Our Year-Round Onion Supply

The Secret to Storing Onions 

At Gills Onions, we deliver the best and freshest onions to our customers year-round, but we only harvest onions from April to November. What do we do the rest of the year? The answer is storage for our onions. Storing onions is an art. It’s one that we’ve perfected over many years with our special onion-growing prescription. It starts with seed selection and ends with a delicious Gills onion arriving in your kitchen. And if we’ve done our job correctly, you’ll never be able to tell which onions are storage onions and which are coming to you in-season. 

Our Unique Approach

Storing onions isn’t unique to our operation. Onions are only harvested certain months of the year, but society uses onions all year long. The only way to keep supplying the onions year-round is to store them. You’ve probably been using storage onions your whole life and simply never realized it. What does make Gills Onions unique is how we approach the storing process. Storage onions have to stay fresh for around six months in cold storage. The storage season starts in September or October each year and extends all the way until April. That’s why seed selection and onion variety are so crucial. 

Gills Onions currently grows around a dozen varieties of onions. These varieties are selected for their flavor and longevity. Then, the seeds are matched with growing environments that will produce the best results from hot, more desert-like environments to fields in cooler regions like Bakersfield, King City, and the Salinas Valley. During the growing process, adjustments must be made for onions that will be spending time in storage. We pull back on the use of fertilizers and nitrogen to allow calcium in the onions to build a strong cell wall that will withstand natural cellular breakdowns that occur over time. At harvest time, onions are dug up and cured in the sun for 7 to 10 days. Curing is an essential part of the storage process. Onions that aren’t cured properly will decay quickly in storage. Bulk onion operations place unpeeled onions loose or in bags into a cold storage warehouse. Often, heat is used to dry out the onions and prevent decay, but this can mean sacrificing flavor. 

As a fresh cut processor, our onions are harvested, sorted and placed into bins before storing. The onions are also pre-cooled to gradually bring them down to storage temperatures. This gradual cooling keeps the onions from sweating and building up moisture that causes mold. In storage, the onions are kept at 34 degrees Fahrenheit and 75% humidity for optimum freshness. During the storage season, the onions are routinely checked for quality. Onions with internal or external decay, sun damage, or mechanical damage from the peeling process are removed from storage. The onions’ color can also be an indicator of freshness. Yellow or green centers mean an onion is reaching its point of longevity for storage.

Making a Great Storage Onion 

Some varieties of onions naturally stay fresh longer than others, and even the most subtle physical attributes, like shape, can affect the way an onion withstands the storing process. Storage onions should have single centers instead of multiple centers. Those with double or triple centers break down faster, and won’t stay fresh for long. We constantly evaluate and re-evaluate how each variety of onion is performing in storage. Like any crop, onion genetics change over time. If a variety we have loved is now producing onions with undesirable attributes – like multiple centers – we stop using it and replace it with a better-performing variety. Quality always comes first. 

Year-Round Quantity with Gills Onions Quality 

At Gills Onions, we are dedicated to providing the best onions at the best price. We take our responsibility to our environment, our customers, and of course, our onions, seriously. With our strict storage onions growing program, we can deliver the best tasting and freshest product year-round. Our customers get consistent quality, a consistent price, and consistent availability all 365 days of the year. 

But don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves. 

Ready to try onions grown “The Gills Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more.

2023 Food Trends to Watch for // December Innovation Lab

This past December, Gills Onions invited four amazing chefs to craft innovative recipes inspired by Flavor & The Menu’s upcoming food trends for 2023. Each expert culinarian was tasked with creating different recipes based on flavor trends while using a very special ingredient – Gills onions! The results were nothing short of magical, and we can’t wait to feature these recipes more throughout the year.


All About Flavor (& The Menu)
Flavor & The Menu’s (FTM) trend forecasting has been a staple in the restaurant industry for nearly 20 years. We love working with these experts (along with FoodMix Marketing Communications) in our Innovation Labs to inspire chefs from all over the world. Every year FTM looks at menu development through the lens of flavor, and the trend list for 2023 is bursting with it.


The Chefs Behind The Magic
We couldn’t have asked for a more fitting group of chefs for this experience. Each of them is wildly talented and went above and beyond in their flavor creations. Meet the chefs who joined our Innovation Lab, and take a look at a few of their standout recipes:


Steven Agosto
Steven is the Executive Chef for Morongo Casino Resort and Spa in Cabazon, California. As a New York native, Steven has been inspired by flavors from various cultures including Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Ireland.

