Rodman Shields, Director of Culinary, Milkshake Concepts, Dallas

“I’ve been working on cultivating different types of koji, a transformative rice mold responsible for ingredients like soy sauce, miso and sake. We can use these organisms to create truly unique flavors. For our new concept, Serious Sliders, we’re menuing Koji-Blasted Fries, which we might call Beef-Blasted Fries. I made a pecan smoke-infused A5 beef fat-washed bourbon, and I take the fat that’s washed with the bourbon, add koji, then spray it onto the fries right when they come out of the fryer. You get this lighter koji flavor with bourbon notes. We’ll serve them with a koji aïoli for a more intense, rich flavor.”