The next Webinar is scheduled for July 8th from 4:00 – 5:00 pm EST and Features Jeff Sinelli, CEO and Chief Vibe Officer for Which Wich, Burguesa Burgers, Paciugo Gelato & Caffè and Supernova Coffee; Matt Harding, Senior VP of Culinary & Menu Innovation for Piada Italian Street Food; and Jennifer Rolander, VP of Business Development for Tuxton China. The videos below are from all five Webinars in the series: GCIA/ICCA Covid-19 Webinar Series: Chain New Menu Developers Best Practices for Today & Planning for the Future will be continued every other Wednesday with the next one scheduled for July 8th from 4:00 – 5:00 pm EST. email Kevin@ICCAchefs.com to get a link to register. The following members and sponsors contributed to the June 24th Webinar:
Farley Kaiser, Culinary Innovation Manager for Wawa: Wawa remained open throughout the pandemic. Though traffic took a hit they saw the immediate need to react to the consumer needs of catering and delivery which drove their prioritization efforts and innovation at lightning speed. Evaluating every touch point, creating efficiencies but more importantly keeping customers as safe as possible is their contribution in flattening the curve.
Quinn Adkins, Director of Menu Development for Culvers Franchising Systems: Culvers dusted off an old strategy for curbside delivery immediately. Take-away has also been a major success for them through this pandemic as they showed positive comps verses last May. This is before the plan to reopen dine-in across the country. Both of these corporate chefs talked about the challenges with distribution and staffing they have been experiencing.
Rick Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Sweet Street Desserts: Prepackaged desserts sales are soaring as the pipeline for all desserts continues to fill the distribution systems throughout the US. Rick discussed the challenges of forecasting as their plants capacity increases to fit the needs of their customers including the largest chains in America.
The following members and sponsors contributed to the June 10th Webinar:
Alex Sadowsky, Concept Chef for Twin Peaks talked about the fact they have opened all Twin Peaks restaurants and the challenging decision they made opening their restaurants with four stages for the menu. He also shared the successes from units pacing ahead of last year and other successful concepts under the Frontburner Restaurants umbrella during these challenging times.
Matt McMillin, Vice President of Culinary & Beverage Innovation for Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants talked to us about their successful openings of restaurants over the past two weeks. Take-away is a major success for them through this pandemic and they now also have plans for virtual wine pairings. Both of these corporate chefs talked about the challenges with distribution and staffing they have been experiencing.
James Bickmore-Hutt, Culinary R&D Manager, Corporate Chef for Dole Packaged Foods talked about their recent successes in everything from non-commercial to major chains during the past few weeks. They have also created innovative ways to help our members who might be experiencing limited sources of fruit items for their menus as we recover and continue to open additional units nationwide. Their innovation pipeline has changed drastically during these past two months.
The following members and sponsors contributed to the third Webinar.
Keith Brunell, Corporate Executive Chef of Nordstrom Restaurant Division talked about the challenges they faced opening 18 operations recently in phase 1 and their plan to open 32 more on Thursday, May 28th.
Ken Komejan; VP of Foodservice for Greenleaf Foods, Field Roast & Lightlife talked about the effect on plant-based industry during this pandemic and what the industry feels will happen as we move forward. Their pipeline has changed drastically during these past two months.
Shane Schaibly, Corporate Chef & Director of Culinary Operations for First Watch Restaurants talked to us about their very successful openings of 18 restaurants in two test markets leading them to a plan to open 200 restaurants on June 1st. The test markets were in Nashville, Tennessee and Sarasota, Florida and featured their full menu.
Here is the video recording for the third Webinar on May 27th:
Below are links to the first two Webinars The first one featuring Donald Moore, Chief Culinary Officer/ Executive Vice President of Kitchen Operations, The Cheesecake Factory; Mike Turner, Vice President of Culinary/Supply Chain and Karl Kaufman, Director of National Accounts for Jennie-O Turkey Store along with Jack Li, Haiku Master for Datassential. The second we talked about the R & D process in your home kitchen waiting for your corporate test kitchen to reopen and virtual; innovation session plus how full service restaurants just opening for dining in are doing. That one from May 13th features Shona Jonson, Sr. Manager Menu Development for Chick-fil-A; Steve Sturm, Executive Chef at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill and RJ Harvey, Director of Culinary for Potatoes USA :
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