Let's fix food.
The Food Ahead is a collective of professional chefs and food experts working to create a world where food is more delicious, less processed, and healthier for people and the planet.
We're part of a fast-growing global community of producers, CPGs, food service companies and institutions working to shape the future of food by improving the quality, accessibility, and sustainability of the food we make, serve and consume.
If that sounds like you, we're ready to help.
What we do
At The Food Ahead, we are guardians of real food.
We provide strategies, ideas and solutions to industry innovators who share our vision.
We advise CPGs and foodservice companies on strategies to elevate quality, attract loyal customers and achieve business goals.
We drive innovation in R&D, developing smart new products and improving others through process modernization, reformulation, and waste reduction.
We help develop sourcing frameworks that align with
clean-label, sustainable, organic and regenerative food production principles.
We design and implement operational systems that support consistent, scalable, and cost-effective delivery of high-quality food.
We provide education and training to strengthen internal capabilities in product development, culinary skills, and best practices.
We integrate culinary expertise with business strategy to drive growth and consumer trust through superior products and enhanced branding.
Who we are
Our team calls on decades of experience in a wide variety of culinary roles to create solutions that succeed in the market, and respect the well-being of both the customer and the earth.
Tom Griffiths, CMC
Chef Tom is a Certified Master Chef (CMC) and seasoned culinary leader whose career has bridged the worlds of global CPG, home meal delivery, and foodservice innovation. He is the former Vice President of R&D for Freshly and for Campbell Soup Company. As one of a select number of CMCs, Tom combines mastery of ingredients and technique with creativity and taste. Tom leads R&D and innovation at The Food Ahead, turning ideas into food that connects deeply with how people eat and live today.
Andrew "Kappy" Kaplan
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Kappy is a trusted voice in the culinary and food media worlds, known for bringing people together through food, stories, and shared experiences. His work spans restaurant consulting, creative menu and recipe development, and television and podcast appearances. With projects rooted in major U.S. markets and extending to China, Italy, Jamaica, and Mexico, Kappy’s career reflects a lifelong curiosity about how food connects cultures and communities.
Dalal Mudara
Dalal's culinary experience spans food development, operations, and education, including menu design, meal production, and building scalable food systems. She blends creativity with structure, combining a love for flavor, design and customer experience with an understanding of day-to-day operations. Dalal's diverse experience also includes work with charities in Bahrain, HongKong and beyond, from teaching English to children to performing business management and accounting roles, She approaches every project with curiosity, empathy, and imagination.
David Kasabian
David is a seasoned brand innovator and culinary authority, bridging the worlds of business, creativity, and food. He is an honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and the author of The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami (Rizzoli 2005) the book that introduced umami to the broader culinary world. Previously, David enjoyed a successful career in advertising and marketing as founder and CEO of DRK Inc., an award-winning firm serving high-profile clients like IBM, Xerox, and Kodak.
Bob del Grosso
Bob combines classical culinary skills with scientific insight and commitment to sustainable food systems. He is a consulting chef and educator with deep experience in product development, from crafting mi-cuit foie gras for Hudson Valley Farms to developing regeneratively raised pork sausages for Applegate Farms. Having taught at the Culinary Institute of America and Drexel University, Bob champions cooking as a transformative force for learning, community, and ecological stewardship.
Some of the companies we keep.
Our individual experiences, and collective knowledge, are deep and wide, spanning multiple disciplines and markets, delivering timely solutions to commercial, educational and not-for-profit organizations, including:
Stay tuned. There's a lot more to come.
We're just getting started at The Food Ahead. Join us on our journey. Sign up for TFA news, including industry insights, consumer trends, and culinary wisdom from our chefs.
Questions? Comments? Get in touch!
What's on your mind? Where do you think food is headed? How are you achieving your goals? And of course, let us know if we can help. Thanks.