The 100 million pound man
John Folse shows how entrepreneurial savvy, hard work, imagination, and the willingness to take some risks can expand a chef's horizons, not to mention the bottom line.
Beverly Stephen reports.
"That's where it all started," says chef John Folse, pointing to a five gallon kettle enshrined at the entrance of his multimillion dollar USDA approved plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. "In 1990, we started making gumbo for Casino Magic on the Gulf Coast. People had been complaining about their gumbo. They wanted something more authentic."
Next thing you know, they were asking for etouffée. And one thing led to another.
Fast forward to 2008. Folse's manufacturing plant has just expanded to 68,000 square feet. Future expansion plans include a 20,000-square-foot bakery and a 21,000-square-foot dairy. Folse, who made his reputation in fine dining at his Lafitte's Landing in Donaldsonville (now a private restaurant and bed-and-breakfast) and through his catering arm White Oak Plantation, is manufacturing 100 million pounds of food a year. More than 300 products are created for some 375 foodservice, retail, and chain customers across the country—soups, sauces, and entrées for big casual dining chains like T.G.I. Friday's, for whom he makes Jack Daniel's glaze; retailers like Whole Foods, Fresh Direct, WalMart, and Albertsons; and even sauces, condiments, and flavored salts and oils for high-end chefs like Chicago's Rick Tramonto and New Orleans' Donald Link. Folse's soups, such as boiled crawfish, corn, potato, and red bean and sausage, cover the regional base while others, such as ruffled basil/tomato bisque or Parisian crab and Brie, have nationwide appeal. His all-natural sauces travel the globe from mole to soy/ginger/miso vinaigrette to romesco to harissa. Entrées range from chicken potpie filling to river road shrimp stew to fiesta chili. But never forgetting his roots, Folse offers three rouxs: Cajun dark, Creole butter, and blond, as well as a cane syrup vinaigrette.
His bakery division produces Artisanal cheesecake for Terrence Brennan, croissants and pizza dough for Whole Foods, and countless pies, pastries, and breads for clients big and small. His Bittersweet Plantation Fleur de Lis Triple Cream Cheese, which is sold at Murray's in New York City and numerous Whole Foods stores, won gold in the World Cheese Awards in London in 2004. In 2005, Evangeline (a triple cream goat's milk cheese) and chocolate/pecan butter won first place honors at the 22nd annual American Cheese Society conference and competition in Louisville.
"Up until the day before the Artisanal cheesecake won Outstanding New Product of 2006 at NASFT, Terry Brennan was calling me and cussing me out and saying he didn't like the cheesecake," Folse recalls. "After it took first prize, he said it was OK."
Some customers are easier to please than others, but all along the way, taste is the test. What differentiates Folse from the giant foodservice manufacturers is that his plant is totally chef owned and chef driven.
"Big companies always put science first and then make it taste as good as they can," he says. Folse believes the exponential growth of his company is due to his putting flavor first. "If we need to sauté or reduce, we will do it rather than buying a smoke flavor or a sauté flavor. We will make a dark brown roux rather than use caramel color and cornstarch."
The process is three pronged. The customer comes with his recipe, and the plant cooks the item accordingly, measuring everything in metric down to the exact gram weight. "We can't be even a pound off. Everything has to be precise," Folse explains. "This requires people who are very analytical and detailed. There's no creativity here." The client tastes it, and adjustments are made. The second step is to scale up to a five gallon batch. Again the client tastes and readjusts. "Once they say it tastes good, we run a 100 gallon batch. This is the most critical. We tweak it at every stage. Once we nail it, we go up to 2,000 pounds, then to 4,000, et cetera. This process can take from a week to a year, depending on the customer. Along the way things can happen. Food undergoes changes in the freeze/thaw process. That's why we need scientists."
This is not a path that Folse could even have imagined 15 years ago, but now he believes it's much more lucrative than other things many chefs do, such as running multiple restaurants or selling cookware on Home Shopping Network. "Sometimes chefs come here and say it's impossible, that there aren't enough years in a man's life to do this. But it's not impossible if you're willing to do it. We're the best example of how to do it. Nobody is from a more humble background than I am," says Folse, whose father was a Cajun trapper. "It was a long road from there to here. There's a lot of heartache. You have to fire people who don't perform. And there's always risk when you're borrowing millions."
As you walk through the plant with Folse, he points to a section holding $2 million worth of equipment—a couple of 4,000 pound steam kettles, a 1,000 pound liquifier that alone costs $80,000, numerous packaging machines, a high-speed meat grinder, two cast-iron 1,000 pound kettles for making dark brown roux and light brown roux.
Next, Folse shows a 30 foot high freezer the size of an airplane hangar, where 18-wheelers can back up and unload their cargo. His attention to detail was apparent when he pointed out the deficiencies in a lounge for the truck drivers that was still under construction. "I said, 'There's no sink in here, no water, no drains. We have to have a coffee station. And they'll want plugs to recharge their cell phones.'" The problems were corrected.
In April Folse completed his own distribution center so that his products can be dispensed from his own docks. Most of the large chain accounts contract with private carriers to handle distribution. Folse himself has four trucks—two 18-wheelers and two 14-wheelers—that he uses for regional deliveries.
Folse has become such a paradigm of the chef/entrepreneur that the College of Management & Economics of Ontario's University of Guelph (known as the Cornell of Canada) presents him as a case study: "Chef Folse has created a thriving company that leverages the food and history of Louisiana, providing a unique brand based on the man himself and his unique surroundings." The study notes the businesses already mentioned above as well as Folse's publishing division, most noted for his Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine and After the Hunt: Louisiana's Authoritative Collection of Wild Game & Game Fish Cookery; the naming of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in his honor; his television series A Taste of Louisiana; his radio show Stirrin' It Up; and a culinary tours operation called "Louisiana Off the Menu."
In conclusion it posits that "his integration of a gastronomic identity business model across a diverse group of business endeavors has been a groundbreaking development in North America."
For more info: www.jfolse.com
