Left to right: Mark Kujawa, CFO, Cuisine Solutions; Zachary Pasanen, Director, WP Carey; Leo Gomez, President & CEO, Brooks; Stanislas Vilgrain, CEO & Chairman, Cuisine Solutions; Gino Sabatini, Managing Director, WP Carey; T. Michael Scott, Cambridge Holdings; Felipe Hasselmann, President, Cuisine Solutions; Jean-Pierre Guillaud, COO, Cuisine Solutions. Pictured above: Paula Gold-Williams, President & CEO of CPS Energy and Antonio Economic Development Foundation executive committee member.
By Marilyn Kitzes
Texas has officially immersed itself into the world of sous vide cooking. Cuisine Solutions, the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of sous vide foods, has started construction on a 290,000-square-foot facility in Brooks, a 1,300-acre community on the southeast side of San Antonio. Cuisine Solutions decided on development in Brooks—a former U.S. Air Force base—after carefully considering 27 other U.S. locations. It will be the sixth global plant for the company, and the largest in the States.
“Brooks is the ideal location for us to establish our presence west of the Mississippi River,” says Stanislas Vilgrain, chairman and CEO of Cuisine Solutions. “San Antonio has an industrious and enthusiastic workforce that we’ll tap into to help support our growth and meet the increasing demand for our restaurant-quality products.”
Headquartered in Sterling, VA, Cuisine Solutions is the pioneer of sous vide, the highly acclaimed technique of vacuum-sealing and slow-cooking foods in a hot-water bath. The company also has locations in Alexandria, VA; Louviers, France; and Bangkok, Thailand.
There is increased demand for Cuisine Solutions’ gourmet meat and poultry entrées, seafood, and sauces. Commercial kitchens, which often prepare food in volume, have long appreciated the ease and dependability of the sous vide method. Sous vide allows food to be cooked evenly ahead of time by any member of a kitchen’s staff, and then finished when ordered. In recent years its popularity has trickled down to savvy home chefs, who appreciate the method’s ability to deliver perfection.
The new $120 million location—developed with Cambridge Development Group—will enable Cuisine Solutions to better serve big-name clients like Hilton, Costco, and others in the restaurant, airline, hotel, and food service sectors. The state-of-the art facility will be located on approximately 24 acres of land and is expected to open in mid-2020. Additionally, the new location will bring approximately 500 new jobs to the area over the next four years.
“Five-hundred new jobs is a great start to 2019,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg at the February 15, 2019, groundbreaking ceremony. “Cuisine Solutions’ selection of San Antonio for it fourth U.S. production facility reflects on our community-wide commitment of positioning San Antonio as a business-friendly city.”
