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Food Safety Onionology Recipes

Tag: Product

2023 Food Trends to Watch for // December Innovation Lab

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

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.

Tackling Supply Chain Struggles by Eliminating Waste

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

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.

5 Tips for Getting Children Excited About Veggies

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

Though their bodies may be small, it’s no secret that children come with large personalities and big opinions. Those opinions can be especially strong when it comes to vegetables. Some kids can’t get enough, and others can’t get far enough away.

So, how do you help growing children not just eat but also enjoy their vegetables? There’s no secret formula, and at the end of the day, kids will be kids. But, there are things you can do to help children add healthy veggies to their diet, grow an appreciation for where their food comes from, and become more willing to try new foods each day.

(As always, we highly recommend onions.)

Learn Where Vegetables Come From

You can spark a child’s interest in vegetables by exploring how those beautiful veggies got onto their plate in the first place. Though you may have bought your produce at the grocery store, that isn’t where it came from. Here are a few ideas:

  • Visit a local farmer, and tour their fields
  • Take a trip to your nearest farmer’s market and chat with the sellers about how they grow their produce
  • Plant a garden with your children. Eating something you have grown together makes the food more exciting.
  • Don’t have room for a garden? Try growing herbs or a small vegetable plant in a window sill or planter box.

Make New Foods Fun

Children love routines, so trying new things can feel daunting and even a bit scary. Make trying new foods an exciting, fun and low-pressure experience. Consider using a few of these strategies:

  • Each time you go to the store, let your child pick one new vegetable to investigate. Plan several ways to prepare it.
  • Select a “new food of the week” that the whole family tries each day.
  • Conduct fun science experiments with healthy foods along with eating them. 
  • Make a “rainbow meal” using vegetables in every color of the rainbow.
  • Explore which vegetables can be delicious additions to smoothies, jellos, jellies, and more.

Delight Them with Dips

A dip can be a great way to encourage snacking on vegetables. Kids love to dip things in sauces, and the flavors of a dip can hide or mellow out the unfamiliar flavors in a new veggie. But, encourage your child to try a variety of dips and sauces. Ranch addiction is real, especially in young people. Introduce other low fat dressings, homemade vinaigrettes, and fun sauces like melted cheese fondue.

Prepare Things Together

There is more than one way to eat a vegetable. Make it a game to see how many different preparations for a veggie you can come up with, and then cook, roast, grill, puree, and chop together with your children. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Use vegetables to make your own stock for soup.
  • Substitute vegetables like zucchini for noodles in pasta or lasagna dishes.
  • Finely chop vegetables to add to breads and pizza crusts.
  • Blend veggies into a smoothie, or juice them in a juicer.
  • Cook up a vegetable omelette.
  • Get creative with your favorite casserole.
  • Experiment with savory oatmeal.

Include Children in Meal Planning

The most important part of teaching children to love vegetables is letting them choose whether or not they will. Create a safe place for children to like what they like and dislike what they dislike. By making it ok not to like something when they try it, your kids will be more likely to keep on trying. If they try, they are bound to find something they enjoy.

Remember, children’s palates are still developing. Try mild flavors like carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce for younger eaters and slowly work your way up to stronger flavors. Include children in your meal planning, and respect their feedback.

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

Finding the Value in Value-Added Produce

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

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. 

Get Ready to Fall in Love with Mirepoix

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

Our Gills Onions retail products are designed to save you time and work in the kitchen. That’s why we are so excited to announce a new addition to our product line: Mirepoix. 

Mirepoix is an aromatic mix of onions, carrots, and celery. Any great chef knows that Mirepoix is the base for hundreds of delicious recipes, and now home chefs like you can reap the benefits, too, without all the prep work. 

How Do I Use Mirepoix?

Mirepoix is one of the most versatile and essential vegetable blends. It’s a third onion, a third celery, and a third carrot. It can be added to or serve as a base for sauces, soups, and marinades. It makes a killer roux. It can accompany braised meats. You can toss it in a slow cooker or pressure cooker for added flavor to just about anything you’re whipping up. Oh, and it’s really tasty in casseroles.

So, why don’t more people use Mirepoix in their everyday cooking? Because it is a pain to prepare. That barrier goes away with our pre-diced, pre-mixed Mirepoix blend. 

