KC Flavor Champion: Jeffrey Quasha

Innovation is often met with initial skepticism. As Jeffrey Quasha explored unconventional ways to apply the sweet heat trend to a dessert, his initial testers were his two teenage sons. When presented with his Salted Caramel Peach Chili Crisp Crumble Cookie, their pre-taste reaction was both wary and dismissive. “They asked me why I ruined a perfectly good cookie,” Quasha recounts. But once they had a bite? “They said, ‘Well, that doesn’t suck.’” High praise, indeed, from adolescent boys.

The reaction of Kitchen Collaborative 2025 judges from sponsor Lee Kum Kee was considerably more complimentary, as the novel dessert was named one of the top 12 menu concepts in this year’s recipe ideation competition. Arguably even more resonant for Quasha, senior director of culinary innovation at Morrison Healthcare, was the successful “Sweet Society” pop-up he launched centered on this recipe and other “stuffed cookie” variations at 700 locations across the company’s system. “I hadn’t done a dessert pop-up in years, and I thought this was such a great idea for something hip and cool, reflecting the popularity of Insomnia Cookies and Crumbl,” he says. “It was fun and very indulgent—they’re big cookies!”

The build starts with frozen Sugar Cookie dough from Kitchen Collaborative sponsor Otis Spunkmeyer and features peach compote, toasted pecans, apple pie spice and salted caramel mixed with Chiu Chow Style Chili Crisp Oil from fellow sponsor Lee Kum Kee. “Sweet heat is so on trend. We’re seeing it on a pizza, so I thought, ‘Why not a cookie?’” recalls Quasha, admitting that he had not seen chili crisp used with many desserts before.

“Hot honey was the original evolution, but sweet heat with chili crisp is next because texture is so important,” he notes. “Every dish you create should have some level of crunch. The chili crisp in the salted caramel drizzle gives a textured finish to the top. In a bite, you get sweet and crunchy first, then a slow burn in the background.” Quasha strongly urges pairing the dish with a serving of ice-cold cereal milk.

“Surprising the guest is a fun experience,” says Quasha, acknowledging that the sweet-heat descriptor might prompt some reluctance. “But you bring them around with the whole dish. Ingredients are like chapters in a book—put together it’s an amazing book.”

MAKE IT WORK

“This is one of the most fun projects that I’ve done in years,” says Quasha of Kitchen Collaborative 2025. Initially created in 2020 by Summit F&B and Flavor & The Menu, the recipe ideation program was refreshed with a competition factor. Menu concepts were judged blindly by sponsor teams who evaluated descriptions, photos and other relevant information to select outstanding dishes.

For Quasha, who doesn’t enjoy in-person physical competitions at this stage of his life and career, the opportunity to participate remotely was a draw. “It’s more fun for me to do it at home or in the workplace,” he explains. “It was great to mesh together different sponsor products and not feel pushed in one particular direction. There were some guardrails, but you could choose to go savory or sweet.”

Quasha takes pride in creating menu concepts that will work for his operation and others. He takes pains to ensure recipes can flex for both non-culinarians who need simple steps and speed-scratch options to produce the dish and culinarians who want to “chef it up.”

With 1,100 sites in the Morrison system, recipes that can easily scale are essential. But “Spice and heat are among the hardest things to control. When you’re scaling up a recipe written for 12 to serve 100, and taking a tablespoon of a hot spice and moving it up to a cup, the Scoville ratings go off the chart. The heat becomes over-bearing,” he notes, citing it as one of the biggest challenges in reverse-engineering some of today’s popular menu trends. “It takes a lot of R&D to make sure you have a winner. It’s not a great LTO if it doesn’t sell.”

MORE INSPIRED TAKES

Quasha is continually on the hunt for trends that work across both menu categories and guest demographics. Social media has become a particularly valuable source of inspiration, as evidenced by his award-winning cookie concept, plus two more entries to the Kitchen Collaborative 2025 competition.

