Bringing the heat with Smithfield Culinary

Each year, Smithfield Culinary, an Entegra strategic partner, launches a series of campaigns to keep its operators in-the-know regarding culinary and food service trends, themes and insights. For 2023’s first campaign, dubbed “She Brings the Heat,” Smithfield Culinary focused on women chefs and the way they continue to innovate and inspire, making a tangible impact on the culinary industry and their communities.

As part of the campaign, Smithfield Culinary and its marketing agency, FoodMix, flew six chefs of varying backgrounds from around the country to Chicago — among them, Entegra Performance Kitchen’s Director of Culinary Operations Chef Lynn Hay. After a roundtable discussion on culinary trends, mentorship and what’s next for the future generation of women chefs, Smithfield Culinary challenged each guest chef to create recipes that were recession-proof, that cross-utilized seasonal products and that paid homage to a woman mentor — and that all used Smithfield Smoke ‘n Fast products. However, even with the similar challenge and similar ingredients, the chefs’ diverse histories, sources of inspiration and expertise resulted in an amazing and equally diverse array of recipes.

For the challenge, Chef Hay put together a gorgeous citrus pork tenderloin and burrata entrée, served with pickled radish and incorporating a Smithfield pork tenderloin, as well as a tasty ground pork empanada appetizer using Smithfield ground pork.

Of course, She Brings the Heat isn’t just about the food. During the roundtable segment of the day, Smithfield also asked the guest chefs for their takes on the future of women in food service. As Smithfield Culinary reports as part of the campaign, in 2020, Forbes found that just 6.3% of the head chef positions at prominent U.S. restaurant groups were held by females and, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 22.8% of chefs and head cooks in 2021 were women. Still, the visiting chefs were positive about recent changes in the industry and optimistic regarding future generations of women pursuing culinary careers. They resoundingly stressed the importance of leaning on community, collaborating with other chefs and having the flexibility to pivot.

I was humbled and inspired to cook alongside such talented chefs — who happen to be women. It was the absolute highlight of my year, and I am incredibly grateful for the experience,” said Chef Hay of her time at the Smithfield Culinary kitchen.

All the recipes, videos and industry insights to come from the She Brings the Heat campaign can be found across Smithfield Culinary’s social platforms, including on Instagram and LinkedIn, as well as at smithfieldculinary.com/menu-ideas/sbth/.