F&B FLORIDA 2019

Kimberly Mikaliunas
Founder / CEO
Innovative Food Directions


Kimberly Mikaliunas is a Restauranteur, Chef, Food Scientist, and R&D professional. Kimberly is the Founder and CEO of Innovative Food Directions, a consulting firm which assists food and foodservice companies in navigating their innovation, product development, and brand development growth. Innovative Food Directions offers a variety of restaurant consulting services such as menu development, brand creation, profit optimization, strategic leadership, and concept value evaluations. Additionally, Kimberly is the President of Culinary and a Partner of Urban Wok restaurants, based in Minnesota. Previously, Kimberly lead the R&D, Labeling, and Regulatory teams at Bellisio Foods in Minneapolis MN. While at Bellisio, Kimberly and team developed and launched a variety frozen food brands including Chili’s, Eating Well, EAT!, and So Right! In addition, they held responsibility for managing and continuously improving their other brands Michelina’s, Boston Market, and Atkins as well as development and continuous improvement for a variety of co-manufactured brands for retail and foodservice. Prior to Bellisio Kimberly worked in Product Development for Target’s Owned Brand Foods developing items throughout the store for private label brands such as Archer Farms, Market Pantry, and helping launch Simply Balanced. While at Dairy Queen, she innovated on a variety of legacy brands (Blizzard, Orange Julius) while helping launch new brands like MooLatte, Blizzard Cakes, and the DQ Grill and Chill concept. Kimberly earned her Masters of Science in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and completed her Bachelor of Arts at Indiana University. She has served as the Chair for the Minnesota Section of IFT, and has been an active member in both IFT and the Research Chefs Association. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, learning about food, biking, and traveling

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