportunities to add authentic, natural ingredients, like Wild Blueberries, to the company’s menu offerings. He has visited Maine’s wild barrens during harvest season and experienced the terroir of this tiny Superfruit.

“Wild Blueberries are sustainable, attainable, and affordable,” says Doherty. “They’re a crop from the beginning of time.”

Available nationwide through Sysco and selling well, the Wild Blueberry Flapjack Cake’s trajectory has Le Corre’s creativity wheels turning in the direction of his next product. He’s thinking Wild Blueberries and citrus, an “upscale bar with Meyer lemon and Wild Blueberries,” for example or a dessert that combines Wild Blueberries, caramel, and orange. We can’t wait to see the next innovation from this pastry chef gone Wild.

In recent years, consumer concern about the environmental impact of food production has risen markedly. That concern encompasses everything from the amount of pesticides, genetically-modified products, and greenhouse-gas emissions involved in the growing process, to the amount of fuel and water required to bring the food from farm to table.

“People are concerned about GMOs, and certain types of farming practices and impacts on the land,” said Nicole DeBloois, Director of R&D with JMH Premium, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company that manufactures flavor concentrates, soup bases, sauce concentrates, and RTU sauces. “People want to purchase something that’s more sustainable and naturally delicious that hasn’t just been cultivated for shelf life or other properties.”

In fact, a federal law mandating labeling of all products containing GMOs goes into effect this year.

That’s an area where Wild Blueberries naturally offer a competitive advantage.

Research has shown that WiId Blueberries add significant value to a brand’s perceived commitment to sustainability.

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Nearly two-thirds (63%) of consumers reported that they believed that products made with Wild Blueberries were more sustainable than those same products made with ordinary blueberries, according to the Power of Wild, a groundbreaking national study of consumer attitudes. That belief is even stronger among the $290 billion market of Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) consumers, which represents 1 in 4 adults.  In the LOHAS group, 77% of consumers believe foods with Wild Blueberries are more sustainable than those same foods with regular blueberries

Luckily, the research backs that up.

“Wild Blueberries are really a very low-input crop relative to most others,” said Dr. David Yarborough, Wild Blueberry specialist and professor of horticulture at the University of Maine.

Here are four reasons why Wild Blueberries are a more earth-friendly choice:

Wild Blueberries are indigenous. Wild Blueberries flourished on earth long before modern farming practices began.  They are commercially harvested only in Maine and Eastern Canada—where they began growing when the glaciers receded,14,000 years ago. That means they’re not planted like commercial crops. “Because they’re here naturally, we don’t have the disturbance of the soil involved in planting as in cultivated blueberries,” said Yarborough. “We are not taking land out of nature but managing the natural resource that already exists.”

Wild Blueberries have evolved in extreme growing conditions. So, they need less intense management in order to thrive.  Wild Blueberries have flourished in rocky, dry, sandy barrens of Maine and Eastern Canada. They have evolved to endure harsh winters and thrive in infertile acidic soils.  “The coast of Maine glaciers provided the proper environment; the climate and soil conditions are just right for Wild Blueberries,” said Yarborough. “It’s where they’ve flourished for thousands of years.” And because pests can’t survive well in the harsh climate where Wild Blueberries are harvested, there’s less need for pesticides and chemicals than there are warm-climate crops.

Wild Blueberry harvesters are continually developing better sustainable growing techniques. Wild Blueberries have been grown on a two-year cycle since the 1960’s. Each year, half of a grower’s land is prepared for harvest, and the other half is pruned. This allows the plants to regenerate after they have borne fruit, gives the land a chance to heal, and breaks the pest and disease cycles, so the plant comes back healthier.  “That enables us to drastically reduce pest-management inputs, and use much fewer pesticides than most modern cultivated crops,” said Yarborough.

What’s more, Wild Blueberry growers are leveraging emerging pest-monitoring methods in order to reduce the small amount of pesticides they use. Research in recent years has shown that growers can get the same pest-control benefits using a smaller volume of chemicals in a more targeted way.  “We have good tools to minimize how and where we spray,” Yarborough said.

