Deli Star Corporation, an industry leader in cooked protein manufacturing and culinary innovation, recently broke ground at the site that will soon become the Food Discovery Center (FDC) – Deli Star’s new hub for research and development – at City Foundry STL (3730 Foundry Way, St. Louis, MO 63108). 

Deli Star is working with Lawrence Group, a St. Louis-based design, development and construction firm, on overall site design, engineering and build-out for the 16,500 square-foot FDC. The project is expected to be completed in early 2021.

On hand to celebrate the groundbreaking were Deli Star Founder and Chairman Dr. Dan Siegel, Deli Star CEO Justin Siegel, Tom Siegel, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Cure8 Ventures and Andrew Siegel, Director of Supply Chain at Deli Star. Steve Smith and Will Smith of City Foundry STL along with Lawrence Group Associate Principal Todd Bundren and Construction Project Manager Andrew Iffrig, also participated in the event.

“More than 30 years into Deli Star’s history, I am thrilled to break ground on our Food Discovery Center -- the first facility of its kind to promote food venture and education, nutrition, R&D and scale-up for food manufacturing all under one roof,” said Justin Siegel, CEO of Deli Star.  “We are enthusiastic about how our open innovation framework and being among like-minded culinary leaders at City Foundry will promote collaboration and the sharing of ideas to disrupt the food industry for the better.”

“Safety and innovation are more important than ever for ensuring the continued health of the hospitality and culinary industries,” said City Foundry STL’s Steve Smith. “We are proud to have brought together such great culinary minds and industry visionaries to share ideas and inspiration at City Foundry STL.”

Comprising 16,500 square feet, the FDC will include two fully equipped test kitchens and four research-chef stations; a quality lab; a lecture-hall-style instructional space for culinary-science and food-nutrition classes, conferences and demonstrations; the Simple Promise© employee café and farmers market row; and a 4,500 square-foot customized “ghost kitchen” production facility – including a state-of-the-art industrial steam oven and smoker, blast freezer, dry storage and walk-in coolers/freezers – to support limited production of test products and cooking-technique innovations.

Source: Deli Star Inc.