KC Flavor Champion: Melodie Beal Cary

Melodie Beal Cary

“How do you not love the surprise of an upside-down dessert?” muses Melodie Beal Cary, reflecting on the breath-holding that marks the turn out of the pan for any flan, apple Charlotte, tarte tatin and upside-down fruit cake wondering if it worked. “And then there’s the joy of how pretty it is when flipped over!”

She dialed up the surprise factor in her approach to a classic dessert in this category with an Asian twist. Her Five-Spice Teriyaki Pineapple Upside-Down Cake earned the chef her second consecutive Kitchen Collaborative win, selected in a blind judging process by sponsor Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc. “It was my favorite recipe that I created from all the great products in this year’s challenge,” she says. Beal Cary is director of culinary innovation for Starbucks Coffee Company, although she developed her Kitchen Collaborative concepts while at Amazon’s Private Brands division.

The chef has a weakness for so-called “Grandma desserts” that have seen something of a retro renaissance thanks to newstalgia makeover trends. “They were simple, tasty, perhaps with a ‘secret ingredient.’ You’d find the recipe in the Junior League cookbook or your grandmother’s recipe card box. It would be something that made you smile to look at it and then surprise you when taking a bite,” she says.

When exploring the sponsor kits sent to Kitchen Collaborative participants, Beal Cary often “noodles on recipes a bit, doing some researching, tasting and then ideating.” But as soon as she tasted the Kikkoman® Teriyaki Baste & Glaze with Honey & Pineapple, “I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it,” she recounts. “It’s not just sweet and salty. You get those juicy pineapple notes enhanced by spices that go sweet or savory—hints of ginger and anise—and then it was set off by the traditional teriyaki flavor profile. I knew I wanted to make a dessert with it.”

With the century-old Yoshoku tradition of Western-influenced Japanese cuisine in the back of her mind, Beal Cary also leaned into her personal love to reinvent “homey” recipes. “I landed on the pineapple upside-down cake as the perfect vehicle for a teriyaki caramel draping over fresh pineapple, candied ginger pieces and a fluffy, five-spice chiffon that was a nod to ultra-light and airy Japanese sponge cakes,” she explains. “All of it came together in my mind within five minutes of tasting the sauce.”

At the time of the challenge, my team and I had been looking at how we respond to trends without being ‘trendy.’ We want to create products that meet customer desire for trend-forward applications, while still being a go-to product after the trend is long gone. Being both relevant now and evergreen later is tricky!

—Melodie Beal Cary

Beal Cary started with a simple white chiffon cake batter. “It’s a little heavier and more dense but similarly crumbed as an angel food cake,” she notes. “It’s a fine white cake that carries the weight of the pineapple when flipped over, while being tender and holding a lot of flavor.” Five-spice powder is added to the batter to connect the cake to the flavor profile of the teriyaki glaze.

She created a caramel sauce from the teriyaki glaze, which formed the base of the build. From the bottom up, this was followed by a layer of minced candied ginger, half-inch pieces of fresh pineapple and then the cake batter. It’s baked in a buttered ramekin, cooled slightly and then flipped, the glaze saucing both the cake and the plate.

The flavor effect is subtle. The Asian ingredients leaven what many find to be an overly sweet profile of the traditional pineapple upside-down cake, providing a new savory, salty balance, the chef explains.

“The final taste would be at home in a trendy Asian restaurant, but it also would be totally appropriate at a gastropub, late-night café or upscale retro diner,” says Beal Cary. “It’s really one of those recipes that chefs talk about having in their back pocket when their pastry chef is on vacation.”

WHY THIS PLATE PREVAILED

The team at Kikkoman Sales USA, Inc., wanted Kitchen Collaborative chefs to think beyond traditional applications and find unexpected, culinary-forward ways to use the company’s products. The judges found that Beal Cary’s dessert recipe offered a distinctive take, calling it “a standout concept” that demonstrates the culinary possibilities for Kikkoman® Teriyaki Baste & Glaze with Honey & Pineapple.

They commended how Beal Cary applied the sweet-savory profile of the sauce to complement the fruit while adding depth, umami and a playful twist on a familiar dessert. “What surprised us most,” said the judges, “was how well the sauce’s natural sweetness and umami helped build the rich, caramelized flavor that makes an upside-down cake so appealing.”

PROFESSIONAL PRIDE

Beal Cary encouraged other members of her former team at Amazon to participate in Kitchen Collaborative, which was launched by Flavor & The Menu and Summit F&B back in 2020. (She was delighted that Amazon colleague Hollyce Snyder is a fellow winner.) “It’s not just because of the trip, the exposure and the bragging rights, but because it’s such a unique opportunity to ideate, show our stuff and remind ourselves that we are professional chefs,” she explains. “We have a unique gift and responsibility to bring amazing, creative and delicious food to the table.”

As this profile article is published, Beal Cary and other 2026 winners are exploring the Mendoza region of Argentina on a unique culinary expedition led by Flavor & The Menu and Summit F&B. This is her first trip to South America. Last year’s winner trip to Dubai left her confident that this excursion would be equally memorable. “I know it’s going to be fantastic. I’m looking forward to trekking in the foothills of the Andes, enjoying inspiring meals, having great conversations with fellow chefs accompanied by plenty of world-class wine,” she said prior to her departure.

