Here's Why Each Sprouts Farmers Market Has A Culinary Director

 Even if you've never heard of Sprouts Farmers Market, the name alone is a pretty significant hint as to what the store sells: produce. This health-friendly grocery store, located nationwide, offers a wide variety of produce, minimally processed goods, and other organic produce. Having first opened in 2002, Sprouts Farmers Market has been about delivering all-natural foods at an affordable price to benefit both customers and producers.

While this is undoubtedly a noble goal, you could easily say that you have heard it all before. Other organic markets exist, like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, so what exactly separates Sprout from the rest? What makes this otherwise average organic supermarket stand out from the crowd? The answer is that Sprouts Farmers Market has a position known as a "culinary director."

"A culinary director? What's that?" You may be wondering. "I thought this was a grocery store, not a restaurant!" Although you're not wrong for questioning why an organic supermarket would have a culinary director in the first place, you may be leaving out a very important part of any American grocery store: the deli– or more specifically, all those pre-cooked meats, cheeses, and ready-to-eat meals you'd find there. The culinary director's job is to ensure that everything you'll see, from the rotisserie chickens to the heat-and-eat meals, will taste as fresh and as delicious as if you made them yourself.

When you normally think of prepared foods at the deli, you're most likely thinking about those styrofoam trays with clear lids on them. They're things like cold-cut turkey or roast beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. Some look good, some look better than others, and others — well, there's no polite word to use for them. While other supermarket meals may seem hit or miss, some have stated that the Sprouts Farmers Market meals are surprisingly good — and it's thanks to the in-store culinary director.

According to the testimony of The Kitchn's Su-Jit Lin, even the rotisserie chicken found in the deli's preprepared section was surprisingly top quality. She describes how the flavors were "deep and clean," the meat "tender and juicy", and the skin "crispy"– a far cry from the stereotypical dry, flabby-skinned chickens you think of sitting in a supermarket heating rack. Even the other pre-prepared meals, the seafood, and the salad were described as being impressively above average. The presence of a culinary director, or someone who oversees the preparation of prepared foods, means that there's some human element behind them. Rather than the meals being made in a factory and sold to the store in bulk, there's a real person whose job it is to oversee that each meal is prepared to a certain standard.

But who exactly can be a culinary director? What is the day in the life of your average Sprouts Farmers Market culinary director?

You may have heard the saying that making a dish is like a work of art and that a creative, open mind is key to making new and inspired recipes. While you may have associated such a saying with people more along the lines of gourmet chefs and pretentiously high-class restaurants, it would seem that such a belief is also the key foundation of a Sprouts Farmers Market culinary director.

Supermarket News ran a piece detailing the work of culinary director Matthew Pratta and his team, examining just how their influence is felt across stores across the country. Far from serving customers preprepared meals of chilled cold-cuts in cold gravy, Pratta and his team's prepared meals seem to be more elaborate. These include dinners such as Red Miso salmon with roasted sweet potatoes, Black Truffle Beef Saute, and even assemble-and-eat pita dinners. Pratta also detailed a bit more of the team's involvement in the creation of these prepared meals, noting that Sprouts Farmers Market roasts their own vegetables in-store in order to get them as fresh-tasting as possible. Great care is also taken to find vendors who can only supply the freshest produce, as well as a focus on assembly of the meals and how they are plated to better attract customers.

Indeed, being a culinary director is about taking inspiration from high-class ideas, converting those ideas into ready-to-eat dinners, and ensuring that they are as fresh-tasting and as high-quality as possible.