November 3, 2022
Frito-Lay is investing in the future of foods and snacks, guided by a diverse group of top-notch chefs.
Frito-Lay and Quaker chefs Carol McCall, Jody Denton, John Kett, Steven Dominguez, Ngoc Trinh and Charlene Gladden, in Plano’s R&D Culinary Center.(Courtesy Frito-Lay).
Ever wonder how Frito-Lay comes up with creative flavors like Tangy Ranch Doritos and Stacy’s Simply Bruschetta Pita Chips? If you were thinking of food scientists experimenting in a lab, you’d be partially right. But that comes later.
First, the idea for the flavor has to be developed, and in the case of the aforementioned ones, those were conceived by Frito-Lay North America executive research chef Ngoc Trinh, a Vietnamese American with an impressive resume as a pastry chef and a lifelong love of food. Trinh is one of 14 chefs who work at the company’s R&D Culinary Innovation Center in Plano.
Opened in 2007, the center is the first of five that Frito-Lay parent PepsiCo operates worldwide. The experienced team there creates flavors for Frito-Lay snacks and Quaker foods that are sold all around the world.
The chefs embody a variety of cultural backgrounds and skillsets, including specialists in food science, baking and pastry, and nutrition. They have traveled globally to immerse themselves in various cuisines and cultures, and to experience how people eat.
Frito-Lay chef Ngoc Trinh carefully supervises the latest meal she just created.(Courtesy Frito-Lay)
“People think I have the coolest job in the world because I get to make the next flavor of chip,” Trinh says. “It’s a true combination of science and culinary arts — to place a chef on the manufacturing line and apply culinary magic to it.”
Trinh, who was born and reared in Dallas by her Vietnamese mother and Chinese-French father, says her mother gave her a paring knife and a mandolin when she was 5 years old.
“For me, cooking is part of the incredibly diverse culture within our family,” she says.
Trinh entered college as a precocious 16-year-old who planned to become a doctor, but the medical field proved too barren of foodies like herself. She switched gears and began studying baking at El Centro Community College, now known as Dallas College.
Trinh became a pastry chef who developed inventive pastry menus for several local restaurateurs and helped Wolfgang Puck launch his Dallas expansion in 2006. It was on a Puck catering gig that a Frito-Lay chef noticed her dedication and poached her for research and development.
At Frito-Lay, Trinh helped develop the wildly popular Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco Shells for Taco Bell and variations of Quaker instant oatmeal, including apple walnut and berry. She has also ideated flavors for the Middle East and Europe, such as pizza-flavored SunBites crackers, among other projects. She took inspiration from Korean cuisine for Doritos Tangy Ranch, and consumers will see additional spicy Asian and fusion flavors in Frito-Lay’s future.
“Flamin’ Hot is spreading like wildfire across all of our brands, and you may see it in some unexpected ones,” Trinh says. “People are embracing the Asian flavors that I grew up with. They’re telling me they are okay with yellow curry, and there will be yellow curry chips in the future. Fusion is not going away, either.”
Associate principal research chef Steven Dominguez, who has a degree in culinary nutrition from prestigious Johnson & Wales University, has a different focus. He concentrates on boosting the health and appeal of the company’s grain portfolio, such as Quaker and Health Warrior.
“Most of my time has been in early-stage innovation, like exploring what a new brand that we acquired is capable of,” Dominguez says. “Having a chef early on in the innovation cycle allows us to be true to the consumer, and true to the food at the same time.”
Dominguez, who spent 10 years of his childhood in the Dominican Republic, became interested in nutrition when he ran low on funds while interning at restaurants in Ireland.
“I came back, and there are hungry kids all over the U.S., and I understood what that’s like,” he says. “I want to make sure that no kids have to go through that.”
He’s proud of the PepsiCo Positive initiative to spread regenerative practices across the company’s 7-million-acre agricultural footprint, improve product and packaging sustainability, and expand its portfolio of plant-based proteins, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
“Creating foods that deliver greater nutrition and have a greener impact on the environment makes me really excited,” Dominguez says. “PepsiCo has such a big influence over what all of us eat that it is an absolute honor to bring the wellness and health perspective into conversations with our product developers and nutrition scientists.”
Senior executive research chef Jody Denton joined the company in 2011 after building a career in award-winning gourmet foods and upscale restaurants, such as Restaurant R’Evolution in New Orleans and Restaurant LuLu in San Francisco. He saw Frito-Lay as an opportunity to positively impact millions of people around the globe with flavors that he created, like Lay’s Kettle Cooked Indian Tikka Masala potato chips.
Frito-Lay chef Jody Denton explains the latest flavors and food trends consumers are asking for.(Courtesy Frito-Lay)
“Our goal is to improve our product portfolio in multiple areas with better flavors, better textures, new forms, new ingredients and new processes,” Denton says. “Culinology is something we really live and breathe here. The scientists are intentionally more foodie than most scientists, and the chefs are intentionally more scientific.”
Just as restaurant menus change over time, creative flavors like tikka masala chips don’t stay on the shelves forever.
“We have to have something new, and there’s only so much space on the shelves,” Denton says. “The idea is to replace it with something that is at least as popular so you have an interesting portfolio that is constantly changing.”