Wild Blueberries require less water. Because Wild Blueberries have evolved over centuries in areas where there’s less than one inch of rain per week, they don’t need as much water as other crops. Irrigation is only necessary as a supplement during dry spells in August when timing and distribution are an issue. What’s more, these “low-bush” berries grow close to the ground, and nearly 66% of the plant lives underground. Wild Blueberries are spread primarily by underground runners (rhizomes), which produce new roots and stems, store nutrients, and allow it to withstand droughts more than plants that just have roots, Yarborough explained. Any water that is not taken up by the plants just percolates into the aquifer below the fields to be used the next time it is needed, he added.

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So, if sustainability is important to your brand and to the foods you create, consider incorporating these little wild ones into your next formulations and help add credibility to your sustainability story with nature’s 14,000 year old sustainable superfruit. It was here long before us, and it will be here long after we’re gone and represents the epitome of a sustainable food source.

After decades of dieting and mass-produced food, consumers are clamoring for a tasty alternative. And Wild Blueberries are well positioned to satisfy that hunger.

According to the Power of Wild, a groundbreaking national study of consumer attitudes,  Consumers believe Wild Blueberries make a product taste better,  in addition to being healthier and more sustainable. “Wild foods are perceived as premium in the context of health and taste benefits,” the research said.

These preferences are even stronger among Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) consumers, —a $290 billion market that represents 1 in 4 adult Americans, or 41 million people.  Among LOHAS consumers, 72% believe wild foods are healthier and that they taste better; 74% of LOHAS consumers said that they would buy more wild foods; 65% of LOHAS consumers said they would be willing to pay more for wild foods.

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Here are four ways that Wild Blueberries are a cut above when it comes to flavor.

1. Wild Blueberries have a rich multi-faceted taste. In a single field of Wild Blueberries, there are thousands of varieties of dark and light berries, said David Yarborough, Wild Blueberry specialist and professor of horticulture at the University of Maine. “One advantage of that diversity is that it creates a more complex mixture of flavors,” he said. “All Wild Blueberry plants have a little different fruit—a little sweet, a little sour, and several types of more complex flavor. In a large mixture of berries you get something very unique that you really can’t duplicate in a cultivated field.”

Tom Gumpel, former head baker and Vice President of R&D at Panera, said that complexity makes Wild Blueberries well suited for confections.   “I’m excited about the potential because in candy making, flavor is about layering,” said Gumpel, former Dean of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park. “A Wild Blueberry is a little sweet, a little fruity, and you put it with white chocolate, or citrus to give that brightness and cut through the sugar, and dip it into dark chocolate which is a touch bitter and a touch of salt all wrapped up into one.” 

2. Wild Blueberries have more intense flavor. Because Wild Blueberries have a higher skin-to-pulp ratio than cultivated blueberries—more skin and less pulp— they have a more intense flavor, said Yarborough. And for chefs and food producers, that can have important cost implications.  “Because of the intense flavor, you can use 25% less and get the same flavor impact,” said Gumpel. “If you can use 25% less, your cost is going to be 25% less.”  What’s more, there are 25% more servings of Wild Blueberries per case. Gumpel said that at Panera, the Wild Blueberry scone was a seasonal item too popular to take off the menu. “You can’t really put a big frozen blueberry into a scone and have the same intense flavor.”

3. Wild Blueberries stand up against other bold flavors. Wild Blueberries hold their flavor even when they’re cooked alongside other stronger flavors, said Nicole DeBloois, Director of R&D with JMH Premium, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company that manufactures flavor concentrates, soup bases, sauce concentrates, and RTU sauces.

