Power Brands Elevate Plant-Based Dining

Picture this: a brand that features a simple menu, with a single ingredient, that is both healthy and engineered to have little-to-no food waste. Take it a step further and make that single ingredient a plant, a tasty vegetable harvested and served in the same season it’s grown, arriving fresh from the farm.

The philosophy of Morrison Healthcare’s (MHC) Power Brands which are “powered by WellPower,” a comprehensive wellness and sustainability program. WellPower’s goal is simple: to encourage people to eat nourishing food which helps them feel their best. The plant-forward, low-waste concept behind Power Brands applies the “Five Guys methodology” of serving a simplified menu with only a few menu options. The flavors and style of each dish meet current food trends, and that includes menu names. For example, the Cauli Club concept features a crispy Buffalo Cauliflower Sandwich made with cauliflower steak and blue cheese sauce on a brioche bun.

There is a well-documented push for plant-based menus in the culinary world. Morrison Healthcare (MHC) has embraced this by providing options that buck expectations and expand palates. Cauli Club and the other Power Brands are the latest concepts to elevate plant-based dining. Each veggie pop-up is a root-to-stem concept that takes advantage of all the goodness each vegetable has to offer. The stalks, leaves, stems, and skins provide distinct textures and taste to each recipe. The sustainability wattage of each concept can be amped up by using Imperfectly Delicious Produce, a program that rescues “ugly” yet nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. The marketing and implementation are simple enough to execute at any of their 850+ hospitals across the country.

“We want to take plant-forward to a whole new level,” said Jeffrey Quasha, Director of Retail Culinary Innovation at MHC. “The menu items for Beet Root or On The Vine could be seen at any fine dining or trendy restaurant around the country.”

As of today, Morrison Healthcare has launched five of the six Power Brands:

• Beet Root (Food Management’s Best Concept of 2019) • Carrot Greens (Flavor Magazine Top 100 Trends of 2020; Healthcare Without Harm Culinary Contest honorable mention) • On the Vine • Cauli Club • Silver Kings

In spring 2022, Morrison Healthcare will launch the last of the Power Brands, called “All Caps,” featuring mushrooms prepared in three different ways.