Secrets from The Cheesecake Factory’s test kitchen

Donald Moore has a lot on his plate.

He is the chief culinary officer and executive vice president of kitchen operations at The Cheesecake Factory, the Calabasas-based restaurant chain that does way more than dessert.

The Cheesecake Factory has more than 250 items on its menu. Most restaurants have 60-70, according to Moore.

“I was looking back at the original menu recently, which was 1978,” he said in a recent interview. “What’s happened over time is that it’s morphed into all these sections. …

“We’re looking at the world and how people want to eat and also respecting history at the same time.”

Moore was speaking over lunch at The Grove in Los Angeles, one of nearly 20 Cheesecake Factory locations in Southern California.

The occasion was a recent menu change. Twice a year, The Cheesecake Factory revisits its 250 items, adds 10 or 15 new ones and takes off about the same number.

The new item that got the most attention in Moore’s Calabasas test kitchen is akin to the one that grabbed headlines for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen a few weeks ago, a crispy fried chicken sandwich.

“We tried to look at what everybody’s doing with the chicken sandwich, which is so hot and has been for about the last five years,” Moore said. “But we’re trying to make our version the best fried chicken sandwich ever. I don’t know if we’ve ever spent more research and development time on an item than the fried chicken sandwich.”

Fried chicken is an American dish, but Moore said he often gets ideas from small ethnic restaurants in Los Angeles and other cities.

Some new international items include:

Brick Chicken: From Italty. A deboned half-chicken that is pan-seared under a brick and served with crispy potatoes, sauteed onions and peppers.

Branzino: European sea bass, served grilled with Mediterranean salsa or pan-seared with a French-influenced lemon butter.

Hummus: A Mediterranean favorite that spent time in development as Moore strove for the creamy texture he found in neighborhood restaurants.

“Everybody has hummus. What’s going to make our hummus compelling? … We’ve gone through probably 200 versions of this hummus, and then we found the technique. The trick is to overcook the beans.”

Moore said the menu falls into “three rails”: foods that everybody else has like chicken sandwiches and hummus; fun food, like the currently featured Pineapple Upside-Down Cheesecake; and “food of today,” like the meat-free Impossible Burger, which is still listed as a new item even though The Cheesecake Factory began serving it in the summer of 2018.

Moore said it is seasoned and charbroiled exactly the same way as beef patties.

“It’s one of our most popular burgers. It’s moved its way up to the top of the burger section in sales, and our guests really like it.”

Over the years, The Cheesecake Factory has added sections to its menus that reflect changing tastes, including small plates, “Skinnylicious,” and “super” foods with nutrient-rich ingredients. That’s where the company puts the millennial icon avocado toast.

Moore is keeping an eye on trending diets such as keto, paleo, and Whole30.

“Guests know how to move around our menu with those diets,” he said. “It’s better to settle a little bit than to pioneer and be the first one, so you can really, really understand what the guests want.”

The Cheesecake Factory has responded to the trend of people who want restaurant food at home and partners with DoorDash on delivery.

Moore said the company spent three years updating its to-go packaging, using recycled plastic.

“When we look at our to-go business, we want the guests to have the same, exact experience that they have in our restaurants … You take the lid off and you feel like you’re in a restaurant.”

The Cheesecake Factory doesn’t rely on focus groups or surveys, Moore said, but is heavily into time studies and efficiency, and when it sends a new menu item to its restaurants, they send back a massive amount of feedback on how to make it better.

“You think about the iPhone, how you get your next update and it’s got all these new features … We have a team of people who are doing that too. We look at every food item, every piece of equipment, every to-go package. How can we do it faster? Can we be more efficient? … And how can it be designed so the staff can execute it at a level of excellence in a restaurant?”

Even with all the meal options, Moore said a significant number of people come in just for the cheesecake.

“There’s no question the cheesecake is still one of the biggest draws. We just opened a restaurant in Gainesville, Fla., and people were waiting two and three hours just to get a slice of the cheesecake — outside in 100 degree Florida heat.”

The Cheesecake Factory is currently serving more than 30 flavors and is promoting its seasonal pumpkin and pumpkin pecan cheesecakes as well its flavor of the year, its pineapple upside-down dessert.

It takes six months to a year to work out the concept of the flavor of the year, which annually launches on July 30, National Cheesecake Day and a busy day for the company.

It paid off, Moore said.

“It’s fun, very photo-worthy,” Moore said. “It’s big on social media for sure.”