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“We feel like you could pair it with anything and the Wild Blueberry will maintain its distinctive character,” she said. The Wild Blueberry complexity still comes through even when it’s paired with wild game. She made a Wild Blueberry Demi Glace with wild elk. “Wild game has a stronger flavor than some of the standard supermarket meats,” she said. “To have the sweetness, acidity, and bright floral flavor of the Wild Blueberry coming through paired really nicely with heavier, gamey notes of the elk.”  Similarly, a puree she developed with Wild Blueberries and hot chiles for a barbecue sauce also was a winner. “When we create a cooked barbecue sauce, it brought out the jammy notes in the Wild Blueberries,” she said. “Barbecue is really trending right now. So, it’s really kind of cool that we can take a trend that’s going on with hot chiles and combine it with something that’s also trending like Wild Blueberries.” And then there was the Wild Blueberry balsamic vinegar sauce that her firm created for soft serve ice cream. “It was awesome,” she said.

4. Wild Blueberries bring out the best in other foods. Wild Blueberries can also be used to give classic sauces a modern twist, said DeBloois. She developed a Wild Blueberry Glace de Veau—a classic French sauce with veal stock and wine used for braising beef or steak. “Incorporating Wild Blueberries with the wine really boosts the flavors of the other components,” she said. “Taking a classic French sauce and combining it with Wild Blueberries takes something that people have seen and are familiar with and puts it on its head a bit. We thought it was fantastic.”

Chef David Turin is known for his imaginative menus, his exceptional energy, and his devotion to the industry, in which he has been a leader for more than three decades. Asked to design a multi-course, Wild Blueberry-focused dinner for visiting chefs this summer, Turin embraced the challenge with characteristic enthusiasm, creating, among other dishes, a Wild Blueberry soup, served hot, that was the surprise hit of the evening.

Hosted in the intimate dining room at David’s Opus Ten in Portland, Maine, one of his three restaurants, the dinner was part of a three-day, “Eating on the Wild Side” event designed to acquaint top foodservice chefs from around the country with these small-but-mighty, antioxidant-packed superfruits. Turin’s inventive menu featured Wild Blueberries in every dish—starter, the superlative soup, intermezzo, entrees, and desserts. The tiny berries with the big flavor also appeared in three hors d’oeuvres and two signature cocktails, and both Wild Blueberry-maple butter and extra-virgin olive oil with Wild Blueberry vincotto accompanied the bread service.

Wild Inspiration

The chef was already using Wild Blueberries—his Super Food Salad at David’s 388 in South Portland includes them in their frozen state—but the dinner inspired him to see even more possibilities for adding Wild Blueberries to his menus. “I love the fact that we have this sustainable, authentic, Wild ingredient that’s readily available at a reasonable cost,” he says, noting that frozen Wild Blueberries are accessible to chefs anywhere, and that customers respond eagerly to seeing “Wild” as a menu component.

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“If you look at a handful of Wild Blueberries, you notice that each one is different—that variety is what makes them much more exciting to eat and to use in cooking than the cultivated fruit,” Turin continues. As he experimented with them for the dinner, the chef “discovered that beyond sweet dishes, Wild Blueberries are incredibly easy to work with. They have a broad bandwidth of flavor.”

For the Wild Blueberry soup, Turin thought, “A cold soup with a dollop of sour cream and a mint leaf is what everyone’s going to expect—so I’m absolutely not going to do that.” He decided instead to treat the Wild Blueberries as he would a vegetable. “I think they’re about as sweet as a carrot. The juice is quite sweet, but if you use carrots in a stock, they’re savory.”

His soup recipe follows a time-tested formula: Start with a classic mirepoix—Turin uses leeks, shallots, onion, carrots, and celery—lightly caramelized in a blend of olive oil and butter. Add Wild Blueberries and chicken or vegetable broth, simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, puree, and strain. When he pulled it from the restaurant’s refrigerator to reheat, however, Turin himself got a surprise—the pectin in the Wild Blueberries had gelled the soup. “I didn’t want to use cream to thin it down, so I simmered more Wild Blueberries to release their juice, added that in, and all of a sudden it was this vibrant blueberry color, as well as the ideal consistency,” he says. Garnished with curry crème fraiche and macadamia nuts toasted in brown butter, the soup was both delicious and a stunner. “There’s no miracle to it, just let the real food ingredients do the work,” the chef insists.

