12 CapitalPress.com
July 29, 2016
Never a dulse moment
in this chef’s kitchen
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
AI.OW16-4/#6
PORTLAND — Jason Ball
has an unusual job at an un-
usual place. He’s the research
chef at the Food Innovation
Center in Portland, which it-
self is a joint venture of Or-
egon State University’s Col-
lege of Agricultural Sciences
and the state Department of
Agriculture.
The FIC was among the
irst in the U.S. Ball believes
his position is still somewhat
unusual, but may become
more common over time.
Ball’s job is to help devel-
op food products. He said be-
ing a research chef combines
the technical skills of culinary
arts with the principles and
methodologies of food sci-
ence.
Which leads us to dulse,
which is basically a red sea-
weed. Yum.
But it’s nutritious. OSU’s
Hatfield Marine Science
Center in Newport figured
out 15 years ago how to raise
dulse in tanks rather than
harvest it from the ocean.
The Marine Science Center
was raising it to feed abalone
when an OSU business pro-
fessor, Chuck Toombs, took
notice and turned his mar-
keting students loose on the
project. OSU fisheries re-
searcher Chris Langdon and
colleagues patented a strain
of dulse, and Ball was hired
to figure out what to make
with it.
His hiring had its own
bit of dulse kismet. Ball was
in Copenhagen, working on
plant-based ice cream prod-
ucts for the Nordic Food Lab,
when he saw the job notice
from the Food Innovation
Center.
He was snacking on a
dulse ice cream sandwich as
he emailed then-center Direc-
tor Michael Morrisey and FIC
Product Development Manag-
er Sarah Masoni to ask about
the position.
He made sure to men-
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Jason Ball is the research chef
at Oregon State University’s
Food Innovation Center in
Portland.
tion his snack choice; he got
the job and started about 14
months ago.
The irst commercial prod-
uct to come from Ball’s FIC
work is a dulse seaweed salad
dressing and marinade, sold
at New Seasons stores in the
Portland area.
Ball enjoys the challenge
of developing products that
are “less luxurious or appeal-
ing.” It’s easy to make lobster
or steak taste good, he said,
but seaweed?
“I like to say that I am an
equal opportunity cook — I
don’t discriminate against in-
gredients,” Ball said by email.
“Why can’t we approach all
ingredients with that excite-
ment and enthusiasm?”
Jason Ball
Who: Research chef at the
Food Innovation Center in
Portland, a joint venture of
Oregon State University and
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
Personal: Age 31, original-
ly from Chicago. Worked as a
chef there, in New York and
outside London. Began work
at FIC in January 2015. Lives
in Portland.
Best known for so far:
Dulse development work.
Developing food than can be
made from seaweed, which
in turn is grown in tanks, not
harvested from the ocean.
This story originally ap-
peared March 18, 2016.