Chefs Andrew Zimmern (left) and David Chang (right) talked about convenience stores, community and experimenting with foods—and conducted a cooking demonstration—at the general session on the last day of the NACS Show in Las Vegas.
Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning chef, TV personality, writer and social justice advocate.
Chang is founder of the Momofuku restaurant group and Majordomo Media. Since opening his first restaurant in 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar, he has been recognized as GQ magazine’s Man of the Year and a Time magazine Time 100 honoree. He has won three James Beard awards.
“I was walking the [NACS Show] floor yesterday,” Chang said during the session, which was moderated by Andrew Kintigh (center), corporate chef for Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s. “This is Vahalla. You’re seeing brands you’ve grown up with, products you’re familiar with. I was intensely happy yesterday.”
Zimmern added, “We were running—Oh my gosh, I have to try that’—the emotional fulfillment gauge was filled up.”
‘It’s an amazing place for community to be built because everyone goes through the same door.’
“It’s an emotional transaction,” Zimmern said of getting food at convenience stores. “I want to get that hotdog and Slurpee, but I’m seeking something, sometimes getting blissed out. This is a place where you’re literally going to power your journey. You’re walking inside and fueling yourself while you're fueling your vehicle. It’s an amazing place for community to be built because everyone goes through the same door.”
Food choices are broadening at c-stores, Zimmern said. “Probably the biggest growth in the last decade for me as a customer,” he said. “I’m in these stores all the time.
“I go everywhere and see the exact same thing,” he continued. “The lure of food is very, very powerful. At the end of the day when you walk in there and smell pizza, fried chicken, tacos, ramen.”
He added, “I’ve eaten foods at Japanese convenience stores and gas stations that’s better than the Japanese foods that exist in Minneapolis. I’m being fully honest. So, the growth opportunity is there. People love and know what quality is, and as long as you put it in front of them, they’ll respond.”
Chang added that it’s only a matter of time before the bias against c-store food disappears in the United States.
‘The lure of food is very, very powerful.’
Some locations sell food that is so good that it transcends preconceived notions about what is “c-store food,” he said.
In other countries, such as Japan, he said regarding food, it’s part of their culture to buy “everything” at c-stores. “It’s not strange to say, ‘I’m getting some groceries there.’”
In the United States, however, the attitude is different. In some parts of the country, it’s not strange for someone to say they’re getting an item like fried chicken at a convenience store because it’s so good, he said. However, “If you tell somebody in New York City, they’d say, ‘What are you talking about?’”
As great food becomes more available at every price point and at every place of convenience, “That disconnect is going to disappear over time,” he said.
Trending Flavors
When asked about trending flavors, Zimmern said, “Remember, you can’t be a cook-to-order place and turn yourself into a restaurant. All of a sudden, you’re adding employees, and then you’re playing the ‘How do I schedule that?’ game, right?”
However, he added he sees a lot of opportunity in “really high-quality sandwiches, both hot and cold. You can fry chicken cutlets and have them on the ready with marinara sauce and throw some mozzarella cheese and make it a great chicken parm sandwich—and you could do that in almost any c-store that I’ve ever been in, and I’ve always wondered why hasn't that happened?
Zimmern said he’ll go into c-stores, see a deli counter and think, “Wow, they could put some meats in there and compete with the higher-quality sandwich restaurants down the street. Those are some really basic things.”
He added that everything from the Asian food world is becoming more common: Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and, “where I'm from, Lau flavors, and as this becomes more mainstream, you start to get this world of goals which I think is something c-stores can compete in—and why shouldn't a c-store be able to do what Sweetgreen does? It’s all a factor of growth, and what you’re able to pump out with the X number of square feet you have for storage and for putting out the food.”
‘I want to get that hotdog and Slurpee, but I’m seeking something, sometimes getting blissed out.’
Chang added that the short-term answer is going with “all the flavors that are hot and trendy, but I think the real long-term answer is making the things that are never going to change: sandwiches, prepared meals, whatever, and there’s a lot of work that can go into that, but it can be done, and I know it’s gonna happen.”
Zimmern then told about his travels driving from Wisconsin into Minnesota and the small group of eight or nine c-stores he’ll recognize on one particular strip of highway.
At this group, “I know I can get a salad there that I’m going to like, and I can’t say that about every c-store I’m in,” he said. At other c-store, he’ll recognize premade salads made by someone else.
However, “This group says, ‘Well why can’t we just chop some lettuce and cut some tomatoes and make 10, 12 of these bowls and hard-boil the eggs ourselves,’ because I can tell the difference visually between the one that is purchased and the one that’s cooked in store and the shell taken off in store,” he said. “It’s a little bit of work for a lot of customer appreciation and loyalty because I stop at those stores because I know they’re taking that next step to make their product just that much better.
“It still has a little packet of salad dressing, and I always go for one French and one blue cheese and I mix the two, but I know what they’re putting there is just fresh and vibrant and, after a day of eating on the road and it’s 10 at night and I’m not going to get home for three more hours, I just need something like that.”
C-Store Ownership
Kintigh asked Chang about his experience launching a c-store several years ago.
“It was our version of an Asian-American convenience store, and I promise you it’ll come back in some form,” Chang said. “It was the most amount of work we could possibly do because we’re still making everything from scratch. We’re making corn dog batter and all these different things that people might not know they could get. It was so fun curating this collection that was like opening our own little restaurant with our own little jukebox.”
Some of the items Chang was most proud of included the corn dogs, chicken nuggets and a Korean version of maki rolls.
“That was fun,” he said. “We also made different sandwiches.”
Cooking Demo
In the second half of the session, the two each made a dish as Kintigh went back and forth discussing what they were doing.
Chang prepared a Potato Chip Gnocchi with Instant Ramen and Grated Jerky, while Zimmern made a Deep Fried “Accordion Dog” with a Potato Chip and Cheese Bun Blanket.
“All great food is made up of contrasts,” Zimmern said.
He added: “Playing around with flavors and textures is, at the end of the day, what great cooking is all about.”
‘Wow, they could put some meats in there and compete with the higher-quality sandwich restaurants down the street.’
In discussing the recipes a little later, Zimmern said, “We need to lose the high-low aspect of food.
“We need to lose this box we’ve put ourselves in where we say, ‘Oh, that’s an elevated dish or that’s a restaurant-quality dish.’ I don’t know restaurant quality is. I don’t care about the labels anymore. Food is food.”
Chang added, “I don’t look at this as elevated. That’s one way you could see it, but I see it as, if I’m at a fancy restaurant spending $120 on truffles and gnocchi, I’m basically eating a Cup Noodles in a gas station. It’s the same thing. There’s no reason to think that one is inherently better than the other. You can still make something super delicious with the ingredients on hand. It’s just the intent and the point of view, and I think that is one of the things that can change.”
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