Brands are turning up the heat on chef partnerships, placing cooks front and center in their activations, and drawing on their culinary expertise and social media star power to lead product launches, live demos and food truck tours.
The chefs aren’t just stopping by for appearances and fan meet-and-greets, either; they’re involved behind the scenes, curating sampling menus and embedding themselves in event experiences. Let’s dig into the chef collabs that are a recipe for success.
In pickleball, players have to “stay out of the kitchen,” and Sharp put its own spin on the rule at the Rate Las Vegas Open. As the Official Kitchen Appliance Sponsor of the Professional Pickleball Association event, the brand popped up a fully functional Sharp kitchen on-site.
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There, fans could catch live cooking demos led by chef and restaurateur Richard Blais, co-host of FOX’s culinary competition series “Next Level Chef.” On Oct. 3, Blais showed off the capabilities of Sharp’s appliances and was joined throughout the day by pro pickleball athletes, such as Anna Leigh Waters.
To celebrate the launch of its new Hybrid bakeware line, HexClad teamed up with Last Crumb and chef Gordon Ramsay on two pop-ups in New York and L.A. from Oct. 17-18.
Foodies had to track down The Secret Oven, built into an exterior wall and decorated with baking pans, unlock it via a QR code and then pull it open to claim a sticky toffee pudding and cookie hybrid created by Last Crumb and Ramsay.
Ziploc recently partnered with Too Good To Go, a social-impact company for surplus food, on the “Surprise Seconds” campaign to help consumers give leftovers a second act. The brand demonstrated the new initiative through a “Wheel of Sandwiches” food truck that made an appearance in New York City on Sept. 30.
Yara Herrera, chef-partner at Hellbender, a Mexican-American restaurant in Queens, created the activation’s menu.
She reimagined dishes from local restaurants and shops as four new sandwiches. Attendees spun a wheel and received the corresponding sandwich for free. All 400 sandwiches were distributed in just over two hours.
The KEWPIE food truck is also hitting the road, introducing the Japanese mayonnaise brand to consumers across Southern California. In addition to exclusive swag and photo ops, the I Love KEWPIE tour is serving up bites developed by YouTuber and cookbook author Sam Zien, known as Sam the Cooking Guy.
The rotating menu brings together KEWPIE’s Japanese food heritage with familiar American flavors, ranging from Chicken Karaage to Smash Burger Sliders, all made with KEWPIE Mayo. At Smorgasburg Los Angeles, Zien treated attendees to live cooking demos, served food and took selfies with fans.
The I Love KEWPIE tour will culminate in a holiday celebration at Jingle Ball in L.A. in December, and along the way is featuring appearances from other chefs and cooking influencers, including Easy Peasy Jordan and Stephanie Tea.
No such thing as too many cooks.
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