Beal Cary is still in disbelief about being a two-time winner in the competition. “I knew there were hundreds of entries from incredibly creative and talented people,” she says. “The Kitchen Collaborative team kept reassuring me that the competition was judged blindly. I am so appreciative and honored to be a member of this talented group of individuals. Whenever I mention being among the winners of Kitchen Collaborative, it is always met with a high level of regard in the industry.”

MORE INSPIRED TAKES

“In the 2025 Kitchen Collaborative competition, I was thinking of how I could use several products in a single dish,” recounts Beal Cary. “This year, I really focused on what made each item special or unique. I wanted to showcase each sponsor’s products and show their versatility in unexpected ways.” Here are two more examples of how the chef pursued this goal.

Honey Chili Crisp Watermelon Tanghulu

If you know, you know. It was the current social media obsession with ASMR that pointed the way to Beal Cary’s spin on tanghulu, a Chinese street snack. She confesses that she hadn’t heard of it until recently. “But sure enough, my TikTok food feed knew I’d like it,” she says. “I kept getting those grape and strawberry ASMR crunching videos, and that led me down the Asian street food rabbit hole. I thought about how fun the treats looked—great for a cocktail party, a drink in one hand and a beautifully glazed skewer of fruit in the other.”

She wanted to infuse a bit of flavor into the sugar syrup to make it more interesting, while balancing its sweetness with the fruit. Adding Chili Crisp Hot Honey Sauce from sponsor Lee Kum Kee was the perfect solution, boosting the flavor and clinging perfectly to the slices of seedless watermelon, courtesy of sponsor the National Watermelon Promotion Board. To ensure the chili crisp flavor didn’t just “disappear” in the syrup, Beal Cary double downed, marinating the fruit in the hot honey sauce for about an hour, patting it dry afterward and skewering on the rind side, so it stayed in place.

Kicking up the sugar syrup required some finesse. “You have to be very careful when it’s at the hard-crack stage, because everything wants to burn,” she advises. “I dolloped in the chili crisp just after that stage and then immediately dipped the watermelon slices.” She allowed just a minute or so for the excess to drip off.

“When you take that first bite, that candied sugar crunch comes first, but it’s very light, not tooth-breaking,” Beal Cary reports. “Then it shatters in your mouth at the same time as you start to get that slurpy juiciness from a perfectly ripe watermelon. As the two textures mingle, the sugar coating starts to break down and you get that surprise spice from the chili crisp.” Spicy, crunchy, juicy, sweet. “It’s such a nice wakeup for your mouth.”

This concept proves that craveable street snacks don’t have to be complicated, she says. “It’s such a joy and revelation to explore global street foods. It’s one of the great ways to understand a culture through food—something that satisfies, is quick and conveys a universal craveability.”

One final recommendation: It’s important to serve the skewers as soon as the glaze hardens into the crispy shell, cautions Beal Cary. “You have to eat these quickly. Unlike whole strawberries and grapes, watermelon has a lot of surface moisture that wants to melt that crunchy sugar coating.” The tanghulu became her teenaged son’s snack of the day. “All I heard were crunches and slurps. Very ASMR.”

Calabrian Chili Tavern Pizza

Familiar with both the Lavash from Damascus Bakery and the Calabrian Chili Pesto from Good Foods that were included in Kitchen Collaborative 2026 sponsor kits, Beal Cary was excited to “bring them to life together and pay homage to my Italian-American and Brooklyn roots” in a tavern-style pizza concept. The light, bubbly char on the lavash immediately established the direction. “Tavern-style pizza has a cracker-thin, crispy crust typically baked in a wood-fired oven for a few minutes,” she notes. “Beginning to end, this took me six minutes to make with only a cast-iron pan and the broiler of my home oven. It’s perfect for foodservice.”

Characterizing the concept as a pizza instead of a flatbread was an important distinction for Beal Cary. “It’s a really good differentiation from a branding standpoint,” she notes. “It’s definitely not going to be a New York- or Chicago-style pizza. But that’s not the point of a tavern-style pizza. It’s meant to be easy for a tavern or a gastropub to execute; something quick and satisfying to eat with your beer.”

She topped the lavash with the chili pesto spread as a base sauce, simply adding a “sprinkling” of whole-milk mozzarella, plus some Parmigiano-Reggiano to create crispy frico cheese edges, with fresh basil to finish. “The pesto is super flavorful, with a great balance of spicy, garlicky, savory notes, light heat from the Calabrian chili, plus fruity notes from roasted tomatoes and red peppers,” she says. “It’s strong enough to make an impact when spread thinly on the lavash, which has just a hint of smoky flavor and light char to complement the pesto.”

Beal Cary feels a sponsor shout-out is well-deserved. “Being in the culinary product development industry for the last 15-plus years, I am such an admirer of great developers developing great products,” she credits. “These sponsors are beloved in the culinary world for a reason.”

There’s one more Kitchen Collaborative winner to celebrate! Flavor & The Menu will publish this—and a few bonus surprises—before 2026 wraps.

Kitchen Collaborative Project Management: Summit F&B
Five-Spice Teriyaki Pineapple Upside-Down Cake photo: Photography: otysonphoto.com // Food Styling: Peg Blackley