Chefs Who Deliver

Chefs are synonymous with food-forward creativity, evoking familiar images — wood-fired ovens and pizza dough flying through the air, crisp white jackets, artful plating. At Hormel Foods, the seasoned chefs of the Culinary Collective embody that creative spirit, but their work stretches far beyond the kitchen.

This team of seven chefs serves as culinary creators, consultants and customer-facing problem solvers. Their collaborations with customers range from crafting recipes for national chains to training staff at senior living facilities or college dining halls to modernizing menus that capitalize on the latest culinary trends for labor-strapped kitchens. Together, they form a cohesive unit that mirrors the complexity of the industries they serve, bringing creative thinking and practical insights to every challenge.

“The variety of backgrounds and expertise we each bring to the table makes us an even stronger, more effective team,” said Tia Raiford, senior chef at Hormel Foods and the newest member of the Culinary Collective. Raiford focuses on specialized foodservice channels, including senior living, healthcare and military. “There’s a great collaborative spirit here. That’s one of the things I like most about this group.”

Building a Unified Team

The Culinary Collective was established by Hormel Foodservice leadership in 2022, though the company’s history of culinary-forward thinking dates back more than a century. The idea behind creating an official team was straightforward: consolidate culinary talent from across the company, align their efforts, and empower them to make a broader impact.

“We decided to unify the team so we could create consistency, share knowledge and be more nimble in how we support the business,” said Annemarie Vaupel, vice president of marketing for the Foodservice division at Hormel Foods. “With the Culinary Collective, we wanted a shared service model for the entire company. This helps us bring chef-inspired food concepts to life and facilitates meaningful customer engagement.”

Since its creation, the Culinary Collective has become a trusted resource across the enterprise — whether that means developing concepts for a trade show, brainstorming product applications with R&D or partnering directly with customers.

A Partner in the Kitchen

Within the Foodservice division, Collective chefs serve as an extension of a restaurant’s own back-of-house brain trust. They consult on yield, portion cost and preparation methods. They even write plug-and-play recipes that labor-strapped operators can easily incorporate into their menus.

“Chefs want input from other chefs,” Vaupel said. “They’re translating what we make into what our customers need. That might mean showing how a product performs in a sauce, how it holds up on a steam table or how to work it into a menu rotation.”

There’s a great collaborative spirit here. That’s one of the things I like most about this group.
Tia Raiford, senior chef at Hormel Foods

Exposure to those day-to-day realities takes many forms. Collective members conduct live demos that tackle operators’ critical pain points at the National Restaurant Association Show, the International Pizza Expo and dozens of other national conferences. They also introduce chefs to flavor innovations and showcase the breadth of the Hormel Foods foodservice portfolio. These one-on-one interactions with chefs inform product-development discussions and help fine-tune future solutions.

“In 35 years of doing this, the most gratifying thing for me is when I can see our organization have products hit a menu and it goes to a successful launch, and the restaurant walks away ecstatic and wants to come back and do it again,” said Erich Chieca, Culinary Collective team lead. “For me, that’s what it’s all about. That’s what we’re here to do.”

From Kitchen to Cart

Though the Culinary Collective’s work in foodservice and institutional markets is well established, the retail industry has increasingly become a focus area — especially through the work of Amy Forbis, retail executive chef at Hormel Foods.

I love my job, and I love the direction we’re headed as a company.
Amy Forbis, retail executive chef at Hormel Foods

Forbis brings her culinary background to bear on everything from trend forecasting to product development to shopper insights. “We come together to really put our minds to what is coming next and what consumers are looking for,” she said. “We’re always looking at what’s happening in restaurants, what’s happening in stores, what’s happening in other countries that might influence what happens in the U.S.”

Those insights then inspire action. Forbis recognized the increased consumer demand for international flavors and was instrumental in developing the SPAM^® Korean BBQ Flavored variety. She’s also involved in creating new heat-and-eat protein options, another expanding area of consumer interest.

“Our role as chefs is not only to create, but also to listen, understand and adapt to what the consumer is asking for,” Forbis said. “By staying in tune with constantly evolving tastes and preferences, we’re able to create products that resonate with the modern consumer.”

The Culinary Collective operates like a creative engine behind the scenes, with chefs working in collaboration with cross-functional teams across the company, shaping ideas from concept to launch with a consumer-first approach.

“We all bring something different to the table,” Forbis said. “We talk about different products, things that we might be developing, trends that we’re seeing, things that maybe we saw at a restaurant and want to recreate in a retail version. There’s so much to consider, and the group functions like a think tank for those ideas, which is really exciting.”

Expertise in Every Setting

Beyond restaurant kitchens and grocery aisles, the Culinary Collective supports a wide range of other customer segments that are just as essential, but often less visible. From K-12 schools and senior living communities to healthcare facilities and military bases, the team’s reach extends into spaces where food plays a critical, everyday role.

The needs in these foodservice environments are as diverse as the people they serve. In schools, chefs from the Collective help imagine and develop nutritious, easy-to-execute recipes, keeping kids across the country well-fed. In healthcare, inefficiencies in hospital kitchens become training opportunities, with chefs like Raiford offering solutions to optimize processes. Whatever the issue, the chefs at Hormel Foods offer real-world solutions rooted in expertise.

“Some of these operators are often working with limited resources, whether it’s labor, training, or time,” said Raiford, who frequently consults with these customers on food-prep and labor-saving strategies. “Sometimes, they just need someone to help them see what’s possible.”

More Than Just Flair

Across every foodservice and retail channel, the chefs of the Culinary Collective never lose sight of the individuals who ultimately enjoy the final product.

“Chefs holistically love to please people,” Chieca said. “At the end of the day, if I can put food on your plate that you go crazy over and you are absolutely happy, there’s nothing better than that to me.”

Today, that passion is paired with deep product knowledge and operational insights. Collective members demonstrate how products and ingredients perform in real-world kitchens, how they help solve back-of-house challenges and how a good menu idea can become a long-term signature.

For the chefs themselves, the work remains deeply rewarding. “I take incredible pride in being part of the Culinary Collective,” Forbis said. “I love my job, and I love the direction we’re headed as a company.”