Here are a few fun recipes that call for Mirepoix to get your creative juices flowing: 

Less Chopping, More Enjoying

During the pandemic, so many people found their passion for cooking delicious meals at home. The only thing that makes fresh, home cooked food even better is when your vegetables are prepped and ready to go. Spend less time chopping, dicing, and slicing and more time enjoying food with the ones you love. 

Oh, and don’t forget that eliminating the need to chop up all those vegetables also eliminates the chance of knife injuries in your kitchen. Definitely an added bonus.

Find Gills Onions Products in Your Local Store

While you’re grabbing some delicious Mirepoix off the shelf, check out our other fabulous retail products (all now with new resealable film!): 

  • Diced Yellow Onions – Use to spice up any recipe that calls for chopped or diced onions. 
  • Diced Red Onions – Add something extra to soups, chilis, and sauces, or use as a colorful condiment. 
  • Diced Celery and Onions – The perfect blend for potato salads, tuna salads, and holiday stuffings and casseroles. 
  • Diced Pickled Onions — A tasty, tangy addition to salads, burgers, sandwiches, and cooked dishes. 

So, get out there, and take our new Mirepoix (and maybe a few more tasty pre-prepped products from above) for a test drive. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

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

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

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

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.

4 Benefits of Using Value-Added Diced Onions

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

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. 

5 Benefits of Using Whole Peeled Onions

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

The Power of a Whole Peeled Onion Program

Everyone hates peeling onions, but everyone loves eating them. For a long time, welcoming your onion order to your kitchen by sitting down and peeling through the pain was just part of life. Not anymore. At Gills Onions, we’ve pioneered a better way to bring onions from the field to your kitchen. It’s called whole peeled onions, and here’s why you should make the change. 

1. Stop Wasting Time and Start Cooking

Prepping a raw bulk onion order is one of the most labor-intensive tasks in the kitchen. Based on figures from the United States Department of Agriculture, one 50 lb sack can contain about 200 raw onions. Peeling and washing each of those onions—not to mention the time it takes to clean up afterwards—can consume a large portion of the workday. And all that time spent peeling creates an opportunity for dangerous knife injuries. Cuts, lacerations, and punctures are the number one most common injury in commercial kitchens. Whole peeled onions eliminate these problems. Each onion arrives ready to be sliced, diced, or slivered into your next great meal, saving time and keeping workers safe. 

2. Keep Your Kitchen Clean

Unpeeled raw onions can bring unsanitary dirt and bacteria into your kitchen. Extensive testing shows that bulk onions can contain 100 to 1000 times more bacteria, yeasts, and molds than Gills Whole Peeled Onions. Once those contaminants are in your kitchen space, it’s easy for them to spread to other surfaces and foods, and it’s difficult for you to stop them. 

Whole peeled onions offer a more hygienic alternative. Every Gills onion goes through an HACCP-approved cleaning process with chlorinated water, metal detection, and strict temperature controls. Our in-house laboratory verifies the cleanliness of each onion and piece of equipment. This allows us to guarantee that when you receive a shipment of our whole peeled onions, you are welcoming the safest possible product into your kitchen. 

3. Quality You Can Trust

Gills Whole Peeled Onions have the longest shelf life in the industry and are always preservative-free. Our signature prescription for seed selection and growing programs create onions with less water in the cell structure than the typical raw onion. Less water means the onion stays fresh longer and resists the natural chemical breakdowns that result in spoiling. 

4. Eliminate Waste and Save Money

More than 400 loads of sack onions are shipped and consumed daily in the United States. One in every three of those loads is onion waste. That means that one out of every three containers of your bulk onions is trash. By the time you’ve finished prepping, you’ve peeled away a third of your inventory with nothing to show for it. Switching to whole peeled onions guarantees a consistent yield. What you order is what you get — 100 percent usable product of the highest quality onions. Eliminating waste helps your bottom line. On an annual basis, the decision to use whole peeled onions means you will at least come out even cost wise. Many customers find their costs are lower than before, saving them money and resources. 

5. Total Traceability 

At Gills Onions, we believe in total traceability, all the way back to the seed. 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, and trim every onion that arrives in your kitchen. Only the best onions become a Gills Whole Peeled Onion.

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 see just how much you can save by switching to Whole Peeled Onions? Use our Product Calculator.

Enjoy the Value-Add of Gills Diced Celery and Onion

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

We’re going to let you in on a not-so-secret secret: Gills Onions does more than just onions. 

While onions are our first love, we also find great joy in pairing the world’s best onions with other delicious fresh cut vegetables, like celery. 

