YUBA CITY, CA – For several years, one of the pillars of USA Rice’s Domestic Promotion programs has been chain engagement, where foodservice users of rice are identified and then encouraged to switch to U.S.-grown rice if they don’t use it, and if they do use U.S. rice, to call it out to their customers…and of course, use more!
The program has fostered relationships with national and regional operators, like P.F. Chang’s (
USA Rice Daily, August 2, 2016), Roti Modern Mediterranean (
USA Rice Daily, September 11, 2018), On the Border (
USA Rice Daily, February 25, 2022), Rock N’ Roll Sushi (
USA Rice Daily, March 22, 2024), and most, recently Fuzzy’s Taco Shop (
USA Rice Daily, September 25, 2025) among others.
The program provides support to large and small culinary and marketing teams with recipe development, back- and front-of-house data and strategies, social media support, and more. The program also commits resources to bring interested teams to see rice farming and milling up close (
USA Rice Daily, August 14, 2018), and that is exactly what happened last week when a team from Salad Collective restaurant group traveled here for their turn and
The Rice Stuff tagged along.
“It’s always a privilege to work with chains and operators that truly care about where their ingredients come from and are proud to source U.S.-grown, and the Salad Collective is a perfect example of that mindset,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice vice president of domestic promotion.
The four-person team, led by Head of Culinary Chef Jeff DiSanto, visited Farmers’ Rice Cooperative (FRC) headquarters for a detailed presentation on the company and the history of rice milling from FRC Assistant Vice President of Sales & Marketing Adam McCalister before heading to the West Sacramento mill for a tour. Then the group headed north to see seed production with Christine Wylie and record content for their Tokyo Joe’s brand.
The next day began with a U.S. rice “101” presentation from Jacobs, and then the group journeyed east to Marysville to link up with Charley Mathews, Jr. and film more content for their Mad Greens and Snappy Salads brands and learn about California conservation.
Mathews and Wylie were excellent hosts and teachers, answering questions about all facets of California rice production, habitat preservation, water use, and more, and also got to strut their acting chops in social media skits produced by the Salad Collective team.
“Charley and Christine were so generous with their time and knowledge, and the Collective group soaked it all up,” said Jacobs. “It’s so gratifying to see that moment when the lightbulb goes off for these important customers. They use U.S. rice and they love doing it but getting to see where it comes from and meet the people making it all possible, it’s the ultimate engagement!”
Podcast host Michael Klein was along for the ride and recorded interviews with Jacobs, Chef DiSanto, and Tokyo Joe’s Director of Marketing Dawn Whittenburg. You can hear it all, plus reminiscing about past tours and more on
Episode 123 of
The Rice Stuff, available now.
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff drop on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be downloaded wherever you get your podcasts, or at
www.TheRiceStuffPodcast.com.