Back in March I received a VIP invitation to participate in
the Dole Taste of Spain Salad Summit.
There wasn’t much to think about
– three days in Carmel, tours of the lettuce fields and processing
plant, cooking class, tapas, meeting other food bloggers, Eating Well Magazine,
dinners, winery lunch and all being sponsored by
Dole Salads – my answer was a
resounding YES!
Dole chose
Carmel Valley Ranch to host the
Taste of Spain
Salad Summit. It is a 500 acre
playground (fabulous resort) which includes great dining, a spa, stunning pool,
guided hikes, valley views, garden tours, golf and tennis, nightly s’mores,
tree swings and dazzling spacious suites packed with all the comforts of
home. The resort is nestled inside a
gated community in
Carmel Valley
at the top of the hill with magical views. The décor is breathtaking, rich,
comforting and perfectly appointed to match the outside. Large windows bring the outside in and blend
with the landscaping to be simply perfect.
You immediately feel welcome and never want to leave.
After getting my items settled in the room, I strolled down
to the pool area and soon met several of the other bloggers who were attending
the event. It was great to meet
Ali,
Brenda,
Chung-Ah,
Heather,
Heidi and
Liz.
It was great to meet Heather in person, since we had been blog and
social media friends for a few years.
The poolside welcome reception would start in shortly and we all decided
to freshen up.
The reception featured
Sangria Verde and
Sangria with
Muddled Strawberries and Arugula, which were specially designed by Dole.
Joullian Pinot Grigio and Syrah were featured
along with two bite sized tapas. First tapa
was manchego cheese wrapped in roasted red bell peppers along with a tuna
Crostini – both extremely tasty. It was
a distinctive cocktail hour with several key members of Dole attending and
truly interested in who we were and what our blogs entailed. It was great to meet
Bob and
Mike from the PR
Firm Dole works with and who orchestrated coordinating all of the bloggers –
they did a fantastic job. Hats off to both of you!
I was energized to meet all of the bloggers at the cocktail
party and made my way around to meet
Catherine,
Dawn,
Jane,
Kristen,
Marie,
Megan,
Christy,
Nikki,
Sandy and
Tessa. I was
familiar with several of the blogs and thrilled to be able to check out new
ones. How great was it to be with fellow
food bloggers for a few days. We all
love food,
Instagram, blogging and talking – what more could you ask for.
The cocktail reception seemed to whirl by and next thing we
knew we were heading into a private room for dinner. We were intermingled with folks from Dole
which gave us a great opportunity to learn more about Dole, the culture and the
products. Dole Salads has created long
lasting partnerships with the farmers in the Monterey
and Salinas regions which now have
second and third generations running the farms and creating outstanding
opportunities for individuals to live a rewarding life. Dole has outstanding tenure among its
employees with the average being 15 to 25 years for a large number of
folks. I sat next to Gil who is the
Director New Product Development and learned a lot about what goes into
creating new Dole products - simply fascinating. You can sense that people love
working at Dole along with being a partner to provide the world’s freshest and
most compelling products.
After looking at Dole’s website and reviewing their mission
along with meeting numerous individuals who have made Dole their home, their
mission rings true. Mission: Dole Food Company, Inc. is committed to
supplying the consumer with the finest, high-quality products and to leading
the industry in nutrition research and education. Dole support these goals with a corporate philosophy
of adhering to the highest ethical conduct in all its business dealings,
treatment of its employees and social and environmental policies. After dinner
you can enjoy the nightly indulgence of s’mores by the pool. How cool is that?
Morning had arrived.
We were treated to a lavish breakfast of fresh fruit, by Dole of course,
yogurt parfaits, along with bites of specially developed recipes that mirrored
the Spanish theme. We were then whisked
off in a luxury bus to the lettuce fields in Salinas
about an hour away. We were able to chat
in the bus and get to know one another.
We pulled off the main highway to the lettuce fields. I had always seen it from the freeway but
never dreamed I would be walking through the fields in a few minutes. We first have to adorn our hairnets –
stunning I must say. Smile.
(Mark Pisoni in the front)
Our tour of the Dole Growing Field was led by a
Dole Farmer
Mark Pisoni whose farm we toured. He
shared his farming philosophy and passion for the land. With hairnets secure, we began our journey
through the iceberg lettuce. It was
amazing how just a few heads of iceberg were left, but the majority were cut by
hand and then trimmed and lightly washed.
Once ready, they went into large boxes and were whisked to the Dole
processing plant. We learned that
freshness is extremely important and it is less than four hours from farm to
package. We tasted the iceberg and it
was amazingly tasty and you certainly can’t get any fresher than that.