Bringing Together the Best of Fresh Veggies 

On the shelves of many local grocers you’ll see a distinctive 6-ounce cup of Gills Diced Celery and Onion. Each cup contains a fairly even mix of diced Gills yellow onion and diced celery produced by our growing partners. 

Unlike the typical, more bitter celery purchased in your produce section, our diced celery is a specially developed sweet variety that pairs perfectly with the flavors of our yellow onion. And like our famous onion crop, it is cultivated from seed, grown, and harvested in the great state of California. 

Still Saving You Time

Like all of our Gills Onions product line, our Diced Celery and Onion comes 100% usable and ready to eat. This value-added product means no more chopping and dicing vegetables in your kitchen, saving you time, eliminating waste, and cutting out the risk of knife injuries. 

And with an 18-day shelf life, there’s no need to use all your diced celery and onion at once. Each cup comes with a lid, making it easy to use what you need and store what you don’t for later, all while taking up less space in your fridge than whole onions or celery bunches. 

How to Use Celery and Onion in Your Dishes

Whether you are using Gills Diced Celery and Onion in your own kitchen or introducing it to the chefs at the restaurants you serve, the possibilities are endless and delicious. 

During the holidays, our pre-cut fresh blend is perfect for stuffing. It can also be used year-round as stuffing ingredients for mushrooms or baked clamshells. 

In the warm weather months, try adding celery and onions to tuna sandwiches, chicken salad, or pasta salad. It makes a great addition to soups and even spaghetti, helping you get an extra serving of vegetables into your day. 

Expand Your Horizons with Celery and Onion

If you’re ready to experience the best of both the onion and celery industry, it’s time to try Gills Diced Celery and Onion. 

As industry leaders in the fresh cut, value-added vegetables industry, delivering the highest quality products is what we do, and we do it best. But don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves — and our celery does too!

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

From Our Fields to Your Kitchen: Gills Onions Retail Products

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

There’s nothing better than a freshly diced onion, but actually peeling and chopping the onion can be one of the worst jobs in the kitchen. 

At Gills Onions, we know this fact isn’t just true in commercial kitchens. The average American consumes over 20 pounds of onions each year. That’s a lot of chopping and a lot of tears. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

With our retail line-up of fresh cut onions, we’re bringing the delicious flavor of the world’s best onions to your kitchen. Say goodbye to tears and hello to the best onions you’ve ever had. 

Our Onions, Your Grocery Store

We pack our retail products in 6 oz., BPA-free, recyclable clear cups with reusable lids. A breathable under-lid film seals in that sweet onion aroma and locks in freshness. 

Customers crave convenience as much as they crave flavor. This packaging makes it easy to store fresh onions in your fridge, use what you need, and reseal the container until the next time. 

Currently, we process and package:

  • Diced Yellow Onions – Use to spice up any recipe that calls for chopped or diced onions. 
  • Diced Red Onions – Add something extra to soups, chilis, and sauces, or use as a colorful condiment. 
  • Diced Celery and Onions – The perfect blend for potato salads, tuna salads, and holiday stuffings and casseroles. 
  • Diced Mirepoix – An aromatic mix of onions, carrots, and celery. Add to sauces, braised meats, and marinades. 

You’ll find our products in the value-added section of retail grocers throughout California. 

Quality, Convenience, and Flavor

Our retail line-up comes 100% washed and ready-to-use with an 18-day shelf life — the longest shelf life of any fresh cut onion. All our products are kosher-certified, gluten-free, and non-GMO verified. 

Gills Onions is the only vertically integrated grower, processor, and shipper in the U.S. That means we grow, cut, and ship every onion that arrives in your kitchen, allowing us to maintain the highest quality standards. Our onions are grown “The Gill Way.” We are dedicated to innovative and sustainable agricultural practices, which create better tasting onions and better fields for future generations. 

Growing Our Retail Options

Our retail product line is growing! There are exciting new products on the horizon, like diced pickled onions — a tangy complement to grilled meats, dips, deviled eggs, potato salad, and more. 

We’re also working on partnerships with major retailers that would allow us to make our delicious fresh cut onions available in grocery stores across the United States. We can’t wait for you to taste the difference — and enjoy the convenience — of onions grown “The Gill Way.” 

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

Perfectly Pureed Onions

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

Let’s talk about puree. 

Our pureed onions are another great addition to the Gills Onions line-up of value-added products. They represent a niche space in our fresh onion offering — but it’s a delicious space. Take a look at how our pureed onions are made and some of the unique ways they can be used in your kitchen. 

