Dr. Kracker

Recently I was asked to answer some questions about the overlap between natural foods and gourmet foods, the gour-natural foods. In thinking about how these food categories have run together in many minds, I came up with the following thoughts.

I’m not certain how to define gourmet foods. When I awakened to food in the 60’s, gourmet implied a higher price and a more limited appeal to a more exclusive clientele. It was food that placed flavor, texture and sensual appeal above all else. Ingredient purity was not an absolute. Food for snobs, in other words. In contrast, a definition of natural foods is simple. In the case of processed foods, these are the foods that contain no artificial ingredients nor any chemical preservatives. If they are organic as well, they are limited to the types of fertilizers and other inputs used during the raising of plants and animals.

The clientele who created the natural foods market and propelled natural foods into social awareness were also elitists in a sense. They rejected the chemical solutions to growing and manufacturing mass produced food. Nutritional considerations and source of the food were paramount in the natural foods movement, and many a brick-like loaf of bread was baked in the interest of ingredient purity. But at the same time, natural foods “freaks” had a missionary bent; they wanted to bring natural foods to the main stream and they wanted to transform how the world grows and manufactures food. During the counter culture of the 60’s, I saw natural foods achieve the threshold of awareness, and since then it has become a movement whose impact has grown into a many tiered and complex farming, manufacturing and retailing system.

Not all gourmet foods are natural foods, since preservatives and chemicals can find their way into any food. But these days, I see the gourmet and natural trends completing their merger, and the slow food movement and artisan food movements are providing much of the push for this union. Both artisan and slow food are processed following the many-step and careful techniques of food preparation and food preservation that are part of our global food heritage. Generally, these techniques are natural since this heritage predates better living through chemistry! The quest for complex and outstanding flavors relies on process. A long fermentation Ciabatta made from finally milled wheat (read white) flour can take three days and is one of the outstanding results of artisan baking. Complexity of flavor and exciting texture trump concerns about food and health claims. This is gour-nartural food at its best: it is all about how great the food is, with chemical-free and preservative-free being an implicit definition of great.

Nonetheless, as natural and gourmet have inextricably intertwined, consumers are going one step further and demanding that foods address their health concerns. I think that these new demands are a direct result of better knowledge about diet and health as well as our aging baby boomers’ wanting to live longer and to live better, remaining active and healthy until death may knock at the door. These new demands on the food system emphasize minimally processed foods. Consumers now recognize that this is the message of the natural foods and slow food movements since their inception. Over-processing steals the inherent flavors and inborn richness of the food. These are the parts of the food that are stripped away so as not to have to bother with shorter shelf lives and the challenges of food preservation. Now, food must taste great, be crafted without preservatives or other chemicals and must come with god’s intended package of nutrients. And they want them in a shape and form that is delicious and convenient, even if it means frozen and almost ready to eat! They want calories that matter.

There may be a contradiction between ready-to-eat, convenience foods and minimally processed foods. However there are ways for food manufacturers and artisans to preserve the best of the food as they mimic the complicated steps that the chef at home would have to perform to prepare dinner. So we’ve gone from better living through chemistry to better tasting food through better knowledge and a better understanding of and control of bacteria and enzymes. Good-for-you food does not have to come from a cave or a peasant’s cellar in Eastern Europe. It can come from the To-Go section of the supermarket or from the freezer section where the colorful packages tell the story with wonderful photographs and compelling text.

Any discussion of gourmet and natural foods must discuss costs. Do artisan and slow foods have to cost more and be exclusive? Slower processing means added costs. Time is money. Parmesan Reggiano ferments for two years before it can be sold. In the meantime, the farmer, the cheese maker and the cows have to eat! But artisan doesn’t have to mean exclusive. Years ago in the natural foods industry, an executive was heard to say: “customers expect us to be expensive; let’s not disappoint them.” I think that changes in the grocery world today are in the process of burying this thought, and this individual is now retired!

We are witnessing the blurring of the formerly sharp lines between the supermarkets and the natural foods chains. Wal-Mart and other local chains such as HEB in Texas have taken the logical step of moving from selling high value, gourmet foods to selling natural and organic foods as well. Costco is known for delivering gourmet and natural foods at great prices. Whole Foods, the largest natural foods chain, has an extensive private label brand—365—that promises and delivers great value 365 days, every day of the year.

Many of these chains pride themselves on their logistics, and they specialize in buying larger quantities from the farmers and artisans and move them at the least cost to the customer. Savings in this procurement and logistics are passed along to the customer. Wal-Mart’s stated goal is to sell organic foods at a price not significantly higher than other foods and to be the lowest cost seller of organic foods. SuperValu is looking in the same direction with its new chain: Sunflower. The question is whether the sophisticated consumers will go to the Wal-Mart or SuperValu stores to buy their foods or whether they will stick to the chains that know how to sell the story of the foods and which so effectively communicate an appreciation of food and a natural lifestyle as much as they sell food itself.

Where does Dr. Kracker fit into this? Dr. Kracker sees itself as selling healthy food but not just health food. Dr. Kracker is a company of artisan bakers. Coming from a natural foods background, we commit to organic ingredients as an important part of quality foods and to systems of sustainable agriculture. As bakers, we understand the slow, careful mixing of whole grain ingredients, we have been schooled in the long fermentation of doughs, and we know how to optimize the caramelization of the flatbread’s crust to develop the richest flavors. We know how to make great tasting and good-for-you food from the very simple ingredients of grains and seeds rather than relying on fats, oils, salt and sugars for flavors.

But I don’t like to think of Dr. Kracker as a gourmet food company or as a health food company. Dr. Kracker is in the happy spot where good-for-you food meets great tasting food. There is less need to emphasize nutrition, when the flavor and texture are so beyond what has been available. But fiber, flax seeds, good oils and high protein are all important characteristics that we look for in minimally processed foods and ingredients. Dr. Kracker is proud to bake food as it should be.

Given the nutritional challenges that face the world—a world in which surfeit of food is becoming as great of a problem as scarcity of food. Obesity and diabetes will impose huge future costs on our medical system, and most likely fill up all those handicapped parking spaces that now stand empty for much of the day. The answers, however, are clear and straightforward. Eat foods that are good for you and avoid those that are not good for you. More specifically, find a diet that is rich in minimally processed foods and avoid the processed foods, which can impoverish us not only with their empty calories but also their destructive calories. Steer away from trans-fat and keep saturated fat to levels within recommended parameters. Keep high fructose corn syrup and other sugars to a minimum. Many of us in the food system are working at crafting foods that taste great and which have the entire natural package of nutrients, vitamins and fiber in a delicious form to your table. We are creating those foods with the calories that matter. Look for these foods in your specialty supermarkets, in your natural food stores and in WalMart, Costco and SuperValu stores.