A22-La (Master Farming,, Saturday,, Jun# 26, .1999
Visionary Design Founder Invents New W
(Continued from Pago A 1)
Gagliardi recently demon
strated the slindcr to the media.
Raw material is sliced through the
Slindcr plate, which effectively
extracts sufficient natural proteins,
allowing the material to bind with
out additives.
The Slindcr process is so effec
tive, Gagliardi noted, that tradi
tional ’‘hamburgers” cat like a
good steak.
Gagliardi invented another pro
duct, the “Guard Dog,” in 1996, a
safety cutter device for hot dogs.
Used before cooking, the Guard
Dog scares eight cuts in the hot
dog, allowing the dog to stay
whole as it is heated and served.
Hot dogs, Gagliardi noted, are
the leading cause of fatal choking
in children. By making slits into
the length of the hot dog, when the
dogs ate chewed they ate broken
up into little bits.
The big news: a new product has
come from Gagliatdi’s kitchen.
Called “Frank Fries,” the product
uses French cut hot dogs covered
with a sweet and savory com dog
style breading and lightly fried to a
crisp golden coating.
Gagliardi said that big compa
nies and fast food chains are look
ing at Frank Fries with interest
Gagliardi’s R&D Ranch is a
consulting company for the
National Cattlemen’s Beef Associ
ation (NCBA), where new pro
ducts are envisioned, developed,
and tested. He's also a consultant
to the Pennsylvania Beef Council
cm new product introductions and
marketing.
The business of R&D Ranch?
According to Gagliardi, the idea is
to work on “different cuts" and
ways to use the less ideal cuts, such
as the shoulder, the knuckle, and
other areas of the beef carcass to
“add value to the product” About
half of a beef carcass is processed
into ground beef and ground
beef, at times, is hard to move in
the grocery store.
So NCBA contacted Visionary
Design and R&D Ranch to come
up with a way to get products, such
as the beef knuckle and the flat
the outside bottom round into
value-added products.
"Historically the beef cutting
business does everything the same
way,” said Gagliardi. “They use
this part for steak, this part for the
roast and the test ground beef.
Gagliardi’s made it big on aome of his ideas as president of a company he founded,
Visionary Design, based in West Fallowfield Township in Chester County.
This hasn’t changed. But consum
ers want convenience, on a par
with chicken.
“Beef is difficult to make to
form value-added food. Chicken is
easy to do,” said the Visionary
Design president.
Gagliardi noted that he was
coming back on a plane one day
and, when the airline meal was
being distributed, the attendants
were asking the passengers what
they would prefer: chicken or beef.
A riot, he said, practically broke
out when the attendants ran out of
chicken.
People heard the word “beef,”
thinking only of other items, not
steak. He believes the offer should
have beat “chicken or steak."
When Gagliardi looks at the less
preferred cuts from the carcass, he
doesn’t see ground beef. He sees
additional cuts, a “diamond in the
rough,” from which he can extract
muscles and rrcut the beef to make
steaks.
The key is taking the time to cut
into the muscle correctly, denude
the beef (remove the fat), and pre
pare the cut appropriately. Some of
the cuts can be made into sirloin
tips, London broil, roosts, and
others.
Recently Visionary Design,
with 23 clients and growing, was
host to reporters from USA Today
and Progressive Grocer. Gagliardi
explained the new cuts of beef he
developed, including the Rotiss-
A-Roast, available in stores.
The roasts come in a one-pound
package and are similar to the deli
style rotisscric chickens, a hot
competitor for the beef industry.
The “knuckle” cut is the part of
the kneecap, the hardest muscle to
move form the round. But the
knuckle, if cut correctly, can be
used to make roast beef, London
broils, steaks, sirloin tips, beef
steaks, and Philadelphia
cheeses teaks.
The cuts are lean. The center
portion is the most tender.
From the knuckle can be pro
cessed 10-12 steaks, two London
broils, sirloin tips, and 14 four
ounce hamburgers, according to
Gagliardi in a videotaped
demonstration.
“Traditionally the knuckle has
been ground down,” said Gagliat
di. He has managed to work out
several value-added products, if
only the industry would pay
Gene Gagliardi’e RAD Ranch is a consulting company for the National Cattlemen's
Beef Association (NCSA), where new products are envisioned, developed, and
tested. He’s also a consultant to the Pennsylvania Beef Council on new product intro
ductions and marketing.
Gagliardi recently constructed a new house, finished in 1994 with the help of sever
al friends. The 4,800-square foot home was built Williamsburg, Primitive Hall Style, to
resemble a home from the 1800 s.
To Use Beef, Other Meats
attention.
Another cut that can be further
processed, instead of being ground
down, is the shoulder, the clod sub
primal. The processor can make
roasts, London broils, steaks, and
Philadelphia cheeses teaks. This
includes the clod heart, the flati
ron, and the shoulder bone and
boiler roast (the clod heart).
From the clod heart can be made
kebabs, steaks, or London broil.
From the flatiron, or top blade,
some steaks can be made, as well
as excellent pot roast, according to
Gagliardi.
The shoulder clod has to be
needle-tenderized, he noted.
For processing the flat or out
side bottom round, processors can
trim and denude it Get rid of the
silver membrane, noted Gagliardi.
The meat can be made into corned
beef or roast beef or “whatever,"
Gagliardi noted. Witb a tenderizer,
many roasts can be made.
A big steak, what Gagliardi
refers to as “Texas Steak," can be
made. “Something other than
roast," he said.
At the Thursday event, several
industry leaders spoke at Vision
ary Dcsign/R&D Ranch. The
included Carl Blackwell, execu
tive director, new product deve
lopment, for NCBA; Joseph A.
DePippo, New Product Develop
ment Team, NCBA; and Antonio
Mata, also of the new product
development team, NCBA.
Elizabeth A. Timmins is execu
tive vice president of Visionary
Design. The company employs
two full time, including Frank Oas,
who has worked with Gagliardi for
more than 20 years. Timmins has
been working with Gagliardi for
13 years.
Joyce Schaeffer, accountant/
secretary, was recently hired full
time.
Together with Gagliatdi, “wc do
crank more ideas out than anybody
around,” said Gagliardi.
Gagliardi also farms. His
daughter, Jill, 39, takes care of a
cow/calf herd of Red Angus at
Wolfs Hollow Farms. At the farm,
Gagliardi cares for 35 head of
cows, most from Leachman, in
Montana. Wolfs Hollow sells
feeders.
Gene Gagliatdi purchased the
farm with his wife of 47 years,
Joan, in 1987 from a bank for $1.5
(Turn to Pago A 23)