news trends&
Events
01
International cuisine
Read my interview with the Food Institute report on the growth in popularity of international cuisine.
02
Food as medicine
By Chef Junnie Lai 5-20-2021
The Food Institute reached out to me wanting to interview me for two articles that they want to publish, which are my personal passion:Food as Medicine. I do believe in the saying “you are what you eat”. Well prepared and nutritional food is one of the most important pillars to keep us strong and healthy. Click image to read article.
03
RCA EVENT AT CIA COPIA
On October 3-4, 2019
Tom and I taught at the RCA event in Napa, at the Culinary Institute of Americain Copia Napa, California. Tom taught Pacific Rim Fusion Cuisine, explore underutilized fish for texture and flavor. I taught Southeast Asian Cuisine, making Roast Pork Dumplings with a secret ingredient in Chinese style puff pastry.
04
Roast pork dumplings
Roast Pork Dumplings with a secret ingredient in Chinese style puff pastry.
05
CARAMELIZED SUGAR EDUCATION AT CIA
By Junnie Lai 7-19-2019
We proposed to Versatile Foods to educate the next generations with their caramelized sugar products.We made arrangement with CIA Applied Food Studies senior class to present the product specification and applications, to give them real life experience in the R&D world.
After Versatile Foods present the information to the students with samples.Then the students were tasked to use the caramelized sugar product to apply into their developing products and presenting their prototype to us for tasting. We enjoyed a very special day at the CIA discussing our consulting and R&D experiences with Chef Lui’s amazing students.
06
RCA
2019
RCA 2019 was held in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13-15, 2019.
Tom and I were representing Versatile Products & Ingredients, LLC at the RCA 2019.VPI imports caramelizes sugar from France and Germany, along with some fantastic baking ingredients.To showcase their products at the Culinology Expo, we have prepared a dessert plate that baked with caramelized sugar: a chocolate cake that have 25% reduction of cocoa powder (yet still taste very rich) and a Baumkuchen cake with salted caramel.
Our second creation, which also caught lots of attention... we have created a caramel quinoa puffs cones, loaded with caramel butter, topped with a creamy sriracha sauce,some micro green, and finally a cricket. Even though cricket have been in the market as the high protein food, attendees are still not used to seeing a cricket on their food. Hence, we have gotten all kind of fun reaction and some awesome pictures at the expo.We have a huge success during the expo educating the attendees about caramelized sugar is the natural source to substitute caramel color, along with some fantastic feedback and networking.
07
dreams are real
PODCAST EPISODE 164
"How you eat matters as much as what you eat with Chef Junnie, Principal and Research Chef at Global Cuisine Consulting.
It’s not just what you eat, but how you eat that matters. Preparation, exploration, and clean label eating help build a life of health and happiness.
Chef Junnie Lai began learning about food as a kid in her Grandfather’s bakery and never stopped. Her collection of degrees and wealth of world and career experience position her uniquely to be an important, powerful, and much-needed voice in the culinary world, especially in a time where foods aren’t often valued for their medicinal and beauty enhancing properties.