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Savory Serendipity

Pectin also played a role in another one of Turin’s discoveries while creating dishes for the dinner. To make the Wild Blueberry vincotto—a versatile condiment that continues to show up on his menus—he simmered the berries with white balsamic vinegar, fermented rice vinegar, and a little sugar. “I put it through the chinois and I had four quarts of vincotto and this mass of Wild Blueberry pulp; I couldn’t put that in the trash,” he says. “I chilled it and it set up; I thought, ‘wow that looks like caviar.’ Tossed with olive oil and salt, the byproduct of the vincotto became Wild Blueberry caviar, which Turin served like traditional caviar, on a buckwheat ploye with sour cream, and to garnish Wild Blueberry-cured salmon on a rye crostini. “People are really intrigued, especially when I refer to it as ‘vegan caviar,’” he says. “I was definitely challenged by using Wild Blueberries to take some steps beyond my normal go-to, and I think that anytime you do that, you can end up with good things.” Especially when a chef like Turin lets his culinary imagination take a spin on the Wild side.

Chobani, a food-focused wellness company and America’s leading Greek Yogurt brand, has turned to the WILD side with its recently released “Chobani® With a Hint of Wild Blueberry” yogurt. This new flavor is part of the company’s “Hint Of” Greek Yogurt line that is high in protein (12g) and low in sugar (9g) and features hand-selected varietal fruits and spices including Madagascar Vanilla & Cinnamon, Gili Cherry, Alphonso Mango, Monterey Strawberry, Clingstone Peach, Willamette Raspberry and our own sweet, tangy and antioxidant-rich Wild Blueberry that has thrived in the Maine and Eastern Canadian landscape for over 10,000 years.

Why Choose Wild?

Multifaceted Complex Flavor

According to Chobani VP of Innovation, Niel Sandfort, “We needed something that was intense, brought some sweetness, a little tang, and some depth of flavor and complexity within the fruit – so the Wild Blueberry was a quick winner for us.”

A Low Sugar Solution

Aside from providing a dynamic, yet refined flavor, one of Chobani’s main concerns with this new product line was to create a delicious yogurt while maintaining high nutritional value and low sugar content. According to Sandfort, “As our team was developing the products, we had a specific sugar target – the finished product has a total of only 9 grams of sugar, 4 or 5 of which are inherent in the lactose.” Therefore, Chobani needed a fruit that was naturally low in sugar, and with no added sugar. Wild Blueberries are one of the lowest sugar fruits available. Wild Blueberries have 10 grams of sugar per cup and have 32% less sugar than ordinary blueberries. Plus, Wild Blueberries are a low-glycemic food, scoring 53 on the 100-point Glycemic Index.

Nutritional Value

Aside from their tangy flavor and low sugar content, Wild Blueberries add great nutritional value too – having 2 times the antioxidants compared to regular blueberries and 21% of daily intake of fiber. “In today’s market, it’s challenging to create a product in the U.S. that performs like this nutritionally, yet still generates mass appeal,” said Sandfort.

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Sandfort says “A Hint of Wild Blueberry” stands out compared to other yogurts on the market today. The refined, modest, yet dynamic aroma of Wild Blueberries combined with Chobani’s creamy texture of yogurt – make it a win-win for yogurt lovers and health-nuts. Also, because the Wild Blueberries are “naturally smaller, more compact, and have less water content, they were exactly what we needed for the otherwise low flavor, low sugar environment,” said Sandfort.

How Chobani Thinks About Fruit – Variety is Everything

While the Wild Blueberry is indigenous to Maine and Eastern Canada, Chobani’s roots originate in Upstate New York – the home of the Apple.

“We know our apples very well,” explains Sandfort. “If you say ‘apple’ to an Upstate New Yorker or any of the great apple growing regions in the U.S., that means nothing of course, because variety is everything. I don’t like Macintosh, I love Honey Crisp – there’s firmness, there’s skin thickness, there’s color, there’s sour, there’s tartness. Wild Blueberries are very complex, just like grapes for winemaking or anything else. So, we, of course, knew that and had that in mind.”

