Expertise & Capabilities

Product Development

Proven Development & Innovation

Capabilities

In-house executive chef and state-of-art test kitchen underpin Custom Made Meals commitment to culinary innovation and speed-to-market.

CHEF

Meet The Chef

Ashlee Rivers

At Custom Made Meals, our inspiration comes from delicious fresh food and our mission to transform home cooks into chefs.

Leading the way is Chef Ashlee Rivers, CMM Research & Development Product Manager, who combines extensive experience in the natural foods and baking industries with a passion for bringing people together over a delicious and healthy meal.

From a young age, Chef Ashlee Rivers’ passion for food developed working aside her grandfather in his garden and her grandmother in their century old Southern seafood restaurant.   These formative food memories continue to inspire her cuisine.  Her unique culinary talent combined with an aptitude for product design have shaped a decade long Denver career where she has honed her skills working in both restaurants and food manufacturers.  Chef Ashlee holds bachelor’s degrees in marketing from Virginia Tech and in Culinary Arts & Nutrition from Johnson & Wales University.

Under Chef Ashlee’s direction, the CMM team is continually testing, tasting and tweaking our product selections to satisfy families’ changing tastes and lifestyles and to meet the needs of our retail customers in a rapidly evolving market.

Custom-Made-Meals-Chef-Ashlee-Rivers
EXPERTISE
Custom-Made-Meals-Expertise3

Expertise

Product Development

Working from CMM’s state-of-the-art test kitchen facility, Chef Ashlee specializes in new product development, leveraging her extensive experience in recipe formulation, ingredient procurement, product design, standardization and creating testing parameters to meet nutritional and regulatory requirements, while never compromising on quality or taste.

Guided by Chef Ashlee, our CMM team is committed to offering our retail customers and end consumers alike premium-quality entrees and appetizers designed for delicious taste, easy and convenient preparation, and attractive price point.

At a time when wholesome, healthy and exciting homemade meals are increasingly a mainstay of American consumers’ lives, allow Chef Ashlee and Custom Made Meals to be your partners in culinary innovation and new product development.

CAPABILITIES

Our

Capabilities
  • Custom Made Meals - Chef Hat3
    Professional full-time chef and on-site test kitchen elevate the Company’s new product development capabilities
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    Innovative on-trend concepts targeting changing consumer preferences, while ensuring taste, quality and feasibility of commercial production

    – New product development competencies span all product types, preparations and merchandising formats

  • Custom Made Meals - Collaboration to Drive Traffic2
    Customer collaboration to develop products proven to drive traffic and resonate with local tastes

    – Continual introduction of seasonally on-trend “menus”

Custom-Made-Meals-Capabilities
PROCESS

Innovation Framework for

Product Ideation & Development

At Custom Made Meals our unrivaled speed-to-market allows us to go from new product ideation to stores in as little as six weeks.

Custom Made Meals - Number One
Custom Made Meals - Number One

Production & Ideation

– Identify trend, market need, or opportunity
– Customer identification
– Explore flavor profile
Custom Made Meals - Number Two
Custom Made Meals - Number Two

Feasibility

– Initial cost, build, yield and financial analysis
– Raw material and supply chain review
– Production capacity feasibility

Custom Made Meals - Number Three
Custom Made Meals - Number Three

Recipe Formulation & Design

– Construct bill-of-materials and materials blend
– Product mockup
– Organoleptic testing and sensory analysis

Custom Made Meals - Number Four
Custom Made Meals - Number Four

Product Development

– Verify product economics & finalize operational process
– Finalize supplier analysis &negotiations
– Quality & regulatory review, including shelf life study
– Production test runs

Custom Made Meals - Number Five
Custom Made Meals - Number Five

Product Launch

– Disseminate market collateral
– Internal systems configuration
– Finalize sales forecasts and volume commitments
– Distribution to customers

What Customers
Are Saying

Don’t just take our word for it . . . 

CMM's items really take into consideration what customers want. They work well with our teams and provide active feedback. CMM knows what can be done and how to do it well.

- Food Broker Retail Chain

CMM's ideation for new products has been a real strength. They have shown that they are able to stay current on trends and recommend some really great options.

- Food Broker Retail Chain

The team is really quick to respond to our requests, and provide the items we need, whenever we need it, especially when we are working together on product R&D.

- Food Broker Retail Chain

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