In Store Food Demos

I'd probably stick with ONE meal/dish, you're not going to see many "repeat" visitors and you have a really short time frame.

I'd also probably look at something that is easily pre-prepped and cooks in no more than three (3) minutes, make the sample size "bites", not a meal! This keeps your offerings fresh and shows how quickly they can be cooked.

I'd be concerned with who is paying for the food and my time as well. I would think the market would provide the food and I'd want something on the order of $100 or so plus being allowed to advertise my service(s) or restaurant.

Not knowing the products the market is "pushing", it is difficult to recommend specific dishes.

Maybe chicken piccata, chicken marsala, etc.?

Polenta may not be enough attention to the "organic" side?

check out what's on special that week...

Italian Sausage and Marinara

Ratatouille or Caponata....add chicken or shrimp.

I demoed at a farmer's market 24 weeks a season for 7 years. Short, sweet with recipes.....even for the lamest dishes (seriously, I had someone watch me make applesauce then ask for a recipe....um, peel the apple, put it in pan, put a lid on the pan and cook until shmush?!)

Sept. peppers are prolific, red pepper tomato soup

apples are in now, apple sauce....potato pancakes

sweet potatoes are about to come in....spicy Indian sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, mustard seeds, chili flakes, raisins, cashews, jalepinos.....

Fall mushrooms, crank out a risotto

aps for thanksgiving time...
what to do with leftovers

A couple of thoughts, outside the food itself:

1. Who's checked into the legalities? Food demos are high on local health departments' lists, so make sure the store has dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's.

2. Single burners? Does the store already have them? If not, who is responsible for buying them. Gas hotplates run from $40-$85 each. Plust the cost of the propane. Electric skillets and griddles can run even more.

That said, more than any other marketing job, food demos should follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid! You are not doing a food network show. Customers will walk over, try a sample, maybe stick around a few minutes to see what you're doing. And then they're gone. Keep that in mind as you plan what you'll be showing.

Also keep in mind that supermarket customers are used to being sampled, not demoed. That is, there's a little old lady with a hot plate handing out cut up pieces of a commercial product. So, unless the demo is promoted as an event, that's all they'll think it is.

Example: A local market recently had a chef doing a demo on cooking rib eye with a blue-cheese/cab sauce. Out of curiosity I stood around to watch the traffic flow. Basically, she demoed to thin air. What people wanted was a taste of the steak. So they'd continue their shopping, checking back occasionally to see if the steak was ready.

That's not an uncommon occurance.

I don't mean to sound discouraging. What I'm saying is that there's more involved in successful demonstrations than deciding on the food to highlight.

then think about how to alter prepared food.

Prepared pesto, add tomatoes, peppers, red onions, cooked pasta filled or not
chicken/shrimp/sausage whatever the store wants to push

kid friendly food....dips for fruit

smoothies

yogurt parfait

box soup with toppings.....there's some decent prepared soups on the market, add chevre or croutons or wontons or what have you.

Don't forget fish. Fish responds very well to microwaving (although no one likes to admit it) as it doesn't dry out like it does when baked or broiled. Put the fish on a plate with some butter, ghee or olive oil, season lightly, add some fresh herbs and into the nuke 2-3 minutes (depending on the size of the fish). Voila. Fast food. Just don't put any cheese on it. Ever. I don't know who started that practice, but it makes both the cheese and fish taste bad. We have a well respected restaurant in our area that has on their menu pan-seared halibut with portabella mushrooms, gruyerre cheese and chardonnay sauce. So on the plate there't the fish with the fungus flavor from the mushrooms, fungus from the cheese, and fungus from the wine. It must taste like somebody's foot. I want to try it to see how bad it really is, but don't want to spend the money. Makes me wonder what they were thinking when there's so many better ingredients they could have used. Tomatoes, onion, zucchini, peppers etc. All citrus fruits work well with fish too. Think salmon with cranberry-orange-ginger sauce. Experiment, have fun.

quesadillas
using veg off the salad bar to prepare a hot dinner
(mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc)

If it were my gig and I was at a loss for what to do, I'd practice industrial espiange.....see what Trader Joes, etc are making/doing, look at quick magazines or Sandra Lee's books.....seriously, that is about the speed you want. Some prepared food that is altered to "upscale it".

Do a dish people are familiar with then add an unusual item.....tofu/tempeh/soy meat.....tangerine juice instead of orange....

Talk to people as you demo and find out what they make and what they'd like to make but don't know how....or what products they'd like to see demoed. Feedback is a beautiful thing.