Soggy Fries: A Fine Dining Chef Takes on an Age-Old Problem

Soggy Fries: A Fine Dining Chef Takes On An Age-Old Problem

Soggy fries are an issue for every operator, even for celebrated fine-dining chef Kevin Stout in Tallahassee, Florida.

At the height of the pandemic, Stout had the idea to open a vastly different kind of restaurant: a chef-driven, fast-casual operation with gourmet chicken sandwiches for takeout and delivery.

From the brown-sugar-honey slaw to the house-made pickles, the focus on quality at Hot Birdie’s Chicken in Tallahassee, Florida, shines through.

“We make almost everything in-house,” says Stout. “I’m very proud of it. It’s not a fast-food chicken sandwich. When you get it, you can tell. It’s a big, juicy, messy sandwich.”

Hot Birdie’s Chicken proved to be an immediate hit.

But soon, he noticed his french fries, particularly those for delivery, were attracting negative reviews online.

“We had a different fry when we first opened,” says Stout of the uncoated, skin-on lattice cut he started with. “It would get soggy really fast. Not even a couple of minutes out of the fryer and it’s already getting limp. And then you box them. By the time they get it home, it was a cold, wet french fry.”

A stickler for quality, Stout began the search for a replacement immediately.

Simplot Conquest^® Delivery+^® Fries: The end of soggy fries

“My Simplot rep came over and brought all kinds of different fries. I don’t think I was always easy for him,” Stout laughs. “I’m very particular about what I like. And when I don’t like something, I move on quickly.”

He quickly settled on Simplot’s Conquest^® Delivery+^® Lattice Cut Fries. Their industry-leading 40+ minute hold time and rich potato flavor were exactly what he was looking for.

“We went with the Conquest^® Delivery+^® fry after trying several fries and we put them through some tests. We boxed them up. We covered them. We came back 10 minutes later, 20 minutes later, 30 minutes later and it just kept holding up,” Stout remembers.

“It’s very flavorful and retains its heat for a long time,” he says.

No more negative reviews about soggy fries

Right away, he started getting better, more positive reviews on the fries.

“When we get our reviews, the biggest thing people talk about is the fries,” says Stout. “They love the sandwich, but after that, it’s about the fries. I wasn’t really expecting that. We have dipping sauces, so people will be dipping the fries in the sauces and it’s almost as much of an attraction as the sandwich is.”

To Stout, a fry that stays crisp for 40+ minutes is worth its weight in gold.

“After all these years, it seems to me that people have preferences whether they like a crispy fry, or maybe they like a big steak fry, which is more meaty,” Stout says. “It seems to me that most people like this crispness and that’s what they always write on the reviews.”

Today Hot Birdie’s Chicken is thriving. Within a year of opening, Stout opened a second location in Gainesville and is already eyeing a third.

“It’s not that we got a bunch of bad reviews [on fries] before, but those things matter to me,” he says. “I’m going to get what I think is the best and what people are going to enjoy the most. And that’s where we ended up with this product.”