The taste-testers at Chobani immediately picked up on the wide variety of flavors within Wild Blueberries – some being tangy, tart, or sweet. Because of the mild flavor in Chobani’s new “Hint Of” product line, Chobani needed the “sensory to be impactful – and the Wild Blueberry delivers that ‘better bang for your buck’ if you will or the ‘punch’ – so it was a clear choice right out of the gates,” said Sandfort.

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Culinary innovators recognize the value of featuring a Wild Superfruit ingredient and its perceived promise of taste, health and sustainability. Discover the Power of Wild research and how Wild Blueberries can give your brand a competitive edge with real food consumers. Research categories include yogurt, smoothies, granola, baby food, beef jerky, snack bars, muffins, restaurant entrees, breakfasts, desserts and more. Check out the food category relevant to your business at: wildblueberries.com/eatwild

Decades of dieting have left health-conscious consumers ravenous for foods that are close to nature and teeming with flavor.

And Wild Blueberries are perfectly poised to satisfy that hunger.

“Consumers want to be able to look at a menu and a grocery-store item and recognize the ingredients,” Nicole DeBloois, Director of R&D with JMH Premium, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company that manufactures flavor concentrates, soup bases, sauce concentrates, and RTU sauces.  “When consumers see something like Wild Blueberry on an ingredient list or on a restaurant menu, they think fresh, they think clean, they think non-GMO. There’s also a perception that there’s more flavor intensity.”

Just look at the research. According to the Power of Wild, a groundbreaking national study of consumer attitudes, 63% of consumers prefer ingredients that are closer to nature; 67% of consumers consider foods that are labeled “wild” closer to nature.

These preferences are even stronger among Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) consumers, —a $290 billion market that represents1 in 4 adult Americans, or 41 million people.  Among LOHAS consumers, 72% believe wild foods are healthier and that they taste better; 74% of LOHAS consumers said that they would buy more wild foods; 65% of LOHAS consumers said they would be willing to pay more for wild foods.

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The powerful cache that wild carries is rare.

“When you think of other silver-bullet phrases used with food, there aren’t a lot of terms like ‘wild’ that have so much legitimacy out of the gates,” said Chris Clegg,  President and Senior Analyst a Portland Marketing Analytics LLC, which conducted the research.

And “wild” isn’t just another health halo.

The Wild Blueberry delivers on the nutrition that its name suggests. One cup of Wild Blueberries has 25% of the recommended daily allowance of fiber, which promotes gut health and may lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. The antioxidants that give Wild Blueberries their rich blue hue fight off free radicals that have been linked to cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and other conditions. One cup of Wild Blueberries has more antioxidant power than 20 other fruits and vegetables, including cranberries, and even cultivated blueberries, according to a report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But it’s great taste of the Wild Blueberry that makes it such an enduring ingredient.

“With Wild Blueberries, you get so many flavors going on at once,” said DeBloois. “You get astringency from the skin, plus tartness, sweetness and floral notes. You can taste all of it. That’s what’s cool. And when you combine Wild Blueberry with other ingredients, the flavor of the Wild Blueberries with their more intense flavor still comes through. And, they are able to stand up to and pair even better than ordinary cultivated blueberries with the bold flavors that are resonating so well with today’s adventurous authentic flavor seekers.”

The appetites for foods that are pure, nutritious, and delicious, is a response, in part, to decades of weight-loss fads and diet foods that were filled with artificial ingredients, and fell short on flavor. Consumers are no longer simply looking to avoid fat or calories. They are actively seeking out foods with perceived health benefits, said DeBloois.

“I think that there’s now an understanding that you can make really delicious foods that are also very good for you,” she added.

It’s part of why, at Panera Bread, the Wild Blueberry Scone has remained a bestseller, even as seasonal items were rotated off the menu.

Tom Gumpel raking Wild Blueberries on the barrens in Dresden, Maine.

