Chefs are whipping up a new way to boost New Zealand's dairy export drive - 56 chefs working in about 50 different countries, to be precise.
They are part of Anchor Food Professionals, Fonterra's new food services division, which is creating a whole new way of working in export markets and with customers in those markets.
Grant Watson, head of AFP and Fonterra's Director of Foodservice, says the chefs are hired in countries ranging from China to Chile to help boost the business performance of those customers - mostly found in the Italian restaurant (pizza and pasta), bakery and quick service restaurant arenas.
The chefs are all of good standing and work directly with chefs and food professionals anywhere where food is prepared outside the home - cafes, restaurants, hotels, airlines, hospitals and schools. They demonstrate not only key products like milk, cream, cheese and cream cheese but also showcase how Fonterra's innovations in their product range can drastically benefit a business.
Watson recalls a recent such boost to a bakery customer in Malaysia; the owner-operator owned about six bakeries, mostly specialising in sweet treats.
"We discovered he was using very little butter in his stores," says Watson. "So we went in with a chef and a small team. Butter is more expensive than non-dairy equivalents so he wasn't using much.
"The chef showed him how using butter makes such a difference when it comes to what he was making in his stores - cream cakes, cheesecakes, croissants, Danishes and the like. The taste and the melt-in-your-mouth factor is so much better.
"When he'd realised the difference, we drew him up a new menu, using butter products; we looked at the merchandising in his store and produced a backing board which made it clear to his customers about the attributes of New Zealand produce.
"That owner was able to put his prices up by 20 per cent on the back of what we achieved for him - and his profits went up by 150 per cent."
The AFP chefs include some sourced from Michelin restaurants, chef of the year competitions and some who have competed at culinary Olympics - and Watson says some of their greatest 'wow' moments come when they unveil innovations like the reduced cooking cream developed at Fonterra's research and development centre in Palmerston North.
"That cream is amazing stuff - we've developed a way of reducing it down so it just has to be heated to be used; you don't have to spend ages reducing it yourself and it has all the taste and richness of New Zealand cream.
"For food professionals, that means heaps. Instead of taking 15-20 minutes to reduce, it takes about 15 seconds, so they can get more plates out, more people fed, more tables full. We reckon that quick cream has about a 40 per cent higher yield for them."
Watson said he visited the head chef at a big New York hotel recently where the 'quick cream' won big favour because of the difficulty of attracting quality chefs in a tight market. Using the cream meant the chef had to spend far less time teaching his staff how to reduce cream, again a time- and money-saver in a high-pressure environment.
"That's what we do - we work alongside our customers to find business and product solutions that help their yield, their profitability, costs and waste and their business development."
The business imperative behind AFP is compelling. Established just last year, re-branded from Fonterra's old Foodservices operation, AFP is already turning over $1.6 billion a year and is aiming at $5 billion by 2023. It has about 50,000 customers in 50 countries.
Watson says that 2023 goal is eminently achievable: "We are growing at 18 per cent year on year. The global food services industry is growing at 6 per cent a year and consumer products by 3 per cent. So we are going ahead and leaps and bounds - and some of our people who researched it say we are now bigger than New Zealand wine exports."
The latest available figures from NZ Winegrowers (last month) say wine exports total $1.63b and are expected to grow to $2 billion by 2020.
Most of AFP's work centres around five "hero" products - specialised butter, whipping cream, cooking cream, cream cheese and mozzarella. Their biggest markets are China, South-east Asia and Australia but Watson says there is burgeoning growth coming out of countries like the USA, Brazil and Chile.
"We are finding our customers love what we are doing with the chefs and in this space," says Watson. "We hire the best professional chefs in the market and chefs are passionate, artistically-minded people; customers love working with us because of the effect on their business but also because our chefs stand should-to-shoulder with them to add value."
The benefits to New Zealand are clear - not only enhanced export receipts but a greater profile for New Zealand's produce and willingness to advance their customers' fortunes.
"You should hear the things we hear about New Zealand products and provenance," says Watson. "New Zealand is highly regarded and the strength of the individual brands and the overall brand can only grow stronger through this."
Watch: Rural New Zealand products making its to bustling Hong Kong.