The culinary universe focuses, traditionally, on juggling ingredients, flavours and presentations to achieve variety and keep diners ‘interested’. But what about a more adventurous tack? Olymel is re-imagining Pork with a whole new array of creative cuts…
Convenience. Quick preparation. Maximum flavour and texture. All goals that every cook aims for when creating new dishes or elevating old ones.
But would you go as far as to propose – much less actually implement – a plan to rework the map by which our most common meats are cut?
Olymel – the Quebec-based pork kings – have done just that, swapping out familiar roasts, tender-loins, shoulders, and ribs in favour of updated takes on traditional Beef cuts.
Would you try…
- Pork T-bone
- Chimichurri pork flank steak
- Hotel cut pork chops
- Pork capicola steak
- Greek-style pork sirloin skewers
“These new products are quality cuts that are easy to cook, which fills an untapped niche in the pork industry and meets consumer needs,” says Daniel Rivest, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing at Olymel. “We’re using existing meat terminology to show that our pork is more than capable of offering a culinary experience that’s both affordable and high-end.”
Leveraging the ‘I’ word
‘Innovation’ is the byword in the 202os, when determining what to offer consumers next. A relent-lessly younger ruling majority is increasingly demanding new approaches to old, standard favourites, responding to ‘newstalgic’ notions like bears to honey, and insisting that each succeeding ‘new thing’ be even faster and easier – more convenient – to prepare than the last.
“Food trends are changing, and Olymel is adapting by offering solutions that meet the new realities of consumers,” the ‘Pork-o-vation’ news release insists. “Today, 50 percent of Canadians say that protein is a key part of their diet, and 68 percent plan to cook at home more because of the eco-nomy. Olymel’s new product offering meets those needs.”
My take
It’s a brave, new approach, to propose a wholesale revision of how we – literally – view a whole class of foods. But maybe that’s what it’s going to take to keep succeeding new generations of increasingly food-aware consumers interested in what the ‘legacy’ food producers and manufacturers have to offer.
On the other hand…
I wonder how long it’s going to take animal protein purveyors like Olymel to realize – or admit to themselves – that the way of the future is actually plant-based? Re-drawing the map, creating a whole new slate of pork cuts, suggests to me that Olymel already sees the writing on the wall, and is resorting to what looks to me like a Hail Mary move to preserve the ‘old ways’…
I for one, will be really curious to see how Olymel’s new beef-cut pork fares on the open market…
~ Maggie J.