Aussie Select Prime Rib Balsamic Onion Soup French Dip

The classic French dip sandwich is enjoying a revival—one that been amplified across social media with fun new plays that make it more craveable than ever. Quasha has added his own elevated take with the Aussie Select Prime Rib Balsamic Onion Soup French Dip. “Mashing up French onion soup with the French dip sandwich—and kicking it up to the next level—is a super fun trend on social media right now,” explains Quasha of his inspiration.

The dish features lamb prime rib from Aussie Select, a creamy, spreadable Brie from Real California Milk and Sriracha from Lee Kum Kee, along with black truffle salt, cremini mushrooms and baby arugula stuffed into a French baguette. “And if that’s not enough, you dip this gooey sandwich into a slow-roasted onion soup for the drip-and-napkin effect!” says Quasha. “Sometimes, it’s fun to be messy with the kind of dish you have to lean over to eat. It isn’t typical date food—or if it is, then you’ve found your soulmate.”

He credits the peppery smoked flavor of the “really well-seasoned” lamb prime rib as the first layer of craveable flavor. A big fan of Brie, Quasha sees that swap for traditional provolone as a way to evoke the cheesy crust on French onion soup within the sandwich build. Balsamic onion soup is fashioned as a fresh take on the au jus dip. Here, he opted for the conventional baguette, but insists that the sandwich would be equally effective on another French or a Cuban bread. At the base, he says, “These are two classic comfort dishes with a few elements that push them beyond expected boundaries. Every one of my dishes has an element of comfort paired with an element of boundary-pushing.”

Quasha’s goal to “take a social media disruption that has transcended into fast casual” speaks to his appreciation for how this medium uncovers and celebrates culinary innovation. “I’m always scrolling and looking for something to pop up. I’m looking for patterns and then the ‘a-ha’ moment of something I haven’t seen before. When I see something cool, I’ll try to reverse-engineer it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least I’ve tried it. Innovation with validation—that’s what I’m looking for.”

 
Hot Italian Meatza Piadina

With the Hot Italian Meatza Piadina, Quasha wanted “to put something together that people will get excited about and want to go home and try.” There’s no reason, he says, that a recipe appropriate for the Flavor & The Menu audience can’t also be served at a Super Bowl party at home with friends. For Quasha, this is a key rationale for looking to social media for inspiration that will resonate with a broad audience—and why he opted to try a handheld pizza sandwich. “These have really started to pick up traction on social media and in the quick-serve industry,” he reports.

Handhelds like piadini (aka piadina) can transcend Italian cuisine, notes Quasha. “Sweet heat, Nashville hot and chili crisp all fit!” Here, fire-roasted pizza dough is layered with a pesto made from Sriracha (from Lee Kum Kee), basil and citrus, followed by four Italian meats: Genoa salami, prosciutto, capicola and mortadella. That’s topped with roasted peppers, arugula and a creamy Crescenza-Stracchino (from BelGioioso).

“The cheese added a tangy flavor with a hint of funk. It goes well with big-flavor proteins,” he says, also crediting its melt and spread performance. As for the pesto? “They call me the Sriracha Chef at work—it’s been my jam for years,” Quasha explains. “It adds a nice kick to the pesto and the citrus opens the palate. I’m a lemon-and-lime guy; I have them growing in my yard.”

No grill? No problem! Quasha is also seeing more opportunities for cross-utilization on pizza stations or within pizza concepts, and handhelds are the next frontier here. For example, Papa John’s has had a lot of success with its Papadia, a variation inspired by both the piadina and the quesadilla, which sees pizza dough applied as a flatbread that is folded over ingredients for a satisfying handheld.

Quasha’s own take is easy to reproduce, easy to adapt and easy to scale, he says, citing easy-to-execute variations. “Par-bake the dough in an impinger and then do a custom build for each guest with their choice of cheese, proteins and sauces and put it back in the impinger. This was fun.”

Up Next: A brief recap of the 2025 program and details for Kitchen Collaborative 2026!

Kitchen Collaborative Project Management: Summit F&B
Salted Caramel Peach Chili Crisp Crumble Cookie photo: Photography: otysonphoto.com // Food Styling: Peg Blackley