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PepsiCo is increasingly using professional chefs and culinary anthropologists to spot food trends and translate them into mass-market snacks. Mitchell Dingwall, the company’s director of global culinary capabilities, described the process in an interview with Food Dive, citing Lay’s World Cup flavors as an example.
PepsiCo, the manufacturer of Doritos, Lay’s and SunChips with $94 billion in annual revenue, is leaning on professional chefs to accelerate product innovation and connect with consumers whose tastes shift quickly, according to an interview with Mitchell Dingwall, the company’s director of global culinary capabilities, published by Food Dive. Dingwall oversees a Texas-based team that includes trend spotters, food scientists, growth strategists, brand builders and culinary anthropologists, all working to identify flavors emerging in restaurants and home kitchens worldwide and evaluate whether they can become PepsiCo products.
Dingwall, a trained chef with a food science background, told Food Dive that his team’s method starts with broad observation and narrows to specifics. “We zoom out and then we zoom way in,” he said. He described regular visits to grocery chains such as Sprouts and H-E-B to scan shelves for new ingredients and flavors, citing balsamic caviar pearls he recently spotted as an example of an observation that sparked internal discussions about possible snack applications.
The most concrete example Dingwall provided was the Lay’s World Cup chip flavors. With a mandate to feature different countries’ cuisines, his team visited a Brazilian market in Texas, conducted immersions, and worked with marketing and insights colleagues. A chef based in Brazil, Dingwall said, was brought in “to keep us honest” about authenticity. The team landed on a white garlic sauce popular in Brazil, then adapted it: because raw garlic is less familiar to U.S. consumers, the garlic is caramelized or toasted to make the flavor more approachable for the American palate while keeping the original dish’s integrity.
According to Dingwall, new ideas are evaluated on three criteria: taste, whether the necessary ingredients can be procured, and whether the product makes business sense for PepsiCo. He also runs projects in parallel with standard product teams to test whether his structured ideation process is faster and more efficient, with key performance indicators to measure the results.
Why Chef-Led Innovation Matters for Snacks
PepsiCo competes in a snacking market where consumer preferences change quickly and new flavors can determine whether a product line gains or loses shelf space. Dingwall characterized the culinary function as a “competitive advantage” for PepsiCo, arguing that few food companies position chefs as strategically. Traditional innovation, he said, often amounts to brainstorming and voting on favorite ideas — what he called “the old way of doing things” — whereas his approach treats trend-spotting as a structured, measurable process.
For consumers, the approach shows up in products like the country-specific Lay’s flavors, where authentic international tastes are deliberately adjusted to suit U.S. palates. For the industry, PepsiCo’s investment in culinary anthropology and trend spotters signals that large manufacturers see restaurant and grocery trends as a primary feedstock for product pipelines, not a secondary source of ideas.
How the Culinary Team Fits PepsiCo’s Structure
: “PepsiCo’s portfolio spans snack brands including Doritos, Lay’s and SunChips, and the company reported roughly $94 billion in annual revenue, according to Food Dive. Dingwall operates from an office in Texas, where he oversees a multidisciplinary team. His own background combines professional culinary training with food science, which he said allows him to translate signals from kitchens and markets into concepts that can survive large-scale manufacturing — a step he described as “the heart of the culinary process,” since a flavor must keep its integrity when produced on a chip at volume.
Dingwall noted the scientific depth involved, pointing to ingredients commonly assumed to be simple. Vanilla, he said, contains roughly 3,500 flavor compounds, and he described working with PepsiCo scientists to study what happens physiologically when consumers taste garlic.
What the Interview Doesn’t Reveal
Dingwall’s claim that PepsiCo’s use of chefs is a competitive advantage is his own characterization, not an independently verified measure of performance. The interview did not disclose how many products developed through the culinary process have reached store shelves, what share of PepsiCo’s innovation pipeline the team contributes, or how its key performance indicators compare with traditional development methods. The full scope of the team, its budget, and any specific upcoming products beyond the World Cup flavors also remain undisclosed.
Tracking PepsiCo’s Culinary-Driven Pipeline
Observers can expect additional internationally inspired flavors and products as the culinary team continues testing its structured ideation process. Dingwall said he is building performance metrics to evaluate whether his method outperforms conventional innovation approaches, which could determine how extensively PepsiCo expands the model. Future product launches will offer the clearest test of whether chef-led development translates into commercial results.
Key Questions
Who leads PepsiCo’s culinary innovation efforts?
Mitchell Dingwall, PepsiCo’s director of global culinary capabilities, oversees the team from Texas. He is a trained chef with a food science background.
What is an example of a product developed through this process?
The Lay’s World Cup chip flavors were developed after the team studied Brazilian cuisine at a market in Texas and worked with a chef in Brazil, resulting in a white garlic sauce-inspired chip adapted for U.S. tastes.
How does PepsiCo decide which culinary trends become products?
According to Dingwall, ideas are evaluated on three criteria: how they taste, whether the ingredients can be procured, and whether the product makes business sense for PepsiCo to manufacture.
Does PepsiCo claim this approach is better than competitors’ methods?
Dingwall described the approach as a competitive advantage, but that is his characterization. No independent performance data comparing it to other companies’ innovation methods was provided.
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