About

Culinary Reaction & Discovery LLC.

Our Mission is to help customers create profitable opportunities while providing result oriented and company specific product development solutions. With over 15 years of combined experience including a diverse background covering the culinary and baking arts, product development commercialization, quality assurance and project management organization. Bart served as the lead researcher of numerous R&D projects at various companies with customers like Costco, Walmart, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Olive Garden, Wawa, Marie Callender Restaurants and innovation projects for Shake Shack and Freshly.

Accomplishments

Experiences

Handy Seafood
Guided the full alignment of product development processes with British Retail Consortium (BRC) certification requirements to supply the company’s seafood products to more high-profile retail locations. Expanded overall product value by emphasizing new flavors and texture profiles such as the creation of a healthier alternative to traditional Maryland crab cake and Thai chili shrimp appetizers.

Ragozzino Foods
Facilitated the creation of bench top samples based on sensory attributes, physical appearance, and large-scale manufacturability, as well as the design of new menu concepts following sustainability and authenticity trends for national/regional restaurant chains. Guided the launch of multiple sauces, meals, and other product lines for national multiunit chains, with full accountability for developing ease-of-use at the operational level.

Seviroli Foods
Spearheaded new product development covering all phases of menu development, recipe ideation, and product testing for various sauces, filled pastas and prepared meals. Established strategic, consumer-driven products by actively researching opportunity areas and menu trends, as well as organic ingredient and technology-focused innovations.

American Pie, LLC
Managed all processes in the stage gate system from conception to commercialization for all Marie Callender’s pies, cakes, and various desserts. Coordinated multiple projects for new and existing product development, process improvements and cost reduction for bakery and savory value added items. Oversaw multiple co-packing bakeries producing high volume value added pies, cakes and cookies for Marie Callender and meals for Claim Jumper. 

freshdirect.com
Established and built the R&D department for all of the culinary concepts at Freshdirect. Developed new products and signature menus for rapid growth in refrigerated and ready to eat categories including bakery, kitchen, fish and meat departments including producing the first “meal kit”.  Executed high intensity research and utilization of new production technology; created products for microwave pressure cooking, MAP, steam bags and nitrogen enrobing.