Trout revives, updates ARA Serve r&d

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 13, 1992 by Robin Lee Allen

PHILADELPHIA -- During the past year Janna Trout has overseen the resurrection and the evolution of ARA Serve's research and development department from a traditional research laboratory to a contemporary interactive think tank called Culinary Standards.

The department, which was eliminated about five years ago, was reopened in October 1990, to accommodate customers' increasing interest in more healthful culinary offerings, said Trout 34, the department's director since its rebirth.

"Customers are much more flavor driven," she pointed out. "People are more educated, and palates are more educated. You can no longer serve middle-of-the-road food. People on the whole are much more aware of healthy eating, and because of that, we have to take a new look at recipes and ask, 'What can we do that will make them taste good?"

But while much of Trout's position involves developing and analyzing the nutritional content of new recipes, her mission has also been to give R & D a contemporary, more humanistic image. To do so, she makes sure she is accessible to ARA's people in the field.

"We don't want people to perceive us only as scientists," she noted, explaining the department's new name and philosophy. "Culinary should mean a dining-out experience, and our managers should have a good experience. R & D sounds sterile, like a science lab."

To eliminate the isolated, ivory-tower image of R & D, Trout developed a culinary council of chefs from ARA Serve's campus, health-care and business accounts. The council serves as a sounding board as well as a suggestion box for projects.

"They are a steering committee to help us so that we don't create in a vacuum," she remarked. "We bounce ideas off them. That's the most critical part that was missing from R & D years ago."

A new eight-step computer program helps Trout and her staff update and manage their recipe files. The eight-step program ensures that all 1,800 of ARA Serve's accounts receive consistent information on recipes, pricing, purchasing standards and nutritional analysis, she added.

"Now people have a place to call if a recipe doesn't work," Trout observed. She sees her department's role expanding into training and helping managers with day-to-day operations as well.

Before moving to her current position, Trout was most recently the food standard specialist for ARA's health-care division. A Pittsbugrh native, she also held many positions at hospitals and retirement centers in the Pittsburgh area. She holds degrees in dietectics and foodservice management from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.