Pilot R&D was founded by chefs who have built and run the research and development labs of some of the world's best restaurants.
We are a small, collaborative team that practices culinary science, which blends our culinary background with food science expertise so that we can pair the innovative approach to making delicious food that exists in Michelin-starred restaurants with the food science knowledge necessary to optimize that food for its environment, be it packaged food, food service, QSR or fine dining.
Our Services
Who We Are
We are a Culinary Innovation and Product Development Company that works with brands across the food industry to drive food forward.
Product Development
We are product development experts who believe the job isn't done until product is coming off a line during a trial run. We start wherever you are—initial idea, early prototype, or existing product on the market—and end with a formulation optimized for your co-packer and a completed trial run.
We work on a bespoke basis and craft our scopes of work to meet your needs, so if you need a co-packer and initial ingredient suppliers, we can source them.
At the end of our projects, the final formulations are assigned to you, so you own your intellectual property and are ready for your first production run.
Culinary Innovation
We work with companies across the food industry on their innovation needs from quick serve or fine dining restaurants looking for menu development support, to food tech companies interested in optimizing their tech for food or food for their tech, to ingredient suppliers who want to explore and understand the range of applications for their ingredients, to investment groups interested in diligencing a new product idea, evaluating how the product stacks up to the competition, or supporting a portfolio company to mitigate product risk.