This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition – Jacksonville growth draws Mesa Capital multifamily investment<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe first and most obvious reason is the interwebs,\u201d McLean said, pointing to the growth of e-commerce, social media and digital advertising. Those platforms, she said, are giving consumers access to products they may never encounter during a traditional grocery-store trip.<\/p>\n
Chefs are also playing a larger role in influencing what people cook at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cChefs are the new rock stars,\u201d McLean said. \u201cChefs are cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean said chefs are increasingly visible on television and social media, helping consumers learn about new foods, flavors and cooking techniques. That influence can help introduce customers to products before they ever see them on a grocery-store shelf.<\/p>\n
At Spiceology, McLean said, chefs are part of the company\u2019s culture and product-development process. Chefs work across the business, participate in tasting panels and help identify what consumers may want next.<\/p>\n
\u201cChefs are a great way to kind of test the goods and make sure that they\u2019re exactly what consumers are wanting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That testing process is especially important as consumers experiment with global flavors, Asian-inspired fruit combinations and \u201csweet and spicy\u201d or \u201cswicy\u201d products.<\/p>\n
McLean said local restaurants can play a similar role. A chef who uses a distinctive regional ingredient or develops a popular flavor profile may eventually inspire a retail product.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that farmer\u2019s market ignition that can sometimes create a national product craze,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Moving a product from a restaurant kitchen to the grocery aisle, however, comes with challenges. McLean said brands must manage supply chains, food safety, distribution, inventory and limited shelf space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grocery store shelves which are crowded with so many choices for consumers are not necessarily the best place for discovery because you can just get lost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McLean said brands may benefit from building awareness through food service, e-commerce and a loyal customer base before attempting to expand into mainstream grocery retail.<\/p>\n
In the Southeast, she said consumers tend to be willing to experiment with flavor\u2014and often embrace heat. That makes the region a promising market for chef-led brands that combine bold flavor with accessibility.<\/p>\n
New episodes of This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition are released Thursday mornings at 9.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Chef-driven food brands are changing how consumers discover and buy spices, seasonings and other pantry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7364,116,118,117,7363],"class_list":["post-396495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-business-edition","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-this-week-in-jacksonville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}