Make It Stick
One of the phenomenal recipes Steven created with us was Miso Seabass Anticuchos. This Andes-inspired dish drew from the “Make it Stick” trend and featured delicious sliced onions and Japanese miso paste – all served on a bed of corn and edamame.

Miso Seabass Anticuchos


Amanda Jackson
This Georgia native has been featured on Food52, Popsugar, and Netflix’s “Cooked With Cannabis,” and is the co-owner of School of Fish Taco Truck. Amanda loves experimenting with a variety of flavors, alongside her specialty – Rural Black American cooking.


The Dark Side of Butter
Amanda’s Brown Butter and Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese was inspired by one of our favorite FTM flavor trends: The Dark Side of Butter. As FTM notes, brown butter lends a “roasted flavor, toasty aroma, silky mouthfeel, and deep complexity” to its dishes, which is why it’s a top food trend for the year.

Brown Butter and Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese


Melissa Chickerneo
As Executive Chef for BTS Catering and Events, Melissa is passionate about bringing creative elements into her recipe development. She has prepared meals for astronauts, US Presidents, celebrities, and for several Olympic Games.


Mustard’s Moment
One of Melissa’s innovative recipes that we loved was her Caramelized Onion and Whole-Grain Mustard Compound Butter. Melissa paired this decadent butter with a mouthwatering steak, inspired by the FTM trend: Mustard’s Moment.

Caramelized Onion and Whole-Grain Mustard Compound Butter


Gary Nguyen
Gary grew up in LA and loves traveling all over the world to receive inspiration for his culinary creations. As a private chef, Gary elevates dining experiences to a new level every time by playing with color, plating, flavor, and presentation.


Cider Culture
Gary shone with his take on Pancetta Sweet Potato Hash for the FTM trend category: Cider Culture. This sweet and salty pub-style breakfast featured red onion, tomato, avocado, red cabbage, sweet potato, and pancetta – all topped with a deliciously runny fried egg.

Red onion, tomato, avocado, red cabbage, sweet potato, and pancetta


Other Food Trends We Love for 2023
Along with the four mentioned above, our guest chefs incorporated Gills Onions into a few other FTM 2023 trends during this innovation lab:


True Colors
FTM predicts even more color at the table in 2023, as chefs continue to be inspired by the natural vibrant hues in their repertoire. Ingredients like beets, ube, butterfly pea flower, turmeric, and lavender, will all lend unique pigments to the palate this year.


Asian Breakfast Wakes Up
Skipping breakfast is OUT in 2023, and Asian breakfast is IN! From fried rice bowls to steak and eggs, chefs are breaking out their Asian-inspired recipes bright and early this year. Other ingredients like matcha, red bean, soy sauce, and kimchi are all making their way to the breakfast table as well.


Time for Thai
Thai-fusion cuisine will be showing up all over the map in 2023 as chefs use this flavor category in unique ways. Classic East Asian features like rice noodles, shrimp crackers, tom yum soup, and Thai iced tea combine with Tex-Mex, French cuisine, American dessert, and even cocktails.


Our Commitment to Flavor
At Gills, our commitment to flavor is rooted in a deep love for quality, food service, and farm-fresh ingredients. Whether these chefs were making a cucumber salad or a bahn mi sandwich, Gills Onions played a crucial role in bringing all of these recipes to life. We love working with industry experts in settings like these, and hope to keep inspiring chefs to work their magic — from the back of the kitchen to plated perfection.

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

Moving Onions Across America: Get to Know Gills Freight

Our job is to get millions  of pounds of the highest quality onions from our fields to America’s tables, but we can’t do it alone. That’s where our wonderful team at Gills Freight comes in to save the day. 

Gills Freight drivers move our raw onion products from the fields to our state-of-the-art processing facility. They also make sure necessary equipment makes it to the right fields at the right time throughout the onion growing process. It’s a very complicated – and essential – part of what we do. 

Let’s take a look at a day in the life of a Gills Freight driver. 

Organization: The Key to Success

Ron Perry, a 30+ year employee of Gills Onions, is currently the head of Gills Freight. He manages the teams of drivers that transport raw onions from the fields and the teams that carry products to cross docks where it is loaded and shipped through the U.S. and Canada. 

