Maple UnTapped
THE CHALLENGE
The Food Innovation Nexus (The FIX) has teamed up with URI to explore the design and culinary potential of MAPLE. Our student-led innovation sprint complements broader efforts to promote maple as a healthy, sustainable, locally-sourced hero ingredient with a multitude of commercial and home-use applications.
Intern teams developed a range of daring new product concepts -- unexpected applications of maple in product form. Along the way, they also plunged into the mysteries of maple as a purely culinary 'hero ingredient'. Teams innovated at Johnson & Wales' new Food Innovation Design Lab (The FIDL!) and at FIX global headquarters in Providence, RI.
This site captures some of their delicious and unexpected culinary inspirations...
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THE TEAM
The MAPLE team comprises talented students from Johnson & Wales, The Rhode Island School of Design, and Framingham State. They were supported by experts in culinary arts, design, food science, strategy, and marketing. We find inspiration at the nexus of these disciplines.
See some of the untapped potential of Maple in three collections, below:
Taking maple through the core FIX product development process of immersion, discovery, pre-validation and exploring it's place on the retail shelf
Reinventions of regional cuisines, drawing from the global pantry, with Maple as a hero...