Dole Healthy-Cooking Initiative With Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille Seeks to Get More Cooks in the Kitchen
CHARLOTTE, NC - Remy, the rat-turned-chef at the center of Disney and Pixar movie Ratatouille, is well-known and loved for a statement that gracefully encompasses the relationship between humans and food: “Humans don’t just survive; they discover; they create…I mean, just look what they do with food!” Inspired by the sentiment, Dole Food Company recently launched an initiative to coax aspiring chefs at all levels and ages into the kitchen, proving that anyone can cook if given the recipes, inspiration, and freshest fruits and vegetables as ingredients.
“Understandably, in our quest for convenience, we’ve gotten away from the simple pleasures of cooking and the satisfaction and health benefits that come from creating a delicious dish from scratch using fresh, natural ingredients,” said William Goldfield, Director of Communications. “While the coronavirus has reunited many with their kitchens, there is still the widespread misperception that cooking is difficult and if you weren’t taught to cook at an early age, it’s too late to learn now.”
Goldfield continued by saying, “Of course, as Remy, Linguini, and Chef Gusteau taught us, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone really can cook if given the ingredients and inspiration, and this new program was designed to go beyond the recipes to motivate cooks and chefs at all levels to spice up their culinary routines this fall and winter, turning their kitchens into would-be restaurants for the holidays.”
Dole’s “Now We’re (All) Cooking” initiative features three months of original recipes, serving suggestions, digital and social activations, family-friendly activities, fun trivia, and influencer partnerships inspired by Remy, Linguini, Collette, Anton, and the other cooking-obsessed characters in Ratatouille.
Goldfield confirmed that Dole worked closely with the teams at Disney and Pixar to create 20 new, easy-to-make interpretations of dishes either inspired by the film or associated with French cuisine.
The first 10 recipes created by Melanie Marcus, MA, RD, Dole’s Health and Nutrition Communications Manager, have been posted to the Dole recipe library and include:
- Air Fried Sweet Frites with Pineapple Sauce
- Berry French 75 Mocktail
- Critic’s Choice Rustic Ratatouille
- Famous Remy Ratatouille Omelet
- Little Chef Potato-Leek Soup
- Five-Star Vegan Cheese Spread
- Gusteau Scallop and Pineapple Salad
- Oui Oui Wafer Banana Macarons
- Tuna au Poivre & Radish-Cucumber Crunch Salad
- Tuna Café Sandwiches
For most North Americans, the first sign of Dole’s Paris-inspired celebration came in May when images of Remy and Linguini showed up on millions of DOLE® Bananas and Pineapples in U.S. and Canadian supermarkets. Produce fans and aspiring family restaurateurs can now go to the Dole At-Home Resource Page to download and print a series of cooking-themed activities including DOLE Banana Sticker Peel-and-Play collectors’ sheets, DIY menus and cookbooks, Dole and Disney placemats, a printable chef’s hat, and DOLE Pineapple gift tags.
Multiple Dole social activations and blogger- and influencer-hosted promotions, plus 10 additional character-inspired recipes and several DIY recipe videos, will be revealed later this fall. Dole is also hosting a “Now We’re (All) Cooking Virtual Cooking Class” for bloggers and influencers to prove there can never be too many cooks in the kitchen (or on Zoom).
The in-store and in-kitchen fun caps Dole’s year-long celebration of Pixar Animation Studios, which is part of a long-term nutritional alliance with The Walt Disney Company, were designed to make healthy eating and a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables more fun and accessible to busy parents.
“In addition to making mealtime more satisfying because you are creating the dishes yourself, cooking at home is simply good for you,” Goldfield continued. “There is plenty of external research to suggest that families that cook together are happier, eat better, and live longer, while other studies compiled by the Dole Nutrition Institute show that home cooking leads to lower calories, fat, and sodium, and eating together as a family offers both physical and mental health benefits. It appears that Remy was right all along.”
For more of the fun and exciting ways that fresh produce suppliers are engaging with consumers, keep checking in with us at ANUK.