By the time most of us are snoozing our alarm clocks, Ron has been up making things happen for hours. His day starts about 4:30 a.m. with the dispatch board. The board tells every driver what they are doing for the day and where they are driving. It’s Ron’s job to make sure the board is always up to date and that onions and equipment are being picked up and delivered on schedule. He’ll also look ahead at the rest of the week to determine how many loads will need to be hauled in the coming days. Drivers will typically know exactly what they will be doing from Monday through Saturday. Planning is everything, and Ron is the first line of defense.

About 6 a.m. it’s time to head to the shipping office and review invoicing and paperwork for the loads that went out the night before and for the loads of onion products that will be moved that day. It doesn’t matter how many onions are moved if there isn’t accurate documentation. Ron determines the freight costs for every order that takes place. 

The rest of the day is filled with supporting drivers. Ron responds to any problems that arise, coordinates scheduled maintenance, and tracks and communicates estimated arrival times for each truck. It’s a demanding job, but Ron makes it look easy.  

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Gills Freight drivers are where the rubber meets the road. They operate powerful machinery with unmatched safety and reliability. Different drivers operate different routes depending on the time of year, but in the spring they typically pull out of Bakersfield. That means the day starts at base at 3:30 in the morning. 

The drivers arrive in Bakersfield at about 6 a.m. and load up. At minimum, one truck can transport 52,000 pounds of the world’s best onions. They fill out their paperwork – remember, that paper trail is super important – and hit the road again. Drivers usually arrive back at the Oxnard facility around 10 a.m. The day is just starting for many Gills Onions employees, but it’s a wrap for our drivers. They’ll check the almighty dispatch board to see what their next day of hauling looks like before heading home to get some rest. 

But that’s a short haul. 

Sometimes drivers have a long haul that requires stopping and sleeping overnight then continuing to drive the next day. During these trips, drivers can drive 250, 450, and even 520 miles a day. Over the course of a year, our freight drivers typically travel 100 to 150 thousand miles. 

That’s why reliability and safe driving skills are essential qualities of a Gills Onions Freight driver. We’re lucky to have members of our team that have been with us for over 15 years and know their jobs like the back of their hand. Three of our drivers have even won Ryder’s Truck Driver of the Year. 

Bringing Our Onions to You

The biggest challenge of working in Gills Freight is also the thing that our team enjoys the most: No day is ever the same as the last. Transport needs are always changing, and it keeps things interesting. 

We couldn’t be prouder of our Gills Freight team. They keep us up and running and make sure that our onions get to where they need to be – and ultimately, to you. 

So, the next time you open up a bag of Gills Onions, remember what it took to get those delicious vegetables into your hands, and send up a little thank you to drivers that made it possible. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

Tackling Supply Chain Struggles by Eliminating Waste

Across North America, the supply chain is facing an unprecedented crisis. Transportation rates – the cost of trucking products from place to place – are rising, while the availability of equipment and manpower is falling. What does this mean for the industry, and what can we all do to help?

Rising Rates, Labor Shortages, and Other Challenges

Every day, companies ship goods across North America. From coast to coast, border to border, this is how essential products, including the food you eat every day, get to you. But, transportation comes at a price. In April of 2020, a load moving from California to Boston cost a produce company $6,400. In April of 2021, the cost was $10,600.

In the past, it wasn’t unheard of that peak demand summer rates rose to the $10,000 mark, but never in recent memory have rates risen this much so early in the year. In fact, experts predict that transportation rates could be 35 to 50 percent higher this summer than in previous years.

Why the rapid spike? A perfect storm of less than ideal conditions post pandemic shares a majority of the blame. Supply chain interruptions have made it difficult for shippers to secure equipment and drivers. Health and safety concerns during COVID-19 as well as the availability of stimulus and increased unemployment benefits have encouraged some drivers to leave the business altogether.

While it’s hard to predict the outcome, many industry leaders think this domino effect will continue for quite some time. For the time being the reality is this: higher prices and tighter truck supply.

How Gills Onions Can Help

So, what can you do to help alleviate the stress put on the shipping industry and still get products to market? When it comes to fresh produce – especially onions – one of the biggest boosts producers and customers can give is eliminating waste.

There are more than 400 truckloads of bulk onions shipped and consumed in the United States every day. The equivalent of one out of every three truckloads is waste. That means that growers, shippers, and customers are footing the bill to transport thousands of pounds of garbage.

When you purchase Gills Onions, you are buying 100% usable product. Every pound of onions that is shipped to you can be used in your kitchen. It also means that precious trucks aren’t wasted moving useless freight.

Eliminating waste also translates into financial savings for every part of the supply chain. With fresh cut, value-added produce, no one is footing the bill for transporting thousands of dollars of unusable material.

