Walnuts may not be the first thing to spring to mind when you think of California. This captivating state on the West Coast of the USA isn’t just about sun, sea and sand. Over a third of the USA’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. No surprise perhaps that 99% of the total US production of walnuts are grown in California. In fact, California is the second largest producer of walnuts globally (providing two-thirds of the world’s trade volume) and is the fourth leading export commodity from the state.
There are many reasons why California Walnuts have proven to be so popular worldwide, and in particular the UK in recent years.
This interest has led the California Walnut Commission to support a summer trip during August, for four of the UK’s top development chefs to attend The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in California. All with a view to creating new recipes, featuring California Walnuts. The four chefs represent leading foodservice companies who collectively cover a significant proportion of contract foodservice across the world, serving over 5.5 billion meals a year in restaurants, offices, schools, universities, hospitals, major sports and cultural venues. New cutting-edge recipes created at the CIA have been developed to inspire chefs across the entire UK foodservice industry.
The chefs who participated on the California CIA trip included:
Chef Nick Vadis – Culinary Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland
Chef Matt Hay – Chef Director, BaxterStorey
Chef James Buckley – Development Executive Chef, the O2 and London Leisure Levy Restaurants UK
Chef Mickael Jahan – Innovation Development for the UK and Ireland, Aryzta
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Nick Richardson from The Garden Marketing & PR, the trade representative for California Walnuts in the UK, says: “California Walnuts offer chefs an enticing mix of quality, value and versatility. The California sun gives our walnuts a consistently unique creamy texture and flavour, so incredibly flexible that they can enhance the texture and flavour of baked goods, salads and add real excitement to your main courses. Their lighter colour will literally brighten up products making them stars in their own right. We like to think of California Walnuts as one of the most adaptable, go-to ingredients for the foodservice industry.” The popularity of California Walnuts in the UK looks set to grow as consumer trends change, with snacking behaviour encouraging more eating on the go around busy schedules.
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