What's the Latest in Charcuterie? French Fry Boards

Fry charcuterie is the latest in a series of Instagram-able entertaining boards or grazing tables.  The trend started with more elaborate cheese and charcuterie boards and has evolved to breakfast, candy and even taco boards. 

Simplot has a creative customer, Ground House, who takes this trend to the next level with a fry roulette board offering 72 possible combinations of various fries and sauces! Here are some tips:

1. Consider your fryer capacity—It’s challenging to serve up five different types simultaneously. With fry cooking times varying from 2-4 minutes each and limited fryer capacity, you could be serving fries that have been sitting around awhile, making even less room for those chicken strips or other fried apps. If this is your situation, we recommend scaling back the fry board a bit and sticking with 1 or 2 types of fries per order.  You can still offer 2-4 fries to choose from and customize it further with sauces (see tips in #4).   If you have a lot of fryer capacity, however, go for it.

2. Choose the right fries—Because of fryer capacity issues and the resulting delay in serving, your fry choices need to be able to hold and stay crispy for extended periods. Simplot offers coated and battered fries designed to hold over 20+ minutes.  Fun shapes and bold flavors are key to the visual appeal. These make great “fry board” fries:

• SIDEWINDERS™ Fries— Unique shape jumps off the plate
• NEW! Conquest® Crispy Potato Strips—Fun, new shape for Instagram-worthy presentations
• Buffalo Battered Julienne Fries—Lasting crunch, bold color and a spicy zing inspired by buffalo wing sauce.
• Potato Gems—Bite-size gems make this an excellent finger food.
• Bent Arm Ale® Craft Beer Batter® Lattice Cut Fries—Unmatched craft beer batter flavor and color. Stays warm and crisp.

Sorry, friends. Those tasty sweet potato fries aren’t the best option for extended hold time.

3. Keep it personal—The fry board is a great opportunity to meet customer demand for personalization. Allow patrons to choose from a variety of fry and sauce options. Consumers are more likely to pay a premium for fries that come with a special, housemade sauce (or three). Some sauce recipes from the Simplot chefs:

• Green Goddess Aioli 
• Blueberry Ketchup featuring Simple Goodness Fruit™ Blueberries
• Flame Roasted Corn & Jalapeno Queso
• Gochujang Sauce
• Chimichurri Avocado Dressing featuring Harvest Fresh Avocados™ Avocado Pulp

4. Price it right—Make sure you are charging for each serving of fries on the fry board and consider an upcharge for each sauce. We have seen operators charge up to $1.50 for each sauce.  Here’s some sample math for a casual dining restaurant:

Fry Board Math

4 Servings of Premium Fries - $3.49/5oz portion x 4 = $13.96
4 Servings of House made Sauces - $1.50 /2oz portion x 4 = $6
Menu Price = $19.99

5. Make it Instagram-able—Bold presentations payoff big-time on-screen. That buzz can bring in local traffic and has the potential to garner international attention. Make sure you are posting plenty of delicious photos of your fry board and encouraging your patrons to do so as well.