Thinking About Long-term Sustainability

Dedication to eliminating waste doesn’t just save money. It also helps the environment. When shippers can do more with fewer trucks on the road, it reduces emissions and fossil fuel consumption, wear and tear on infrastructure, and more.

While we have to face the realities of the current shipping crisis, we can’t forget the long-term effects that our choices make on the future of our planet. As an industry, we can make choices that help out shippers and customers and also move us toward a more sustainable status quo.

We’re grateful for the wonderful team at Gills Freight that moves our raw products from the fields to our processing facility. Without them, it would be impossible to get millions of pounds of the world’s best onions to America’s tables. We’re also grateful for the men and women all over the country who keep the supply chain up and running. Even in challenging times, we know that by working together, we can continue to do what we all do best.

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

Finding the Value in Value-Added Produce

Value-added produce is valuable. It seems like a no-brainer – after all, “value” is in the name. But there are many ways that value-added fresh produce can help businesses. From food safety, to reduced costs, to consistent quality, value-added is just that – super valuable.

Value-Add Number One: Save on Labor Costs

One of the most labor-intensive tasks in any commercial kitchen is prepping fresh produce. Prepping a raw bulk onion order is the perfect example. One 50 lb sack contains an average of 200 individual onions. That’s a lot of peeling, washing, and cleaning up – all before you even begin to dive into cutting.

That prep work takes manpower, and labor is a commodity that is getting increasingly harder to find. The United States is experiencing a nationwide labor shortage, and as minimum wage and other employee costs increase, retaining an adequate workforce is becoming more and more difficult. Value-added produce arrives sliced, diced, and ready-to-use, which saves businesses time and money. Instead of prepping onions, employees can dedicate time to other essential tasks.

Once you have a reliable workforce in place, you don’t want to lose them to injury. Cuts are the number one most common injury in commercial kitchens. Value-added fresh produce means less cutting and less risk.

Value-Add Number Two: Consistent Yield and Quality

When you purchase bulk vegetables, you can never be quite sure exactly what you are going to get. Did you know that a third of a sack of bulk onions is waste? That means you aren’t really getting 50 lbs of usable onion in that 50 lb sack.

On the other hand, when you buy value-added onions, you know exactly what you are going to get. Value-added onions arrive with consistent quality and consistent yield every time. When you buy a 30 lbs box of Gills Whole Peeled Onions, you get 30 lbs of ready-to-use onions.

Plus, the cost of value-added products doesn’t change by season or based on demand. That means you get the bonus benefit of consistent pricing, too.

Value-Add Number Three: Cleaner Kitchen

Unprepped, raw vegetables can bring unsanitary dirt and bacteria into your kitchen. Raw bulk onions are one of the worst offenders. Our testing shows that bulk onions can contain 100 to 1000 times more bacteria, yeasts, and molds than our value-added onions. The minute contaminants enter your kitchen, they can spread to other surfaces and foods.

Value-added produce increases your confidence that your kitchen, and the food leaving it, is clean and safe for everyone.

Ready, Get Set, Get Value-Added

At Gills Onions, we know that value-added fresh produce is one of the most valuable investments you can make. It improves nearly every aspect of foodservice, from the time ingredients arrive in your kitchen to the time someone eats your food. Value-added produce means less prep, less waste, more safety, and — if you’re using Gills Onions – more taste. So don’t wait. Start adding value to your business with value-added fresh produce today.

Ready to try onions grown “The Gills Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more

Join the Double Your Impact Challenge

In the month of May, Gills Onions will match all donations up to $12,500 for every dollar donated to Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) as part of SEEAG’s third annual Double Your Impact Challenge.

“The generosity of our friends at Gill’s Onions means SEEAG will receive as much as $25,000 to support our Farm Lab program,” says Mary Maranville, SEEAG’s founder and CEO.  “Farm Lab is a combination of classroom learning and farm field trips where students learn all about the origins of their food, particularly locally-grown food. The money raised will enable us to reach more students across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.”

A Mission to Teach and Share

Gills Onions is a long-time supporter of SEEAG’s agricultural education programming that has reached over 60,000 elementary school students since its founding in 2008. All SEEAG programs are 100 percent cost-free to schools and students.

“Teaching students about how food is grown and the benefits of eating locally-produced fruits and vegetables is one way to improve the health of our kids,” says Steve Gill, Gill’s Onions president and SEEAG board member. “Once kids learn about the farming and harvesting process and the benefits of fresh produce, they get excited about eating a more healthy diet.”