“That one scone – I couldn’t get rid of it – there would be a backlash from our customers,” says Tom Gumpel, former head baker and Vice President of R&D at Panera, which has 2,000 bakery-cafes across North America. With its simple list of recognizable ingredients, the Wild Blueberry Scone became an emblem of its “clean commitment” initiative.

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“Cleaning up the menu, and driving out artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives was really critical,” said Gumpel, former Dean of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park,

“The term ‘wild’ is beyond clean,” he added. “It’s mother nature handing something to you directly with no processing of any kind.”

Perhaps the most powerful part of the cache Wild Blueberries carry is the emotional connection with the food that people have.

“Everyone has a story or memory about Wild Blueberries often involving childhood family dinners and generations of parents and grandparents,” said Clegg. “You don’t see a lot of food categories or products that elicit that emotion. It’s kind of special.” 

Neil Doherty’s cooking career began as a humble kitchen helper at a neo-Gothic castle perched in a quaint farming community in the West of Ireland. Later, he transitioned to a market farm in England where he upped his game. Eventually, Doherty moved to America and cooked his way across the country as executive chef in hotels, restaurants, and start up kitchens. He finally landed in Houston and went to work for Sysco Corporation.

Today, as Sysco’s Corporate Executive Chef and Senior Director of Culinary Development, Doherty is instrumental in leading the enterprise’s culinary strategy and for providing product and culinary training expertise to Sysco’s international entities as well, including Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and his home country of Ireland. In his role, Chef Doherty consults with restaurant brands big and small, in the U.S. and abroad. He is also a frequent traveler to farming operations around the globe, where he immerses himself in terroir and developing a greater understanding of the mechanics of our global food system.

To stay current on techniques, trends and flavors, Doherty works with chefs from around the world. He believes in continued education to increase his knowledge and perfect his craft. When we spoke, Doherty had just returned from a Culinary Institute of America/Almond Board immersion for 10 foodservice chefs. Last summer, he was part of an elite group of foodservice chefs who travelled to Maine for an “Eating on the Wild Side” immersion, which included harvesting wild seaweed and hand-raking Wild Blueberries on a hilltop Wild Blueberry barren.

The Power of Wild
“Wild is starting to sink in for people, it’s not just a trend anymore,” says Doherty. “Fifteen years ago, you could not give Keta Salmon away. People thought it was too fishy and too oily. Now, they are selling it by the boatload because it’s wild and affordable.”

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Wild and, yes, affordable. Doherty launches into a little diatribe about the price of organic. As a foodservice professional, he’s constantly educating chefs on trends and where the industry is going. He’s also responsible for developing Sysco’s cutting-edge platforms, trade show appearances, Foodie magazine, and much more. It takes skill to put all of the pieces together – superior ingredients, outrageously good recipes, extraordinary presentations, keeping up with the latest food fashions, and containing costs.

“If organic were more affordable, more people would buy organic. I’ll be brutally honest, if I’m looking for lemons, I’m getting regular lemons,” Doherty said.

But wild foods have a way of transcending the conversation.

“Wild has a really unique cache, and the value of featuring ‘wild’ on a menu – I think when people see that, it raises their eyebrows, and they want a part of it,” says Doherty. It speaks to craft, handmade, origin food.

Asked to dig deeper, Doherty offers a broad explanation that ranges from the influence of Millennials, who are “opening our eyes” to variety and taste, to vegans and vegetarians who are the real drivers behind the global shift to natural and organic foods. “Plant-based and plant-forward foods are huge,” says Doherty. The shift toward a plant-based diet has “pulled everything along the tidal wave with it.”

Wild is More Relevant Than Ever

According to this seasoned, international chef, Wild – and Wild Blueberries – have never been more relevant.

• People are increasingly worried about their mortality – they want to trust how their food is grown and manufactured.
• The story of Wild is believable because it comes directly from Mother Nature herself.
• Food service providers are seeking foods that offer a quick nutritional fix – foods that are high in antioxidants and offer the highest bang for their buck.