My career is in the Human Resources field. From my perspective, it is
important to understand how employees are treated and the culture of various organizations. After speaking with several Dole employees, I
realized that the farm workers are paid fairly, given breaks after every two
hours along with lunch and treated extremely well. You can sense that each person on the
production line has an immense work ethic and is proud of what they do. It was very interesting to get up close to
the production line and see how they set the head of lettuce on top of a small
block and is washed prior to moving forward to the box. The fields typically produce 3 to 4 crops per
year for maximum yield, which is good for business along with employment of the
farm workers.
We headed to see what happens to the lettuce once it arrives
at the Dole plant in Soledad. Since they have a proprietary manufacturing process,
they asked us not to take photos during the tour. Essentially the product arrives, get cut into
pieces, washed again, thrown into super large salad metal salad spinners and up
onto a conveyor belt. Once it hits the
top, it is portioned out and placed into sealed plastic bags that leave the
right amount of oxygen to preserve the lettuce as long as possible - amazing
technology on freshness.
We headed to one of the labs at the processing plant. Set before us were bins of about 25 different
lettuces. We quickly found out that we
were having a quiz to name all of the lettuces. Emilio lead the charge for this part of the tour. I thought it would be easy, but learned that it was not. Luckily we were given a “Lettuce 101” binder
as a guide to take home. By now we were getting hungry and excited for our next
stop at Paraiso Vineyards in Soledad.
Paraiso Vineyards consist of 400 acres that lies at the
southern end of the
Santa Lucia
Highlands in
Monterey
County. Rich and Claudia Smith began planting in 1973
and today Rich and his son Jason manage almost 150 vines. It is truly a family business and a labor of
love. We enjoyed passed appetizers along
with their Riesling before sitting down for lunch. Met
Julie who resides in the Bay Area. The
Empanadas filled with Spanish Manchego
Cheese, Roasted Garlic and Chorizo Sausage was out of this world
delicious. These are a must make and you
will certainly see on the blog in an upcoming post. All of the wines were extraordinary and made
with precision and love.
We headed back to the resort for our next adventure. Dole partnered with
Eating Well Magazine as
one of their 2013 culinary partners and was part of the Taste of Spain Salad
Summit. We had the distinct pleasure of
meeting and able to interact with
Lisa Gosselin, Editor-in-Chief and
Stacy
Fraser, Test Kitchen Manager for Eating Well Magazine. Lisa gave a wonderful presentation on Global
Culinary/Eating Trends. It was
interesting to learn that through their research – pancakes, lasagna and banana
bread was among the most searched for on their website. Okay another fact that will surprise you –
goat is the most popular meat in the world and asparagus is the favorite
vegetable in
America.
Next we had a sneak peak into what our dinner would be like
that evening.
Gabriel Georis who is the
owner of
Mundaka Restaurant in
Carmel
along with
Brandon Miller, the Executive Chef gave a presentation and cooking
demonstration. Both Gabriel and Brandon
understand Spanish cuisine since they have spent time in many parts of the
country including the Basque region. An
interesting fact: the word Tapas came
from folks having a drink and placing a small plate on top of the glass to keep
the fruit flies away. The bar owners thought to add small bites on top of the
plates and top with salty marcona almonds which in turn made the customers
thirsty and order more drinks.
Chef Miller demonstrated a classic frittata along with
serving a delicious salad in a jar. The
salad had pickled cauliflower, shaved Brussels sprouts, ham, lentils and a
creamy dressing. Gabe shared the concept of Pintxos. It is a snack, typically eaten in bars,
traditionally in Basque country. They
are related to tapas, but are usually “spiked” with a skewer or toothpick,
often to a piece of bread. We were quickly divided into four groups to create
our own Pintxos and a winner would be determined. My group won for “most creative” since Dawn
came up with the idea to re-create the Spanish Dole lady on the salad bag. It was fun!
(Kristen, Dawn, Me, Gabe, Chef Miller and Brenda)
Off for a quick nap and next up was our magnificent dinner at
Mundaka in downtown
Carmel. From our preview of what was to come, I knew
I would not be disappointed. From the
crispy chickpeas with truffle salt to the cauliflower gratin to the flan with
cardamom and blueberries, the entire experience was marvelous, memorable, fun
and inspiring.
(Stacy, Me, Chung-Ah and Kristen)
The next morning we were treated to a delicious breakfast
and a presentation by Stacy Fraser who is the test kitchen manager for Eating
Well Magazine. She shared her tips and
tricks for creating recipes that are well tested and can be published. She talked about the art of developing,
testing and writing magazine ready recipes.
She is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about her career.
After her presentation, our three day Dole Taste of Spain
Salad Summit was coming to an end and many opted to take the Pebble Beach 17
Mile Drive excursion. I needed to head
back home but completely enjoyed my time at the summit. Thank you Dole for inviting me and giving me
a new perspective on how terrific your company, people and products are. I loved meeting new food blogger friends and
having the opportunity to interact with Lisa and Stacy from Eating Well
Magazine to gain a greater appreciation of what goes into producing a world
class magazine.
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