How You Can Help

All “Gill’s Onions Double Your Impact Challenge” matching donations go toward student learning:

Double Giving Levels:

  • $25 donation doubles to $50 – Print summer camp booklets for 100 students
  • $50 donation doubles to $100 – Pack farm-fresh resource bags for 200 students
  • $100 donation doubles to $200 – Send 200 students home with vegetable seedlings
  • $250 donation doubles to $500 – Fill up the SEEAG van for two weeks of summer camp travel
  • $500 donation doubles to $1,000 – Provide fresh snacks and materials for 800 students
  • $1,000 donation doubles to $2,000 – Covers the cost of six buses to bring students to Farm Lab

 For more information or to donate, visit www.seeag.org/doubleyourimpact.

Ready to try onions grown “The Gills Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more. 

2021 PMA Foodservice

It’s 2021, and PMA Foodservice is back! Our team at Gills Onions was excited to be attending our first major industry event for foodservice since the COVID-19 pandemic. Our industry has seen unprecedented changes and faced many unforeseen challenges over the past year, but we are ready to join with our partners … because foodservice is back in business. 

There’s no better way to celebrate how far we’ve come than PMA Foodservice. 

What You Need to Know About PMA Foodservice

PMA Foodservice Conference & Expo took place July 21–22, 2021, in Monterey, California. That year, PMA is celebrating the resilience of the industry and reconnecting buyers and sellers at its 40th anniversary event. 

At PMA Foodservice, you’ll find attendees from every corner of our industry, including operators, distributors, and retail foodservice buyers; grower-shippers and processors (like Gills Onions); and even business solutions providers. It gives everyone a chance to connect, learn about innovations, and of course, do business. 

At Gills Onions, we were excited to be back at PMA Foodservice doing what we do best: sharing the good news of fresh fruits and vegetables. We love the chance to show why we are the best at what we do and how we lead in sustainability, food safety, value-add, and flavor. We believe in doing business the old-fashioned way – with a handshake and a face-to-face conversation, building relationships that last. 

We’re Proud to Stand With Our Partners

We’re proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners in foodservice as we enter the post-pandemic world. It’s no secret that 2020 was difficult, and Gills Onions wasn’t immune. Restaurants closed and reopened and closed again. New mandates and restrictions forced us to get creative and adapt how we do business. Businesses across our industry had to make difficult decisions to reduce staff, and at times, it seemed like things would never return to “normal.” 

In 2021, some things are starting to look a bit more familiar. But, with a national labor shortage, reducing costs and labor in the kitchen is more important than ever. At Gills Onions, we are proud to offer a value-added product that saves kitchens time and money on labor and transportation costs. And, onions are one of the most commonly used products across foodservice. (It makes sense. They’re delicious and versatile.) 

We also took the time in 2020 to prepare our business for the next 40 years of service. We upgraded our technology to incorporate state of the art equipment that allows us to deliver products more quickly and more safely than ever before. 

PMA Foodservice is the perfect time to stand together and share an optimistic vision of the future. We all survived, and now it is time to thrive. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

The Foodservice Recovery: How Value-Added Can Make a Difference

Innovation has always been essential for success in the foodservice industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that principle once again. In unprecedented ways, the foodservice community has had to adapt to survive. In 2021, the industry is starting to recover, and innovation will be needed once again. 

At Gills Onions, we support our customers by offering value-added products that save them time and money. If you haven’t incorporated value-added produce into your line-up, now is the time. It’s an out-of-the-box — or in our case, out-of-the-bag — solution that can buoy up your business. And, our vegetables taste pretty amazing, too. 

The Challenges Facing Foodservice Recovery

As restaurants begin to reopen for indoor dining, it’s quickly becoming obvious that this isn’t a return to “normal.” Nothing is truly like what it was before quarantines and shutdowns. Take sanitation for example. Kitchens have always had high standards for cleanliness, but protecting food from germs and contamination has never been more important. 

Another new challenge is labor. The foodservice industry is starving, with retailers trying everything they can to attract interested prospective hires. One manager even recently offered to pay individuals $50 for simply coming in for a job interview. No one responded. Many businesses can’t offer pay that is competitive enough to beat out the combination of federal stimulus benefits and regular unemployment checks. And, with minimum wage and other employee cost increases, labor is becoming even more costly. 

