The crispy “chicken” sandwich was a staple on the Colonel's opening menu. | Photo courtesy of Kernel by Evan Sung.
A robotic arm feeds food onto a conveyor and places it in an oven to heat it. He has a simplified staff of three employees. With completely digital ordering and no seating, is this the fast casual of the future?
Chipotle founder Steve Ells thinks so. These are just some of the features that distinguish Kernel, his new concept that opened in New York City last month. And yes, there is an earth-friendly, plant-based menu, but it was developed by two fine-dining chefs who previously worked in restaurants. A Michelin star restaurant.
Once inside, you'll see a row of stacked cubbies holding pick-up orders, with a mobile robot arm right behind them. What you can't see is an electric bike trailer in the back that delivers food in thermal boxes every hour from the central commissary kitchen. In its kitchen, nearly everything is prepared from scratch, helmed by Culinary Director Neil Stetz, a San Francisco Quince alumnus.
The order is placed in a storage shelf and the customer receives a text message when their food is ready for pickup. | Photo: Pat Korb
I also don't see any software to manage your orders, making the whole high-tech experience more hospitable. If a screen in the preparation area shows that the order is taking a few minutes longer than promised, the customer will receive a notification on their phone. When the order is ready, a “packer” packs the bag, places it in a designated storage area, and presses a button to send a text message to the customer. Each bag also includes a scannable card to encourage feedback.
Not just for vegans
The Colonel's menu was developed over a year of research and development by Stetz and chief culinary officer Andrew Black, a former sous chef at New York's Eleven Madison Park. Although neither are vegan, they are on a mission to elevate plant-based foods and celebrate vegetables.
If you are a walk-in, you can order by scanning the QR code on the menu board inside the store. | Photo credit: Pat Korb
The menu includes two sandwiches, two salads, and four vegetable sides (two hot and two cold), each with layers of flavor with just the right amount of seasoning, acidity, and spiciness. Mr. Black said that he was proud of the texture. The clever use of fresh herbs, homemade seasonings, and unique ingredients creates complex flavors.
“When Steve [Ells] And I started talking, I knew I wanted a crispy “chicken” sandwich and crispy fries on the menu. We have a great veggie side menu featuring vegetables that we look forward to,” Black said.
The Crispy Chicken Sandwich contains chicken fillets made with wheat and soy, hand-breaded and fried in the central kitchen. He explained that once an order is placed, it is heated and completed in the restaurant's impingement oven, which is fed by the aforementioned conveyor belt. Layered with chipotle mayonnaise, pickles, and coleslaw on a toasted brioche bun, it's very similar to a traditional chicken sandwich.
The Colonel's culinary team worked with Motif, a company specializing in plant-based poultry, to perfect the size, thickness, and shape of the fillets. The breadcrumbs are seasoned with sage, black pepper, and other spices, giving them a complex flavor. Once fried for the first time, it stays crispy during his seven-minute bike ride from the kitchen to the restaurant and through the quick reheating process.
Another must-have item is the Colonel Burger, which Stetz said went through about 100 tests before appearing on the menu. In the final iteration, the patty is made with roasted vegetables and layered with salsa verde and pickled onions on a toasted brioche bun.
“A burger patty is a combination of grains and vegetables, some cooked and some raw, that are blended, ground, mixed, and formed into a patty,” Stetz says. “We experimented with a lot of different combinations of grains and vegetables, bringing more vegetables to the forefront and trying different flavor profiles. (Farro didn't make the cut.) We use grains, legumes, onions and garlic to create umami.”
The kernel burger is a patty made with root vegetables and grains and served with a “special sauce” of salsa verde. | Photo: Pat Korb
Despite all this research and development, hamburgers are still evolving. When you place the patty on top of the salsa verde on the bottom bun, it slips a little when you take a bite. “We are working on adding more texture to the surface of the patty to adjust the grip,” Black said.
Menu featuring vegetables
With the exception of Motif chicken fillets, the Kernel is particular about offering a wide variety of carefully crafted vegetables, Black said.
Roasted carrots, one of the hot sides, are roasted with dates, mixed with farro, salsa verde and herb pesto, and topped with spiced almonds. You'd be hard-pressed to find a side this impressive in most casual dining restaurants.
So is chilled crunchy cucumber tossed with wild rice, basil, coriander, mint, chilli tamarind jam and cashew nuts.
But the triple-cooked crispy potatoes are the most impressive. Perfecting this signature aspect required a multi-step research and development process that involved sourcing specific types of potatoes and packaging them into to-go containers with vents to preserve crispness along the way.
“We tried all kinds of potatoes,” Stetz said. “The variation in potatoes is incredible.” The winner was the Chipperbeck potato, which is low in carbohydrates, low in water, and high in starch. During research and development, the kitchen team experimented with dice and cubes of various sizes, but they weren't aiming for a typical french fry shape. But Kernel is now working with a supplier who grows, harvests and dices the potatoes. “It is processed immediately after harvest,” he added.
The commissary kitchen triple-fries the potato cubes and then reheats them in the restaurant's oven to order. It also comes with ketchup, which Black said is also homemade. Using a proprietary blend of organic ingredients, it's designed to taste similar to Heinz, but with a healthier profile.
The vented lid keeps the potatoes crispy during transportation. | Photo: Pat Korb
The chefs also played a lot with potato containers. At first they laser-cut the lids to let steam escape and keep the potatoes crispy, but that was too labor-intensive in the long run. Currently, her supplier partner is manufacturing vent lids based on that prototype.
At Kitchen Central
I can't talk about this kernel menu without mentioning the home-baked cookies. There are two types: chocolate chunk and oatmeal raisin walnut. Both are baked with a blend of olive and vegetable oils, whole grains, the highest quality chocolate and nuts, and finished with a sprinkle of flaky salt.
These have been such a hit that Black shares recipes and demos on Kernel's Instagram so fans can make them at home.
“Our mission is to create something that's really delicious, made with attention to detail, made with care, and really affordable and convenient,” Black said. “The food we make is as delicious as many of the dishes served at more expensive sit-down restaurants.
Prices are about halfway between McDonald's and Sweetgreen, with sides ranging from $4 to $5, sandwiches from $7 to $9, entrée salads from $10 to $14, and tempting cookies at $3 each.
I'll be honest, I'll admit to being a plant-based skeptic, but this food delivers on its promise. I don't even like beets, but I was hooked on her fourth side dish on the menu, beets in the kernels. Cooked beets are marinated, mixed with green hummus and quinoa, and topped with homemade super seed crunch that tastes like savory granola.
Asked if Kernel was considering batching these recipes to create a catering menu, Black said that was being considered. But first, the concept will expand to more locations in New York City and into even smaller spaces with a compact on-site preparation model.
Most customers order online and take their food home. I didn't have an office or home nearby, so that wasn't an option. It would have been nice to have a seat while we had a very delicious lunch.
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