Stepping into the Entegra Performance Kitchen

Every morning, Chef John Csukor, Head of Culinary at Entegra, steps into the Entegra Performance Kitchen and puts on his chef’s coat.

Chef John and his team get to work, uncovering solutions that upgrade menu offerings, improve kitchen efficiency and more. Every day is different, but the mission is always the same: help clients boost business performance.

Chef John talks more about the role culinary plays in the GPO world.

Q: What role does the Entegra Performance Kitchen play at Entegra?
JC: Since opening, the EPK has quickly become our hub of culinary validation. The EPK serves as the client test kitchen, and it’s where we tackle new concept development, qualitative contractual product evaluations, video and photo production and product testing for our supplier community.

Q: How does Entegra stay on top of all the trends impacting clients today?
JC: Our team is constantly immersed in culinary. The key is remaining vigilant in reading up on what our trend reporting partners are providing from their view. We stay active with the publications and contribute content for them throughout the year. We remain engaged with the restaurant sector where most cutting-edge work is performed by working occasional volunteer hours in operations, and staying close to our operators’ strategy and participating actively at a strategic level.

Q: How does your culinary team support Entegra clients?
JC: There are several ways we support our clients that I’d like to highlight here. We support them by adding our expertise to their strategy and activity. We present product cuttings to assure savings and an always im-roving quality standard. We partner with our clients and work through their research to find the newest ingredients and solutions, and inspire them through an evergreen innovation mentality.

Learn more about Entegra's culinary services.