WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – The world’s largest banana provider congratulates the royal couple and is celebrating the possibility of England’s first banana-friendly royal wedding with an appealing offer to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
In response to reports Monday that the banana-loving couple is eschewing a traditional British wedding fruitcake for a banana-flavored creation, Dole is offering the services of its “top banana” executive chef to personally bake the world’s most spectacular banana wedding cake for the May 2018 ceremony at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Mark Allison, director of culinary nutrition at the Dole Nutrition Institute in Kannapolis, N.C., is widely regarded as a leading authority on cooking and baking with fresh fruits and vegetables, especially bananas. The 35-year culinary arts veteran is former dean of culinary arts education at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University (JWU).
The assignment would be a homecoming, of sorts, for Allison, a U.K. native who moved to the U.S. in 2004 from West Glamorgan, Wales.
“As a lifelong fruits and vegetables ambassador, and a U.K. resident, designing a banana cake worthy of Prince Henry of Wales and the future Duchess Meghan Markle represents a higher calling, both personally and professionally,” said Allison. “We’d be representing not only the thousands of Dole employees and family farmers but the hundreds of millions of banana lovers worldwide.”
Dole will also track the royal engagement with a series of congratulatory banana memes inspired by Markle sharing a photo of two bananas embracing each other in October 2016, just after the two began dating. The first illustration, of a royal banana on bended knee proposing to another banana, was posted on Dole’s social platforms Monday.
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company, Inc., is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education and research. For more information, visit www.dole.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dole.
Source: Dole Food Company, Inc