KENNEWICK, Wash. –
If you love french fries and think becoming a professional fry taster sounds good…me too.
Lamb Weston is partnering with Red Mountain Kitchen to host a panel of food tasters, specifically french fry tasters.
Lamb Weston’s Senior Sensory Manager Scott Frewing tells me the panel started during the COVID 19 pandemic to improve their product.
The panel is made up of eight or nine tasters from around the region
“We have a trained sensory panel here in the Tri-Cities. They’re a panel that’s trained to evaluate french fries,” said Frewing.
Frewing tells me the other reason why they group was formed was to understand the science of cooking a good french fry.
“I’m looking for a panelist that is someone who can not just eat fries but who can evaluate fries,” says Frewing. “I’m looking for someone who can taste and who has good ability to understand aroma and flavor and be able to pick those apart.”
Lamb Weston panel lead Jennifer Halter started on the sensory panel a year and a half ago for fun.
Halter says she wasn’t sure exactly what they would be tasting for.
She tells me she started telling everyone that she’s a super taster but that’s not what Lamb Weston was looking for.
“They just want to know how crispy it is,” sayd Halter. “How moist the french fry is and how many particles are on the outside. I mean weird things you wouldn’t even consider.”
According to Frewing and Halter each taster has over 200 hours of training.
That training according to Frewing is what he uses to improve their product.
“I use that to build and improve products, balance flavor, improve crispiness in fries like all those kinds of things that go in to developing a new product or improving existing products,” said Frewing.
Halter and Frewing tell me fries aren’t the only thing they sample.
“The training involves a lot of tasting a lot of things and it’s not just French fries. In facts it’s mostly not French fries. They will give you like mayonnaise and you run it around your mouth and you say how greasy is this?” said Halter.
Yum, right?
The group meets three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Frewing told me he would like to have around 20 people on the panel.
You can apply by calling Express Employment to inquire about the job.
