we are kjc, a food-focused
Deep Experience
We know food. From culinary school to careers in food business, we’ve worked in consumer research, strategy, operations, and product development. We bring that expertise to each of the projects we work on.
Streamlined Approaches
Right-sized projects designed to deliver impact. We scale our steps and teams to make sure we’re savvy and informed and within budget.
Actionable Output
Each of our deliverables is ready to put to use. Use our brand architectures to brief your creative team. Build your strategic plans with our product pipelines. Take our benchtop formula packages directly to your commercialization partners. Or bring us in plant to manage details through your first production run.
WHAT WE DO
We help brands with these types of projects:
Innovation
Strategy
Product Architecture & Optimization
New Product Qualitative Research
New Product Concepts
Product
Pipelines
New Product Benchtop Formulas
Co-Man Identification
New Product Commercialization
Who we work with
We are culinary
From strategy to commercialization, our team of senior- to c-suite-level professionals shares a deep knowledge, passion, and understanding of the food industry.
Our collective experience spans innovation, consumer insights, R&D, co-man, and scale-up. We know how to shape growth-oriented strategies, identify important patterns in consumer behavior, blend unexpected ingredients into something delicious, find co-mans, and create innovation that wins investment.
At Our Helm
Kazia Jankowski
Principal & Founder
Kazia worked for Cook’s Illustrated and 5280 magazines before heading up the Culinary department at SRG, where she led innovation for multinational food companies, like PepsiCo, Kraft, and Hershey. Kazia founded KJC in 2013 to bring a nimble approach to innovation. Today, she brings a sharp, strategic mind to our innovation work, and she leads all our consumer research. Outside of work, Kazia is the mother of two young girls, which means she has perfected the art of homemade lemonade and all its corresponding cocktails.
David Berenson
Prinicipal
Prior to joining KJC, David led Innovation and R&D for Boulder Brands (now Conagra), Operations for Whole Food Market Bakery, and Culinary, Supply Chain & Operations for Noodles & Co. He brings a multi-faceted understanding of innovation and food business to KJC projects, along with a passion for leading our R&D and commercialization teams. David is an avid skier, loves French reds, and willingly shares both with anyone who visits him in his hometown of Beaver Creek, Colorado.