Wild Blueberries have amazing menu capability, adds Doherty. “Just having the name “Wild Blueberries” on the menu gives you confidence that you are cooking with something extraordinary.”

Doherty’s affection for Wild Blueberries is linked powerfully to his childhood as well.

“I grew up on the West Coast of Ireland where there were lots of peat bogs and lots of mist. The Wild Blueberry barrens reminded me of my homeland. Wild Blueberries grow in a coastal environment that gets constant mist, and I think the salt air has something to do with the powerful taste of the Wild Blueberries too.”

Chef Doherty is looking for ways to add more Wild Blueberry to Sysco’s menus. “Wild Blueberries are sustainable, attainable, and affordable. They’re a crop from the beginning of time.”

By Chef Rebecca Peizer, C.H.E. C.E.C.

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Every plant and animal produced for our dining pleasure impacts the planet’s resources through its own cycle of growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and preparing. Yet to those of us in the industrial world, food comes from a package rather than a mountain, plain or ocean. Small wonder that we tend to look at food through the narrow lens of our own sustenance or pleasure.

• Craving a nacho chip? It takes almost 140 gallons of water to produce one pound of corn. Water is also needed to clean the processing equipment, produce the oil for frying, and make the packaging.
• How about a nice steak? Each pound of beef we consume takes around 1,700 gallons of water to produce.
• Care for wine with dinner? Each grape requires about a third of a gallon of water to produce.
• A pound of tree nuts represents 1,565 gallons of water
• A pound of pork requires 660 gallons of water
• A pound of cheese uses 473 gallons of water

These and other facts are available in the Menus of Change Annual Report, produced by The Culinary Institute of America.

Are Wild Blueberries Water-Friendly Choice?

Wild Blueberries emerged on the desolate plain following the retreat of the glaciers and so were naturally selected to survive in nutrient and drought-challenged conditions. Today they continue to flourish in Maine and Eastern Canada, where storm systems from the west and south converge to provide ample rainfall.

The low bush blueberry plants only require irrigation during dry spells – usually in August – when there is less than the required one-inch of rain each week.

According to David Bell of Cherryfield Foods, a harvester and packer of Wild Blueberries in Cherryfield, Maine, “Many fruits and vegetables are grown in locations that are too dry for natural survival, so much more irrigation water is needed for survival. In contrast, Wild Blueberries are irrigated supplementally to address short-term dry spells during the growing season.”

Bell also points out that the supplemental water is sourced from wells that were installed starting in the 1990s, as an offshoot of another eco-project: restoring the Atlantic Salmon population living in the rivers where agricultural water was once sourced. The wells are replenished by rains in late fall and early spring, and are placed away from the rivers for minimal impact.

As part of their unique evolution, any given field of Wild Blueberries may have thousands of clones with an extensive underground rhizome system. Seventy to eighty percent of the plant actually lives under ground, spreading horizontally in the few inches of organic matter atop the sand and gravel of glacial soil below. This allows the plants to use every bit of surface water available while soaking rains travel onto the aquifer below.

Native Americans made extensive use of Wild Blueberries, an indigenous fruit, which speaks volumes of its sustainability.

Now that’s reason to celebrate!

*LOHAS = Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability

About the Author

Chef Rebecca Peizer, C.H.E. C.E.C.
Associate Professor of Culinary Arts
Culinary Institute of America at Greystone

Rebecca’s passion for food set her on a path to the Culinary Institute of America where she graduated in 2000. From there, she set off to New York City where she became a private chef. She took her next big step in the culinary world when she moved to California and opened Roux, a restaurant in St. Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley. Roux quickly took off and the San Francisco Chronicle named it Top 10 Restaurants in the Bay Area 2001. On the heels of that honor, Food & Wine named her Top 10 Sous Chefs in America 2002. Over the course of her career, Rebecca has had the opportunity to work with many great chefs including Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, Bradly Ogden, Cindy Pawlcyn, and Julia Childs. She has catered events for presidential candidates, Napa Valley winemakers, and prominent artists, and now shares her passion for food and wine with students at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley.