Lettuce show you a winner                 
Mills' method keeps it fresh longer
Joe Livernois from The Herald, May 1, 2002

Chef John Pisto of Monterey thought he had a big mess on his hands several years ago when he left a box of lettuce in his office over the weekend.

It was lettuce that a couple of guys were trying to test market. Pisto sees a lot of guys like that at the back door of his restaurants. His typical response is, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

But he left the box in his office and forgot about it during the weekend. He returned four days later thinking he had a smelly mess to clean up.

"But the lettuce was as fresh and sweet as it was the day they brought it in," Pisto said. "I was amazed and I knew they were on to something."

Pisto was one of several local restaurant owners the Mills brothers of Salinas were testing their market with seven years ago, and they were thrilled with the results.

After winning over Pisto, the owners of Mills Family Farms of Salinas also impressed the American Tasting Institute, which last week presented the Gold Taste Award to the company for its Great Northern Wholeaves® Lettuce product line. The Mills brothers, Jim and David, received the award in New York City. At Carnegie Hall.

The Wholeaves® Lettuce product has been impressing restaurant owners across the United States for almost seven years, since the late Jake Hougham figured out that lettuce can stay fresher longer if the product is ripped and not cut.

Hougham was a Salinas Valley produce innovator of legend and Hougham's son, Jeff, is still working with Mills Family Farms.

Mills Inc sells about 3 million cartons of Wholeaves® Lettuce each year. Most of the romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuce is grown in the Salinas Valley, though the winter production is grown in Arizona and Imperial Valley.

At the moment, the product is only available to restaurants, though David Mills said his company is in the process of perfect the technology to make the product available to consumers in supermarkets.

The concept of Wholeaves® Lettuce is surprisingly simple.

For years, fresh-cut lettuce was cut with a knife. Cutting lettuce cuts through the cell structure of the plant, which causes shock to a plant. Within days, the plant begins turning black and liquefies.

But leaf lettuce that is torn off the stalk instead of cut retains its cell structure and the plant tends to stay fresh longer, Mills said.

"What we offer is product that solves the problem of waste for our clients," Mills said. "We offer 100 percent usable product that is washed and plate-safe right out of the box."

Pisto said the Wholeaves® Lettuce product is beneficial to restaurants because its stays fresh and because it saves time in the kitchen.

"You open the box and, boom, you use it right off," said Pisto. "It's a great innovation."

While Wholeaves® Lettuce saves labor in the kitchen, the product requires a workforce that is larger than is usual in the lettuce industry. Because the product is shredded by hand instead of by knife, Mills Family Farms employs about 350 people to work in the fields and in the sheds for its Wholeaves® Lettuce line.

David Mills said the product received so much positive reaction from chefs like Pisto that he and his brother always thought they ought to pitch it for awards.

"We never imagined we'd be winning an award at Carnegie Hall, though," Mills said.