Mark Hampton of Vicorp is working with independent restaurants to showcase their recipes at Bakers Square and Village Inn. Read or listen to a downloadable extended interview with Mark Hampton.

Historically chain restaurants and independent operators look askance at one another from across the divide. Did you get that reaction from some of the people you met?

There is a lot of that, which is why I think this kind of program takes a lot of face-to-face interaction. Our independent partners have all found benefits to participating. These show up in hits to their Web sites and thank-you calls to their restaurants.

Once you have a “yes” from a Legendary partner, what happens next?

The next thing is trying to figure out how we can scale up what they're doing to a chain our size. It's very easy to make stuffed French toast in one little inn in Bar Harbor, Maine. But when I have to make it in 400-plus restaurants with probably about 1,500 different people a week, you have to really think about the recipe and how you are working it and scaling it up to make it applicable. And then it has to pass muster with the owners [of the independent restaurants].

What are the original Legendary Recipes you are featuring at Bakers Square and Village Inn?

In mid-October we started with the Perini Ranch recipes for roasted tri-tip sirloin at Bakers Square. We serve that in a dinner format and also serve it as a sandwich. Sides include green-chile hominy and cornbread with jalapeño marmalade. We also offer a blue-cheese sirloin entree salad, and cheesecake with jalapeño marmalade. Bakers Square is also serving The Maples Inn Blueberry Stuffed French Toast.

Stuffed French toast has a pretty broad appeal, but were you concerned that family-dining guests might balk at the green-chile hominy?

We had a lot of conversations to determine if we were reaching too far in regards to customers' tastes. But we decided we wanted to bring the guest the complete experience, rather than shortchange them. What we've seen is that this approach has driven in new customers to try the product. It's too soon to give comprehensive results. But during a blind trial, I brought all the Perini Ranch products into one restaurant and we served it with no point of purchase, nothing more than word of mouth from our waiters and waitresses. We sold 54 dinners that one night, which for an LTO is huge.

How does that compare to your typical LTO?

It was probably about 30 percent better.

How many more Legendary dishes do you hope to add before the promotion is completed?

I'm currently working with partners that can carry us all the way through 2009. The program has a lot of legs because we have a lot of places to go in the United States. For 2009, we're already exploring an operation outside of the U.S. 

Read or listen to a downloadable extended interview with Mark Hampton.