As children growing up in High Point, North Carolina, John and Ben Ritner heard many stories about Missoula, Montana, where their parents met at the university. Stories of the West came to life and called to Ben specifically. He always knew he wanted to be in Missoula. Eventually he followed in his parents’ footsteps and graduated from the University of Montana, made a life for himself here. Not long after, John who was newly graduated from culinary school in North Carolina, decided that it was the perfect time for an adventure for himself and joined his brother.
The Ritners are no strangers to adventure. Hiking, rock climbing, backpacking—they grew up with these activities. Montana offered new trails to traverse. As for a pinnacle? Well, they reached theirs in more ways than one.
One night, while sitting around a campfire deep in the Madison Mountain Range, the brothers found themselves disappointed with the sub-par freeze dried meals they carried in with them. They wondered, “What if this could be better?” The idea got Chef John thinking.
In April of 2020, Pinnacle Foods began producing their first four recipes out of Ben’s garage. The goal was to create freeze-dried meals that maximize protein and good calories.
“We wanted to create a product that we would buy,” said John. “That means the meals have to be in the right price point, retain their original flavors, and consist of fresher ingredients.”
Creating freeze-dried meals is not as simple as it sounds. It requires commercial dryers that first freeze the food on trays to somewhere between minus 30 and minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Then a vacuum pump pressurizes the chamber, which creates warm air, causing any water in the food to evaporate. At this point, the food has a Styrofoam like texture. The trick is to package it and hope that when hot water is added to the packaging on a remote mountain top, the food will regain its original texture. Some foods, like eggs and chicken are perfect for this goal. However, foods with oil in them—like butters, jams, or syrups—are not.
As John says, the brothers are passionate about eating good quality food made solely with ingredients that you can pronounce. This meant cleaning up their labels and removing any sub ingredients that ride the coattails of main ingredients. For instance, there are a shocking number of sub ingredients in a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, so John sources organic tomatoes. The edamame and tamari in their Thai Peanut Curry are non-GMO, organic, and gluten-free for the same reason. Chef John also makes his own chicken stock in a separate steam kettle in order to ensure that each ingredient is exactly as it should be.
Adventure is important to the Ritner brothers but so is the mountain view itself, which is why their food is packaged in Omnidegradable ® bags that break down anywhere microbes live. While they will not break down on a shelf, they will naturally decompose when introduced to the enzymes that live in soil and water. They can even be burned without leaving a residue (though the Ritners don’t advocate for burning bags in the forest).
John believes that freeze-dried foods are taking off, partly because the foods retain 97% of their nutritional value compared to dehydrated foods that retain roughly 50 to 60% and partly because there is so much you can do with freeze-dried. And it’s not just for backpacking.
Because of the longer shelf life of freeze-dried foods—theoretically decades— customers purchase meals for hurricane and storm preparation where they may be without power for a week or more. Some customers take advantage of food items when they go on sale and freeze-dry in large batches. The beauty of freeze-drying is that while the moisture is removed from the food, the pore space remains. When the food is rehydrated with hot water, it tastes exactly the same as the day it was made.
William Blake once wrote, “Great things are done when men and mountain meet; This is not done by jostling in the street.” I think Blake would have really liked the Ritners. They’re using their own experiences in the mountains to make yours better. Both John and Ben bring their unique talents to Pinnacle Foods so that you can reach your pinnacles.
Try Pinnacle Foods for yourself! Purchase only available through PinnacleFoods.Co.