How do you convince mushroom haters to no longer hate?
Well, first off, make it fancy, says the Mushroom Council and its marketing team from Curious Plot agency. The council’s Blended Burger Project began more than 10 years ago by first reaching influential chefs with the Culinary Institute of America and the James Beard Foundation.
After all, the high-end restaurant world is where a lot of innovations and trends are born.
Then, make it accessible.
Today, the council’s efforts focus more on engaging home cooks, showing them how to incorporate mushrooms into their favorite everyday meals. Enter the Food Network partnership.
Kicking off in May and continuing through September, the multi-media program is one of the largest partnerships the Mushroom Council has ever embarked upon, according to a news release. Last year’s inaugural collaboration earned more than 90 million impressions and received more than 1,300 Blended Burger recipe entries in its annual contest.
Let’s dig deeper into the world of making mushrooms more appealing to the masses in this episode of “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast featuring guest Adriane Rippberger, who has been instrumental in fostering the Food Network partnership with the Mushroom Council. She has tips on making mushrooms accessible and delicious to busy home cooks and even small children.
“The Blend is such a good gateway to help people figure out the amazing taste of mushrooms,” Rippberger said in the episode.
The Blended Burger Project in 2022 through Food Network Magazine and FoodNetwork.com will reach mass consumer and professional audiences with several initiatives:
- The Blended Burger Recipe Contest for consumers and foodservice, encouraging people nationwide to enter their own Blended Burger recipe at FoodNetwork.com/blendedburgercontest. The contest features two tracks: one for home cooks and one for professional chefs, recipe developers or caterers. Each category will award $10,000 to the top recipe entry, and the winning recipes will be featured in the November issue of Food Network Magazine.
- Blended Burger Contest Featured in May/June issue of Food Network Magazine. Food Network Magazine will feature a full-page contest announcement that shows how to make The Blend and invites readers to make their own creation and enter the contest.
- The Blend Recipe Booklet. The Food Network Magazine editorial team – working closely with Food Network Kitchen’s culinary team – created a series of mushroom and meat blend recipes that demonstrate applications for The Blend in burgers and beyond. This collection of on-trend recipes includes new twists on classics like mushroom cheeseburger mac and cheese and mushroom-beef taco salad, as well as globally inspired mushroom-lamb kofta and mushroom-beef picadillo. The recipes are collected into a pull-out booklet inserted into the May/June issue of Food Network magazine. It will also live online at FoodNetwork.com.
- “How to Blend” video from celebrity Chef Kardea Brown, star of the “Delicious Miss Brown” Food Network program. Brown partnered with Mushroom Council as celebrity spokesperson for The Blend and Blended Burgers in 2021, and rejoins in the effort in 2022. This year, Brown shares her new Blended Burger recipe— Kardea Brown’s Mushroom-Beef Smash Burgers —which will be featured on FoodNetwork.com as well as on its Facebook and Instagram channels and on Brown’s Instagram account.
- Digital Ads appearing on FoodNetwork.com and social media.
Also: Take a poll on what recipe we should enter into the contest!
