Senior Executive Research and Development Chef
Ryan Baxter joined the Kraft Culinary Team in May 2011. As senior executive research and development chef, he is charged with helping customers maximize their menu potential. "In order to do that, you have to gain razor-sharp insight into their business," says Chef Baxter. "I can't overemphasize this—we have to spend time in our customers' restaurants and in their development kitchens. Then we can provide them with profitable, craveable recipes and business ideas." Chef Baxter brings creativity, professionalism and decades of craftsmanship into the Kraft Culinary Centre.
Hometown: Paterson, New Jersey
Education: AOS from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) , Hyde Park, New York, graduating first in my class in November 1987.
Employment: I joined Kraft in 2011. Before coming to Kraft, I was Innovation Leader at Cargill, Inc. Previously I was an associate professor in the CIA's continuing-education department.
1st job in foodservice: When I was 13 I worked on Saturdays at a diner in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. My first task was peeling 50 pounds of potatoes for home fries while they were still hot...I can still smell those potatoes.
Greatest accomplishments: When I was a CIA faculty member I had the privilege of working in the White House in 2000, where I was part of a culinary team that trained Navy Mess Specialists, which is a navy term for cooks. The goal was to improve the food quality that the specialists prepared for White House visitors and staff. It was an amazing experience.
Favourite dish to cook at home: My wife and I love to make anytime Thanksgiving dinners. We do it three or four times a year: roast turkey, from-scratch stuffing, gravy, all the trimmings.
Favourite cookbook: Jacque Pepin's La Technique: An Illustrated Guide to the Fundamental Techniques of Cooking (Times Books, 1976) and La Methode: An Illustrated Guide to the Fundamental Techniques of Cooking (Crown, 1979). They cover the fundamentals really well, like tying a roast, making sausage, etc.
Most rewarding part of my job: Kraft Foodservice has put together a varied and experienced culinary team. It has shown the seriousness with which it takes its culinary development by putting together this best-in-the-industry team. Working in that environment—creating recipes, ideating, working up menu solutions at this level with this team—it's the best part of my job.
The two or three people from history (living or dead) with whom I would most like to have dinner: Paul Bocuse would be interesting and fun. But having dinner with my family is always special. We try to do it nightly, and it's one of my favorite things.
Sound byte: "To truly offer solutions you need to understand the customer and understand their customer."
Favourite recipe recently developed for Kraft Foodservice:
During a recent Philly ideation session, we created a Bacon, Blue Cheese and Arugula Tart. We made two versions: one in pie dough and another in phyllo. We rendered bacon and sweated onion. We made the custard by combining egg yolks, cream and softened Philadelphia Cream Cheese. You get the richness and pungency from the Gorgonzola, and the cream cheese adds structure and tang. Arugula gave it a good pepperiness. Turned out really nicely.