Designed to inspire innovative, menu-driven business solutions for the foodservice industry, the Ventura Center for Menu Research and Development encompasses 8,000 square feet of ideation rooms, a theater-style kitchen, and interactive audience response technologies. The Center was built with moveable walls to facilitate a variety of group activities and business goals.

The Ventura Center for Menu Research and Development was founded on an interdisciplinary approach to develop viable menu concepts for multi-unit and chain restaurant operations. This ground-breaking approach brings together team members from an organization's culinary, marketing, operations, and food science departments to create menu concepts that will connect with customers and meet specific business objectives.

"The Ventura Foods Center for Menu Research and Development adds a significant resource to the CIA's California campus and to the foodservice industry. The Center will bring together the best of American menu research and development, and it will ultimately strengthen and enrich the industry's R&D," noted CIA President Dr. Tim Ryan.

In addition to launching the Ventura Center for Menu Research and Development, the CIA also announced two new partnerships with Ventura Foods, LLC: the Ventura Foods Chair in Menu Research and Development and the Ventura Foods Scholarship, which will further enhance the impact of the Ventura Center on the foodservice sector.

"Through collaborative menu development sessions, high-energy invitational seminars, leading edge new media work, and more, the Ventura Foods Center will create a first-of-its kind environment through which great brands and great companies can advance the art and science of creating new consumer food value," said Kelly Brintle, Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Ventura Foods, LLC.

The Ventura Center for Menu Research and Development joins the recently opened Williams Center for Flavor Discovery and Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies in further enhancing the CIA at Greystone's acclaimed role as a "culinary think tank" to support innovation in the American foodservice industry.

For more information about the CIA at Greystone, visit www.ciaprochef.com.