Agribusiness Report: Master chef has starring role in Fonterra marketing

Chef Michael Fan in the Fonterra Innovation Kitchen, Shanghai.

The Foodservices HQ sits atop a high-rise building atop a shopping mall in downtown Shanghai.

The innovation kitchen is the real centrepiece of the operation. Headed up by Michael Fan, a former restaurant head chef in Hong Kong, it's a modern combination of commercial kitchen and laboratory, with picturesque views over downtown.

Though food may be at the centre of everything in the kitchen, Fan is undoubtedly the star attraction.

After a brief tour of the facilities, he takes his position behind the counter flanked by a pair of eager deputies. Hands ablur and narrating as he goes, the charismatic Fan puts on a dairy master class that wouldn't look out of place on prime time television.

First on the menu today is a soft wonton, not unlike tortellini, filled with prawn and mozzarella and topped with a creamy wasabi sauce. For such a seemingly bizarre combination, which raised more than few eyebrows as it was proudly plated in front of us, the verdict was unanimously and definitely positive.

That sentiment remained as a feast of fusion tapas and dairy desserts were presented and quickly devoured.

"We put Michael on all of our videos, we put him on our website and we distribute DVDs of Michael's cooking to all our customers.

"They are able to look at the video, follow Michael's standard of process and create their own versions from his recipes," says Kefei Bu, general manager of marketing and business development for Foodservices China.

It's a key pillar in the one-to-many solution set that Food Services offers its customers.

With such a broad target market to work with, one-on-one time with the consultant chefs is optimal from Fonterra's end. Dairy though is a difficult ingredient to work with in terms of stability and temperature fluctuations - requiring a specific set of skills and procedures unfamiliar to local chefs. "We have to develop recipes which are standardised, welcoming to consumers and relatively simple to produce.

"If there are five, six, seven steps involved to produce a final product, most of the factories here won't be able to make it," says Bu. The simple, standardised recipes are distributed along with plans and designs for a range of packaging and promotional materials that can be used with the finished products. This approach has seen quick success for small and medium-sized businesses looking to dip their toe in the dairy pool.

Some of the leading customers for dairy ingredients, those with outlets numbering in the hundreds, don't fit the mould of the one-to-many initiative, with Foodservices taking a more hands on approach when required.

"They want something more unique and require a recipe which is exclusive to their outlets.

"For this group of customers at the very top of the market, Michael and our advisory chefs work with customers on a one-to-one basis and work with them to develop five or six creative recipes.

"This is all part of a concerted effort to integrate dairy into everyday Chinese cuisine, working with scaleable producers to convert broad demographics in one fell swoop."