Value-Added Products Can Solve These Challenges

Though the landscape can feel bleak, value-added products are a solution that you may not have considered. In a world where nothing has been consistent, these products can be the consistent force that helps stabilize a business. Here’s how:

  • Price. The cost of value-added products doesn’t change based on season or demand. Consistent pricing allows owners and chefs to plan budgets far in advance. 
  • Quality. At Gills Onions, we guarantee that our products offer consistent quality and yield. You always know exactly what you are going to get. One third of a sack of bulk onions is waste. That means you’re not really getting 50 pounds of usable onions. With value-added products, you know exactly how much usable product you’ll be receiving every time. 
  • Cleanliness. Bulk onions can bring harmful bacteria into your kitchen. Value-added products arrive cleaned, prepped, and ready to use. 
  • Labor. Speaking of arriving ready-to-use, value-added products save time and money by eliminating the labor needed to prep onions for use. Employees can dedicate their time to other essential tasks. 
  • Safety. Value-added products keep employees safe by reducing the risk of knife injuries. 

Use Gills Onions as a Resource

Our decades supporting the foodservice industry put us in a unique position to offer support and assistance at this unique time. We know your pain points, and we want to help you reach your full potential. We hope to be a resource to sales teams as they go out and sell produce, and a resource for producing the amazing value-added products that serve owners and chefs across the United States and Canada. 

Together, we can recover, and we will get back to what we all do best — bringing amazing food to the world. 

Ready to try onions grown “The Gill Way”? Contact our sales department to learn more.

Cloud Kitchens: An Innovative Take on Foodservice

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 17% of US restaurants have closed their doors. In straight numbers, that translates to over 110,000 dining rooms that used to be filled with hungry customers. Since our onions used to be on the plates that now sit empty, we intimately understand the challenges restaurants are facing. 

With the industry in free fall, restaurant owners and chefs have been forced to adapt to survive. For some, cloud kitchens have been the answer. Let’s take a deeper look.

What Is a Cloud Kitchen?

Cloud kitchens, or ghost kitchens as some prefer to call them, allow restaurants and food brands to prepare meals for delivery and take out without a permanent brick and mortar space. These stripped-down versions of commercial kitchens are straight food preparation space — no dine-in option. But, they have everything needed to craft beautiful dishes with commercial kitchen equipment, dishwashers, and cold storage. Caterers have used these spaces for years to prepare meals for offsite events. 

Before the pandemic, about 15% of operators reported using a cloud kitchen, but by May of 2020, 51% of operators had turned to cloud kitchens to prepare some or all of their delivery orders. Other operators moved solely to cloud kitchens paired with take-out and delivery services to meet growing demands amidst lockdowns and quarantines. 

Food delivery apps have made delivery accessible and easy for everyone, with delivery sales growing 300% faster than dine-in over the last five years. That growth has only accelerated since COVID-19 arrived. 

The Cloud Kitchen Business Model

So, how exactly does a cloud kitchen work? Operators rent kitchen space from a landlord who owns kitchen facilities. These spaces are most common in densely populated urban areas. With kitchen space rented (for cheaper than the overhead of a restaurant space), brands get onto a food delivery app and start filling orders. The orders are picked up and sent out from the cloud kitchen space instead of a restaurant. 

Cloud kitchens have been used to launch new food brands for less. By having purely virtual interactions with customers, operators save on the cost of equipment, the cost of space, and the cost of labor. Existing brands have also used cloud kitchens to meet demand or expand their delivery range. 

But it’s not all easy money and success with cloud kitchens. Competition in delivery apps is growing. The perks of a storefront are free advertising and food traffic, sales boosts you don’t get when your restaurant is virtual. Chefs are also restricted by delivery area. A typical delivery radius is 3 to 5 miles from the kitchen, so you may be able to find kitchen space for cheap, but are there customers around? And let’s not forget that there is only so much kitchen space up for grabs.

Still, many brands have found cloud kitchens are the key to their success in a post-COVID market. 

Effects of Cloud Kitchens on the Ag Industry 

What challenges restaurants challenges the farmers who supply them. If there’s no one to eat food, the food doesn’t leave the field. At Gills Onions, many of our products are designed specifically with the food industry in mind. Items like our Whole Peeled Onions, Sliced Onions, and Slivered Onions are prepared and packaged to make chefs’ work easier and safer. When restaurants close their doors, agriculture hurts, too. 

Cloud kitchens are one innovative solution that the restaurant industry is using to bounce back, and they benefit those of us in agriculture just as much as those in food service. Cloud kitchens also present a unique opportunity for brands to partner with local farmers and source fresh produce from their own areas. 

