Jason’s Deli is a legacy concept that continues to inspire its loyal guests with a dynamic menu of sandwiches, salads, bowls, soups and more. Its brand identity comprises signature takes on classic deli favorites, underpinned by a strong foundation of quality, freshness and transparency. We sat down with Clare Wilson, vice president of culinary R&D, to discuss flavor innovation, creative process and menu inspiration.

Clare Wilson

Katie Ayoub: Describe the menu at Jason’s Deli.
Clare Wilson: We’re a nearly-50-year-old brand that started in 1976 in Beaumont, Texas. Our brand has something for everybody, and we say “yes” to customers. So, if you want a plate of nachos and it’s not on our menu, we’re going to make you a plate of nachos. In 2005, we were one of the first companies in the food industry to ban artificial trans fats. Since then, we’ve banned other ingredients: high-fructose corn syrup, MSG and artificial flavors and colors. We never use antibiotics in our chicken. We like to eliminate allergens where possible, particularly with kids’ menus. It’s a really great ethos, and I’m happy to work for a company that stands behind its values.

KA: What’s your bestseller?
CW: Hands down, it’s our salad bar. The value makes it a standout, for sure. Guests can build a salad as large or as small as they want, and they’re fully customizable. “It’s also the quality and variety of ingredients and toppings; we have more than 50 toppings, prepped in the back of house. We make our muffins and our breads, we prep all the produce, we’ve got whole boiled eggs instead of crushed, whole carrots instead of pre-shredded. Our salad bar is always about real food.

Photo Credit: Jason's Deli

Jason’s Deli turned its bestseller into a to-go experience, creating the Ultimate Salad Bar Box with two types of lettuce, an assortment of fresh vegetables and a choice of two cheeses, three dressings and one side.

KA: Describe your process of getting a new dish or drink onto the menu, whether it’s an LTO or a permanent item.
CW: The majority of what I work on are LTOs. There are three kinds of innovation: quality improvement, new platforms and LTOs. My No. 1 responsibility is to keep our LTO pipeline full. My creative process involves seeing a menu idea or flavor concept in-market, then starting the innovation process with simplicity: Rebuild the dish until I get it right, then I work on “Deli-fying it,” or “Jason’s Deli-fying it.” I make it with the ingredients that I have at Jason’s Deli, and at that point, I have to decide what I can live with and what I cannot live without and figure out if I need to bring in any ingredients. I have so many great ingredients to work with every day that if I am bringing in a new one, it better be worth it. It had better bring that flavor, and it had better make that LTO. Otherwise, I just can’t justify it. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up our wonderful vendors because so many of them really help bring our flavor ideas to life.

Photo Credit: Jason's Deli

Club sandwiches are “our sweet spot,” says Wilson, and the Green Goddess Gourmet Club offers a fresh take: served on Italian-seasoned focaccia and topped with smoked turkey, provolone, bacon, lettuce, tomato, Green Goddess dressing and avocado.

KA: What’s the cadence with your LTOs?
CW: We do quarterly menu updates every year. I have a strict process that I learned at the beginning of my career for my approach to LTO development. It involves identifying what the need is, exploring what already exists in the marketplace, and then developing items that fit that need. Once we have developed 10 items that fit that need, we’ll taste and taste and taste, and we’ll scale down and scale down. And then we’ll test it and make any necessary tweaks. Only then, after testing, will we launch an item nationally.

Photo Credit: Jason's Deli

The Everything Burnt Ends Sandwich offers a summer picnic on a bun. An everything bun is topped with pit-smoked pork burnt ends, spicy molasses barbecue sauce, bacon, cheddar, pickle chips and the concept’s made-in-house American Potato Salad.

KA: What’s your biggest challenge with innovation?
CW: Our biggest challenge is making sure we don’t alienate customers with too much flavor innovation. The more you go outside the comfort zone and the more layers of flavor you put on an item, the more we seem to alienate guests. So I have to make sure the flavor is right for our user. And on top of that, we’re in 26 different states. It’s tough to find the right balance between what works in Texas (where most of our restaurants are located) and what works in Phoenix and Chicago because it’s not always the same thing.

KA: Can you share what’s in your innovation pipeline?
CW: We’ve got really great clubs coming out that are on unique breads. We always have success with club sandwiches—we sell the heck out of them. As a Southern brand, we were highly influenced by Italian immigrants in Louisiana; we sold po’ boys for a long time, and our brand is still representative of that. But what I’m trying to do is shift a little bit towards more sub options, so we can compete with some of the sub players. An Italian sub is hitting our menu in January. We’re also going to hop on the truffle trend for truffle season in January. We’ve got truffle pasta coming out that has a natural truffle cheese sauce, spinach, mushrooms, Asiago cheese—it’s phenomenal.

QUICKFIRE

Source of inspiration:
Inspiration comes mostly from my travels, whether I’m on vacation, at a conference, on a dine-around or just out with friends. I enjoy learning about foods, tasting new foods, seeing how they fit into other cultures; I just store it in the back of my brain and when I see a need on the menu, I pull it out and I figure out how it can fit with us.

Something in your fridge that would surprise people:
People who don’t know me would be surprised at how much cheese I have in my refrigerator. I have it in all forms: cottage cheese, Edam-style cheese and string cheese. I have blocks for shredding. I’ve got wedges for charcuterie boards. I have pre-shredded. I have three kinds of American cheese.

Cuisine or ingredient you’re particularly excited to explore:
I’m really excited about Vietnamese cuisine. And Japanese, particularly at breakfast. Thai cuisine is also starting to come into my sights.

Your go-to late-night snack:
No surprise to anyone: It’s a grilled cheese. When you come home and there’s no other food, I always have some kind of bread in the freezer—sourdough is preferred—and I always have some kind of cheese. And I do love putting pickles on my grilled cheese—really great dill pickles.

Best bite you’ve had recently:
The Omu Rice at Bar Moga in New York. It was so good that it rewired how I think of certain ingredients that we don’t traditionally put together in the U.S. The dish has a very, very well-executed chicken-fried rice. On top, they put a creamy, half-cooked omelette, split it open and top it with a fine-dining veal demi-glace. It was so good that we ordered another one… but the kitchen was closed. It wrecked my whole night!