Innovation Development Institute

Welcome to the Innovation Development Institute at Goin Beens—a collaborative hub where culinary creativity meets meaningful discovery. This is where ideas percolate, flavors take shape, and joyful experimentation transforms how we think about food—especially the power-packed little legume we love most: the bean.

Founded by Selvian Dolthane, Goin Beens is rooted in a simple belief: innovation in the kitchen starts when curiosity is nurtured and shared. Whether you’re remixing traditional recipes, crafting the next breakthrough in plant-based cuisine, or just having fun with a bag of chickpeas, you’re in the right place.

What the Innovation Development Institute Is For

This space was created to support chefs, home cooks, culinary students, and flavor enthusiasts on their journey of food innovation. Here, we celebrate hands-on testing, playful mistakes, surprising successes, and the pure joy of discovering something meaningful with ingredients old and new. We highlight global influences, honor local traditions, and offer space for wild, nutritious ideas to rise naturally.

We Believe In…

Inspiration Over Imitation: Every creative voice adds something rich to the table. While we love remixing traditions, originality always wins the day.
Accessibility and Inclusion: Good ideas and great food shouldn’t be out of reach—everyone is welcome to explore, innovate, and create here.
Curiosity-Driven Process: We don’t chase perfection. We chase insight, play, and growth. Questions are as valuable as answers.
Resourceful Inventing: Sometimes, a humble can of beans and a clever twist lead to something extraordinary. That’s what we live for.
Respectful Collaboration: Giving credit is honoring a neighbor. When you share an idea that helped, say where it came from. We build stronger platforms together.

What Happens in the Institute?

Kitchen testing. Cross-cultural explorations. Reducing waste. Reinventing tradition. Documenting flavor. The Innovation Development Institute brings together minds who treat food not only as sustenance, but as possibility. While many of our breakthroughs begin with beans—as the name suggests—we explore all ingredients and techniques with the same open-hearted method: dream, question, cook, refine, share.

Some contributions you might find include:

Experimental bean-based pasta textures and applications
Flavor-pairing logs inspired by Ethiopian, Korean, or Indigenous cooking traditions
Fermentation timelines using underutilized pantry staples
Global kitchen techniques mapped onto everyday American ingredients
Flavor-inspired memory journals, testing new formats for documenting culinary creativity

And of course, we always welcome your input. If you’ve cracked a flavor puzzle, solved a prep shortcut, or invented a recipe that deserves a headline—we want to hear it.

Participation and Collaborations

Innovation here isn’t an individual pursuit—it’s a shared experiment. We collaborate with cooks at every level of experience. We encourage you to submit contributions, ideas, research proposals, kitchen logs, flavor discoveries, or just notes from a curiosity-fueled trial. The more fully you lean in, the more this space becomes yours, too.

Our team reviews submissions regularly, and selected works may be featured on wider Goin Beens platforms. Every contributor will be acknowledged fully—because we believe giving credit is not only respectful, it’s fuel for the next round of inspiration.

Safety, Credit, and Research Boundaries

All tests and experiments submitted through the Institute must follow basic food and safety standards and avoid pseudoscientific claims. Flavor is deeply personal, but food science requires precision—if you’re uncertain, it’s okay to say so. In fact, we encourage transparency.

Every submission should credit the sources, traditions, or mentors it drew knowledge from. The aim here is not to claim—but to amplify and inspire responsibly. Referencing prior work shows humility and context. Creative spirits and research integrity go hand-in-hand.

How to Join In

If you’re feeling energized and ready to become a part of this unique culinary journey, we’d love to hear from you. You can send your notes and proposals to [email protected] — we read every message with care and curiosity.

Have a burning question, a forgotten ingredient begging to be explored, or a breakthrough that involved a kitchen misstep turning into gold? Let it fly. Together, we’re nurturing the next generation of flavor-forward, culture-conscious, and joyful culinary thinkers.

Our Founder

Selvian Dolthane started Goin Beens with a bowl of soup, two conflicting grandmothers, and the belief that beans could change how we feed excitement back into our kitchens. Selvian blends global curiosity with small-batch experimentation—and the Institute is a direct reflection of that passion. Encouraging others to tool, tinker, and taste more boldly is central to this mission. Selvian’s energy fuels the Institute’s constant question: What delicious thing haven’t we tried yet?

Our Home Base

Based out of 2190 Goldcliff Circle, Adelphi, Maryland 20783, United States, our kitchen sessions, tastings, and collaborative think-ins often happen right in the heart of our small but mighty home. What we lack in size, we make up for in shared hunger for ideas, connection, and unusual flavor lines.

Open Monday to Friday, 9 AM–5 PM EST
Phone: +1 202-236-9982
Email: [email protected]

Thanks for visiting the Innovation Development Institute. You’re not just welcome here—you’re needed. Let’s keep flavor unfolding, together.