Time will tell how the cloud kitchen concept develops and grows, but one thing is for sure: restaurants are here to stay, and we’ll be there to make sure they have all the onions they need. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department. 

Reducing Cross-Contamination: Tips for Keeping Foods Apart in Your Commercial Kitchen

So much of commercial kitchen safety is synonymous with food safety. When you work in foodservice, it is paramount that your kitchen stays clean. But what happens when the food in your kitchen is the culprit?

Cross-contamination – the transfer of harmful bacteria in a kitchen from food, surfaces, and utensils — is too easily overlooked. Doing so can have serious consequences. The good news is that the risk of cross-contamination can also easily be reduced. Just keep these tips in mind. 

Store Items Separately

From the time food arrives in your kitchen and throughout its time in storage, it is crucial that you keep foods apart. Remember, foods need contact to cross-contaminate. 

Raw meats, poultry, and seafood should be kept in sealed containers or bags to prevent their juices from leaking onto surfaces or other foods. Meats that are marinating should also be kept in cold storage. All of these products should be refrigerated in a separate area from other foods like vegetables, fruits, and dairy. 

Similarly, items like fresh eggs should stay in their original packaging and be refrigerated as soon as they are delivered. 

Make Food Prep a Cleaner Process

The first rule of safe food prep is wash — wash often and wash well. 

All employees should wash their hands with warm soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after they work with food in the kitchen. They should also wash hands before switching between foods. 

Hot soapy water should also be used along with disposable paper towels or clean kitchen cloths to wipe down surfaces in the kitchen or clean up spills during food preparation. Cloths should only be used once and then should be sanitized in a hot washing machine cycle before being used again. 

Every utensil used in the kitchen should be washed just as religiously — including cutting boards, dishes, spoons, knives, measuring cups, etc. 

Never reuse a cutting board. Cutting boards should always be clean and used for one type of food — one board for raw meat, another for produce, another for seafood, another for poultry, and so on. 

Finished food should be placed on a clean plate. Never put cooked food back onto a plate that held it raw. 

Value-Added Onions Reduce Cross-Contamination

Did you know that unpeeled raw onions bought in bulk can bring unsanitary dirt and bacteria into your kitchen? 

Extensive testing shows that sack onions can contain 100 to 1000 times more bacteria, yeasts, and molds than Gills Whole Peeled Onions. The key to a cleaner kitchen is eliminating these germs before they arrive. 

Every Gills onion goes through an HACCP-approved cleaning process with chlorine dioxide treated water, metal detection, and strict temperature controls. Our in-house laboratory is fully equipped with expert staff that oversee and verify the cleanliness of both our product and our equipment.

Our products are also verified by a host of reputable third-party organizations including:

  • Primus 
  • AIB 
  • NSF Davis Fresh
  • Steritech
  • US Army 
  • NSF
  • NSF Quality Assurance International

And our cleaning and preparation program is both SQF3 certified and GTiM compliant. 

With Gills Whole Peeled Onions, you can reduce the risk of cross-contamination and enjoy the best onions in the business. But don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department
 

4 Benefits of Using Value-Added Diced Onions

If you’re still chopping onions, it’s a crying shame. 

At Gills Onions, we know there is a better way to bring quality onions from the field to your kitchen. It starts and ends with Gills Diced Onions, and here’s why you should make the change to value-added onions. 

1) Cut Down Your Labor and Amp Up Your Worker Safety

On average, it takes 90 minutes to whole peel and dice a 50 lb sack of onions that will result in approximately 30 to 35 lbs of usable onions. And all that time spent peeling and chopping creates opportunities for dangerous knife injuries. Cuts, lacerations, and punctures are the number one most common injury in commercial kitchens. Diced onions eliminate these problems. 

Each 5 lb bag of Gills Diced Onions arrives perfectly diced and ready to use. We guarantee not only consistent quality but also consistent cut, consistent price, and consistent yield. When you open a bag of Gills Diced Onions, you know what you’ll find: 19 cups of beautifully diced onions that cost you the same price year-round and cost you nothing in labor. If you heavily use diced onions in your kitchen, the savings can be tremendous. 

Many chefs choose to streamline their labor by selecting one cut and size of onions, putting all the onion product needed for every recipe in their kitchen into one bag. You’ll also save on storage space. Our bags of ready-to-use onions reduce the amount of excess packaging and boxes in your fridge. Use our Product Calculator to see how much you could save in labor and overall costs by switching to diced onions.