Value-Added Onions in a Perfect Puree

Gills Pureed Onions start exactly like the rest of our fresh-cut onion products. Each onion seed is planted and nurtured “The Gill Way” with our signature onion-growing prescription. Those seeds grow into the industry’s best tasting and longest lasting onions. Then, they arrive at our state-of-the-art processing facility, destined to become a perfect puree. 

We puree onions on the first and third Friday of every month. Gills Yellow Onions enter whole and exit as a finely diced puree, packaged with 1.5% citric acid in a 38-pound pail. Every batch of pureed onions is Kosher-certified and gluten-free. Gills Onions’ industry-leading shelf-life extends to our pureed pails. When packaging and storing instructions are followed, the product remains fresh up to 30 days from the date of manufacture. 

Working with the Smooth Taste of Pureed Onions

Pureed onions can be the secret ingredient your recipes have been missing. The pureed form makes the onions easy to combine into a variety of dishes, bringing delicious onion flavor without the crunchy onion texture. 

Use pureed onions to spice up your signature salad dressing or selection of sauces. You can also try adding pureed onions to sausages or hot dogs for a bonus burst of flavor. Pureed onions can serve as an alternative to cream in soups and risottos to make vegan-friendly options or to simply enjoy a bright onion flavor. 

For an upscale feel, season and plate onion puree as a stand-alone dish that accompanies steak, pork, or chicken. 

Life Is Easier and Better with Gills Onions

Gills Pureed Onions eliminate unnecessary labor from your kitchen and save you valuable prep time. You no longer have to fear knife injuries, and you get the value-add of easy storage and a  long shelf life. 

From pureed to whole peeled to diced and sliced, Gills Onions has every type of onion you need to create truly unforgettable dishes. 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. 

Our Commitment to Fresh Produce

Posted on by Foodmix Marketing

When you buy fresh produce at the store, you expect it to be fresh. Chefs purchasing fresh produce from suppliers expect the same. Unfortunately, what you pay for isn’t always what you get. 

Unless you buy fresh products from Gills Onions. 

We pride ourselves in offering the longest shelf life in the industry. We want our products to be the freshest, most delicious thing on your plate. Here’s how we back that guarantee. 

Why Shelf Life Matters 

A study from the Food Marketing Institute found that 80% of shoppers cite high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables as the most important thing when choosing a primary grocery store. And yet, time and again you’ll find consumers who buy what looks like a fresh piece of produce at the store, only to realize it has gone bad shortly after taking it home. 

This experience is backed up by a Zest Labs study that found that nearly half of the fresh produce they sampled in stores spoiled prematurely. 

Why does this happen?

The fresh supply chain is up against some very real challenges, namely a race to the consumer and a race against the clock. Fresh produce spends up to half of its shelf life in transit. From the second produce is harvested, the count down to break down begins. Growers and processors must use advanced equipment and technology and handle products with great care to preserve the quality while moving it quickly from field to consumer. 

It doesn’t matter how great your produce is when it’s harvested if it has gone bad by the time it is ready to be used. 

The Gills Onions Difference 

Presenting a fresher product to our end customer starts at the seed. Our unique onion growing prescription creates a “dryer” onion. With less water in the cells, these onions break down more slowly and resist the creation of that foul-smelling onion juice that accelerates the process of “going bad.” 

Once our onions are harvested, the number one factor in maintaining freshness is temperature control. We keep the product in a constant, controlled temperature range of 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This delays the natural breakdown of the onion cells and prevents damage that could come from freezing. 

By keeping the temperature fairly constant, we avoid the negative effects of “temperature abuse,” the strain put on vegetables when they come in and out of the cooler repeatedly. 

When it’s time to package our products, Gills Onions uses a breathable, soft-pack bag as opposed to a hard-pack vacuum seal. Breathability helps prevent bacteria growth, which causes a sour smell and a sour taste. 

With these practices in place, Gills Onions can deliver a consistently fresh product all year long. Our onions have a shelf life of 18 days. Most other onions are given 12 days. That means that even our farthest customers waiting for onions to arrive from California receive a product that still has about 10 days of freshness guaranteed. 

When you use a Gills Onions product, you can cook with confidence, knowing that your food will taste fresh because it is fresh. Every product in our line-up is grown, processed, and transported with quality as the priority. 

But like we always say, don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves.

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