An only child, Megan Nelson grew up on a large farm on the outskirts of the small town of Odessa, Minnesota. Corn and soybeans were grown on her family farm and her family kept some cows for extra income. Chickens and pigs filled the barn for a time while she was growing up. But it was actually her two years living largely off the farm that planted the early seeds for her future career in food.
From ages two to four, Megan mostly stayed with her grandparents while her mom received cancer treatment from over three hours away. Her Dad had to transport her Mom to and from treatments in the Twin Cities, while working and also maintaining their family farm. During this period, Megan remembers she was “spoiled” by delicious meals cooked by her grandmother, who’s dishes derived from Oslo, Norway. “Homemade goulash, homemade bread, homemade caramel rolls,” Megan said. “I remember her saying to my mom, ‘What a good kid. She eats everything I put in front of her.’ And I thought, ‘Well, of course I do, when everything tastes this good it’s hard to pass up.’”
Birth of a Culinarian
Although she had a lifelong love of food, Megan said she never thought she wanted to be a chef. Initially, she went to school to be an art teacher, but after a year of college, she realized it wasn’t for her. A conversation with her mother was the lightbulb moment that changed the course of her life, a course that would eventually bring her to Hormel Foods.
During this fateful phone call, Megan’s mom asked her what she was going to do instead of returning to school, and Megan replied, “Well, obviously I’m going to go cook somewhere.” Her jobs had always involved cooking, beginning in middle school at the Ortonville Dairy Queen and cooking at the local golf club. In college she began cooking higher-end dishes like prime rib, and a variety of fresh seafood, some of her favorites being lobster, halibut, and shark.
“Every job that you go after is in a kitchen, and you seem to love them,” her mom told her. “Why don’t you look into culinary school?”
Megan had never considered pursuing cooking as a career. “It was always just this other thing I did to get by and pay bills. But the next semester I moved apartments and started culinary school.” Megan loved being hands-on in kitchens and in her classes, pairing new flavors, and trying new things all the time. Being in a kitchen was dynamic and exhilarating. “I graduated at top of my class, and I loved every day of it. It didn’t even feel like school — it was just fun. Of course, Mom was right all along.”
In addition to the dynamic nature of the work, she loved the diverse mix of people she worked with in kitchens. “You might have a 15-year-old kid on the line, next to a 40-year veteran who’s cooked all his life, and everyone in between. The teamwork that happens in a kitchen is unlike anywhere else. Every day those people in the kitchen are shoulder-to-shoulder with knives. For everyone’s sake they better get along,” she laughed.
From Maverick Chef To Creative Partner
Megan’s experience in these lively environments made her an excellent pioneering Corporate Chef, or Culinary Specialist, at Jennie-O Turkey Store, where she spent her first nine years at Hormel Foods. She worked two years in the foodservice sales group before moving to the Culinary Specialist role for her to leverage her past experience as a chef. In 2021, she was appointed Mid-Central Regional Business Manager for Burke Corporation.
“I wore a zillion different hats,” she said. As the Culinary Specialist for Jennie-O, Megan was responsible for recipes, cooking instructions and product validation; she worked on a bit of everything. “I got to work with all our divisions, foodservice, retail, deli and commodity export. In one week, I might work with Wendy’s and Walmart and then New Zealand. It was all over the board but a lot of fun and a great way to learn new things.” Additionally, she handled recipe development for social media, promotions and trade shows, worked with schools and national account chains, wrote package cooking instructions, recipe development and much more.
In spring 2024 Megan transitioned into her current role as Midwest Regional Business Manager with Heritage Premium Meats. In this role, she merges her culinary and sales experience, selling a variety of Hormel Foods portfolios such as Dan’s Prize, Sadler’s Smokehouse, Burke, and private label turkey products to major players in foodservice, including well known pizza chains and a wide variety of restaurants.
Although she no longer works as a chef herself, Megan’s customers are often still chefs. “Those are some of the best people to talk to,” she said. “A lot of times the owner or manager is going to their chefs and saying, ‘Well, what do you think of this? You’re the one using it. Do you like this flavor profile?’” Her experience as a chef helps her build stronger relationships with her customers who see her as one of their own.
“There’s a camaraderie among chefs,” she said. “Like, ‘I know where you’re coming from. I understand your issues in the kitchen.’ You put that chef coat on, and they open the door and let their guard down. They want and value your thoughts and opinions.”
Megan gets a lot of joy out of helping her customers achieve success with her portfolio of products. At Heritage Premium Meats, she still gets to be creative, too, helping to develop custom formulations for many of her customers. “Let’s say there’s a pizza place that wants their own recipe of an Italian sausage. We do custom formulas for them, and their label goes on the box. It becomes proprietary so nobody else can buy it. I work with our R&D team and the customer to nail down the spices and ingredients to create the perfect product for them, it’s a really fun and interesting part of the job.”
Changing Palates and Processes
Throughout her diverse culinary career, Megan has been able to keep tabs on food trends that have changed the foodservice industry. One of the biggest changes she’s noticed is how people order and receive food. “Do they go through a delivery app? Do I actually have to put pants on to go get my food? Now you’re looking at different technology and costs versus just your food costs or who’s cooking today or what your menu is.” This has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Megan says the changes were starting even before that.
Megan has also kept up with trends in flavor profiles. Over recent years sweet chili sauce and Thai influences have risen in popularity, as have Mexican-inspired flavors. “Just about anybody from any ethnic background is eating Mexican food,” Megan said, “whether it’s tacos, burritos, or nachos, fast-food or sit-down. I think we’re going to continue to see that long term.”
The popularity of Mexican food led to the launch of six new Mexican-inspired items by the Burke team last year, one of the brands in Megan’s portfolio, highlighting the ongoing flow of ideas between foodservice and retail and the trends that emerge in them. Hot honey was just one example Megan gave of a product that has taken off in recent years in the foodservice industry.
As for her own preferences, Megan is a true foodie. “My tastes are all over the place. My favorite food would be pot stickers, I could eat those every day. But I love to try new things, so my palate’s always changing.” Despite how her career has evolved, she’ll never forget her grandmother’s kitchen, where her love of food began. “I still have all my grandma’s recipes, and those will always be some of my favorite dishes to make.”