2) Delicious Meals Start With Diced Onions

Gills Diced Onions are always recipe ready. We conveniently package our onions in a variety of sizes to best fit your culinary creations. They taste great, and they look great, too. 

Diced onions add flavor and texture to soups, salsas, and sauces. They can also act as toppers for chili, hot dogs, and potatoes. Combine Gills Diced Onions with cucumbers, baby dill, sour cream, horseradish, and freshly cracked black pepper to create a delicious side for whitefish. Or, sauté diced onions with red potatoes, parsley, and pancetta to create a flavorful breakfast hash. Make an unexpected trio of diced onions, red seedless grapes, and Italian parsley to serve under seared sea scallops. The culinary possibilities are endless. 

3) You Can’t Beat Our Shelf Life 

Gills Onions have the longest shelf life in the industry — 18 days — and are always preservative-free. 

Our signature prescription for seed selection and growing programs create onions that stay fresh longer and resist the natural chemical breakdowns that result in spoiling. 

We pillow pack our products instead of the industry standard hard pack, so they never produce foul onion juice during shipment. Pillow packing creates a more natural environment where onions thrive. And Gills Diced Onions arrive to your kitchen in a zipper top 5 lb bag, making it easy to seal the bag of onions, keep them fresh, and use them later. 

4) We’re the Onion Experts 

For over 35 years, our growers have cultivated the fields of Southern and Central California “The Gill Way,” applying our unique prescription of best practices and conservation techniques to create truly exceptional onions. We grow, harvest, wash, peel, trim, and dice every onion that arrives in your kitchen. 

We are onion experts. It’s what we do, and we do it best. But don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department

Gills Onions Can Help Restaurants Cut Costs and Combat COVID-19

COVID-19 has rocked the restaurant industry, with losses expected up to $240 billion by the end of 2020. At the height of quarantines and shutdowns, the average restaurant was forced to lay off 91% of their hourly workforce and 70% of salaried employees

Now, restaurants are facing the daunting challenge of reopening. There is an increased need to reduce labor and overall costs to compensate for capacity caps and slow returning customers. All restaurants — small, medium, and large — are rethinking their strategy, especially in the kitchen. 

An Increased Need for Value-Added 

Labor has always been a costly part of hospitality, but during and after the COVID-19 crisis, the cost of labor has become — and will continue to be — even more complicated. Staff need to be re-hired and re-trained for new standards of safety. And, with many businesses serving smaller numbers of customers and having a limited menu, staff is likely to remain small. 

Even with a properly trained staff that is in compliance with new health and safety standards, restaurant owners need to make sure that customers feel safe. Even now, a CDC study illustrates that many people are still concerned about Coronavirus spread in restaurants, even though the CDC has confirmed that the virus does not spread through food. Reports show that 15% of customers are most concerned about returning to restaurants because of staff preparing or handling food. 

Value-added products reduce labor needs and minimize handling and exposure. 

For example, it typically takes 90 minutes for an employee to whole peel and dice a 50 lb sack of onions that will result in approximately 30 to 35 lbs of usable onions. That’s 90 minutes that onions are handled and exposed. 

As a value-added alternative, Gills Diced Onions limit the “touch factor” by arriving to the kitchen perfectly diced, perfectly clean, and ready to use. Each 5 lb bag offers 19 cups of diced onions that cost nothing in labor and can immediately be scooped or poured into recipes with little or no touch from employees. 

How Much Will You Save?

Buying a value-added product means that restaurant owners and chefs can more accurately plan for kitchen costs. The price of sack onions can fluctuate based on season and demand, while value-added products cost the same price year-round. 

At Gills Onions, onions are our specialty. If you heavily use onions in your kitchen, the savings can be tremendous. 

Many chefs choose to streamline their labor by selecting one cut and size of onions, putting all the onion product needed for every recipe in their kitchen into one bag. You’ll also save on storage space. Our bags of ready-to-use onions reduce the amount of excess packaging and boxes in your fridge. 

Use our Product Calculator to see how much you could save in labor and overall costs by switching to diced onions.

Our Team Is Here to Support You 

Even before the pandemic, Gills Onions has been committed to setting the standard in food safety. Our priority is protecting the integrity of our product through each step of processing and shipment so your kitchen can stay clean and continue to serve your customers.  

Our value-added products can cut costs and reduce needed labor as you rebuild. Together, we can face the challenges ahead and emerge stronger on the other side. We’re here to help, and we can’t wait to partner with you. 

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.