Whole Foods Caters to Grab ’n’ Go Crowd

In 2007, Whole Foods opened a 43,000 square foot market in the University Heights section of Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to truly fresh produce and fresh-cut flowers, fresh seafood and an old-fashion butcher shop, they offer a wide variety of restaurant-quality takeout entrees and sides. Their prepared foods department includes two salad bars, hot foods and soup bars, fresh-made sushi, and an 18-seat Italian Trattoria, offering hot entrees and hearth baked pizza.

The store’s Prepared Foods Department is run by Stefanie Nobilio, Retail Supervisor & Production Chef and Nichole Clark, Prepared Foods Team Leader. Both are graduates of the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh; and Stefanie has 17 years of cooking experience in restaurants, hotels and high-end supermarkets.

There are about 40 full and part-time employees working in Prepared Foods at the University Heights store.  How important is the Prepared Foods Department to the success of Whole Foods? “Extremely important,” according to Stefanie. “Our grab-and-go option helps busy students, professionals and families replace fast food with high quality, ready-to-serve food. It helps folks with busy lives eat well.” One customer told Stefanie that she spends $400–500 a week in the prepared food department at Whole Foods to feed her family. It is no surprise that 12% of the profit at a typical Whole Foods Market comes from the prepared food department.

The Prepared Foods Department is supported by a stateof-the-art kitchen at Whole Foods. At this location they have four convection ovens, a tilt skillet, four AccuTemp Steam’N’Hold™ connectionless steamers, a steam jacketed kettle, several holding cabinets, a blast chiller, griddle, small four-burner range and a rotisserie-oven for cooking chicken. In addition to the four AccuTemp steamers in the prepared foods kitchen, they have two more in the seafood department that are used to cook shrimp, shell fish and other seafood delicacies.

Whole Foods chefs prepare all foods from fresh ingredients. Many hot foods are cooked to 80% of done, and then blast chilled. When it’s time to serve those items, they are removed from refrigeration, reheated and finish-cooked. This modified cook-chill production helps them meet peak customer demand while maintaining quality —the just-cooked taste, texture and appearance of all their prepared foods. To maintain the highest quality standards, they enforce a two hour maximum holding time on the hot bar.

The prepared foods department also has a big graband-go chilled foods section. A selection of entrees and sides that have been 80% cooked then blast chilled, are portion-packed and put in refrigerated cases for customers to pick up on their way home. The customer then reheats (and finish-cooks) those pre-pack items at home, providing a healthy, high quality meal for themselves or for the entire family. “It’s very common for people to visit our store then heat the food and serve it, claiming they made it themselves,” according to Stefanie. “Wanting to impress parents, dates, friends or party guests is more common than you might think! People want other folks to think they cooked the food, not a store.”

The prepared foods department uses their battery of Steam’N’Holds™ to blanch vegetables, cook rice, prepare pasta and some meats. They are used to rethermalize (reheat) and finish cook most items served at the Hot Bar. Some items cooked in other equipment are finished in the Steam’N’Hold™.

For example, they cook meat loaf to 80% done in a convection oven, to provide color (browning) then finish-cook it in the Steam’N’Hold™, to keep it moist and reduce shrinkage. Lasagna is one of the few items that comes to them pre-assembled and frozen. They use the Steam’N’Hold™ to defrost then heat the lasagna. From experience they have found that Steam’N’Hold™-heated lasagna doesn’t separate or spread out when sliced. It stays in a firm, neat rectangle, perfect for portioning and service. When not cooking or reheating, some Steam’N’Holds™ are used for holding stews and sauce items, until they are needed. They like the fact that the steamer doesn’t dry out foods.

In addition to cooking and reheating items for the hot bar, they help prepare chef special items. A typical daily special is a prime rib meal for the family that includes two sides. All of these meals are $13.99 or less. The day’s “special” is the chef’s choice and there are always three starches and three veggies to choose from each day, often prepared and/or reheated in a Steam’N’Hold™. On weekends they make western style scrambled eggs in the Steam’N’Hold™ then use those eggs to top breakfast pizzas. On Sundays there is a brunch bar that is available until 2:00 PM that includes quiches, eggs, and other foods cooked in the Steam’N’Hold™.

”We love the easy maintenance factor of the Steam’N’Hold™,” according to Stefanie. “Your steamers help us meet and maintain strict quality standards. Our staff likes the fact they can put food in and forget it. No Stirring! No Worries! The Steam’N’Hold™ also cuts down on food waste. It cooks evenly and consistently every time. Food is cooked evenly throughout the pan and product. It is truly worry-free cooking.”