General Mills Foodservice has announced the launch of the Pillsbury Professional Online Community, a new resource to help foodservice professionals bring out their inner baker and make baking easier. Leveraging the Pillsbury brand with more than 150 years of baking expertise, the website will connect users to a community of baking experts and  enthusiasts nationwide to share ideas, ask questions and collaborate in a supportive online forum with others who are passionate about baking.

Pillsbury Professional is the only online community of its kind devoted to assisting foodservice professionals with challenges around baking and to helping them identify solutions that work in a foodservice environment. The digital platform will offer recipe inspiration, how-to videos, baking trend analysis and an interactive forum that allows users to submit questions and connect with baking experts and peers from across the country.

“Fresh-made baked goods are an essential and growing part of any foodservice operation, but we recognize they can also be a challenge,” said Kelley Walhof, assistant brand experience manager for General Mills Foodservice. “Pillsbury Professional is meant to be a place where our customers can come to learn, find inspiration and ask their questions about baking so they don’t have to   start from scratch.”

Pillsbury, which offers an extensive line of baking mixes and ready-to-bake items, strives to help foodservice operations maximize their back-of-house labor and turn out high-quality, scratch-like baked goods. Pillsbury Professional, however, aims to do even more to support customers by giving them the opportunity to interact with baking experts and peers in a way that doesn’t currently exist in the marketplace, according to Walhof.

“We wanted to create a community different than other social platforms where foodservice professionals can come and connect with one another about baking to see what is working best, share best practices and discuss some of the common challenges they may be experiencing,” said Walhof. “We know they face substantial labor challenges, so between our products and this new connection, we hope to help ease some of those pain points.”

How it works:

At www.PillsburyProfessional.com, foodservice professionals will have access to detailed information about how to bake a wide assortment of craveable baked goods on foodservice menus, including standards of identity for each item, instructional videos and inspirational photography.

Registered users can post a question or recipe photo where others, including experts from the professional culinary team at Pillsbury, can provide comments and advice—building on each other’s expertise to provide input and help solve common baking challenges.

In addition to a searchable database for answers about products and baking questions, the site will share trending topics, menu-planning ideas, recipes and troubleshooting tips.

“We are excited to debut Pillsbury Professional, partnering with and empowering foodservice operators with baking knowledge, ideas and inspiration so they can do more of what they love,” said Walhof.