Ukrop’s blending trendy and traditional

Last week an invite showed up in my mailbox asking me to stop by Ukrop’s to sample their new prepared foods menu. Uh, yes, please.

November 12, 2009; 1:48 PM • by Valerie Catrow

Last week an invite showed up in my mailbox asking me to stop by Ukrop’s to sample their new prepared foods menu.

Uh, yes, please.

So this afternoon, myself and a few other media people spent time noshing on some lovely Ukrop’s fare as the folks in charge filled us in on some developments on their new line of ready-to-eat cuisine.

Back at the start of 2009 (which marks Ukrop’s 20th year in the prepared food biz) executive chef Tom Pearce and his crew began to revamp the menu, aiming to keep the standard Richmond-fare in mind, but also seeking out more creative, trendy, and restaurant-like recipes. All told, 45 to 50 different recipes were put together, with about half going into market. Around 80 percent of those have proven to be successful, while the remaining dishes are being moved in and out of rotation based on when key ingredients are in season.

And don’t fret. They’ve promised that the new menu will still hold true to Ukrop’s promise for convenient, fresh, great tasting food that can go from shopping bag to table in 30 minutes. It also looks like a lot of these are a great option with all those holiday meals and pot lucks coming up.

Some items of note from today’s tasting:

• Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Pepper Jack Cheese: A slight variation of your standard dip, but with a little extra zing.
• Satay Tray featuring Asian-seasoned shrimp, beef, and chicken: As Lauren, our sales and marketing manager said, “That meat on a stick was great!”
• Roasted Fall Vegetables: Brightly colored veggies + light dusting of Asiago = YUM.
• White House Roll Bread Pudding: It almost brought tears to my eyes.

You can take a look at the whole menu on ukrops.com. I’m going to go curl up and take a nap now, what with all the face stuffing I just did.

As the editor of RVANews, Valerie Catrow spends most of her time wrangling people over email and muttering to herself about the content calendar. She also contributes to our parenting column while maintaining her own blog, Made in Richmond. It should be noted that she loves tots, both the potato and child varieties.

November 12, 2009 1:48 PM 4