By Tozer Seeds
SANTA MARIA, CALIF. —Kalettes®, the kale and brussels sprouts hybrid, recently received the 2015 StarChefs Innovator Award at the 10th Annual International Chefs Congress (ICC) for bringing the most exciting new product to market in the food and beverage category.
The ICC is a three-day, industry-only culinary symposium with some of the best food and drink in the country hosted by StarChefs.com, a magazine for culinary insiders serving the restaurant industry since 1995. As much as ICC is about the people, talent, and ideas, it also recognizes innovative products that facilitate so much creativity. In the food and beverage category, Kalettes was awarded by ICC vendors for bringing a product that stirs the imagination and excites the palate.
“We are thrilled to receive this award and feel honored that we can inspire chefs across the country with our new product,” said Kraig Kuykendall, sales manager of Tozer Seeds America, the company behind Kalettes. “Kalettes are the product of 15 years of hard work and dedication so seeing both foodservice professionals and consumers get excited about them is the greatest payoff.”
Kalettes are the product of more than a decade of research by Tozer Seeds, the largest family-owned vegetable breeding company in England. The kale and brussels sprout hybrid offers a fresh fusion of sweet and nutty, combining the best traits of each of its parent vegetables. Kalettes are not genetically modified and were developed by cross-pollinating brussels sprouts with kale through traditional methods.
Tozer Seeds has exclusive marketing agreements with select companies to grow and market Kalettes to create a consistent name and brand identity, which would allow consumers to easily recognize this new vegetable. The companies who have entered into the marketing agreement with Tozer for Kalettes are 4Earth Farms, Classic Salads, Mann Packing, Ocean Mist Farms, Southern Specialties and WP Rawl. As part of the agreement, Kalettes seeds will be sold by Johnny’s Selected Seeds to small farmers and home growers.
Kalettes are available to both retailers and food service distributors directly through the companies. For more information on Kalettes, including recipes, visit www.kalettes.com